Some animals are simply talented for water sports. Already as a puppy, Ricochet grabbed people’s attention for her confidence she jumped into sea waves with. Later on, she became a dog hero helping disabled and a role model for many enthusiasts who started craving for their dog to be also gifted with similar superpowers. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t enough for Ricochet’s mistress that her dog could conquer waves and started organizing special assistence courses with a slogan “Healing Power of Dogs”.
Some animals are simply talented for water sports. Already as a puppy, Ricochet grabbed people’s attention for her confidence she jumped into sea waves with. Later on, she became a dog hero helping disabled and a role model for many enthusiasts who started craving for their dog to be also gifted with similar superpowers. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t enough for Ricochet’s mistress that her dog could conquer waves and started organizing special assistence courses with a slogan “Healing Power of Dogs”.
Ricochet’s story only started with this. Since then, this ten-year-old bitch has helped hundreds of disabled children and adults get rid of their fear of water. Her canistherapy powers are so impressive that she managed to change lives of several tens of them. But in fact she herself was struggling in the beginning of her training and she was even expelled from water training for her lack of concentration. But her mistress and dog trainer Judy Fridon didn’t give up.
As well as many more golden retrievers, Ricochet excels in one more ability besides her love for water – empathy. As her mistress Judy says, she can amazingly adjust to the needs of any person at whom she feels some kind of anxiety or another problem. Judy thought it would be shame to train her “only” as a guide dog and she decided to use her talent for water activities. She supposedly throw herself to water already as a puppy and crept to water pad. To put it simply, she chose surfing alone.
The whole concept is based on one simple idea: “If a dog can do it, I can as well”. And Judy says it works. Ricochet is by the side of her clients at all times. She can spend several hours in water. She shares a surfboard with clients. Therefore, there is a constant contact and dog’s closeness has a calming influence on handicapped people. Judy and Ricochet use money from various surf competitions to help these people. And Ricochet has been attending competitions since 2009 when she was a little dog.
Her story is a proof that dogs really are man’s best friends. And they can learn everything for their master, including surfing. And they can even enjoy it and make good things happen like Ricochet. Also dog paddle boarding is becoming popular and we can try in the Czech Republic, too :) Are you in?
tradiční dárky pro psy .jpg/30x20/FIT)
tradiční dárky pro psy .jpg/600x400/FIT)
Christmas is coming and it’s the time we are thinking of how we can please our loved ones. Besides family and friends, we should also not forget about our loyal companions that have stood by our side through our highs and lows during the whole year....
In this article, we’ll introduce you to another discipline of Disc Dog – our focus will be on Parallel Time Trial. The most important thing in it is the time within which a dog catches a flying disc. What does this discipline look like, in what...
Coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the lives of most people. Our travelling has been limited, we started spending most of our time at home – with our furry friends in many cases. However, it has also been a change for them. They suddenly had...
Most of us dream about having a long and happy life, and ways to ensure it have been sought for centuries. Recent scientific studies, however, suggest that the answer has been right before us all along: Our cats, in addition to being nice companions,...
Defence Training is a process in which we try to encourage and develop the predatory instinct. We differentiate between practical and sports defence. In the case of sports defence, the dog is controllable and it isn’t headless stimulation of...
This animal is a wild predator that also likes to just relax on the couch. We are, of course, talking about the American shorthair cat, which can be considered similar to its European counterpart, just on the American continent. What makes this breed...
Wolves belong to the Carnivora order, and the thought of meeting them in the wild scares many of us. It is therefore quite surprising that wolves are very shy and wary animals that will try to avoid human contact at all costs. All the more if the...
Like humans, our pets may experience adverse reactions to some food or ingredients. Whether we give them dry food or raw meat, there is always a risk that the food will not suit our pets, perhaps simply because they cannot digest it. How to recognize...
On our blog, we have already written about dogfrisbee, a sport where dogs catch flying discs. Its advantage is that both the dog and the owner play sports together. Dogfrisbee is also a great sport for its diversity – it includes various disciplines...
Sport cynology is sometimes also called the royal discipline. It is mainly because of its difficulty – very versatile skills are needed for it both from the dog handler as well as the dog. What aspects are the most difficult and what is its...
The Vizsla comes from Hungary where it arrived with nomadic tribes. The written references about this breed can be traced back to 14th century, but it started to be more significant in 18th and 19th centuries, mainly in association with races just...
As well as people, dogs are unique living beings which differ in their nature and in what they like and don’t like. A significant part of it depends on upbringing of course, but owners need to accept some characteristic features of a dog and learn...
