Bear

At about 2:00 on a sunny Thursday afternoon all of the dogs had been on volunteer walks, so I chose the beautiful and quiet Bear as my walking pal. She is five, mostly German Shepherd and at the shelter due to a death in the family. As I opened her back door she came to greet me and stood patiently while I put on her collar - an extra large! She was eager to get going on our walk but stayed close, waiting for me to open each door as we walked down the hall and left the shelter. Our first stop was the exercise yard; after the standard sniffing and potty routine we played fetch with a tennis ball. She is really good at it, as well as "sit and shake paw"- for a treat of course.

Once on our walk I was happy to see that she is excellent on the leash; she has that lovely German Shepherd lope but she controls it to stay close to you with no coaxing needed. On our way back I thought I'd give her one more fetch game. The main exercise yard was occupied so we used the agility yard which has agility equipment and many tennis balls. After a few tosses I told her to run out for a catch and I threw one in the air; it landed on top of an atrium like object. She had a moment of confusion then methodically began picking up every tennis ball on the ground and rejecting each one. It then occurred to me that she was looking for the ball with my scent on it. I think she is as smart as she is beautiful.