What Is In Those Things?

Thursday night was Paw to Paw visiting night at one of the nursing homes that we visit.  Even though it's been a long week, we decided that we'd go and take the girls to visit.   Blueberry has been particularly put out that we have been, ahem, encouraging her to relax, so we broke down and told her she could come.  It was a really nice night and I figured she could rest in the van if she got tired or overwhelmed by visiting.

Earlier in the week, I got some Pet Botanics Omega Treats for the girls to try and then we'd review them.  They sent us three kinds, chicken, salmon and duck.  I figured I'd just grab a some of those to use at the nursing home since the bags were a nice, smaller size and resealable.  I figured it would be something they'd like and would save me having to run to the store for more training treats.  That's a win-win scenario in my book. 

We got to the nursing home and began to make our visits.  When we visit, we go with a group of other volunteers who bring their own dogs.  The dogs in our group all know which owners have treats with them.  Most use the treats to help get behavior out of the dogs that they're working on.  Morgan is learning to sit beside the patients and let them pet her on the head.  The floors seem to be made of some sort of perpetual ice solution that is extremely slippery.  Blueberry handles this floor like a pro, though, and Bunny has no trouble walking on it. 

In the past, I've mentioned that Blueberry believes that she is entitled to whatever you happen to be eating or in possession of that's edible if she sits and looks pretty at you.  Thursday night was no different, even though I expect to watch Greyhounds On Ice every time she sits up there.  Bunny realizes that it's an impossible dream from the outset and stands at attention, ears cocked forward and eyelashes batting oh so coquettishly.  Bunny I can ignore, but when I see Blue do this tiny little wobbly readjustment of her butt to try to stay in place, I give up the fight and hand over the treats.  Yes, I do know that she taped a sign on my back that read "sucker" when I bent over to dig the treats out of the bag.

When I got those treats out, though, a funny thing happened.  I suddenly had the attention of every dog visiting there that night.  Golden Retrivers, German Shepherds, Corgis, a Beagle, a Duck Trolling Retriever, a Springer Spaniel and a Cocker Spaniel all had joined in with the girls gazing adoringly at the bag just after I'd opened it.  After getting everyone's permission, I passed the treats out to all the dogs.  There wasn't even a crumb left on the floor! 

Suddenly, I was the most popular person in the whole nursing home.  I don't think there was a time all night when I wasn't being stalked by at least one of the other dogs to get those treats.  Blueberry let me know that she deserved, well, a very large portion of the treats for not only coming along and teaching the youngsters how a dog is supposed to visit, but also for going injured.  I have to say, the treats definitely get a good review from us!

We're also participating in this Saturday's Pet Blog Hop, hosting by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume.  If you'd like to participate, please follow the rules and follow your three hosts, add your blog to the Linky and copy and paste the html code into your html editor.  Thanks again to our hosts for putting on the hop!