Guide Dog Updates

Bingham is a BREEDER!!!  Yay!  He is going to have a "date" in the coming weeks.  Bernstein and Duncan are in phase 9 at the Boring campus.  Our club is welcoming a new puppy on April 11th!  It is a "F" MYL.  

Sterling is back with me, and is having some weird behavior problems since I went on vacation.  He is back to not walking on a leash, and really trying to rub his face on my legs when we walk, gentle leader or not!  He even ran into the back of Tom's legs today when we were walking to the movie theater. He has even chewed up some stuff, and had an accident!  Ekk!  I think he is really confused from being away from me, so that means he needs to be traded more I think.

Or it could be hormones, his snip-snip is in 3 weeks.  We will keep working on it.  

He did go to work with Tom yesterday, and no one even knew he was there!  He just slept in the back the whole time!  Tom is stuck at the base patrol for the rest of the ski season because of his knee.  He wants to take him tomorrow, but does not feel like he should because the avalanche dog that is at base this week is dog aggressive!!!  

Now this base patrol building also houses a public University health clinic.  The avalanche dogs are just allowed to be loose in this building, and anyone going in would have to go by the avy dog.  If someone with a service dog were to go in there, their dog could be attacked.  This dog has already attacked a dog while it was working!!!  I really want to say something, because it just doesn't seem right to have an aggressive working dog, but I don't want to use GDB, since we do not fight for access.  Maybe the resort needs a reminder about liability....

Anyways, the meeting is at the library tomorrow, and I have a potential new member going with me!  The only problem would be that she lives half the year in Utah, the other half in CA.  I don't know how GDB would work with that...

Thats all I have for now.

I Love Vacations...

BUT I am ready to go home!!! Tom torn his knee, Marley got cut with a ski, and Sterling has been trying to eat carpet? (Yeah not so sure on that one...) I am ready to go home and see my babies!

And of course I am sunburnt.

It has been an amazing vacation, the last three days I have just hung out by the ocean and relaxed! Now it is time to go back to real life.

12 hours until I am home again.

Cancun!

Quick post..

No snow here, have gotten to see Jaguars, turtles, fish, monkeys, manitees, so cool!!! Right on the water, but the surf here is rough. Definelty will be coming back, hopefully with one of my boys!!!

More and pics later!

Leaving my Pups....

On Sunday I will be leaving all my pups for a week!  I am going to Cancun with my family for spring break.  Tom will keep Hugo and Marley, our neighbor is staying at the house with Dante, Missy and Sparky (My parent's  elderly dachshunds), and Milo, Gizmo, and Elise (The feline residents).


 Sterling is going to a puppy sitters!  This will be their first time watching a GDB pup.  Sterling will get to experience middle school, a young child, and other labs!  I know he will have a good time and be a good boy.  

Sterling at 9 1/2 weeks.  Just a little bigger than Dante!  Dante is 6 lbs, Sterling is 10.5lbs.

Sterling last week, wanting his belly scratched before class.

I wish that I could take one of my dogs with me, but the resort we are going to does not even allow people with working guide dogs/service dogs to bring them!!!!  Thank god for the ADA here.  I do not realize how amazing that is until I start looking at other countries. 

Compassion for Others

I was at the dog park yesterday with Marley and Dante.  While hanging out and watching my boys, I was talking to some other dog owners.  There is a women in my community that has put in an application for a Guide dog from GDB.  

I was asking another member of my group if there is a chance that she could be placed with one of the dogs that are currently IFT at the Boring campus.  While talking about this, we brought up the point that she really wants an active dog, as she loves to hike and be outside.

Another dog owner (not a GDB member), said something I thought very callus.  She said..."Why would she want a dog that will go hiking when she could just go on a treadmill?"  

People are people, no matter what their ability is, and to think that just because someone could not see that they would not enjoy the sun on their face, or the sound of birds, or the smell of the outdoors is very insensitive!

I just could not understand where she was coming from, but maybe I am being too harsh.  I love puppy raising, and being involved with Guide Dogs, but the things that are said sometimes makes me wonder just how compassionate and aware people are.

I have even had people get very upset when they learn that Sterling is not a rescue dog, and that Guide Dogs breeds their own dogs.  They ask why would we breed dogs when there are so many in shelters.  I think that it comes down to the fact that with guide dogs, we are asking someone to put their life in the 'paws' of these dogs.  Don't  they deserve to have a dog that is stable and worthy of that trust?  Not that rescue dogs can't make good service dogs, but the success rate of programs that use only rescues is much lower than programs like GDB.

