Rocky, the Morro Bay Police Department’s almost certified therapy dog sits with author Judy Laakso, Police Chief Amy Watkins, and his his handles Becky Presley. A book about him is called ‘Ride Along with Rocky.’
Photo By Judy Salamacha
Last summer this column introduced Rocky, a Goldendoodle puppy training with Police Chief Amy Watkins and the Morro Bay Police Department to earn his certification to become the department’s official therapy dog. On April 16 at a Morro Bay City Council meeting, “Ride Along With Rocky,” an inaugural book intended to become a series was launched to follow Rocky’s training and future exploits while serving with a law enforcement agency.
Authors, Judy Laakso and Patricia Poveda, chose an image of Rocky watching from one of his duty stations, a MBPD police car, for the cover art of the book.
Now only eighteen months old, his handler and “mom” is MBPD volunteer Becky Presley. She said, “He loves his ride-alongs in the police car, but he’s still not quite ready to mingle with the students at Morro Bay’s Del Mar Elementary School. I’ll stop by anyway, so Rocky can watch them and they see him sitting in the driver’s seat. I’m often asked, ‘Does he have a body?’”
I was surprised and honored during my interview to hear how the book came about. Judy said, “When I read your article, I thought Rocky’s story would make a good children’s book.” Both co-authors are former elementary school educators who served the Newport Mesa Unified School District. They had worked on other publishing projects pre-retirement. Judy enjoys her vacation home regularly in Morro Bay while Patricia lives in Utah. However, Judy explained, “I didn’t know anyone in the police department, so I thought why not just ask? Chief Amy was excited about the prospect and when I called Patty, she was just as excited.”
The writing team had four major goals: (1) They wanted to write it from Rocky’s point of view anticipating he would overcome challenges and express how he handled his life lessons; (2) Rocky would role model as a persistent learner; (3) Rocky would be positive about himself and his experiences; (4) Rocky would win everyone’s heart. After all, that is what a therapy dog needs to aspire to do.
Since it was early in Rocky’s training process, achieving their goals did not need to be staged. Rocky’s daily assignments and training situations happened naturally. The authors were provided true stories by local representatives participating in a variety of his learning activities. Highlighted encounters documented in the book by text are complimented by digitized images developed from the actual photos taken at the time of the experience. The original photos are shown at the back of the book. Chief Amy would share in-the-moment stories as Rocky reacted to department activities while Presley would share his homelife and volunteer training challenges. His professional trainers continued to be Tired Tails of San Luis Obispo, who are guiding him towards certification.
All ages will enjoy reading “Ride Along With Rocky.” The authors have captured Rocky’s joyful puppy year in-training. Currently, he spends several days training with Tired Tails to prepare for his upcoming AKC Good Citizen certificate when Rocky will need to stay in control when meeting new humans or dogs in all new settings.
“I think he is ready for that test now,” said Chief Amy. “The challenging testing will be how he reacts to four different people conducting four different testing scenarios. He must stay calm and well-behaved. We’re still working on these skills, but he is showing a lot more maturity.”
At which Becky then mentioned how Rocky performed at the April 16 council meeting. It was his first official introduction after months of training plus the book launch announcement of “Ride Along With Rocky.” Chief Amy believes she might have made a mistake including Aaron, Rocky’s Tired Tails walker. Rocky was so excited to see him that before and during their time at the podium, he was restless and excitable. She later realized Rocky was probably confused to see Aaron at a different time of day since Rocky probably assumed he was getting to go for a walk with Aaron and was impatient as savvy puppies are when expecting something else to happen.
As Rocky says in the book after another failed training challenge, “Oops! That wasn’t my training. Would Police Chief put me in ‘time out” forever?’
Chief Amy encourages all to visit the MBPD website to see a video and listen to a song the authors had created about Rocky. Currently “Ride Along With Rocky” is available from Amazon Books. Judy says they are working on getting copies to local bookstores. The authors intend to donate the proceeds on sales for the continued care of Rocky’s service as a therapy dog.
Chief Amy welcomes all to meet the team during Morro Bay’s 4th of July Celebration at Tidelands Park and for August 4 National Night Out at Cloisters Park. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Meanwhile Judy and Patricia are working on Book #2. Rocky assures, “I’m pawsitively working on a second Rocky book. Discover how I, hopefully, will pass 10 skills with 100% accuracy to become an official therapy dog.”
