The latest Guide Dog Puppy

Change of Plans!

2012-01-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Zuni was taken out of class last week and is being evaluated by the training department..No matter what Zuni decides to do, his 2nd raiser would be happy to keep him or see him working!

Last week we got some really sad news that our very loved Guide, Marina, was retired due to her person passing away froom cancer..She had been working for 14 months and the woman's husband will be keeping her...Marina was raised by myself, 3 co-workers and another friend..She had ALOT of love from all 4 of her homes and 3 of us would have been in line to keep her...Many people know her brother, Marino, who has sired quite a few litters now..

We also got news that our former puppy, Vona, was CCed in phase 8 due to a soft trachea! Vona also had 4 homes and is going to live with her 3rd raiser who adored her..We had a disappointing week I guess, but I personally am very happy for Vona and am confident that Marina will love being a spoiled pet.

We heard that Jethro is on the February recall...Time sure goes fast..I am hopeing to puppysit one of my favorite dogs ever, Vino, before he is also recalled in February, but we will see if it works out...

Nothing is new for Lowell..He's our big, sweet, boy...I bought a very nice, expensive, dog bed from my work for my pet dog a few weeks ago and Lowell has taken up residence in it...He's pretty sure he needs a cushy dog bed at all times..

I have no new photos of our guide dog puppies, but I am getting a 10 week old red lab mix puppy into my rescue that is way too cute..

Updates

2012-01-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting for awhile..been busy starting my own rescue and I have decided not to raise again for GDB..My roommate is still going to raise, but after Lowell returns to campus I will be done.

(A friend's dog, Lowell and CC Claudine)

Lowell is now a year old and just a big, dumb, goofball. He's 75+ pounds of uncoordinated lab. We love him, but he sure is goofy.

Zuni-a starter puppy we had is in class to graduate. Zuni is half sibling to our career change and is the dark red color that I love. Our friend, Ali, raised him most of his time and is so excited for her 2nd dog to graduate....Funny that we will have 6 graduates now, 4 CCs, 1 in phase 8 and 3 still with raisers..

(Tabetha (new mommy for GDB), and Zuni the soon-to-be graduate!)

If only our first graduate would decide to come home-life would be good:) My story about miss Emmy is going to be published in "Dog World" magazine in the next few months and was on the Guide Dog Blog a few weeks ago..She's pretty special!
Kim

Lowe and Vannie

2011-10-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

Lowe dog is almost 10 months now and headed for surgery tomorrow because he has OCD in both shoulders..Poor guy..He has been limping less lately, but we're all looking at 6+ weeks of "resting" him...so that will be interesting!
Luckily, he will get to go to a puppysitter with no other dogs for 2 weeks..Before she gets her 1st puppy-a FYL "C" puppy..

(Lowe and my pet dog, Sidney)

Vannie is going to her new raiser (in our club) on Halloween...The raiser raised Doug's sister, Deanna, and currently has FYL Karma..She loves Vannie already and I think it will work great-she's a spitfire of a puppy!

(Vannie)

I am having puppy fever (like every few months!)..I need a little red or yellow female pup to foster/raise or keep....Decisions..Decisions..

Lowe Dog..

2011-10-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

Lowell got neutered last week--woohoo..We were happy to no longer have the 65 pound intact boy :)...Lowell is 9 months old and 65 pounds of solid pup! He takes after his daddy and is stubborn as any dog I know!

Poor Lowe dog has to have shoulder surgery on both of his shoulders on October 20th..He will be recouperating for a while and spend some time with a new raiser in our club that has no other dogs. We're told her will be just fine to head into training in the spring!

One of my favorite pups in our club became a breeder and was bred to Baker a few weeks ago..We can't wait to see little Tabetha puppies!

Many of the pups in our club have evals this week..Simon has had FOUR litters in the past few months and were told has another breeding date set...I can't wait to see some of them..I would love to get a Simon/Mochi or Simon/Peach puppy, but chances are slim to none since we can't request Simon pups...Hopefully some will come up to Oregon so we can see them!

Short term Puppy #14..

2011-09-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

4 new pups arrived in our club yesterday..We will be helping with "Vannie" (6/24/11 Sarita/Hurley)..She is 10 weeks old tomorrow and we will be helping with her until her 1st time raisers can take her to school. She's a tiny little girl-seemed a little "soft" compared to the other pups, so it will be interesting to see how she progresses..

Vannie's sister, Valkyrie joined our club as her raisers 1st baby puppy, FYL Sapphire (6/25/11 Pomonoa/Marino) came to her 1st time raiser and Golden Girl Ginger (6/30/11 GEDs Mia/Patrick) came to her long time raisers as their 1st golden!

Vancouver, Lennox and Jodianne were the pups on the truck for recall (we think!)..and there were 2 more "V" pups and 2 more "S" pups headed up north..Super Cute!

Fun Day

2011-08-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

Fun Day was a long, long day!! Was really great to spend the day with Tabetha and say goodbye to her and Zuni..Tabetha's off to California tonight for breeder evals..Zuni went in for training today..

We got to see Lowe dog's 2 brothers and a few other Simon pups as well as Vino, Jethro and Vona:)

We still have some cute t-shirts and oval stickers for sale if anyone is interested-email kimberly1488@hotmail.com

The T-shirts are grey or white and say "In the heart of every guide dog beats the heart of a puppyraiser"..

The oval stickers say "I love my guide dog puppy", "I love my career change guide dog puppy" and "Guide Dog puppy raiser"...I will post photos tomorrow...

T-shirts are $15 and stickers are $5!

Foster Pup..

2011-07-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Our foster pup is looking for an AMAZING home and has her own blog
www.hoppylookingforlove.blogspot.com

Lowell, Kelsa and Simon..

