Dawn & Jacque

Miniature Poodle

Jacque is one of my best friends and a wonderful companion. He is a 3-year-old, miniature chocolate poodle who wants nothing better than to be loved by everyone. He has a great personality and is as loyal as the day is long. Two years ago my sister, Faith Cook, who trains dogs in Phoenix called and told me she was coming for a visit and had a great birthday gift for me, a sweet little poodle that she had saved from being put down. He was from a pet shop and she had trained him herself. I explained that I had two dogs, a male Chow named Greaser that was 15 years old and had a lot of physical problems and a 12-year-old female Eskimo Spitz named Kimba and that while greaser was still living I could not take on another dog. The week before a girlfriend of mine had said she was looking for a small dog as she was lonely and going through a divorce.

I told my sister the best present she could give me was to bring the poodle and give it to my girlfriend and that she did. A year went by and I was visiting in Phoenix when my son called to tell me Greaser had died at 16 years old. A few months later my girlfriend called to tell me she was getting married again and that Jacques was giving her a lot of problems. She was beside herself and couldn't handle him and could I please take him. He has been a blessing to me ever since.

When Faith brought Jacques out the year before she had gone over his training and commands with my friend and I didn't know much about it. She told me what she could on the phone but I didn't do much with it for about a year. The next summer, I was visiting my mother in the hospital in Phoenix when a group of therapy dogs came on to the floor and popped in to say hello. I watched my moms face light up with excitement as the lady sat one on her bed. She had been in the hospital for three weeks and was missing her little Papillion, Pheobe. At that instance I knew Jacques had a higher calling than just being my friend. He was saved for a purpose. Jacque had more personality than the therapy dogs they brought up to my mom’s room and he already had some training.

I called my sister who told me Jacques had been trained for his CGC but she had not had him tested. I worked with Jacques some but still didn't know what I was doing. Until one day Jacques and I were in Home Depot and met a man who asked about his training. I told him that Jacques had undergone a lot of training but that I had no idea what I was doing. I said I liked to bring him to Home Depot so I could get him used to being around strangers of all ages because I wanted to train him to be a therapy dog. It turned out the man was Cat's husband who quickly hooked me up with the Dreamworkers group. After I had been trained, Jacques quickly passed his CGC test and started going on supervised visits to Carestone Assisted Living Center.

He is a natural around there. And so many faces light up when he comes to visit. He never gets tired of the petting or people. He must think of it as massage therapy day!