Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have adopted many dogs. The last two that I adopted, Sparkles and Spanner, were exceptional in every way. Spanner passed away in May 2008 at 9 years old and Sparkles in October 2010 at 12 years old. Both loved helping me with my fire safety programming and activities, both were extremely calm and both loved children. I have always felt that the man upstairs truly blessed me with these two amazing animals/friends.
Since the beginning of last year, I began the preparation to get a new Dalmatian puppy. In September, “Siren” came to live with us. I was so fortunate that Sparkles and Siren had the opportunity to bond and that Sparkles got to share some of the “ropes” of being a fire safety dog.
I’m not sure how many of you have or have had puppies, but puppies are a combination of joy and exhaustion, much like having a small child. They require a tremendous amount of work and dedication.
Last night I had the opportunity to take Siren to the fire station for the third time. Since we travel a lot, we grab every moment that we can to be active in our fire department. Watching Siren take the whole experience in was truly wonderful to watch. Siren reminds me so much of Sparkles! The experience also reminded me how much work I put in with Sparkles and how I am basically starting all over again, from scratch.
Siren’s training is coming along great. To date, he can crawl low under smoke, stop, drop and roll, “test” a smoke alarm, tell the difference between a tool and a toy, among many other things. Not bad for a 6 month old pup. He spends way too much time on the computer on his Facebook page, other than that, he is a joy to be around.
Siren and I take every opportunity to work on socialization skills. Last night was a wonderful evening as he was introduced to the many sounds, sights and activities of the fire station. I can’t wait to see where the road of becoming a fire safety dog takes him.
