Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Alfie Does a Little PR

I'm standing in front of the GDTx table and chocolate-colored Alfie is sitting, looking up at me; Larry Gelvin is at the other end of the table with yellow lab Piper sitting at his side
Alfie and Piper working hard!

Today we had a great opportunity to do some PR for GDTx and have a great training session, all in one.  The Office of the Attorney General hosted its annual State Employees' Charitable Campaign fair, and basically one big room was lined with booths from all kinds of great charities for employees to visit.

Since I knew the Pawsitive Approach guide-dogs-in-training would be there too, I thought it would be smart to give Alfie a little free run first to get the wiggles out and help him settle down.  So our first stop of the day was the dog park.  Alfie split his time between dogs and people, ran around, and generally had a blast.  After that it was back to the car, a once-over with damp washcloth and comb to get him looking nice again, and off to the SECC fair.

I was so glad I did that!  When I arrived I found that not only were our guide dogs there, but also the Humane Society had a booth with an adoptable dog ambassador.  As we walked in the Humane Society dog leaped up, barked, and licked Alfie's face -- normally that would be a huge distraction, but having just had 30 minutes of doggie play at the park, Alfie responded pretty calmly and we got past without much fuss.

At our booth we met up with Larry Gelvin (Puppy Raising Manager), Kim Zielinski (Development Director), and the Pawsitive Approach crew, who brought Piper and Travis.  Piper is the yellow lab puppy pictured above, and Travis is a big black lab with adorable sad eyes, ready to head in for advanced training.  After some initial excitement, all three settled in and did very well -- we put Piper at one end of the table, with Travis between her and Alfie, as she was quite excited to see Alf and wanted to play! 

Alfie enjoyed meeting all the visitors to our booth, especially since we were allowing everyone to pet the dogs (a treat he doesn't usually get on our training walks!)  It was a great experience for him meeting all kinds of people, and many seemed genuinely interested in our mission of providing mobility for visually impaired Texans.  The #1 comment people made on meeting him?   "He's so SOFT!!" 


closeup of Alfie's face and shoulders; you can see his soft wavy brown coat and brown eyes
Just don't call me a softie!

4 comments:

1000 Goldens said...

Oh Alfie, I wish I could pet you :) Good job on your PR gig!

Becky Andrews said...

Alifie, sounds like you did great! Good job.

Sierra Rose said...

What a great event!!! Yay Alfie and pals :) Super to have you all be the spokespals!

Hugs and snaggle-tooth kisses,
Sierra Rose

Lisa and pups said...

WOW, what a neat opportunity to share about guide dogs and GDTx! Way to go Alfie, I'm sure Hosta would have just gone all floopsie if that dog had jumped up and licked him in the face!