Updates...

I am done with school!!!! I graduated last weekend, and I walked at both graduations with Millie. My first one was for my College, and she actually walked up on stage with me. She was great almost the entire time, expect I was surprised by there being a working service dog there who she tried to pull to. Otherwise she was just about perfect!

Paris is growing like a weed. She is now 12 weeks and has had her second shots. Only 4 more weeks till she is legal! She did have to go into the vet a week ago for weepy eyes: turns out she has entropy in both eyes and may need corrective surgery. We are waiting to hear from Guide Dogs.

On Thurs Sterling came to stay with my for 10 days while his new Mom is out of town. I really have missed him, and it is so nice to have a fully trained dog around again. Hopefully Millie and Paris can pick up some pointers from him!

Marley and I have finished another basic obedience class (to brush up on skills with other dogs around), and will be starting an intermediate class next week. I am hoping to start doing tracking and/or Rally with him this summer.

Dante is living the good life and enjoying the warm weather.

My computer lost all of its hard drive. Luckily I had backed it up...but that was last June. So I lost all of my pictures from the last 10 months.

I got it fixed and should be posting pictures soon! I have an eval with my CFR on Monday for Millie.

Paris Picture Post

As promised...Paris pictures. Enjoy!

Jackson and Paris...the new Summit Guide Dog pups.

I think this was Journey and Paris

Millie and Paris

Millie, Paris and Jackson...

The two girls at my house.

My computer is still not working...the harddrive is gone!!! Crap!!!

Wait...that is my puppy?!

That was my reaction at the puppy truck yesterday. When I went up to get my M male black lab, I was handed a sweet little yellow girl!!!

I now have..... Paris!

She is an Eric/Blossom puppy and was born 2.20.2009. There is one other sibling being raised in Utah, Peanut a MBL.

She is just barely 8 weeks old and is a cute and fiesty little girl. I have a ton of pictures, but unfortunatly my computer has decided to crash! Hopefully I can get it fixed quickly, as all of my notes and assignments are on there and I only have 10 days left of school!!!

Pictures will follow as soon as I get my computer fixed.

AKC and Mixed breed dogs.

I just found out that the AKC will be letting mixed breed dogs compete in some of their events at the end of this year!  Rally, Agility and Obedience will be open to mixed breed dogs as long as they are fixed.

That means Marley and I can compete!  We have been working very diligently on re-focusing his basic obedience in a wide variety of distracting situations.  Over the summer we will continue to train and hopefully be ready in the fall to show off our new skills!

Here are some pics of Marley enjoying some of the snow we have gotten recently.  Three feet by tomorrow!!!

Moab Mutt

This weekend I went on a climbing trip in Moab.  Millie went with me and enjoyed a weekend of camping (mostly in the rain), playing, learning she can't walk on water, watching people climb/rappel, and just having a good time.

She was really awesome, and kept people commenting on how they wanted a dog trained just like that.  From walking on a loose lead the whole way down a wet slick rock trail, to sleeping quietly by my side in the car, to relaxing as I climbed, she was an awesome girl for this weekend!!!  She wore a safety vest that also kept her from getting too wet as we hiked.

We got to rappel off Corona Arch.  This was such an amazing experience, but sooo scary to go over the first edge.  It was about 45ft after that that you passed under the bridge of the arch, and then nothing for about 100 ft!!!  Millie was hanging out under the arch as the first person came over it, and once they were hanging in thin air she barked!  She recovered quickly, but i do not think she ever expected to see a person dangling in midair.














 We also climbed a couple different routes on "Wall street" off Potash road.  

All in all it was a fun weekend that also gave me a good workout!!!  Thank you Mom, Dad and Grandma for the B-day money....it went toward climbing shoes, and a whole lot of fun!!!

The countdown begins...

Only 16 days left until little "M" boy comes home.  Tom's mom is even going to be here and will get to experience the joy of the puppy truck.  Who knows, maybe she will want to start raising.

I had a very scary encounter today.  I had wrote about a fake service dog back in the fall, but had not had any real run-ins these last couple months.  I did go on the radio and talk about the passing of SB173, which removed emotional support animals from the service animal definition...but that was about it.

Anyways, the story.  I went into one of the local Bagel shops in Park City to study for my microbiology exam tomorrow.  I had Millie with me.  As I walk in and order my food, the employee tells me that this woman is in there, with her dog.  I sigh and shake my head, and find a seat at the opposite end.  I start working on my online exams.  After about 15 min her dog got up, wandered over, caught sight of Millie, and went ballistic.  He started barking very aggressively and lunged towards her.  I jumped up and put my body in between him and Millie.  The manger happened to be there and was able to grab his collar.  He had so much force going at Millie that his front feet were dangling off the ground.  I was yelling for the handler to get her dog, while the manger is telling me the dog is actually really nice (WHAT?!?!).  She finally gets her dog, and I tell her she needs to have the dog on a leash.  She says she knows.  I tell her right now, and ALL the time.  She says she knows.  She goes back to knitting, and the dog goes back to wandering around without a leash, bugging customers who are eating.

At this point I called animal control.  They actually showed up very quickly and started talking to her.  The woman was very unreasonable and did not make sense.  The officer kept saying they had multiple complaints about her dog, and that it was not acting like a service animal.  The woman would say that the dog is a therapy dog, and then say it is a service dog, complain about her rights being isolated, try to say this is ok because she has lived here for 35 years, her husband died, she used to be a school teacher, its her dog's birthday (she really used all these excuses), and so on.  

She then got mad at the officer and said she was going to call the sheriff dept because I was harassing her.  They all show up and the whole show goes outside.  I stayed inside and talked to the store owner, who seemed happy that something was finally being done about this.  

I hope that now she will be charged with a misdemeanor the next time she tries to pass him off as a service dog.  It is illegal in Utah to do what she is doing.

Millie seems to have recovered, but I will be watching her closely the next couple days to make sure she has not sustained any lasting psychological damage.  If so....well in Utah you have to pay for service dogs that loose their training due to an attack by a dog you own.

New puppy!

On April 17th I will be getting a male black lab, from the "M" litter.  There are two out there, but the 2/18/09 Cabby/Elsa? litter is the one I think I am getting.  I will now have 3 "M" dogs in the house: Marley, Millicent, and "M" boy.  Oh, and Milo, the cat.

Our club is also getting a MYL "J".  No idea who his parents are.

Can't wait for this new puppy!!!  I am pretty happy I am getting another black lab: another raiser in my club is raising her first yellow lab after a shepherd and 3 black labs, and she says he sheds like no other!  

How do you handle the hair if you are raising a yellow lab?  Or do they not all shed that bad?  Anyone else find that black labs shed less than the yellows?