American Poodles At Work (APAW) has had two puppies generously donated to the service dog program. Just two months old, these black standard poodle puppies already have shown a great aptitude for learning and have readily learned more than 20 commands. Chief trainer Jillian Gartner says that these puppies will be put through the early learning program until they are six months old whereupon they will spend more time away from the facility, placed with various foster families as the dogs are acclimated to different situations. Puppy petting is strongly encouraged for proper sensory development so the public is invited to see what scheduled times are available. Contact APAW at (413) 436-0601 for more information.
Archive for September, 2008
American Poodles At Work Welcomes its New Batch of Puppies
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Fall ’08 Pupdate!
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Ever wonder “What’s up at APAW?”
Harmony
Harmony, our first dog, is about 9 months old now and the sweetest little helper – quite literally, as she is about 19” and 33 lbs! She entered APAW early this year and has been a fabulous dog to work with. Our intention from the start was to keep her for our breeding program, and pending health testing we will certainly do so… she is already fantastic. Her parents are both of a more average size so her puppies should be a bit larger, yet will hopefully inherit her perfect personality.
She is continuing her training and exposure so that she is ready for placement should testing discover a reason to have her spayed, yet not impede her ability to work. Much of her training is now accomplished from a wheelchair, and she is learning to interact with the public on a working basis – paying the cashier, taking a receipt, etc.
Harmony loves to play, which caused a little set-back with retrieving. She realized that tossing an item into the air was really fun, especially if it rolled or made a loud sound. Over the summer she has gotten much better and now usually prefers to place the item in my hand if I’m there anyways – otherwise she still wants to toss-and-retrieve her way across the room towards me.
Her size does have it’s limits… Harmony can’t reach a light switch! Once she has matured she may be able to pull a wheelchair for short distances, but that remains to be seen. Balance assistance is pretty much out of the question for anyone over about 4′.
Assuming she stays at APAW she will be a fabulous therapy dog. She loves everyone, and is very sweet and gentle – incredibly ‘tuned-in’ to what kind of attention an individual needs.
Pixie
Pixie is a Mini that was rescued from neglect, yet is the friendliest, happy-go-lucky little girl. She entered training as a Lap-Top Service Dog, but really didn’t want to put any item in her mouth. She loves to learn, please everyone and has no fear. Pixie has decided with us that she is most suited to be a therapy dog… she wants the whole world to adore her, and watch her perform cute tricks! She will be getting placed with a local [Central/Western Massachusetts] handler this fall.
Charlie
Charlie is APAW’s main Demo Dog and has been especially active lately reaching our community as well as national TV. Charlie gives presentations to clubs and societies, local libraries and schools. He will be appearing on Animal Planet October 11th at 8pm, during the new show Dogs 101. Recently we were interviewed for an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show and may be invited at a future date.
Charlie continues to learn how to read, and is soon starting a reading program at our library where children can read stories to him without worrying about corrections or criticism.
Puppies!
Due to how wonderfully Harmony is turning out, we have decided to bring in a couple of pups from a related litter. These puppies will be trained and have an estimated graduation of early 2010. As always, puppy petters are more than welcome to come socialize and see demonstrations of our dogs at work.