Museum front

Museum front
This is the future site of "The American Working Dog Museum" and its supporting coffee and gift shop, "Toby's Sit & Stay." We will eventually renovate the facade in keeping with historical preservation guidelines.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Trooper Goes to Washington

Flashback: Trooper grew up quickly, though there were times I wished he would leave the puppy stage behind sooner rather than later. He continued to harass poor Toby, to the point where Toby now has much less of his mane than he did before. I have started to tell him no when he pulls Toby's ruff, but bad habits -- especially when they're so much fun -- are hard to break. Trooper was finally completely potty trained at eight months. A puppy should be reliable at about six months, but Trooper had an aversion to going outside, perhaps because of the bad weather when he was a tyke. At last I can let him run loose in the house without constant supervision, though he generally stays in the same room with me, snoozing until I move, then following me everywhere. He's even more attentive than Toby, who has shadowed me since he was a puppy, too.


A few highlights from his early puppyhood:

When he was only four months old, he went on two summer vacations with our family. The first was to Washington, D.C. to visit Greg's father. Our other pets went to a sitter's house, but Trooper wasn't yet potty trained, so we decided to take him with us. He was a good traveler, snoozing in his kennel in the back of our van when we drove, and doing his business on command when we stopped for exercise. He loved meeting strangers and taking treats from them. I had bought him his red "Therapy Dog in Training" vest before we left, and this (and my Pet Partner credentials) allowed him access to places where regular pets were not allowed.

We called the administrative office at the Marine Museum at Quantico, and received permission to bring him into the museum with us. He was a real trooper in all the displays, even the room with the loud soundtrack from a Civil War reenactment. He sat calmly and took treats while the cannons and gunfire boomed all around him. When the gentleman who cleared our visit found us among the WWII display, he invited Trooper to come to the adminstrative office to provide some stress relief therapy to the staff there. We were happy to go with him -- another chance to let Trooper ride an elevator -- and play fetch in the office. The man had a silly wind-up toy alligator that intrigued the puppy, and his antics brought some much-needed laughter to the staff.

The Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Capitol Building granted Trooper permission to take a Capital tour with us, provided by one of Senator Grassley's aides. Trooper behaved himself very well, with the small exception of a few small yips in the gallery of statues, probably in reaction to the cacophony created by the many student groups who were there that day. He went into the Senate gallery with us, and ate a lot of treats to make sure he stayed quiet. He was interested in the goings-on of the Senate floor below us, and I was terrified that he would let out a bark and get us tossed out of the building. When it was time to go into the House gallery, I elected to stay out in the hallway with the guards instead. I'd evaded disaster once, and didn't want to risk it again.

While we waited for my family, we entertained the guards and other visitors. Trooper always collected a crowd wherever we went, and this stop was no exception. One family offered to hold his leash while I went in to be with my family, but I wasn't about to leave him with a stranger, no matter how well meaning. I wouldn't leave my child alone, and I take my responsibility to my animals just as seriously.

I picked Trooper up for the many elevator rides we had to take, to keep him safe from unseeing feet, and tried to keep him out of the other passengers' faces. Some of our fellow riders were amused by his funny face, others didn't understand why he was there and registered either disapproval or confusion. I looked once at our young guide's face, and wasn't sure what his odd expression meant. I asked him if he was allergic to dogs, and he said, "No, I was just thinking that my dog would never do that." He went on to explain that his dog would not hold still while being held in an elevator full of people.

We took our kids -- and Trooper -- to the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum. The guards, rather than telling us we couldn't come in, welcomed Trooper with open arms and gave him treats. While we were there, we sat at a table in the museum's McDonald's restaurant with an oriental family of tourists. The father was very interested in Trooper's breed and animal therapy, and the kids went nuts for a puppy. It was yet another opportunity to spread the word about animal therapy. A few minutes later an Hispanic man and his son walked by us speaking Spanish. I understood very little of what they were saying to each other, but I immediately recognized the name "Lassie" when the father looked at Trooper and spoke to his son. That famous collie has made Shelties recognizable as well. (I could go on and on about how people think Shelties are miniature collies, but that's not why I'm here today.)

A woman employee in the museum wanted to meet Trooper, asking all about him, and I told her we had named him Trooper hoping he could work with veterans when he grows up. She blessed us, and said we had made her day. Leaving the museum later, we discovered there had been a partial change in the guard. One of the guards we had met previously gave us a huge grin, and said "Hi, Trooper! Hey, guys, this is Trooper -- he's a therapy dog!" And Trooper had to meet all the new guards and take treats from them, too.

We took the opportunity while in D.C. to visit the many war memorials and take Trooper's photo with them. We were forced, because of a last minute change in our schedule, to do this on a 90-degree afternoon. Trooper got very hot and tired as we walked around, and I ended up carrying him a lot, traipsing through the shade on the lawn, hoping that no one would tell me to stop stepping over the short chain that was supposed to keep me on the paths. (Whoever decided that all the sidewalks there should be paved in blacktop rather than white concrete ought to be fired! The heat was absolutely radiating from them.) When we got to the reflecting pool at the WWII memorial, I was very tempted to dunk Trooper in it to cool him off, I was that worried about him. Concern about what kind of organisms might be growing in the water stopped me, however, so instead I poured his bottle of drinking water over him, rubbing it into his fur down to the skin, and sat with him in the shade while Greg went to get the car. Trooper was none the worse for it after he cooled down, but I felt badly that he had gotten so hot. He was just a baby, after all!

This vacation was our first with a dog, and we learned a few things about hotels and restaurants along the way. Many more hotels are becoming pet friendly, perhaps because a greying America likes to take their "children" with them when they travel. A few hotels allow pets in free, others charge small (or large) fees, others ask for a deposit that is returned after a check-out inspection for damage. Overall, I think it averaged out to much less than keeping Trooper in a boarding kennel for the same amount of time. Some restaurants let Trooper in with his vest on, even after we explained that they were not legally bound to do so, as he is not a service dog. Some would have liked to let him in, and regretfully told us that their policy forbids it. One let us order ice cream without saying anything, then asked us to leave after we had paid and sat down. One's waittress said he couldn't come inside, but offered us patio seating and brought him a dish of water. Several of their employees found an excuse to come to our table when they heard there was a puppy outside.

We felt it was a successful experience. It was good for Trooper to get away from Toby and learn to depend exclusively on people for his entertainment and contact for a long week. He was already showing signs of not wanting to be touched, and the time away from Toby was very beneficial.

More vacation stories later.