2011-07-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Last week we puppysat Kelsa for the week..She is an incredibly sweet 8 month old girl. I very much enjoyed having her hang out for the week. She is a reluctant reliever so was actually a good fit to hang out at home with me:) She's very mellow and all of our dogs liked her-which is rare as my pet dog is a bit of a dog snob!

Lowell had 2 puppysitters last week and seems to have found his inner BRAT while away..He's been VERY demanding of attention and wanting to annoy the other dogs since he came home..Maybe he missed them!?

Lowe went to graduation yesterday and continues to be scared of clapping..Such a laid back, goofy guy-we apparently need to clap more..

I've been thinking alot lately that I really want another CC Simon puppy..We don't have many Simon pups in our area, but if anyone knows one in need of a home-I'm interested!..Unlikely scenario, but one can hope!

Yesterday I took Claudi to help me work an event for Oregon Dog Rescue..She won the costume contest wearing a vikings t-shirt and purple tu-tu..Alot of people commented on how calm and good she was-she's a pretty good ambassador for GDB :)

House of Dogs

2011-07-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a break from fostering and dogsitting and had Guide dog puppy, Lugano, come stay with us! He is Lowell's brother and Claudi's half brother (simon pup).

Claudine, Lowell, Lugano

Lugano is TALLER than Lowe! We thought Lowe was big at 50 pounds (they are 6 months old)! They have alot of similar traits and really love to play!!

Lowe is such a great boy-he is very mellow, very clumsy and loves attention. He's certainly not the brightest puppy, but we got used to our big, dumb, boy after Doug Dog:)

Simon Puppies!

2011-06-03T17:10:00.001-07:00

3 new litters of Simon pups have gone out in the past few weeks and are going out..We would love any photos of his puppies...Simon/Dolly, Simon/Jakarta and Simon/Leslie!..We love our Simon and his puppies...His son, Lowell, is very much like his BIG daddy:-)

Simon at 6 months old!

Lowell at 5 months old!
you can e-mail me photos kimlexidog@hotmail.com

Photos..

2011-05-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

Zuni-one of our starter pups-is staying with us for a while...Lowe and Claudi have the same dad...Zuni and Claudi have the same mom..It's a pretty cute family photo.

I got an email today from DOUGs new person...Doug looks so happy and has a little boy and a retired guide he is living with..I am so happy that all 3 of my pups that are working have very happy homes AND live with other dogs-I can't imagine them not having dog friends since they had so many with us!

cuteness

2011-05-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

t-shirts and more for sale..

2011-05-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.cafepress.com/EchoDog

i created a new store on Cafe Press with some Guide dog stuff..:-)

Goodbye and We love you Doug Dog!

2011-05-01T18:30:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday we went out to campus to say goodbye to Doug..He is leaving tomorrow to do his in home training with his new partner in Idaho..

Doug was very happy to see us and looked just the same-except a little fatter-as he did almost 7 months ago when we dropped him off. He still had the same confused and worried look on his face, and wagged his tail non-stop.

We can't wait to hear from his new partner and hope that he/she loves him as much as we do. He has been in foster care his entire time he has been in training, so no doubt his foster family will be missing him too-he's just a wonderful dog.

Some photos from our goodbye..

I love this puppy.

2011-04-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

"Lowe" is just the cutest puppy! He's extremely mellow, hops when he tries to run, puts himself on tie-down even when he's not on one, is good with my other dogs and has THE best wiggle ever..Our entire house (3 people, 4 other dogs) just love him!..We are SO happy that we were able to get another Simon puppy.

Simon has been a BUSY boy lately..He had 3 litters born in March and 1 due in May! We're very happy that he is still being bred and has some big litters going into homes soon..If it weren't for potty training I would want 10 more Simon pups!

Lowe is our 5th Simon puppy..Emmy was the best puppy ever and became an amazing working guide..Claudine was a very strange puppy-very aloof and on her own schedule-Claudi was CCed for IBS and came home to live with us..Ogden was a big goofball we started-he also became a guide..Natara was a wild child and was CCed because of it and lives with a friend of ours...Lowe had some bigs shoes to fill, but he has won us all over and I know he will be a great guide, breeder or come live with us and be spoiled like his sister!

Our house now has 2 pet labs that are full sisters from different litters and 2 half siblings in Claudi and Lowe...It's just perfect!

Sidney & moxie Lowe & Claudine

Lowell..Claudi (CC).

2011-04-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Today was labrador playday at our work..We have breed specific playdays every Saturday and have "lab day" every 2-3 months since the labs come out in dozens! Today was probably our slowest playday to date with around 25 labs/lab mixes..

We invite all the CCs in the area as well and have so much fun/keep so busy watching them play..Our CC Claudine loves playday as well as our co-worker's CC, Riley..(they think they are king/queen of the playday)..

Here are some photos of Claudine and Riley..I think 5 other CCs were there today as well (Bonnie, Cooper, Lucy, Bordeaux, Mort).

Riley

Claudine

We carried Lowell through the room to let some friends see him-all 26 pounds of him..He's getting too big for me to carry-it's so sad!

Doug isn't coming home..

2011-03-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

We were told today that Doug Dog is training to be a wheelchair guide and will be graduating in May. He will be going to Idaho for in home training.

We had heard rumor of him being trained as a wheelchair guide and I was fearing the in-home training..I really wanted to meet his person-it makes it much easier to not have them come home..Marina was in-home trained also..Good thing Emmy wasn't!

I can't wait to go see Doug-atleast we get to go say goodbye in a few weeks..

Lowell is great. He is alot like Doug--super easy going and low energy. I really like him. Vona came for a visit last night--she is still the same tornado of a pup..She never sits still that one!..

I ordered doug some toys and a photo album for his person..I hope we can be in contact with him/her.. Kim

Doug Dog..

2011-03-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Doug is in phase 8 today...After being gone 5.5 months...Nothing is even near certain for his future, but I'm sad..I love the Dougie Dog and was convinced he would come home..His dog sisters and I miss the goofball!!...More waiting...

lowell...

