A Mini Pepper!

 Many of you know that my dog Pepper is a retired Seeing Eye Dog.

Pepper in harness guiding Sarah on campus for graduation in 2019.

Pepper loves retirement.

She REALLY does.

Does this look like a dog who knows how to take you safely around downtown New York City, threading you through crowds and around obstacles, and so forth? She may not look like it, but she can! (And has.)

Her training does surface occasionally, though. Last  month she "traffic checked" me while we were out walking. Traffic checking is a part of intelligent disobedience where the dog makes a decision to disregard your command due to safety issues that she can see and that you (presumably) cannot. I had started to cross the street knowing that a car was approaching but confident that we had time to cross. Pepper disagreed and stepped in front of me so that she was blocking my way forward. (Good girl, Pepper!)

Aside from those Seeing Eye behaviors that happen every now and then, I don't think about Pepper's former life much any more. A little while back, though, I got a little reminder in the mail from Shannon Rodgers.

A mini Pepper! A teeny tiny black Lab in working harness!

The grip handle that the dog's partner holds while they are working together even moves forward and back, just as a real one does!

Thank you, Shannon, for the gift! That was so thoughtful of you and I keep it right here next to me in my horse room.

(I'm up to three black Labs in my collection, but not to worry - I do not collect dogs any more than I collect Stablemates...)