Pretty Goes Royal: CCR at the Prince Laurent Foundation Event in Enghien

Some days begin like ordinary dog days.

A leash is checked.

A car is prepared.

A small team gathers.

A dog looks at the humans and wonders, very reasonably, why everyone is behaving as if something ceremonial is happening.

And then one remembers:

Pretty has been invited to a royal dog event.

Not symbolically. Not as a joke. Not only in one of our overdramatic CCR illustrations where Springer Spaniels become diplomatic envoys of interspecies communication.

This time, the CCR crew is heading to an event connected with His Royal Highness Prince Laurent of Belgium, at the Park of Enghien.

And Pretty, our beloved Springer Spaniel, button communicator, Frontiers-related research muse, emotional diplomat, and occasional sovereign of Haverim, is part of the story.

From Haverim to Enghien's Park

For Canine Communication Research, this is a beautiful moment.

CCR began as something small and intimate: a home-based observation project around dogs, communication, welfare, and the strange seriousness of daily life with animals who clearly have more to say than we usually allow.

Pretty’s buttons opened the first door.

They did not make her “human.”

They did not turn her into a talking spectacle.

They did something subtler and more important: they forced us to observe better.

What happened before the signal?

What was the context?

What was the dog’s body doing?

What did the human do in response?

What alternative explanation must still be kept in mind?

This became the basis of our Frontiers article:

From Button Presses to Situated Communicative Events: A methodological framework for canine Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) research under interpretive uncertainty

The article argues that the isolated button press is not enough. The real object of study is the whole event around it: the dog, the environment, the human, the timing, the response, the ambiguity, and sometimes even the later correction.

In other words, CCR is not about making dogs perform.

It is about learning to listen without losing scientific caution.

Enter Chanel: Royal Chihuahua Correspondent

Pretty will not be alone in spirit.

This event also gives us the opportunity to celebrate Chanel, a 12-year-old chihuahua with her own remarkable communication talent.

Chanel does not use Pretty’s full soundboard system. She has her own elegant, minimalistic interface: a bell.

When Chanel needs to go outside, she rings.

Simple? Yes.

Brilliant? Also yes.

In CCR terms, Chanel reminds us that communication does not need to be spectacular to be meaningful. A bell at the door can be just as important as a button board if the dog, the human, and the context form a stable communicative system.

Pretty has buttons.

Chanel has a bell.

Both have something to say.

And both remind us that animal communication often begins when humans stop treating behaviour as “just behaviour” and start asking what kind of interaction is taking place.

A Personal Thread

There is also a personal resonance to this day.

My late father was one of Prince Laurent’s tailors. I met the Prince several times in a rather unusual way, during the years when I was connected to my father’s atelier near Place Flagey in Ixelles.

So this event carries more than public meaning for me.

It brings together memory, family, craft, dogs, animal welfare, and a new chapter of work that my father could never have imagined in this form — yet perhaps would have understood very well.

Because tailoring, in its own way, is also about attention.

Attention to detail.

Attention to fit.

Attention to the living person inside the garment.

CCR is not so different.

We attend to the living animal inside the behaviour.

Why This Matters

A royal event is festive. It has glamour. It has the wonderful theatricality of banners, parks, collars, dogs, humans, and the faint suspicion that some dogs understand protocol better than we do.

But for CCR, the deeper meaning is simple:

animal welfare begins with attention.

Dogs are not accessories.

They are not machines.

They are not comic sidekicks to human life.

They are companions, social partners, emotional beings, and sometimes astonishingly precise communicators.

Pretty’s journey has already taken us from a home in Belgium to an article in Frontiers in Animal Science. Now, with CCR present at Enghien, that journey enters a more public space — one where research, affection, welfare, and civic attention to animals can meet.

Pretty’s Official Royal Statement

Pretty has not yet issued a formal written statement regarding her invitation.

Based on previous field observations, however, CCR cautiously reconstructs her likely position as follows:

“Outside. Friends. Event. Possibly snacks. Please observe properly.”

