September 6, 2012

Hi All !!

Had a great "outdoor" therapy visit tonight with 2 other doggy friends.  The weather was just perfect and the bugs stayed away.  I had the BEST brush out by one of the residents, she has magic hands and does a great job of brushing my back. Mmmmmmm.  We got to stop at Micky D's for a plain cheeseburger on the way home.  It was yummy.

Mom took off from work tomorrow and is going to take me up to Gowen, MI for the GLNC water test.  My brother Henry is going to re-qualify for his WRD and I get to watch him fly through the air.  He has the BEST jump in the world.  I've never jumped off the back of a boat, I wonder what it's like.

Well, that's it for now. Time to get some shut-eye so we can get up and get going.

Later,

Ben

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Well, it's been quite the week. It started out on Monday with a new therapy visit. This is the BEST, I get to spend Monday nights this summer being read to by kids at the Grandville Library. It's called the Ruff Reader Program. For 15 minutes at a time kids come into this special room and get to read to a Therapy Team, there's about 6 different teams. When their 15 minutes are done another person comes in. This keeps going for an hour. I had some pretty cute girls sitting next to me petting me and reading some very good books. I paid real close attention to what they were saying cause I can't read myself. Maybe by the end of summer I'll have a better idea of what each word means. Then on Wednesday and Saturday I got to play in the water with mom and some other people and dogs. By Saturday I was SWIMMING !!!! Yes, I can swim. I'm so surprised. At first I thought it was very VERY scary but then it got to be more fun than scary. I'm still not good at it but mom says we'll keep working at it. Mom and I have got some really great friends that are willing to work with us so we learn how to do this the right way. Mom can't swim either. I don't have to wear a life jacket but mom does, believe me she DOES. She has a long, long way to go before I'll let her in the water without one. :o)  Mom said that the next time we're in the water she'll take some pictures of me and we can post them here.

Next week is going to be a VERY busy week. I've got 3 therapy visits and a dog show at the end of the week. Wish me luck on the dog show. I've just GOT to win. I need 6 more points and I'll be a CHAMPION. Yup, a champion. I so want to be a champion. It's been fun in the show ring but I'm finding out that there are a lot of other things that mom and I can do at dog shows other than the show ring. There's Obedience, Rally, and Draft. It's all things mom and I can do together and she just love being with me as much as I love being with her.

Sooooo, time for me to get off this computer. We need to get a veggie tray ready for a Father's Day get together at Aunt Denise & Uncle Jerry's.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the dad's out there. Especially my dad's Dean & Bentley. I LOVE YOU BOTH !!!!!

Birch Run - April 9 & 10

This past weekend Shelby, Mary, mom and I went to a dog show in Birch Run.  We had a great time even though I didn't get any points again.  We had 2 very nice judges.  The Sunday judge made mom laugh by calling her "miss".  She thanked him for the compliment and he said that he always calls girls up to the age of 80 "miss" and over the age of 80 "Mame".  This is my new friend Emmet. Isn't he a cutie?  He came by to say "HI" while I was getting ready for the show.  Mom asked his mom if she could take a picture of us together and his mom said it was OK.  He wasn't scared of me at all and gave the best head rubs.

I don't like being in the crate much so mom lets me lay on the grooming table until it's time to go ringside.  I like being on the table cause then I can watch all the people go by.  Some even stop to tell me I'm "gorgeous" :o)









Tonight, Monday, 4/11/11 Mom and I met Heather and Clarence at Worth Residential for a therapy visit.  Worth is a long term care facility for individuals with traumatic brain injuries.  We had a good time meeting all the residents.  I made quite a few of them smile.  They gave good rubs and I even gave a few kisses.  I'm going to like going there again.  Well, that's about it for tonight, it's time for bed....

Night all...................

Detroit

It was a LONG weekend.  Mary (mom's friend and my breeder), Shelby (my daughter) Mom and I went to Detroit for the Cobo Hall show.  It was a benched show where you have to be available from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday for people to meet and greet the breeds.  We met a TON of people. They were really great, asking lots of questions, giving lots of head and back rubs even some hugs.  I met this really really cute black lab puppy girl.  She was a D O L L.  Mom wasn't looking and I snuck a kiss.  Mom and I were so suprised when Heather (Clarence's mom) walked up with her husband and son.  I forget what the son's name was but we got our picture taken togather.  Clarence wasn't there cause only dogs entered in the show are allowed to come in the building.

