Angus Works the Library

My son's dog Angus is an American Staffordshire Terrier. He is also a certified Therapy Dog and a member of the Love-A-Bull Pit Crew, the only all Pitty type dog therapy group in the country. Thursday, Steve, the grandkids, Angus, and I headed north to Austin so Angus could complete one of his Pit Crew assignments. A library in Austin was celebrating their 15th year in business and asked members of the Pit Crew to come and meet the kids. Angus loves kids and other dogs, cats, etc.

What is a Therapy Dog you might ask. Well, think of it this way. A Service Dog is trained to do certain things for one particular person. A Therapy Dog provides therapeutic interaction to many people (adults and children) to improve mood, build confidence, repair hearts, and educate the community about humane care for animals and kindness.

Big scary dogs, right???   The kids don't think so.

 

Angus loves kids and dogs and nothing makes him happier than being able to say hello to someone new.

Watch this little tiny girl work her way down to get to Angus.

Ah, success. A very cute meet and greet.

You can see "Rita", a brindle pitty in the background. She got lots of hugs and pats too.

 

 

Angus loves his job as a Therapy Dog and he is very good at it. He has had lots of training but he just plain has a good heart. You can see him dial down his energy level when he puts on his vest.  He crouches down or lays down when the kids are really little.  He's not much of a "kisser" preferring to save that for close family members but he likes a good snuggle. 



The Graduate

Did I mention that we have a recent graduate in the family?

One short year ago, Angus was adopted by my son and daughter-in-law through Love-a-Bull's Rescue in Austin, TX. This photo of Angus was used for one of their later adoption shows held in Austin. They are dedicated to finding the right homes for Pit Bull type dogs and families must pass rigorous scrutiny before they can adopt. Love-a-Bull's also strongly promotes and supports training for dogs and owners.

Since then, Angus completed Advanced training. He went to basic training but they took one look and moved him into the advanced class his first night. His foster family had started teaching the basics and Steve worked with him too.

Next he attended more school and earned his Canine Good Citizen Certification.....not an easy honor to earn!

Love-a-Bulls urged Steve to take him to even more advanced training......so last weekend, Angus completed his training and passed the rigorous testing to become a certified Therapy Dog. Steve and Angus have made lots of trips up to Austin so that he could have a well rounded education.

He is now a member of the Love-A-Bull's Pit Crew, a very well known, all pitty type dog therapy group based in Austin. Angus is actually an American Staffordshire Terrior mix. There are about 5 or 6 different breeds that the media and general public tends to lump into the "pit bull" category.

Angus loves people, kids included, as well as other dogs. He is good buddies with The Traveling Longdogs and loves to go RVing with them. Maybe you'll get a chance to meet him....he loves making new friends.

The "Granddog" Gets His CGC

This was a "Grandkids" weekend. I drove all the way up to Brownwood with Steve on Friday to pick Cameron and Morgan up. They had an early release day for their last day of school and their Mom asked Steve to pick them up in Brownwood instead of Marble Falls which is the halfway point. She wanted to pick them up in San Antonio Monday as they were headed to South Padre. The kids had a big day out on Saturday with Steve and Helen's friends at Canyon Lake....swim time is always fun. Sunday was spent with us. Then, later in Sunday afternoon, Helen headed off to a meeting and Steve, the kids, Angus, and I headed up to Austin. It was a big day for Angus as he was scheduled to take his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. He passed his Advanced training a couple of weeks ago but the CGC is much more difficult to pass and a very big deal in the canine world. It lets everyone know that he is just as good a boy as we all think he is.

The test was scheduled for 6:30PM on the north side of Austin so we left plenty early as you just never know about traffic up there. We got there really early as we slid through town with nary a traffic snarl.....highly unusual. We found a restaurant with an outside patio.

Cameron had Japanese noodles, Steve and I settled on Pad Thai, and Morgan went with good old macaroni and cheese. Everything was very good. Angus was happy to relax with us. He and Steve practiced a few maneuvers after supper and then they were off.

And then the waiting began. We knew it would be a long wait as there were going to be 12 dogs taking the exam. First we meandered through a nearby Walmart dragging that out as long as we could. Then I took the kids to a Yogurt place. They had sorbet for Cam since he doesn't eat dairy so that worked out great....a place to sit down for a while. Now it would probably have been easier for me to have stayed at home with the kids where they could have watched a movie but they wanted to come along so we made it work. We sat outside for quite a while after the yogurt was gone. Tic-tac-toe kept them occupied. Then we went for a walk around the area. Finally we walked over near ZoomRoom which is where the exam was going on. They have a lot of big floor to ceiling windows so I didn't want Angus to see us and get distracted but they were through the last item on the test so it was okay when his head perked up.

This test was really rough especially with 12 other dogs and with the added distraction of scents of hundreds of dogs having been trained at Zoom Room. Angus had his "Dad" sweating bullets because if you fail any one of the many items on the exam, you fail the test. It's definitely not an exam that everyone passes on the first or even second go round. Angus got a retake on one area which is allowed and then he "passed" and graduated. Proud "papa" and Angus (can you tell he was worn out?) right after the exam was over.

Angus is headed to "graduate school" for therapy dogs this fall after summer with his family including the kids. You might see him out walking with the Traveling Longdogs.