Sit BoomBoom, Sit… Pleeease!

BoomBoom has been registered with Pet Partners as a therapy dog since 2011. One of the things that sets Pet Partners apart from the other pet therapy testing organizations is that you’re required to be re-evaluated every two years.

Holly and I had already gone through the Pet Partner evaluation twice with BoomBoom, so when our renewal came up this spring, I felt pretty confident. I take BoomBoom on therapy visits nearly every week, and he does great. He’s calm and friendly and clearly enjoys human interaction. All the qualities you want in a Pet Partner dog.

The Pet Partners Team Evaluation consists of several exercises to test the animals temperament and the human’s skills as a handler. At one point there are a series of basic obedience exercises. Sit, Down, Stay, and Come When Called. If you don’t pass all three, you’re scored a Not Ready and do not pass the evaluation.

Now when you get a Greyhound you hear all the myths about what they CANNOT due. The don’t do stairs. They don’t do well with children. They may not be cat friendly. And … they can’t sit.

I’ll concede that training a Greyhound to sit takes more time than with all other dog breeds, but it can, and has been done with BoomBoom and Logan. Given their build, a Greyhound is not going to want to stay in a sit position for a long period of time, but for a few seconds they can do it.

However, while out our re-evaluation, BoomBoom also displayed another Greyhound trait… stubbornness.

BoomBoom was doing fine in the evaluation until we got to the sit exercise. In his defense, we were in a different location than we had been before, and the room had a hard rubber surface. BoomBoom prefers a carpeted surface. It had also been an hour-long car ride to get to the evaluation site, and he may have stiffened up a little.

It was the third, and final attempt where BoomBoom decided he had been toying with my emotions enough and eased back into a sit position. Phew.

The rest of the evaluation went smooth and BoomBoom was solid a half hour later when he was re-evaluated with Holly. BoomBoom will be 10 years old at the time of his next re-evaluation. I’ll need to make sure he have a chance to limber up before we go in.