2011-03-13T19:58:00.001-07:00

Puppy Cuteness

Lowell and his half sister Claudine

Puppy!

2011-03-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well, just as I decided to take a break from Guide Dogs and Bethany is getting attached to Jethro...we got a call yesterday that a SIMON puppy is available and will be here TOMORROW!..We have been wanting another Simon puppy for the past 8 pups!! Bethany raised Simon-I moved in with her when he ws 6 months old-we then raised his daughters Emmy, Claudine and Natara and started his son Ogden..We also got to co-raise his granddaughter Marina for a while..We love our big Simon boy and are sooo excited to get our MYL tomorrow!!

Sadly, Jethro will be getting transferred asap...He's a really nice puppy, but we couldn't resist....

dogs

2011-03-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

Doug is still in foster care-hanging out in phase 3-he has been gone almost 5 months now..We really miss him ;-(

Jethro is growing up and loving people, dogs, toys-pretty much everything!

I have started another blog for my pet dog http://www.sidneyroo.blogspot.com/

What's new...

2011-02-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Doug dog is still in phase 3..He has been gone for over 4 months now and we really miss him..We hope they can decide something for him soon..

Jethro is fitting in well. He has been here a few weeks and is a pretty mellow little dude..He's doing good with our dogs and just kinda hangs out-he reminds us alot of Doug-Kinda dopey and silly.

Next week we get to watch Vino again-he is such a great puppy!..The new girls in the club seem to be doing well also (Karma/Kashi).

CC Claudine is at the beach with me for a few days..She's loving running free on the sand.

SDV 0010

2011-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

WAITING...not my strong suit..

2011-01-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

In October we sent Doug off to formal training..At that time we thought a transfer may be the best fit for our 3 dog house..We recieved 4 month old FYL "Vona".. Vona is a very sweet and spirited girl who thought the other dogs were there for her enjoyment! The girls weren't so sure about her and after a trial period we decided Vona may do best as an only dog. She is good with other dogs, we just think she may be able to concentrate and advance further with some one-on-one attention. Last week we transferred her to a single man who is a 1st time raiser in our club! (miss you doug dog)

As we were deciding what to do with miss Vona, we got 2 new puppies in our club-FBL "Bonnie" and MYL "Vino".I am head over heels for mister Vino! He is a calm, cuddly and adorable guy who luckily for me has a very busy raiser so I get to have Vino over often!
(Vino)

So, after Doug being the easiest dog we have ever had and Vino being my new love we decided to request a MYL starter puppy..We were assigned a MYL "L" puppy and we were super excited.

A few days later we heard about the parvo outbreak on campus and learned that we likely would not be getting our "L" boy..As of now the plan is to get a "MYL" starter pup on Jan 29th when they are released from the Oregon Campus..We don't have any details, but I'm anxious to meet him.

On Dec 30th Finesse/Simon had 8 yellow pups (6 boys/2 girls)..We hope that they will all stay healthy and go out to raiser homes in March. We desperately want to raise another Simon puppy, but only time will tell!! (last time we saw Simon-summer 2009)

Doug is still hanging out in phase 3..We wait for news on the doogie dog all the time, but having Vino around helps as he is very similar to Doug!

My pet dog, Sidney, earned one leg toward her CD a few months back, so we have her entered in a competition next month to hopefully complete her CD. She lives to train and we have so much fun training her!

(Sid learning to jump through a tire..CC Claudine waiting for Sidney to do the trick so she can get a treat too!)

Dinah, puppies and waiting..

2010-11-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Our starter female black lab, Dinah, (Bosworth/Gail) is set to graduate Dec 4th at the Oregon Campus..This makes 3 graduations in 3 months-we can't believe how well everyone in our club has been doing lately!!

Doug dog in in phase 2..We miss him very much..His sister, Deanna, joined him on campus this month, but is on breeder eval..We also had Dax (Bruna/Atrus) return for training this month from our club.

Our club will be getting 2 puppies on Dec 11th-a FBL (dylan/courtney) "B" girl and a MYLGX "V" boy..We can't wait to meet them!

We heard yesterday that Finese (the female Simon was bred to) is having 6-8 pups and due on 12/29..We CANNOT WAIT to hear when these pups are born..We are just sooo wanting another yellow Simon pup!!

Vona is settling in with us..She is an extremely bouncy, wiggly girl with a little stubborn side to her-she is learning the rules of our multi-dog household and is wonderful on outings. She is off to a puppysitter today who raised her 1/2 sister.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy puppies

2010-11-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

I finally got a photo taken of Vona--she is quite the energetic girl so photos ops are few and far between!!

She is a sweet girl who is trying to adjust to a busy house with 3 other dogs. She is a cute little 26 pounds and LOVES to chew on her bones.

On Saturday I got a new temporary foster puppy--a 6 yr old boy is getting a "wish" from Make-A-Wish and his wish....a female yellow lab puppy...the only issue is the family can't take her for a few weeks...The Humane Society that i volunteer for just got a litter of 8 wk old yellow lab puppies in, so I volunteered to take her for a little while...(Our house is set up so I can have occasional foster puppies in one side and GDB pups in the other part of the house)..Little foster puppy is a CRAZY, screaming, energizer bunny! Sadly, she may not work out for the little boy-we are evaluating her tomorrow..

All these crazy yellow lab girls...it's a good thing they are cute :-)

Missing Doug, Welcome Vona...Waiting for Simon..

2010-11-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

Doug has been on campus for exactly a month now and he is still waiting in phase 0...Not unexpected since he went in on an eval then got put into a string, but a little movement would be nice...I miss that goofy guy and so do my dogs..

Last Monday we got a new transfer-5 month old FYL Vona--she is a David/Zante pup and a petite 26 pounds..We only had her for one evening though before we had to send her to a puppysitter due to our house being full of dogsitting dogs..We are looking forward to getting her back tomorrow and getting to know her..