Sorry for the rant, I just wish that people would think about what they say before they say it!

Trip to the Unitas

We went up to the Unita mountains today and went skiing (really mellow slopes!) with the dogs.

Sterling was on a leash attached to my hip belt, and Marley and Hugo got to run, and run, and run some more.  Sterling is a strong little dog for only being 6 months!

Here is Marley running down a slope!

Sterling getting a little lift at the end of the day.

Moving Right Along

Bernstein and Duncan are in phase 8!  Way to go boys!  The rest of our boys (all the pups in our club are male!) are doing well.  Moses will not be going back on the April puppy truck.  So we keep the fab five together a little while longer.

I do not think anyone is getting any pups off of this up-coming truck.

Thats all for now!

More Pictures

This is again from a hike over the summer.  The boys were still smallish, and boy did they have to jump to get over some of those logs!  Dante would just hop his way through.

Really, what can I say?  Big dog, little dog.
Don't worry, we are parked!  Dante just crawled in my lap and fell asleep.  Too cute!
This is from the first summer I had Dante.  We were hanging out before class, and he was so little he couldn't even see in the door!
Hugo loves hanging out on chairs.  He was actually sleeping like this!

Dante loves to sit on top of the computer at work.  He hops up there and then wants to sit on my lap if I am there.  If not, he just hangs out and watches the world.

I was going through my pictures, and came across this picture from the GDB Christmas party.  He was little!  Everyone keeps saying how big he is getting, but it is hard for me to see it when I am with him all of the time!  Little Sterling is growing up.

Pictures!

Here are some to start...blogger is being slow so more will follow, later.

This boy LOVES to hike!  Tom might by working with kids in the outdoors this summer, and he would take Hugo with him.
Dante and Sophie, the day before she went to California and her new home.  I fostered Sophie for 2 months until we could fly her (in cabin) to my aunt in California.  She is now a VERY spoiled pup!  King-size bed she thinks is hers spoiled...
The canine crew, Memorial Day 2007.
Dante exploring on a hike during the summer.
This was last week.  They were both waiting so patiently for dinner!
 

ABC Gum...

Sterling has discovered gum.  

Not just any old kind either...that very special gum that has been pre-chewed!  It is kept in convienent and easy to reach places, just for hardworking doggies on the go!  Wait until your human is eating their lunch, listening in class, or just having a conversation...and yum!  Chew it until the flavor is just right, and then share it with that special someone!  They really like it when you put it in their lap!

Yup, thats right...gum stuck underneath...just about anything.  I really never even thought about it, until the other night in class when Sterling is eating a piece right off the bottom of my chair!  Now I am having to make sure he is in a down, with his head down too!  Silly little puppy.  And he does really like to spit it in my lap.  Yuck.

Two weeks until I have to leave him, and Dante, Marley, and Hugo (and Tom!), for 9 days.  Cancun for spring break, with my family.  It will be fun, and warm (no snow!)  but I will really miss my pups.  Dogs really should just be able to go on vacation too!  Sterling will be a a new puppy sitters (first time sitting for them!), I hope he behaves!

Well, time to study for WFR.  At least last week they covered stuff I already know!  Altitude illness and avalanches are a routine topic at home!

Influenza B and me

It all started with a tickle in the back of my throat Monday night...

I missed all my classes (and a midterm Tuesday).  Had to leave work early Wednesday, didn't go to class or work Thursday...

Friday was Guide Dog Evals.  I said I would work, but needed to leave by 5:40 so I could make it down in time.  One thing led to another, and no one came to cover me, and did not even call to let me know!!!  So I had to stay and close the store, get all the foster pups out the door and all that.  Then I went through SLC and hit rush hour traffic and an accident.  By the time I got to evals (late, oh I wanted to cry) I at least was able to talk to my CFR about Sterling's odd behavior and weird health stuff, but she doesn't think the two are related.  That takes alot of worry off my chest.

Of course, I had not really worked him this week, since getting out of bed cause me to fall down from vertigo issues, and he seemed to forget all his training at first.  But after a bit he calmed down and was just fine.

Tom was out of town this weekend on a hut trip, so I have all 4 dogs with me.  I feel bad for them because I think they are bored as anything, but I just can't be outside.  Right now Hugo is curled up next to my stomach, Marley is at my feet, and Sterling is on his bed, sleeping by my side.  They are such sweet dogs.  Everytime I get into a coughing fit, Hugo picks up one of his toys and brings it over to me!  What a sweetie!

Hopefully this goes away soon, right now I am only talking in a whisper and sucking on cough drops like they are candy.