Responsible Dog Ownership Week 2007

Greenville has only one dog park, and today was the celebration of the one-year anniversary of the opening. Art in public spaces is very prominent in city priorities, and today the City unveiled a statue for the dog park. The sculptor was on hand, from Colorado, to give us a few words and unveil her work. The rescue arm of the Great Dane Club of America helped acquire it, and the statue is named, "High Four." I'd seen a picture of it, but my goodness - in person, it is amazing!! When you look at it, you hold your breath, expecting the life-sized Dane to come to life at any moment. This is the sculpture with the artist (in the red hat).

The Greenville Kennel Club is one of the sponsors of the dog park, and had a tent at the festival area. This is part of our participation in the national Responsible Dog Ownership Week sponsored by the AKC. Other tents were various rescue groups, local dog treat vendors, a large veterinary group which also sponsors the dog park, ChikFilA, and other dog-related vendors (doggie day care, kennels, artists and so forth). GKC also sponsored a demonstration area, where we had an agility demonstration by Speedy Paws. Here's a picture of Kim (who owns Speedy Paws and placed Tillie with us and helped us get Rowdy) with her dog Twisted. Twisted is her only border collie - she also has 4 Aussies at home!

Other demonstrations were canine CPR and the County Sheriff's K-9 unit. We also did Canine Good Citizen testing, and several dogs passed that test - and we immediately linked them with the therapy dog coordinator who was there, as well as making sure they knew about other opportunities to have fun with their dog! I was just helping out with the Club as a volunteer - my job was just to wear my Club shirt and mingle, chatting up folks and being available to answer questions. It was quite shocking to find that there were a number of opportunities to be helpful, mostly linking people up with specialty vets, training, and general education about dog sports.

I wished I'd taken Rowdy to be part of the agility demo. We could have run him over the jumps at a very low height, and there were no obstacles used today that really create knee strain. Next year - we'll join in the fun!