A few weeks ago we heard that Simon was bred to Finesse..We can not wait to hear any news on this..We REALLY want another Simon puppy..We have raised Simon, 4 of his puppies and co-raised a grand puppy..He is an awesome dog and we really really want another FYL Simon girl!

2 pups in our club are leaving next week for training, Dax & Doug's sister, Deanna...We hope to get a few December puppies in the club so we aren't missing all of our dogs!

Saying goodbye to 3 puppies in one day...

2010-10-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today was an emotional day as a puppy raiser..On one hand we got to see one of our puppies (Tandy) graduate and meet her amazing new partner-everything we could have hoped for..

On the other hand we said goodbye to a puppy (Marina) that we shared the raising duties with along with 3 other awesome girls and I think I can safely say 3 of the 5 of us considered running away to Canada with this puppy..Saying goodbye to her as she heads off to in-home training was pretty disappointing, but she looked gorgeous and we can't wait to hear about her new partner..

Finally-yesterday we found out that our boy, Doug, would be headed back to campus today instead of next week. He is back on campus for his ongoing diarhea issues..We were very sad to leave him all alone in a kennel, but we hope he will enter into training or get career changed soon so he isn't alone in a kennel for long..

Doug at 10 weeks..
Doug at 14 months..We still come home home to 3 of our own pet dogs and a foster puppy, yet, we miss our Doogie Dog..The easiest dog we have ever raised--I have had a part in 10 puppies, Bethany 20 puppies and we both can't believe what an incredibly easy dog Doug was to live with for the past 13 months..

Our transfer pup should come in about a month..

Busy Month!!

2010-10-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

We were told in the last few weeks that 2 puppies we helped raise are graduating this month!! Marina is leaving for in home training late next week and Tandy is graduating next Saturday in Boring!

Marina

We're very excited about both girls making it and will get to say goodbye to Marina before Tandys graduation!

Tandy

Doug Dog is leaving us on October 15th as he is ready to go in for training! We are going to miss him SO much-he really is the perfect dog. Whatever he decides to do, we know that someone is going to be very lucky to have him. Our dogs are going to miss him too..

It sounds like we may get a 4 month YLF transfer in November..Right now I am fostering a 12 week old YLF that was brought into our humane society and is an extremely high energy girl-extremely dog distracted and very very mouthy..Luckily she is only here for a week!

Will post photos of our graduates after next weekend!!

Updates on our pups..

2010-08-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

Doug is doing good...he's the easiest puppy ever!! We have a tenative recall date for October 15th & he is ready! (Along with his sister Deanna)..

Our starter puppy, Dinah, is headed in for training next week & we are looking forward to having 3 puppies in training at the same time!

Miss Marina is moving along in training, currently in Phase 5, while Tandy has spent the last month waiting in Phase 8!

Zuni has been spending most of his time with his co-raiser, Ali, and will be heading to Corvallis with her next month when she goes back to college! He is a gorgeous 4-month old who is confident and spunky!

As of right now our plan is to be puppy-less once Doug leaves! We plan to help with some eval dogs or foster while we wait for SIMON to have another yellow lab female for us to raise ;-)

Guide Dog Girls...turning into Guide Dog Boys...

2010-07-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

So our last two guide dog puppies have been...BOYS..a very strange change in our household!! Doug (or dougie dog) is such a great puppy-aside from his ongoing diarrhea..He is sweet, calm, perfect on outings and great to live with..Doug is currently on campus for a medical eval, but he should be coming home next week..

A few weeks ago we got MYL "Zuni"--he is a Tiburon/Alanis puppy which was very exciting since our CC, Claudine, is an Alanis pup...Mr Z man is a little wild man..He is full of spunk and loves to play with all of the dogs in our house..Zuni is a gorgeous 'Tiburon" red and will no doubt be a beautiful, stocky, boy. (Moxie & Zuni)

CC Claudine and pet dogs Sidney & Moxie aren't too sure what to think of Zuni yet, but he is being co-raised by club member, Ali, so he can be an only dog at her house:-)

One of our old pups, Marina, is going in for recall this week..Marina is an extremely sweet and soft girl who loves her raisers (all 5 of us!) and has many people that will miss her..

~ MARINA~

Oh and Tandy is in Phase 5!!

Doug Dog!

2010-05-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

A typical night at our house..

Doug is 10 months old now and such a good boy! I really haven't posted anything lately because he is just so easy and good that there hasn't been much to say!!

He is at a puppysitter this week while I watch 4 month old Spreckles (Tiburon/Raffle) and Bethany has our old starter pup Dinah! Both are really nice, fairly soft girls..

We are getting a MYL starter puppy in June-he will probably stay for 6-8 weeks and then be transferred to another raiser in our club..I am getting anxious to find out litter details!

Here are some recent photos of the Dougie Dog!

Update..

2010-03-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

There hasn't been much new in the guide dog world for us, so I have not been staying on top of our blog! We always have a million things going on with dogs, but not really the guide dogs!!

Doug is off on a 3 week puppysit as Bethany just got her new pet puppy, Moxie, an 8 week old yellow lab who is the sister to my dog, Sidney! I have also been fostering three-5 week old lab mix puppies so we have had our hands full of puppies!!

Moxie!!

Doug is a wonderful puppy-we are enjoying him very much and hope he will continue to progress until he returns for recall. Thursday I will be getting Marina for a 9 day puppy-sit! I am very excited to see her & see how she is doing!!

Some of our friends picked up Hominy, FYL, yesterday-she is a Meredith puppy-Meredith is Claudi's half sister (a Simon puppy) so we are excited to meet her as we love all of our Simon related pups!

This is our last remaining foster boy...such a cutie!! :-)

It's been a while..

