[PyrNet-L] Fw: Shakespeare, therapy dog

Well we finally did it. Shakespeare is registered with St John's Ambulance therapy dogs. They passed him even after he greeted the director for across Canada by looking him right in the eye and saying hello and then doing the same thing to the tester (I gather he never put any weight on either of them, he just sat back on his haunchs and stood there). A little unsettling as one fellow put it when you're used to looking down to greet the dogs. As for always Shakespeare provided the light spots in the testing. Like when he was supposed to move through the crowd and greet people. He kept putting his head to the side to try and get them to scratch his ears, finally one of the testers caught on to what he wanted and got the spot and was rewarded with a pyr in her lap, which meant she went from a low squatting position to sitting. The major joke came when they used her to play the role of the strange, rather aggresive looking resident. You know, the deranged one with the long hooded wooly housecoat. Shakespeare took one look at her, walked up to her, took a sniff and then placed his head in her hands (these she was holding in a rather grotesque fashion in front of her) and stood there waiting for his ears to be rubbed. When she didn't respond he gave her a gentle push with his nose, and replaced his head so that her fingers were back in the favoured place behind his ears. By this point the director is killing himself laughing and says that the assistant is not deranged enough and she had better rub those ears before she winds up with a pyr in her lap again. At the end of it all the director then asked if Shakespeare liked children (ha ha) and would i be willing to have him tested further. It seems they are putting together a safety package to teach children about dogs in the schools and they would like to use Shakespeare, he liked Shakespeare's friendly, nothing phases me attitude. He also liked the fact that Shakespeare would go through a lot of the excersises without having to take suggestions from me. I kept him in line but did not really have to interfere with how Shakespeare read a situation. Squeaky wheelchairs, cans, dropping trays, strange people running, coming quickly behind and yelling. He never once startled or shied (but after the test he thought the running person might be fun but not enough to get off the floor). Well, I've written more than enough, so I'll disappyr (bad).