Gracie gets therapy

Gracie is lonely. I know she is. She wants to play with other dogs, wants to romp and wrestle and tumble about. Our kitty-corner backyard neighbor has two dogs, Jack and Jack's Friend (we don't see the neighbor enough to ask his name, so he's just Jack's Friend). Jack and JF have been tussling in their backyard as of late, and Gracie sits in our yard and watches, pinned against the fence. She so desperately wants to join.

Justin says we can't get her a friend. And as much as I would love another Golden, dogs are expensive. We sometimes go to the dog park, but Gracie is much more interested in the people than the dogs.

A few months ago, I thought maybe getting Gracie into a therapy dog program would be a good idea. I had a hard time finding programs in our area, and I thought the training would be pretty lengthy. It turns out that another neighbor and her dog are part of a program, and they're always accepting new teams. The test seems pretty basic - stay, walk on a leash and be calm when meeting new people. So we're working on all of that. She came with me to work yesterday and she was just so good. She loves going to work, loves seeing everyone, loves all the pets. I once read that dogs were bred to do specific jobs, and now that they're all pretty much pets, they are lonely and unstimulated because they don't have to do anything. And since our vet seems to charge by the pound, Gracie totally needs a job.

Labels: gracie

posted by Kristin @ 11:09 AM