Merry Christmas from Fred, Barbara, Callie and Okie-Dokie!

And have a great 2009!

Mary Lou Jennings, of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, talks about the Hospital’s Animal-Assisted-Therapy program on the “My Doggie Says…” radio talk show. Learn how the program’s dogs help patients recover faster!

The “My Doggie Says…” Radio Talk show is broadcast live from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights, on KFNX 1100, Phoenix. It is streamed live on www.1100kfnx.com. Host Fred Haney interviews experts on all aspects of dogs and dog ownership. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes store, click on “Podcast,” and search for “My Doggie Says…”

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Part of watching a puppy grow up is observing how it deals with its fears. If Callie sees something she doesn’t understand, she usually freezes and looks carefully to try to understand. She’s been afraid of shadows in the moonlight, a water bucket in the back yard, a pile of boxes that didn’t used to be in that place, and other things that were simple enough for her to, eventually, figure out.

Last night, at our Lake Arrowhead home, Callie burst into loud barking, as if a stranger was entering our house, or at least walking by. She stood on the deck beside our house, looking toward the street, barking at the very top of her lungs — which have become pretty powerful. Callie has a great bark.

At first, I assumed that a neighbor, or a neighbor’s dog, was walking by on the street. Finally, starting to get worried about all the barking, I looked out the window. But I didn’t see anything. Callie’s loud barking continued.

So I walked out onto the deck beside her to see what she was barking at. At the edge of the street, near some steps that lead down into our property, was one of Barbara’s big (12″ in diameter) Fourth of July, red, white and blue, whirligigs going round and round. I finally put two and two together; a little breeze had just started to blow, and the whirligig had just started to go around.

Callie was just doing what she’s supposed to do: warn us and protect us from monsters.

I walked Callie out visit the awful fiend. She kept barking until I reached over and touched the colorful whirling wheel, to show her that it was harmless. At this juncture, she leaned over and sniffed the offending whirli-beast and decided it was probably not too threatening.

I think Callie was grateful that I helped her overcome her fear of the Dreaded Fourth of July Whirligig monster.

Hi, this is me, Callie, Golden Retriever, learning to swim last summer. Like some other dogs, I needed a little help to learn how to swim. Wait til you see the improvement I’ve made this year. I’ve learned to dive into Lake Arrowhead all by myself to retrieve my Floppy Disc. Fred doesn’t have any good pictures yet, because he’s been working hard to teach me how to dive off the boat dock. But there will be really good ones; I promise.

So let me tell you how Fred & Barbara taught me to dive.

It was a little like learning to swim in the first place. I just love the water. But I was a little scared at first to start swimming. So Fred and Barbara helped me work my way into it gradually. They took me to a place where the beach is very gentle, and Fred kept tossing a pine stick a little farther out each time, so I had to wade into deeper water to retrieve it.

The first few times he threw the stick into water that was too deep for me to wade to the stick, I kinda freaked out and ran back to shore. But finally, I got up the courage to take a few dog-paddles, and the rest is history.

Fred and Barbara still have me working on a 30′ lead, because there’s some boat traffic around their dock, and they don’t want me to swim to far out into the lake. But that’s OK. I’ll show them that I can be trusted by “coming” when I’m called.

We worked our way up to diving, just like I had to get comfortable in deeper and deeper water.

Actually, the jumping part is easy for me. I love to jump. After all, my mom and dad are agility champions. On my morning jog, I jump up on some pretty high rocks and benches. And it’s just as much fun to jump down as it is to jump up — maybe more!

But it felt different when I had to jump into water instead of onto the ground. When I got on the stone stairs near the boat dock, I was about two feet above the water, and I was too scared to jump in from that high. So Fred took me down two steps lower, and we practiced from there. That was a piece of cake. Fred threw my Floppy Disc out a few feet into the water, and off I went.

Then we went up a step, and that was a little scarier. Fred had to give me a little nudge, but I didn’t mind. He knew I’d be fine once I got in the water.

The next to last step was to go back up to the top of the stone steps. I was scared at first, so Fred gave me a little nudge and from then on it was easy. I did about three really great jumps off the stone steps.

Then we went out to the end of the boat dock, which is scarier, because the dock is bouncing around in the waves. I was pretty scared, and Fred didn’t want to push me in and have me be even more scared. So he took me back to the stone steps for a little more practice. I think that was a good idea, because it helped me build up my confidence.

When we went back to the end of the boat dock, I was still pretty scared, but this time Barbara gave a little tug on my lead, and into the water I went. It was great! It felt just like jumping in off the stone steps. I was so anxious to do it again, after I swam ashore, that I practically pulled Fred into the water behind me.

We got to the end of the dock, and in I went, all by myself! No pushing. No tugging. Just Callie from about three feet above the water — as graceful a swan dive as a Golden Retriever can possibly make.

Now maybe Fred can relax a little and get some good pictures for another blog.

Bye for now,

Callie, Golden Retriever