2010-01-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

We haven't been very good at updates lately!! It seems like a lot has been going on though! Let's see..We found out that Simon has been bred 3 times recently..Yay for more Simon puppies!!..

We received "Dax" a MYL in our club at the beginning of January-he is a Bruna/Atrus puppy..Bruna was raised in our former club in Salem & Atrus is the 1/2 brother to our Emmy, so we were very excited to meet Dax, and boy is he cuuute!!

Sadly, Bethany's 11 year old golden retreiver, Fizz, passed away last week so our house feels a little empty with 1 less dog..Strangely enough, we have been planning to get a new puppy from my pet dogs parents and she was born the same day Fizz left us..So, in 6 weeks little fox red female yellow lab will be joining our pack..

(one of the dark ones is ours!)

Today we transferred little miss Marina to her new raiser, Kristy, in Salem..Marina is an amazing puppy who really needs some 1-on-1 attention and Kristy is really looking forward to spoiling our girl..We are really happy she will only be 45 minutes away and we will still be able to see her..

Little Dougie dog is doing really well. He is growing fast and is such a nice dog. He fits in well in our house & is a calm, sweet, big, boy that we love!

Ogden's Graduation and an Update (by Bethany)

2009-12-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, so along time in coming but Ogden's graduation was fantastic. He remembered us immediately, no pause at all and was in my roommate's lap saying hi to her and trying to get to me. What was interesting was that we had him his first two months and then I had seen him once at a year and he actually got a little more excited to see my roommate and I than he did his finishing raisers. I am guessing maybe because they were more familiar and he had not seen us in awhile? He also sniffed my pants all over and got excited, remembering his doggie roommates I'm sure.

He was a little goofy at times but as soon as his harness came in he was very serious. His new partner is named Michelle and she loved him and said he was the best dog in the class. It makes me feel so good to hear her say that! He was the biggest dog in class, taking after his dad, Simon, but was super easy to control which was really nice.

I loved getting to walk him out onto stage and to see him so happy to see all of his people. Michelle was sweet and wonderful and I know they will do fantastic together.

As for the rest of the pack at home.... Doug is doing great but as soon as we tried to get him off his bland food his diarrhea returned full force. So there is a new course of action on that. Other than that he is doing well, loving going out in public, loving people, and having an adorable wiggle. His head is huge, he is quite a cutey, and I am sure he will get comments on that for a long time to come. He had a photo shoot a few days ago so here are some pics. It's so odd how different their coloring shows up inside versus outside. His ears are kind of silly looking as you can see in a couple of the pictures:)

Marina is off to her co-raiser today. She is a college student and will take her for all of her Christmas Break. We are not sure what is in her future because she has lots of small things to work on that may require more one-on-one from a raiser. However, she has enjoyed going on small outings this past week (she was on "house arrest" for a couple months to help work on her confidence) and is getting better and better at her house behaviors.

Oh and we had Tandy last week for two nights and she was SO excited to be home again!

That's it for now.

Bethany

5 Days to Graduation (by Bethany)

2009-11-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

It is getting so close! Ogden will be going to live with a woman in Indiana. We are working on his picture book and can't wait to see him again!

Meanwhile, our boy Doug is getting huge and Marina is adjusting to our household. Tandy has been going to middle school (she is a math student) for a few weeks now and is doing great.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!! Here is a picture of Doug. He has had some diarrhea issue so he has been hanging in the ex-pen some:(

News from Emmy Girl..

2009-11-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

We got a phone call from Emmy last night!! Well, from Tim, Emmy's person! It is always very exciting to hear from them & know that she is so loved. They recently had their 2 year visit from Guide Dogs and it went well-they will have been together 2 years in December. I'm pretty sure it was just yesterday though..

It sounds like Emmy encounters alot of random dogs where they live and has gotten pretty protective of Tim, which I have a hard time visualizing, but I just want them to be safe! She is still working well and Tim sounded good.

Tim mentioned to Bethany that he plans to keep his promise and return Emmy to us when she can no longer guide..While this is what I have been waiting for every single day since she was recalled 2.5 years ago, if the day comes I will be heartbroken for Tim & Emmy to be apart..We will just hope for that time to be many years from now..

I miss my little monkey,but it makes me feel better to know how much Tim loves her..Take care of our girl if you are reading Tim!!

Kim

Ogden is In Class!!!

2009-11-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

So we finally got the call, Ogden is in class! He has been in training since June and in Phase 10 for 8 weeks now. But so have a lot of other dogs out there so we were not sure when a match would be found....

Last time we saw Ogden he was still all legs so I am curious if he will have filled out into his tall body and big head. However, as much as I wanted him to, he does not look much like his dad, Simon, who we raised. He has the height and the big head but not much other than that.

We only started Ogden so we only had him his first 2+ months and then he was transferred to a raiser family who needed an easy to handle puppy because the husband is in a wheelchair. Ogden was that and when he was not at home with the husband he went to work in a hospital office. I had the pleasure of keeping in touch with his new raiser family, getting occasional pictures, and getting to see Ogden at a Leaders Day when their leader kindly brought him up for me to see. That really helped put closure on his raising time as did getting to see him get off the puppy truck at the Boring campus because we were waiting for Marina to arrive to her first raisers.

Ya Ogyden!!!

All the puppies I've lived with..

2009-11-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Reading all of the posts on the guide dog yahoo group (and being home sick) made me think about all of the dogs I have lived with in my 5 years of raising guide dog puppies..Also, after Dougie & Marina Bethany & I are going to take a break for a while and focus on our pet dogs obedience "careers" & pupysit for a while!

Simon was the 1st puppy I lived with..Oh Simon-the big lug-aka big stud as we now like to refer to him as! He was one challenging pup as he got close to recall-only because of his hormomes and size-but we loved that dog and have loved seeing so much of him in *most* of his puppies that we have raised..

