|
|||
|
|||
|
|
||
Ranch dogs in the Valley are serious, hard-working canines. A Great Pyrenees, serves as companion and protector for a Los Olivos alpaca herd. “Cattle dogs” are various dog breeds, usually border collies, Queensland heelers or Australian shepherds. These hard working dogs play a vital part in rounding up cattle, bringing in strays and keeping mavericks in line. |
 |
||
|
Guide Dog for the Blind in Training
One year-old Solana visits a Solvang bank with Pam Meyer, a volunteer who raised and trained the female Labrador since she was nine weeks old. Meyer decided to join the junior guide dog training program “because of the profound difference it can make in someone’s life,” Meyer said she loves using the “continual positive reinforcement training methods” the guide dog training program requires. In a few months Solana will leave the Meyer home in Santa Ynez for an advanced training program at the San Rafael Guide Dogs for the Blind school. |
 |
||
|
Dog Agility Trials
Richard Hubach and his year-old Australian shepherd, Tucker, challenge a course of hurdles, tunnels, A-frame, teeter-totter and knee-high slalom sticks. Dog agility competition is a fast-growing canine sport, fun and challenging for dog and dog-owner both.The sport originated in England 20 years ago, and has been AKC sanctioned in the U.S. for the past ten years. |
 |
||
|
SYV Assisted Pet Therapy Program
volunteers and their dogs go to work at our local Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital. From left, Emily Severinsen with Benno, her Neopolitan mastif; Patricia Donato with Vita, her three-legged golden retriever; and Renee Solnit with Lucky, her Australian shepherd. The dogs are pre-tested for obedience and temperament and upon passing both dog and owner become qualified volunteers for this hospital program. Their job, then, is to bring “a small ray of light and hope to the patients and staff of the hospital.” According to staff, patients and volunteers in the program, the dogs enjoy their job so much they might not qualify as actual“working dogs.” |
 |
||
|
Retirement is Great —
WISH YOU WERE HERE! Julie, a retired racing greyhound, is definitely not a working dog these days. Enjoying her retirement with Melanie Saxe, left, the two take a leisurely tour of Solvang during the three-day annual West Coast Greyhound Gather held here each year. Her life today is a long way from the Mexican dog racing industry job where she spent years racing for spectators. When she was retired in 2005 animal advocates rescued the greyhound, saving her from the animal shelter or euthanasia, and she was then adopted by Trudy Saxe of Simi Valley, where she has lived happily ever since. |
 |
||
|
Copyright 2006, Inside Santa Ynez Valley Magazine, All Rights Reserved |
|||
