Hello everyone! My name is “Franklin”, which is short for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which I thought was a funny name, but my raiser, Robin said he was a very important man who lived a long time ago (before she was even born!). I’m not sure how she knows so much about him, but I’ll take her word for it, since she knows just about everything.
My brother “York” and I were playing one day with our other brothers and sisters when three ladies named Jennifer, Becca and Maria came up and started making us sit and walk over plastic bags, which were tons of fun! Then they break out this tasty looking fish and I thought we were going to get a treat for being so cute, but then it started singing and flopping around. “Whoa,” I thought to myself, “this is a lady I want to spend some more time with.” She must have felt the same way about me and York, because away we went with her. I was glad that York got to come because Jennifer said that she was only looking for one puppy to take with her to train and become a Hero Dog. What can I say; York and I got some pretty good genes.
I got to meet my new raiser, the very next day and she said that she would take care of me until I was ready to be a real Hero Dog. I stayed with Jennifer for a couple of days and got to play with lots of other puppies in her Puppy Kindergarten class. Then my new raiser, Robin took me back to her house. But boy was I in for a big surprise. It turns out that she already has a dog named Buddy. He’s not a puppy. He’s a big German shepherd. But I wasn’t scared – no, sir. In fact, he turned out to be really nice and helped me learn how to sit and down and played with me a lot. He doesn’t like it when I touch his Frisbee, though. That toy is off limits.
Oh, and he gets mad when I beat up on him too bad, but I figure he can take it. Another guy named Alex (I think he’s my raiser’s son, he doesn’t look anything like York) came home from being away and he must have not heard my name was Franklin because all he would call me is “So Cute.” Robin and Buddy set him straight, though.
It was good that I got to meet Buddy, though, because I went back to stay at the kennel with Jennifer for a day and all the dogs there were as big as he was! I was used to it by now, though, so I jumped right in and started to play with them. One dog, “Ike” was especially nice to me and holds a ball while I try to get it away from him.
It turns out that Buddy isn’t just big, he’s also pretty smart. I got to go to his sniff test all the way in West Virginia. I don’t know if any of you have ever been that far away, but let me tell you, I had to take several bathroom breaks. There were lots of people there and lots of big dogs and they were all so smart sniffing out scents. On the way home we got to go to the Tractor Supply Store, which must be Robin’s husband “Mr. Man’s” favorite place in the whole world. I can see why he likes it too! There are tons of cool smells and lots of friendly people there who wanted to see me. There were even a bunch of human puppies; Robin called them kids, who were a lot of fun to see. Since then I’ve taken lots of trips into town with my raiser and gone to see the vet again (she’s really nice!). I even got to go to the playground where there were lots of different kinds of surfaces to walk on, which my raiser says is good training.
Whew, I’ve been learning a lot with my raiser and Buddy and now I can sit, down, come, wait for my food (even if I don’t wanna), wait for “at ease!” at the door, ride on the floor in the car, eat out of a Kong, have quiet time in my crate and (almost) sleep all night long. My raiser says I’m a natural at picking things up and giving them back.
I hope you guys are all having as much fun as I am, and I’ll talk to you again soon! Oh, and thank you for helping Hero Dogs so that York and I can grow up to help people that need us. That’s what I’m really looking forward to.
