California Day 1

Well the first day of our trip was very fun!  We did the follow the Instructor Activity with Guide Dogs where you follow guide dogs in training.  We saw three different levels, one who was just starting routes and learning the concepts of curbs, another who was in harness and learning more complex skills, and finally an almost finished dog who was just polishing off what they had learned.  It was very cool to see all these amazing dogs: and do they ever walk fast!!!   I also saw Angel, who was a beginning demo dog for another group, and we saw Sage, another beginning demo dog from the high school raising program.  Our almost finished dog looked just like Sterling, just the female version!  Her name is Fable.

Angel, doing an awesome job!

This was our first demo dog, notice the soft handle.  This is so the instructor can pick it up or drop it while working with the dog and not really effect their movement, just give them a sense of pulling.
Food reward at curbs!  Man they love the curbs!

Our beautiful second dog.  Already stopping at those curbs.

Checking out the intersection.
Praise!
Guiding.
She looks so much like Sterling!

After training we went back to Guide Dogs and picked up our puppies who had been boarding there while we did our activity.  Then it was time to go to the beach.  We went to Stinson beach which was absolutely beautiful.  After some initial hesitation, Sterling starting jumping the waves as hey came in and swimming in the water!  Tired pups and lots of bathes followed our wonderful time at the beach.

What good dogs!

Feeding the dogs at my house can sometimes be quiet the circus. Therefore, I have tried to get everyone into a routine so that dinner can be served with as little chaos and parental screaming as possible. Sometimes the big boys, Marley and Sterling, eat in the garage. Their kennels are out there (don't worry, they still sleep inside!), and as long as they are not latched, they will run over, nose them open, go in, turn around, and sit or lay down. They are so cute when they do this!!

When inside is not too hectic, all the dogs, Missy and Sparky (my mom's two older Dachshunds), Dante, Marley and Sterling will eat inside. It takes two trips to the garage to get every one's food together, and so I usually put Marley and Sterling in down stays. Tonight I did this, and went and gave the small dogs their food, and then set down the big dogs food. The phone rang, and I went to answer it and talked to Tom about this weeks arrangement for dog boarding while I cleaned in the kitchen. I walked back around the corner, and there they were, laying so still and watching me with big eyes. I had forgotten to release them!!!! Sterling even had a little puddle of drool going on from having to be so close to his food. Needless to say I immediately let them eat and gave them LOTS of praise. I just love my dogs.

Backpacking

Summer Fun

Well things have been pretty laid back as of late.  Just hanging out, working, and playing with the dogs!  Sterling got to go on a marathon SLC session with me two weeks ago when I took my car in to get its 60,000 mile service.  We walked to the Trax station and rode it to Gateway mall, where we hung out for 5 hours just reading, playing tug, and trying to grab plastic bottles (the last one being Sterling's thing!).  He was such a great boy through it all!!!  Heeling, being good in the stores, and sleeping while I read.  Later that week I also had to get new tries on my car (way too much money being spent on car stuff this month!), and while I was sitting there reading my book, the women next to me turns and asks, "So are you legally blind, because your eyes don't look weird."  LOL, sometimes I think I just give off a vibe or something.

Two weekends ago Tom took Marley and Hugo up into the Unitas for an 3 day backpacking trip.  While the trip got cut short due to massive amounts of mosquitoes, it was a wonderful success in terms of beautiful pictures and getting the dogs used to carrying their packs with some weight in them.  We still won't put much in until next summer when they are fully developed and done growing, but for now it definitely makes for great entertainment.

This past weekend Sterling, Dante and I spent Saturday at Bark in the Park, a fundraiser for my work.  It was a great success fundraising wise, and the dogs had a fun time!  Dante competed in the Doggie Dash, and was almost as fast as my boss's toy poodle (who has longer legs!).  Sterling was stellar in the musical sit competition, coming in third behind two adult dogs.  We also meet three CCI puppies, and compared the similarities and differences between the two programs.

This week is the kid's camp at work, and I cannot wait for it to be over!  I love the kids, but this does mean 10-12 hour days for me, and Saturday marks the start of my 10 day vacation, which ends with my trip to Fun Day in California.

Funday 2008

Part of my raising group has decided to make the trip out to California for Funday this year. There will be 8 people and 6 dogs. I was wondering if anyone else is going to Funday this year, and if anyone has any suggestions, tips, or stories from previous years.

The pups going are:
Sterling
Shaw
Melrose
Lisbon
Mario
Cosmo

One of our rasiers will also be getting a pup at Funday! It is from the first litter her breeder sired! So the ride back should be pretty entertaining...14 hours in a car with 4 pups, one of them 8 weeks old!

Bark City Updates

No, I haven't moved to the Unitas, been kidnapped by a pack of hungry dogs, or decided to join a commune.   I am alive and well (mostly, but who doesn't have a few problems) and just enjoying summer.

We have gone from freezing temperatures (literally 3in of snow on the ground 10 days ago), to really, really, lets go swim in the creek, hot!  Park Silly Market has started, the flip-flops have come out of the closet, and I finally pulled my ski rack off my car.  I think I am going to get Marley a kiddie swimming poll for the summer, since he has taken to laying flat out on the driveway in the shade very chance he gets.  Dante has finally gotten hot enough to pant (that saying something for a breed the originated in Mexico) and went for his first dip in the creek.

Hugo going for a final run in the snow.

I went up to Oregon for the Guide Dogs for the May graduation.  I went up with my club leader, who went to see her twentieth puppy graduate.  He is part of a very successful litter; out of 5 pups, three have been pulled as breeders, one (Bernstein, my leaders puppy) has graduated, and one is finishing up his formal training.  Their sire, Royal Guide Ralph, was expected to do good things for  Guide Dogs, and it looks like this litter may be the key! 

Bernstein relaxing in harness.

We only went up for a day, leaving Friday night, and coming back Saturday night.  It was a very moving day, with may inspiring moments.  When Bernstein saw his raiser, who he hadn't seen since November, he was so happy it made me cry.  However, after he settled down, it was evident how much he cared for his new person, who is a very kind man from Texas.  He assured my leader that they would have many adventures together, alot of the in Walmart, and she only ever had to call if she wanted to see how Bernstein was doing.  We also got to go on a tour of the campus, but not in the kennels, which I was a little disappointed at.  All in all it was an awesome trip.

One of the new guides going back to the kennels; his new partner had to leave a few days early for an emergency, and they were going to be reunited later that week.

150 dogs eat alot of food.

And of course need alot of bowels to eat that food from.  (I know, I know, everyone takes a picture of the bowels, but, look at it!)

And the best part of these last 5 weeks?  Sterling has stopped hating his puppy coat!!!!  He even wags his tail some of the time, and will go on outings.  He has really started to look to me when he is unsure, and is overcoming many of his previous avoidance issues.  I think he would make a sweet, and cuddly guide for a very lucky person if he keeps this up.  

We had a very fun puppy meeting at the local college, and went walking around the grounds and indoor pool.  It was the last meeting for one of the first time raisers in our group before their dog, Moses, went to San Rafael for formal training. 

There is a picture of this raiser, right before she put her puppy on the truck, that makes me want to cry all over again.  It is also a small preview of what I will be going through when Sterling goes back.  They got other puppy the same day, and said it really helped.  I know I want to raise again, but I don't know if I could be happy with another puppy when Sterling goes back.  I wonder how much harder it is to get back into the routine of a baby....

Here is a link to the story about the dogs going back for formal training.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700232928,00.html

That all my updates for now.

Updates

Well, it is time for some long overdue updates.  

School is over for me, for the summer at least.  Only 1 real semester left, and then I am done with undergrad!  Time to start looking a grad school possibilities. 

I have started working at FOA full time now, and it is so nice to come home after work and not have to worry about homework.  Sterling is slowly and steadily improving.  He wears his vest day and night, only really taking it off so he can relieve himself.  I have not really taken him anywhere lately, and if I do it is usually without even his bandanna.  I am hoping that after a nice and mellow summer, where e only associates his vest with normal doggie life, he will be ready to start going back to school with me.

We have been doing some skiing with the dogs at the resorts up here, as they are all closed.  The dogs love the skinning up part, where we get to where we will ski down.  However, when anyone starts to ski away, Hugo goes nuts!!!  This is partly from his search and rescue training, he always gets excited when we do any scenario work, and a person going away from him means that he needs to go find them!  That means alot of frantic barking!

We went to Colorado this last weekend to go to a party out at one of Tom's friends ranches.  It was awesome!  I even got to shoot my first gun.  We mostly hung out, helped and and did some horseback riding. Marley and Hugo went with us, and loved it!  Marley has even been invited back permanently if we ever needed to find a different home for him.  They both really impressed me out there: even with lots of other dogs, horses, and people around they remained calm, mellow, and under control.  There were over 100 people there, and Marley and Hugo were the dogs that everybody seemed to know or want to ask questions about.

I also went to my first agility trial and dog show, and decided I would love to get into the sport!  Agility or rally looks like so much fun, and seems like it would build a close bond between me and my dogs. (Tom doesn't need to do it with Hugo, this morning the said he loves Hugo as much as me!!!)  

Tom had an arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday, and Hugo has defiantly been the dog that has been there for him.  The devotion displayed whenever Tom and Hugo are together is really incredible.  His recovery time has been amazing! Much more so than anytime I have had surgery; he didn't even have any nausea coming out of the operation.  Lucky.

Our raising group is getting ready to say goodbye to our oldest dog in June.  They will be getting a new puppy the same day, but they are first time raisers and it looks like it will be really hard on them.  The recall date for Sterling's group is already staring to come up.  Some think that since they were Nov truck pups, that they might go back then.  I personally am hoping for April, as I would love to have a well trained pup to go through my last semester with me, and I just love this dog!

My sister is bottle feeding some kittens from my work, and the dogs were really interested at first, but it turn out they just want to lick the kitten formula off of them!  Marley in particular is very patient with them, letting them crawl all over him.  Dante and Hugo try to play with them, and Sterling just looks confused!

Dante, my co-pilot,

is starting to trim down now that summer is here and he can once again be outside.  Man, I love these dogs.

And I just couldn't resist.  We were passing by this car (parked, thank god!) and noticed this little guard dog on top!  How cute.