Simon

#1..Autumn (FYL)- was the 1st puppy I had a real part in-she was transferred to Bethany & I before being career changed for cataracts.

#2..Emmy (FYL)-the love of my life..Emmy was our 1st Simon puppy, MY 1st guide dog puppy to have from start to finish, my "heart" dog, and both Bethany & I's 1st graduate--of course..

#3..Claudine (FYL)-the polar opposite of sweet, cuddly, 1/2 sister Emmy..Claudi was career changed just before recall for IBS & there was no doubt that Claudi was one of those "only a mother could love" kind of dogs that Bethany & I could never part with! She has turned into the best pet dog ever!

#4..Quebec (FYL)-The sweetest puppy, maybe I had my perfect little Emmy again!? Quebec was CCed at 4 months old for an autoimmune disorder and placed by GDB due to it being in her best interest to not be around multiple dogs..

#5..Dinah (FBL)-My 1st black lab! Dinah was a starter pup that we only had for 3 weeks before a new family in our club was ready for her, but boy is she a sweetheart!! We love our little Dinah and would have been tempted to keep her if the new raisers weren't so excited!

#6..Doug (MYL)-Back to yellow, but a BOY! What was I thinking!? Dougie is about as cute as they come-but DOUG!? What a name..Doug is a starter puppy so we will see how it goes with Mr. dougie dog!

#7..Marina (FYL)-A female yellow lab and niece to Claudine! Marina is a chenille puppy-Claudine's sister and a puppy I have been wanting since she arrived in July to another club member. Marina is a very timid pup that needs some confidence building, so hopefully we can help her get some self confidence before next summer!

Other pups that have lived in our house that Bethany has raised along the way..

Autumn (audi) (Carreer Changed and living with a former co-worker)

Elke ( A working Guide)

Ogden (Phase 10!)

Natara (career changed & living a very spoiled life with family of a co-worker!)

Tandy (just transferred to a great new rasier family)

And many more that have been short timers as eval dogs and puppysitees! :-)

And just for fun..The Day after the love of my life graduated, I went and bought a puppy..A dark yellow female lab-6 weeks old...She turned out to be a fox red lab that is the smartest dog I have ever met that entertains everyone everyday..Miss Sidney hopes she gets to meet Emmy someday :-)

Picture Post and Tandy goodbye (by Bethany)

2009-11-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

Ok so to start here are some pictures from the recent Pumpkin Patch outing. For multiple reasons only two puppies, Tandy, and Doug's sister, Deanna were able to make it. But they were quite happy with all the attention to themselves. Here they are at the "fake" Pumpkin Patch. Deanna liked the pumpkin tops so we had to work to get a shot of her without her mouth on the pumpkin:)

Little Deanna...

Tandy and I...

This picture is from a walk Tandy and I took this week to work on distractions and to get some good pictures of her before she leaves for her new raiser tomorrow:(

And this is Doogie!!! (Doug) on our drive home after graduation on Saturday. He was gone 8 days for his vet eval but is back and is doing great. He got a lot taller while he was gone!

And below is a picture of Logger who we met at graduation. He is in Phase 10 of training and is a Simon puppy. Not only is he a Simon puppy but he is pretty much Simon's clone!!! It was one of those, WOW moments to see Logger. It was like going back 5 years to Simon.

And below are picture of Marina. The first is a recent one of her at a hockey game and the second is one of Kim and I holding her right after she arrived to her raisers last summer. She will be coming to us tomorrow as Tandy moves on. It will be bittersweet....

And because I am feeling sentimental about letting Puppy #16 go here is a list of what I love about Tandy.

1) Her spotted ears.

2) The way she always checks with me when someone else tells her to do something.

3) Watching her play with the Jolly Ball.

4) How great she is in her crate at work.

5) How she walks on a loose leash and you almost feel like you are not walking a dog.

6) How much she loves dog beds.

7) How much she loves kids.

8) How she notices everything in a way that always reminds me of a kid seeing something for the first time.

9) How she always looks sad but I can tell when she is happy.

10) Her good people greetings.

11) How hard it is for her to know what I want from her sometimes but how she will repeat the same thing over and over again if she thinks that is what I want.

12) That she is gangly looking and I will never get her confused with any of my other puppies.

13) That she loves me.

I know I am making a good decision for her in the home she is going to and that she will LOVE it there. Sometimes I just wish I remembered before I said yes to taking a new puppy that no matter what age it is always so painful to say goodbye.

Bethany

Marina's pretty face...

2009-10-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

Less than a week!

2009-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have not posted much lately..I think we have been too busy with dogs!! Alot is going on though!

Dougie dog is almost 4 months old and continuing to have nasty poo in and out of his crate almost daily..Last Friday he went to GDB for some health evaluations..We think he will stay on campus until this Friday-and we have to say we couldn't be happier about that! My house can't take any more nasty pooping in the house! Poor guy-he finally decided he IS a lab and will eat his dog food and now it is just going right through him :-(..Other than that he is a sweet little puppy who fits in pretty nicely in our house and seems to like he will love going on outings!,p>

Tandy is continuing to work through her "teenage" months and bring us a new challenge every week, but is a very sweet girl. Next week she is being transferred to a new raiser family in our club as their 1st puppy. She will get to go to school everyday with the mom in the family & live with 2 teenage boys. We think she will be really happy to be a spoiled only dog in her new raisers home.

(Tandy-Andy)
Sooooo..just when you think we will go back down to one PIT...my favorite PIT and little "mini-emmy" MARINA is being transferred to me NEXT MONDAY!!! I am soo happy! Marina's co-raiser went to college and cannot have her in the dorms, so I get to finish raising my dream puppy! Marina is currently having some confidence issues on outings, so we will have to take baby steps on outings, but I am confident that we are going to LOVE being together the next few months. I just adore her!! She has the best wiggle ever and my pet dog loves her as well. Only 6 days until we get our "Arina"!!
I think that is all for today!!

