A Dog Exhibition

Yesterday Bracha brushed me and fed me and we got into a car to go to a school where we would be part of an exhibition of animals that help people. That sounded fine to me. But when we first walked into the schoolyard that was filled with hundreds of people and dozens of dogs, I was terrified. I stood still and didn't want to go. Eli, the nice man who organized our group, pulled me forward, but Bracha said to wait, and she gently told me to go. Soon we were in a circle of chairs and there were five or six other guide dogs and a puppy with a blue jacket on as well! I remember wearing a jacket like that when I was a puppy, but that was a long time ago. There were Adi with June, Rafi with Larry, Haim with Chaimar, as well as Batya with her black Labrador, and Yosi. Little children came up and petted us and admired me. I soon settled down (except for an occasional romp with the puppy, but he started it, not me!) It's too bad we didn't do a procession or something a little more interesting, but it was fun to see all those dogs. There were also police dogs there and dogs that do other jobs, not to mention all the pet dogs that people brought with them. There were also police horses that trotted around the yard that made my fur stand up. And I was amazed to see that June, also a golden retriever, was much smaller than me! I'm a really big girl in comparison!

Adi and Bracha astarted telling the children all the things that we know how to do like stop at crosswalks and turn on command. Eli told us about his dog that knew arithmetic. If you would ask him how old he was, he would bark 13 times, and if you asked him how much 2 + 3 was, he would bark five times. It's beyond me to understand what that means, but Bracha suddenly asked, "How did you get him to do that?" I was afraid she would want to teach me. Eli explained that he would look into the dog's eyes and when the dog started barking he would then signal the dog when to stop after he had reached the right number of barks! Once he asked the dog what the square root of nine was, and the dog barked three times. A woman came up and said she herself hadn't known what the square root of nine was! It impressed people, but I really think I know how to do enough without doing tricks. Perhaps this is a way that people who have dogs that don't know how to cross the street make it seem as if their dogs are really smart. Personally, I'd rather ride moving stairs. It's much more fun than barking. And I know how smart I am. Bracha tells me all the time.