Some of you may or may not know, but I volunteer locally with an organization called Canine Assistants that trains service dogs for the physically disabled. I've been a Certified Volunteer Trainer for six years now and will occassionally bring a dog home for a weekend or as long as two weeks for a home visit.

They live and are trained at the "farm", where we have donkeys, goats, bunnies, pigs, horses (for theraputic riding) and cats. Having all the additional animals is good for them as the last thing you want is a large dog tied to a child's wheelchair see another animal and take off after it, pulling the wheelchair behind them. Since they've seen them all, it's not a new novelty to be checked out.

Anyway, as a Certified Volunteer Trainer, we are the only volunteers allowed to take dogs out in public without the trainers. They go everywhere with you when they are on a home visit - restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, movies, library, work, etc to gain additional experience in the "real world" and learn house manners.

I was talking to Jo on the way home from picking up Irene and told her that Irene was a GoldenDoodle and she asked me to snap a few pictures. These were taken as Irene and Diamond were meeting each other (Diamond, by the way, is convinced that Mommy brings home these dogs JUST for her!)

Irene:












Irene meets Diamond's best bud in the whole world - Savannah, our neighbor's dog:


Diamond and Savannah - when these two play, you'd swear they hated each other until you realized that the tails are wagging. They growl and snarl the whole time they play: