Never work with Children or Animals!

I decided to ignore the advice in the old saying "never work with children or animals" and jump right in at the deep end yesterday!

The Theatre production of Annie were looking for a dog to play the part of Annie. Not content with the pre trained dogs we had to offer they wanted BIG, SHAGGY and bombproof around children! So we had a look at our daycare attendees and as Jasper the Goldendoodle popped his head over the partition we thought - that's the one!

So off we go bag packed with treats, balls, poop bags, towel, water, leads and harnesses. We arrive for the radio pre record and to meet the three girls who are in the running for the part of Annie. They meet the dog and all was recorded to go out on National Radio later that day. You can hear the meet and greet here about 1:09:30 into the clip: http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index.html

Next for the photoshoot. Sit and Stay and don't take any notice of the radio presenter who seems to be afraid of you Jasper! Of course Jasper needs to fix the situation and offers a loving bark and lick to the radio personality who nearly has a heart attack as the three Annie's laugh out loud. That photo is in all the national newspapers today - Hillarious and Jasper looks like an old pro.

So onto presenting the Jasper to the audience comprised of the three Annie's family and friends. Bark on cue for the radio and sit quietly as "The sun will come out tomorrow is sung" about 20 times over! He does well and is rewarded highly.

Finally and 6 hours later after much ball playing outside, lunch in the canteen, snuggles and sleep time the LIVE TV show airing on RTE which is Ireland equivalent to the BBC. We are now there 11 hours and the winning child who got the part of Annie and Jasper are sleeping in the green room on the floor. The dress rehearsals have all went perfectly with lots of distraction so we are hopeful.
The ad break comes on and the little girl and Jasper position themselves on stage. A stage hand decides to help but this unsettles Jasper a little rather than letting the little girl do her thing with him. The audience clap, Annie starts to sing, Jasper lets out WOOF WOOF in time with tomorrow tomorrow and leaves the stage! 10 seconds of fame. See it here (1:20:12) http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1046521

If only we could translate the WOOF WOOF but I have my own idea as to what he was saying after working so hard all day for ball, chicken and tripe!