Above, Buddy; Below, Sue and Bob with Buddy. Photos by Brenda Carpenter.
Sue and Bob with Buddy​
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A Frisbee Star is Born!
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It’s a classic holiday story. Sue and Bob walked into their local shelter to make their annual donation and walked out with a seven-month-old puppy. And who could blame them? Positively adorable and bursting with youthful exuberance, Buddy bounded into their hearts at the perfect time. With their other dog Jesse getting grey in the muzzle, Buddy would be the fun-loving friend he needed in his old age. Or so they thought…
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“Almost immediately after Buddy came home, I thought we would have to take him back to the shelter,” Sue recalled. “He was awful with Jesse. Buddy nipped at her, scratched her, jumped on her. When we ended up taking Jesse to the emergency vet hospital for a scratch, we knew we had to do something.”
But what? Bob hated the idea of taking Buddy back to the shelter. “I felt a responsibility to this dog,” he explained. “But we were at our wit’s end. So at a friend’s suggestion, we called Anne Holiday.”
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Buddy needed an appropriate outlet for all his energy. With a job to do, and some training class time, Buddy could channel his puppy power away from Jesse and into healthy activity. “With Anne’s help, we set up an exercise plan. But we quickly learned that even a daily five-mile run wasn’t enough to exhaust this dog,” Sue sighed. Fortunately, Sue and Bob were taking Buddy to the Pets in Motion classes on weekends to help him relax around other dogs and practice his recall and other good manners. That’s when Susie, the class instructor, recommended Frisbee competitions to keep Buddy moving. “We thought ‘why not?’ So we stopped by a local event just to check it out, and Buddy came home with three medals and a trophy!”
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Needless to say, this pup was born to catch a Frisbee. Buddy now chews through up to 20 Frisbees a week in his new favorite sport. “Frisbee kept Buddy out of the shelter—and away from Jesse. We just love him now,” said Sue. “We’re so grateful to Pets in Motion for showing us how to make this possible.”