Millie and Paris pictures

Tom with Paris at her first puppy meeting.

Playing with big boy Bracken.

Millie and Paris hanging out.

Millie, Paris, and Sterling!  My three pups,

Wait, what is that over there?  It is hard to get a new baby to stay for a picture.

Yes, we made her get off, but I could not resist.  We were just getting back from an outing, and she got so excited to see Marley she jumped right on top of him!

Belated Graduation Post

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves!  It was amazing and I hope to do it again with a masters degree.

Me getting my diploma (actually it is an empty case, they have to mail the diploma later....hmmm, still waiting on that one.)

Walking off stage with Millie.

Being told how to get back to my seat, LOL!

Celebration time.

My lovely sister.

My grandmother and I.

My parents and I.

Tom and I.

Kisses from a very sweet pup!

The end.

Moab again!

Last Thursday evening we left for Moab: it was a weekend full of river rafting and good times!

Miss Millie and baby Paris both went to puppy sitters, as river rafting is a GDB pup no-go. They had a great time, with Millie getting a FANTASTIC report! I am so proud of my little girl, she has come such a long way and has matured into such an amazing dog!

Paris got to experience the great backyard at the home of my leader, and really enjoyed playing with our resident big dog, Bracken. She got a pretty good report, but with a couple of things to work on. She also outgrew her small gentle leader in those 5 days!

Moab was awesome! One of our friends is a professional river guide, and has his own raft set-up. This made for fun and pretty low stress outings through some pretty big rapids. We did three trips down the "daily" section of the Colorado river. This has some fun rapids that are all swimable, spaced out enough that there is not really a concern about downstream consquences if you end up in the water. That is not to say safety is still not a huge priority: someone died the day before we got there because they went down the river in a canoe without a lifejacket on. That was a sobering reminder of the importance of lifejackets for everyone: both person and canine!

Marley sporting his awesome lifejacket!

Marley, Hugo and Sterling strut their jackets.

Hugo watching as Tom jumps into the water below.

Sterling hanging out.

The first day Tom, Andrew and I went down the river in the raft with 4 dogs! Marley, my big boy; Hugo, Tom's dog; Deso, Andrew's rescued black lab; and......Sterling! He has been adopted my friend, and so all the dogs joined us on the boat. The first thing we did when we got to the river was to get the dogs out and get their lifejackets on. Marley and Hugo both have nifty Ruff Wear lifejackets....with the handle on the back it makes for a great dog control device! Now if they would just come with a handle all the time....

We did some cliff jumping where the dogs were very intent on getting us back to shore.

Tom jumping.

Any time we jumped out of the boat, the dogs were in after us, ready to pull us back to shore/boat. Marley was really great, he would swim right to me, let me grab his handle, and then start pulling me back to the boat. It took a little longer for Sterling to figure out that I was NOT the boat: he tried to climb on me the first couple of times.

Sterling watches while Deso pulls Andrew to shore.

Deso was a great swimmer!

Our last day in Moab we went down the West Water section of the Colorado river. This is a huge rapid section where experience is a must! The dogs did not join us as the water is too high and fast this time of year. I was very sad to see another group had a dog with them, and did not even have a lifejacket for their dog. Luckily another group on the river carried a spare and loaned it to them, but we were all very concerned about their ability to make it down the river safely.

We went through the narrowest part of the Colorado, at a rapid named "Skull".

This is the "Room of Doom" a recirculating hole that can be dangerous!

Me having a good time!

Marley having fun!

Sterling and Deso, a new pair!

More updates...!

After much moving around we are now back in our apartment, and I will have full Internet (and a working computer after tomorrow), and I will be back to doing picture posts!

It has been a big couple of weeks for Paris. She was diagnosed with entropy in both eyes (where the eye lid folds in and rubs against the eye itself), and has had surgery to correct it. The surgery was on Tuesday last week, and she has to wear a cone on her head (read "cone of shame" if any has seen UP) until NEXT week. Since the stitches are in a delicate place, she is on leash only walks, can't run around, and can't play with the other dogs. It is driving her (and me) a little crazy!!! She gets to have the stuffed KONG protocol until next week, but she barks, and barks, and then howls her displeasure at being stuck in the crate.

Her eyes already look so much better, and since her final shots are the same week as her stitches coming out, it will be fun to finally start taking her places. She is a really sweet pup, but is one of the more vocal pups I have worked with. But she is eager to learn and very enthusiastic about FIR and GTB!

Millie is coming along very nicely. We had a eval with our CFR a couple of weeks ago, and she did everything very nicely. Loose leash, different surfaces, ignored distractions
: she was great!

Marley and I are now in our 3rd week of dog class, and I am loving the challenge (so is Marley, he comes home exhausted after every class!) Dante continues to love the warm weather, yummy treats, and new toys to play with. He has a very cute Grrrona (fashioned after the Corona bottles) toy that he loves to carry around.

Picture post covering all the pups, graduation, and more in the next couple of days.