APAW – Poodle Pups for Working Roles

Harmony was the foundation of APAW, having one incredible litter and then being spayed to focus on her training as a Search and Rescue dog (she did not end up getting certified due to life changes for her handler Jillian; she did well in training for wilderness air-scent live find, and showed great precision for small-scale human remains detection in wilderness and urban settings and was transferred onto our team’s HRD track).

Harmony earned legs towards rally titles in multiple venues but didn’t get an opportunity to finish them; she also competed in toss & fetch disc and loved the sport. She was also a highly accomplished trick dog, and perhaps some day her old trick videos will be submitted to earn titles for which she more than qualified.

Harmony was a much-loved visiting therapy dog at multiple nursing homes and a skilled rehab center. She was also fully-trained as a demo service dog and gave presentations in front of many audiences to teach children and adults around New England how service dogs are trained to help people with a variety of disabilities.

Harmony was retired as a loving companion and therapy dog to a wonderful family where she regularly ran races with her partner to bring in donations for many worthy causes, often coming in top placements as a team even into her double digits. Harmony had a large abdominal tumor removed just before her 12th birthday and made a great recovery, but it returned the following year and had metastasized. She passed peacefully surrounded by her family a month shy of her 13th birthday.