Ogden is still in phase TEN! Bethany is waiting..waiting..waiting..

Ogden Update

2009-10-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ogden is in Phase 10 for the second week in a row!!! We are hoping for "the call" sometime soon:)

This is a picture I got of him after his ride from his finishing raisers in southern OR and upon his arrival to campus. I tried to stay really quiet so he would not get confused when he heard me but I swear he turned and looked for me when I was talking!!!

Tandy has been at lots of puppysitters lately because we took in a puppy named, "Trini" to evaluate for 2 weeks. Tandy is growing up and since her spay has been SO sweet, I've heard this can happen after a spay but all of my past puppies that have been spayed have not changed a bit.

Tandy at Fun Day:

Doug is doing much better. He still whines but doesn't cry and he is just adorable. He is not much of an eater so we are trying to convince him Labs really DO love to eat!!!

More pictures of him to come soon.

Bethany

All about Dougie..

2009-09-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

Just a few photos of Doug (Dougie as we call him)...
He sure is a cute little guy! :)

DOUG..

2009-09-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well, our latest starter puppy arrived on Thursday and well, let's just say our eardrums will never be the same again!! Doug (Parkay/Bingham) is a cute little yellow boy with a set of lungs on him like none we have ever had!!

He has a very fun personality and is really cute! We are looking forward to working with him over the next month or so and seeing how he progresses & then will hopefully transfer him to someone in our new club!

Our girls (especially my pet dog) aren't quite sure what we have brought home, but in a few days we should all settle in..Too bad Doug has zero interest in food and therefore stuffed kongs do nothing for him! :-)

Good thing he is cute!!

Ogden and Meredith

2009-09-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

I'm on my laptop so no pictures in this post but we have some Simon puppy updates!

Ogden (who I started) is in Phase 8 of training for the second week!!! I'm so proud of him and so hope he becomes a guide (that is if he wants to of course).

And Meredith, a Simon/Cagney puppy raised by a good friend of ours and puppysat by us a few times, is officially.... a BREEDER!!!

We want to start one of her puppies if possible! Meredith is a gorgeous and big (65 lbs) female black Lab.

I have also heard that Fame (Simon/Loma), a cross of Simon's, is on breeder eval. And his brother, Furley, who we babysat a few days after his arrival for 5 days, is in class. He is going to be a fantastic guide dog.

Simon now has multiple daughters that are breeders. They include Chenille (Simon/Alanis), who is Claudi's sister and often mentioned Marina's mom, Rose (Simon/Hibiscus), Meredith, and possibly Fame.

And on other news, Tandy Andy is doing better and better. She was having some diarrhea and relieving issues in the house but the switch of foods and a course of antibiotics seems to have helped this.

Claudi however is fighting ongoing IBS issues. She usually has at least 2 days per week of having issues. We are considering a specialist. Has anyone ever seen a specialist for something like this?

Bethany

Photos..

2009-09-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureleaders2009/

I posted some photos of all of our girls on flickr..:)

Puppy News...

2009-08-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

So the puppy will be from the Parkay/Bingham litter and his name will start with a "D"!...His sister little miss black lab will also be joining our club in just 11 days!!

We were kind-of hopeful that we would get a puppy from the Alanis or Kentucky litter so that we could have a half sibling to Claudi or Marina, but atleast the puppy will be related to Dinah :-)

Male Yellow Lab..

2009-08-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

So I decided to get a MALE yellow lab next month..as a starter pup..See, I was fostering this ADORABLE chocolate boy puppy last week & decided I wanted to try a boy starter :-) Bethany had Ogden who is in Phase 8 right now, but he didn't have a big enough personality to fit in with our all girl household so we will see how the next MYL does..

Now, if only we could get litter details!!! I have some picked out that I would really like him to be from, but for now we WAIT...I am so impatient! We also have a 1st time raiser in our club getting a puppy and she can barely stand the waiting!

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of my foster pup who went to his new home today!!..Tandy will be happy that she can come home now :-)

Fun Day..

2009-08-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

We had quite the group at Fun Day yesterday..We took Dinah, Tandy, CC Claudine & met up with the girls in our club Jill & Ali who are raising my "Mini-Emmy", Marina!

We also have 1 pup IFT (Ogden), and many, many Simon pups we wanted to get a glimpse of so we had many things to keep us busy..It was very cool to be able to take Claudi with us to Fun Day..She was on her best behaviour as a CC dog and wore her red bandanna proudly (although it really didn't match her PINK hawaiian collar I got her!).

I was really excited to meet Marina's siblings & Bethany wanted to see Tandy's so we did that (see photos of course!)..We also gave Dinah to her new raisers..They have raised 1 puppy before, but are new to our NEW club & have not raised in a few years so are very excited to be getting Dinah..I hope they like her-she seems like a very nice puppy.

(Marina's)

(Tandys')
All of our dogs were very, very good for the long, busy, day! The day ended with us seeing Emmy's half brother (atrus's) puppies being delivered on stage. I was extremely jealous of the people who got Marley--not for his name--but he is related to EMMY--AND DARK in color--that for those of you that know me is what I wait for in every puppy we get! I am waiting for my dark red GDB pup. I have my dark red pet dog, now I want a dark GDB dog!!*sigh*...Notice in the photos..Tandy is the lightest in her littermate photos....:-)

On our way out Tandy & Claudi posed on the Puppy Truck that neither of them have even been on! All of our pups have either flown or driven in the past 5 years so we thought we might as well pretend to have a "puppy truck" photo! :-)

Housefull of Puppies!

2009-08-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

When is our house not busy? This week was no exception! Tandy has been gone camping with a puppy raiser from our old club..Dinah went on 2 puppysits...we had Marina for a few nights..Claudi got invited to come to Fun Day as a Career Change Ambassador Dog & I have requested a September starter puppy!...