We stayed in a motel and Mom took some pictures of Shelby and I in the room.  After a day at the show we came back and chilled on the beds.

Shelby

Mary & Shelby chillin'

Me

On Sunday we didn't go into the show ring until 12:30 so Mom got me cleaned up and then put me back in the crate.  I was not happy and got out.  She put me back in and then sat next to me with her arm across the opening.  I wanted to lay on the floor but she said I couldn't cause the floor was dirty and the judge wanted clean dogs in the ring.  So she put some bungee cords across the opening so I could look out and people could take pictures of me inside the crate.  As you can see I was NOT very happy but once we were done showing I got to lay down on the cool cement floor for the rest of the day.

Spectrum Hospital

Well, last night we visited Adult Oncology at Spectrum Hospital with Tater Tot, "Aunt" Mollie, Sully and Huston.  We had a very good visit with many of the patients.  I meet this one girl who was very nice to me.  She gave me a good head rub and even some treats.  I really like her and she had the coolest knit cap.  I wonder if Mom could make one for me.  In another patients room I met the patients little granddaughter.  She had on this pretty purple shirt and was quite the talker.  She really liked me and I gave her a picture of myself. Oh, I should tell you about my visiting buddies.  Tater Tot is a Great Dane, Mollie is a Newfoundland just like me, Sully is a Standard Poodle and Huston is a Border Collie.  We all get along great.  We have another visit coming up on Thursday night so I'll let you know about that visit later this week.

Bath Time

Each time before I go on a therapy visit I need to be nice and clean so Mom takes me to Chow Hound to have a shower.  It's not my most favorite thing but I'm willing to go through it if I get to go on a visit.

Wednesday was a visit to Metro Hospital in Grand Rapids.  The people are in beds so we knock on their doors and ask if they would like a visit.  Usually 2-4 dog teams go to a room.  We go in either as a single team or like this week Clarence Ebenezer, a black French Bulldog and his mom went with us in the room.  We had fun cause our mom's would tell the people that we were brothers. Ha Ha....  Clarence's mom would lift him up so he could see the people.  Mom didn't do that with me cause I have no problem seeing everyone.  We met a lot of very nice people.  It wasn't as busy as some nights which is good cause that means not as any people are sick.   I had to go up and down that crazy elevator again.  It's just not my thing but by the end of the night I was an old pro.  We went up, down, up, up some more, down.  We sure walked a lot that night too, I wonder how many miles we walked.  Maybe mom should put a pedometer on me.

There was a lot of petting from the nursing staff also.  They need "therapy" visits too, cause when they work they have to care for a lot of people and work long hours.

Thursday we went to Wedgwood Christian Services.  I LOVE going there.  Usually about 6-8 teams meet in the gym and boys ages 12-18, about 8 or so come and play with all the dogs.  They can pet us or throw balls for us.  We have our leashes off and can run around with the boys for about an hour.  By the time the hour is up the boys are tired and hungry for supper and my dog buddies and I are ready for a nap.  I met a new boy this week who took me for a walk around the gym, played ball with me, kissed me and gave me a GOOD rubdown.  He didn't mind my slobber at all.  I was so happy that he gave me so much attention that I give him kisses all over his face.  He was really great and you know what, his name was Ben, just like mine.

Mom ordered some trading cards with a picture of me on it and some information about me so I can give them out to the people I meet.  They came in the mail on Wednesday so I was able to hand some out at Wedgwood.  The boys were so happy.  They all said they were going to put them up on their bulletin boards in their rooms.  It sure is fun to see all the smiles that these kids have as they rough house with us.

Whenever we leave a visit we ALWAYS tell them "thank you for letting us visit".  It's hard to tell someone to have a "nice day" when they might be in pain or are sad but if you thank them for allowing us to visit they just might feel better.