Why we Love Dog Scouts

I am a Girl Scout. I spent my summers at Girl Scout Camp when I was little. I loved earning badges and selling cookies.

In June of 2010, Zora and I found a flier about Dog Scouts at my local Dog Park. They have badges for dogs! And summer camp! I knew this was for us. I immediately signed us up for DSA and emailed the Camp Director to see if we could go to Camp in July of 2010. The website promised that we would learn all these great things! They were right! We come home with an amazing new bond. I learned about clicker training and Zora learned confidence.

Our first summer at camp, Zora earned her Dog Scout badge, Puppy Paddler, Obstacle 1, and Art of Shaping. This is Zora discovering the pond at Camp. Turns out she loves it. This was the first badge she ever earned.

We learned more in that one week than I ever thought possible. We learned about heeling, leave-its, recalls, clicker training and the Dog Scout Way. We were supposed to do a leave-it with animals for the Dog Scout Test. Chris Puls told us that they should not maim, maul or molest the animal, which was an animatronic cat. Zora did none of these things. She laid down and took a nap with the cat. 🙂

You can see Chris standing in the back of the picture. I still say it was a PASS, but we had to take this part of the test again.

We have been members of Dog Scouts for over five years and spent 5 summers at Dog Scout Camp so far and every year was special. 2012 was the summer we learned to rock sunglasses, look cool and work on our tan. We learned about Search and Rescue. We made amazing friends that year and attended the very first Blue Ridge mini Camp. This was the summer that we started doing Freestyle and found a new connection dancing together.

In 2013 we learned that sleeping in tents is a horrible idea. We learned that Liz and Dyno are great friends and will really put up with a lot. But we got the Overnight Camping Badge!

We learned that we are great entertainers. A puggle in bunny slippers is hysterical!

We have not reached the end of the amazing things we have learned with Dog Scouts. In 2014, we learned some amazing new dance moves and took first place in the Talent Show.

We’ve made some amazing friends in Dog Scouts. And done some pretty cool stuff. I don’t think we’ll ever be done. Over the years, we’ve taken classes about canine body language and communication. I’ve learned about proper canine nutrition.

Are you signed up for Dog Scouts yet?

https://secure.jotform.us/dogscoutsbod/DSAMembership

You can come to camp in Michigan for a full week! Or a mini camp in Texas or Maryland! And there are Troops, just like other scouting organizations. We have a small, but wonderful Troop at home.