Star Puppy dazzles Silver Oak residents

Steve Moyer/Daily Mail Andy Oleske puts his award-winning dog, Star Puppy, through her paces in front of an admiring group of seniors at the Silver Oaks Senior Living facility Wednesday morning. Star Puppy is in the running for a national title in Purina's "People and Their Amazing Animals" contest.

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

Residents of Silver Oak Senior Living had a fun morning activity Wednesday when Star Puppy came to visit. Star Puppy is a 2-year-old Sheltie, Border Collie, and McNabb Shepherd mix that won "Purina's People and Amazing Animals" pet contest locally and is now awaiting judging of a video of her performance to see where she will place nationally.

Andy Oleske, Nevada, is Star Puppy's owner, and he loves talking about his amazing animal.

"I'm so proud of her. She made up all her own tricks, I didn't teach her anything except to roll over," Oleske said. "We first found out she could jump high when we put her in the house and went outside. She found an open window she could jump through and got out. We put her back in and she made it outside before we did."

Those tricks included turning somersaults, fetching a stick, jumping through a hoop, jumping over a chair, snatching a toy out of the air, and many others.

Residents of the facility had a great time watching Star Puppy perform; and when she came up to them during a break, they eagerly petted her. Oleske warned the residents they might get a sloppy puppy kiss if they bent down too close, and one resident said, "I'm not worried, I've been kissed by dogs before."

Oleske brought some assistants to help out. "I've got my daughter, Meghann, here, and we'll try to get Star Puppy to jump over her while she's sitting in a chair," Oleske said. "She's only done this a few times and she might not do it."

It was one of the few things that the dog failed to do, she approached the chair and jumped but only beside the chair, not over it. Oleske said that Star Puppy does have a stubborn streak.

"She has to want to do a trick or she just won't do it," Oleske said. "She has a mind of her own."

Oleske said he was living in Idaho when he got Star Puppy and admits he made a mistake in the early stages training her that ended up creating an undesired consequence.

"I tied a rag onto a line on a fishing pole and she would run around trying to grab it," Oleske said. "That ruined fishing for her, she gets too excited. She'll watch a bobber and if it moves at all she'll run back and forth on the boat."

Star Puppy is spayed and Oleske said he'd like to get another dog from the same bloodline; but, so far, he hasn't been able to do so.

"I've talked to the owner of her mother but there's just no way," Oleske said.

Oleske and Star Puppy will find out sometime in September how she fared in the national contest based on a video of her performance.