Blowing bubbles, befriending grandparents and walking into trees: Pearl the golden retriever is a loveable, walking stereotype of her breed.
Pearl’s owner, Nicola Villani, grew up with golden retrievers, but after moving out she was ready to have her own dog, so she brought Pearl into her life when the pup was only two months old.
Pearl is now nine months old, and has the nickname ‘Pearly Whirly the Curly Girly’ due to the crimped hair behind her ears.
Golden retrievers have a reputation for being food-loving, energetic, intelligent and friendly but according to Miss Villani, Pearl is all of the above minus being food-driven.
“All of my previous dogs were food-driven, so it was harder to train Pearl,” she said.
“I sent her to GV Boarding to do two weeks of training, and she did amazing, apart from peeing with excitement when she saw me after those two weeks.”
After discovering that Pearl was attention-driven, training has been going smoothly, through Miss Villani’s dedication and the help of a trainer.
Miss Villani said her motivation in training Pearl was to support her grandmother.
“My grandmother lives in a nursing home and she loves animals, so I’ve been training her with obedience mainly to go and visit her,” she said.
“I trained her specifically to be okay around her.
“It is really cute. They love each other.”
Miss Villani said she and Pearl walked to the Milkbar on Fryers St, Shepparton, every day, but Pearl’s spatial awareness let her down sometimes.
“She is not a morning person at all,” Miss Villani said.
“We’ll be walking down the street on the way to the Milkbar and Pearl looks to the left or to the right but not straight out in front of her. She walks into park benches, trees, people.”
But Pearl shows her intelligence in the familiar surrounds of home.
“She’s extremely smart, smarter than me sometimes,” Miss Villani said.
“She knows this house too well, to the point where if she notices something like a new mark on the wall, she will just sit and stare at it.”
Like most dogs, Pearl has her share of unusual quirks and behaviours.
“She likes to blow bubbles in her pool, she sticks her whole head in,” Miss Villani said.
“She is terrified of the horse racing channel. We’ll be flicking through channels and the second the horses are there, she barks and barks.”
“Her favourite toy is a pink panda. She shows it to everyone.”