We brought home a Briard puppy for our anniversary and my birthday in July. He wasn’t quite six weeks old. At home we have an old dog, 20 in fact that is more like a cat than a dog because it is impossible to train her. We love her more than anything but she is a very bad influence on our new puppy. My son also has a 2-year-old Greyhound-Labrador cross. She is more greyhound than Lab but has those wonderful qualities of a lab. She loves water and will fetch anything and bring it back in one piece. She did not need much training it just came naturally. She never leaves home but pines when our son leaves. Her name is Charlie and we are so lucky to have her. She is a model example for our puppy who is called Chico. Everyday she play-fights while teaching him balance, coordination, how to survive in the world while at the same time improving his muscle tone and energy level. He is still quite uncoordinated but improving every day. I think we will have the fastest Briard in the world and he can turn on a dime. All of these things are helping me to train him. He is very bright, learns quickly and is adorable. Chico also helps me feed all of the other animals where he is very calm and easygoing with them. I know he is too young to start real training but he is getting a good head start thanks to Charlie. My last two dogs were a Briard and then a Bearded Collie, so I have had one before. They were both wonderful and trained to be service dogs. The Bearded Collie even got to go on TV and do an advert for the telephone co. Chico is much more in tune to sounds and his surroundings than the other two, so I hope when he is older he might be a demonstration dog to help promote Animal Assisted Therapy. In my last entry I mentioned two new types of service dogs, I have now seen a documentary on ‘Diabetic-Dogs’, which are very successful and growing to be known all over. They have even been proven to be more accurate than the blood-test kit that diabetics have to do many times a day.
