Sunday, September 14, 2008

A great time at the gala...


On Saturday night George, Bonnie and Mia went to the Helping Paws Gala.  It was the first time for all of us.  There were service dogs of all ages, and puppies and dogs in training everywhere.  George made sure Mia entered the crowd slowly and she looked at him for direction.   She was on her best behavior with no mishaps.  There were over 400 people there!

The keynote speaker was Jenny Peterson who told the crowd how having a service dog changed her life.  She motivated everyone there to support the work of Helping Paws.  There was an auction which raised a whole lot of money to keep the program going, and there were lots of wonderful people who had a good time.

As far as Mia's training, she is learning many new things.  She is pushing the practice light switch, moving to the side position and will retrieve just about anything.  We spend lots of time on eye contact and walking with a loose leash.  She is one of the smallest puppies in her class, and Sue, our teacher, called her a peanut!

Mia goes to Jeanine and Richard's house for the weekend...


Mia had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and so did we.  While we were with friends in Northern Minnesota, Mia was having a great time with Jeanine and Richard at their home.  It sounds like she is a good visitor, and Helping Paws makes it possible for the service dogs in training to be cared for by other volunteers.  This means that people who know the program and usually have trained dogs themselves do the doggy care while the training family takes vacation!  

We were lucky that besides being a good dog sitter, Jeanine is a good photographer.  This photo is really making the rounds as a screensaver.