This interpretation remains tentative and subject to revision.

A Great Day for Pretty

Today is a great day for Pretty.

It is also a great day for CCR, for Haverim, for Chanel, and for all the small stories that become meaningful when they are treated with care.

From button presses to bells, from home observations to public events, from family memory to animal welfare, the thread is the same:

some conversations change the world because they teach us to listen differently.

And today, in Enghien Park, Pretty goes royal.

Not as a mascot.

As an ambassador of attention.

Update — Pretty Goes Royal, Meets Chanel, Judges the Water Dogs

Since the first version of this post, the CCR crew has now actually made it to the Dog & Family Day at the Park of Enghien, connected with the Fondation Prince Laurent.

And yes: Pretty went royal for real.

She arrived with the full dignity of a Springer Spaniel who has recently become the subject of a Frontiers article, a CCR mascot, and apparently a small international phenomenon. No pressure.

There, we finally met Chanel, the real Chanel — not Elvis in disguise, not an AI casting error, not a tiny chihuahua impostor in royal costume, but Chanel herself: a 12-year-old chihuahua with serious communication credentials, accompanied by her keepers Grace — Maminna — PapYvan and their grandson Valentino.

Pretty, CCR crew, Chanel’s family / arrival at Dog & Family Day

Chanel’s specialty is beautifully simple: she can ring a bell to ask to go outside. At CCR, we love this kind of communication precisely because it is not spectacular in the noisy sense. It is clear, functional, socially negotiated, and completely sufficient. Pretty has buttons. Chanel has a bell. Different interfaces, same underlying question: what happens when humans take canine signals seriously?

Then came the aquatic demonstration.

There were majestic Terre-Neuve rescue dogs, the grand theatrical professionals of water courage, preparing their big demonstration. These dogs looked built by nature, maritime law, and heroic cinema. Huge paws. Serious coats. Full “I was born to save sailors and emotionally dominate lakes” energy.

Pretty, however, has her own long-standing philosophical position on water.

It can be summarized as:

“I support your aquatic career from a safe distance.”

So she went to observe the demonstration from above, on the grounds.

At first, she looked at the scene with the solemn gravity of a peer reviewer evaluating a methodology section.

Then, having apparently decided that the Terre-Neuve were indeed highly qualified but that no further personal involvement was required, she simply lay down and looked the other way.

Not panic.Not protest.Not even fear.

Just aristocratic refusal.

Pretty observing / snubbing the Terre-Neuve water demo from above (Papparazi view)

This was, in its own absurdly perfect way, the most Pretty reaction imaginable.

The big dogs entered the water.The humans admired the rescue work.The lake performed its lake duties.And Pretty issued the silent Springer conclusion:

“Excellent for them. Not my department.”

For CCR, this little comedy actually fits the larger story beautifully. Pretty’s water history is complex: the old blue pool, the fear memory, the later wooden pond, the attempt to reintroduce water through a softer symbol. At Enghien, she did not collapse into fear. She did not need to flee. She could witness water, dogs, movement, and public excitement — and then choose non-participation.

That matters.

In our language, non-participation is data.

Pretty did not join the water dogs. She did not become a Newfoundland. She did not suddenly accept a heroic aquatic destiny. But she remained present enough to judge the situation, decline the offer, and lie down with full moral authority.

That may be progress.

It may also simply be Pretty.

Either way, the day gave CCR exactly what we love most: a public event, a family connection, a real canine communication story, and one highly intelligent Springer Spaniel demonstrating that “no thank you” can also be a valid research outcome.

So the official record now stands:

Pretty went royal.Chanel was correctly restored to her rightful role.The Terre-Neuve did their aquatic hero work.Pretty reviewed the lake from a strategic distance.And CCR returned home with one more proof that dogs do not need to speak like humans to have extremely clear opinions.

Final field note:

Some dogs rescue people from water. Pretty rescues science from overinterpretation by lying down and looking the other way.