Tandy will be back home on Friday..Dinah will be going to her new raisers on Saturday. We had hoped to have her for longer, but the new raisers in our club are really looking forward to having a puppy, so..Luckily, we will still get to see her alot.

Marina (Claudi's niece) is turning into a mini EMMY (my PERFECT dog!)..She has the cutest wiggle & is just the best little dog! She follows me all around the house with her toys & just reminds me so much of Em..I wish every puppy could have Marina's personality..I have a feeling Marina is going to be an amazing Guide. I can't wait to meet her siblings this weekend at Fun Day!

Claudi giving her best pouting face!

Since Dinah will be leaving soon we have put our application in for a September starter pup..the only requirement is that it be a female! Other than that..we will see what happens! I am hopeful for sooner than later as well..Sidney & Claudi are probably hoping for NEVER!!:)

~Kim

Dinah & Marina for the weekend..

2009-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have to say I have finally found TWO GDB pups I totally adore!! And....neither of them are mine to keep!! Dinah will be transferred to a family in our new club (http://www.futureleadersgdb.com/) & Marina is being raised by 2 college girls in our club who also adore her!!

Dinah is 3 months old & Marina is almost 4 months and they are just the sweetest, greatest pups! They both have superb house manners, play wonderfully with the other dogs, love people etc..Oh and the wiggle on Marina--the cutest thing ever!!!

Last night we let them play in the kiddie pool with my pet dog, Sidney. Sid was not so impressed that they were invading HER pool, but the photo op was just too much to pass up! Check out the 3 colors--so cute!!!

D is for Dinah

2009-07-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we got talked into doing another starter puppy... Guide Dogs had some older puppies (around 11 weeks) that really needed raisers. We are hoping someone in the club will finish her.

A puppy raising friend of ours, Kristy, who we owe big time, is taking her from today to Saturday for us while we have friends visiting. So no pics in this post:(

The biggest news of all may be that she is the very first BLACK puppy I have raised out of 17 (and the 10 Kim has raised or helped raise)

Just for fun here are the puppies I have raised by letter. Maybe someday I will have the whole alphabet!

A- Autumn, Autumn II
B-
C- Claudine
D- Dinah:)
E- Emmy
F- Fargo
G-
H-
I-
J- Jared
K-
L-
M- Macy
N- Natara
O- Oneida, Ogden
P-
Q- Quebec
R-
S- Shayla, Simon
T- Twix, Tove, Tandy
U-
V-
W-
X-
Y-
Z-

Supposedly Dinah is very calm and cuddly and chubby. That makes waiting until Saturday tough. Oh, and she is a Bosworth/Gail puppy. Which means she is a half sister to our very much missed Quebec. She is also from an in home raised litter.

Bethany

***update*** Kim has a photo..

Tandy Update:-), from Bethany

2009-07-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

So we have not updated on Tandy in awhile! She is doing well, is just over 5 months now and because we are starting a new club in the Portland area (I was leading a club in Salem for 7 years) she has been puppysat a lot.

Unfortunately her one trick to try on puppysitters is getting on their furniture. She NEVER does this at home (although she does stare at the couch longingly when the pet dogs are on it) but has tried it at three puppysitters houses.

She is also teething a lot (we found 6 teeth in two weeks) and probably because of this thinks chewing on her blanket is a fun idea. She is quickly learning this is NOT a good idea:)

Tandy has been fantastic in public lately. Today we went to Coastal and I had her walk beside a cart for the first time. She was calm and confident, everything you want in a guide dog! She also went to a four hour college class with a puppysitter recently and did great.

She is also on pills to help with frequent urinating and they seem to be making a big difference.

Here is a not so recent picture of her...

And just for fun here is often puppysat, Marina (Claudi's niece). She has a major underbite that Guide Dogs is monitoring and here are the pictures we sent to them to show to a specialist. Pretty huh? It actually makes her look really adorable, until you open her mouth that is!

Visiting Simon!!!

2009-07-05T21:01:00.001-07:00

So after 3 years we finally got to go see Simon again! We were headed down to a NASCAR race in Sonoma and planned into our trip a visit to see the boy. Unfortunately his breeder keepers were going out of town so the best way to visit was a trip to campus where Simon and his breeder "sisters", Vonnie and Belinda (retired), were going to stay while their parents went on a wedding anniversary trip.

Here are some interesting pics from campus... I would assume the first is for overhead clearance training and the second is the virtually silent electric cars that the dogs have to be able to do traffic work around. Emmy's partner, Tim, was telling us that Emmy (who was trained before GDB had these cars on campus) saved him from a car like this when he repeatedly told her forward and she refused. He then took a step forward and she pulled him back as the car came by!

It was nice to go to campus but we were sad to not get to see Simon in his home. It was great visiting with his family though especially his breeder keeper "dad" who showed us some of his tricks and told us all about how much Simon loves going to work every day at a machine shop with him. Simon obviously adores him and the feeling seems mutual!

Funny story about Simon... when I first contacted his breeder keepers after he was placed with them they asked me how I taught him to bring in the newspaper? They said he did it every morning for them like he had been trained!!! Obviously he had not been taught that but he (and daughter Claudi) love to carry things around when excited. I guess Simon now not only brings in the paper but also brings his "mom" her slippers every morning. What a good boy...

The sad part of our visit was that Simon has really aged. It is odd that some dogs age well and others do not. Simon got darker, slightly heavier, and his face is turning white. He is only 5 but looks older than that. Oh the joys of middle age:)

The SIMON we remember.

And SIMON now.

I promise it only looks like I'm choking him.

He is over 90 lbs. now. He was 78 lbs. at recall.

Here he is waiting for a command.

He was so happy to have the head collar off.

After seeing Simon and helping check him into the kennel we took a short tour. We stopped to see the puppies and were specifically looking for Vonnie(X Kentucky) puppies (since she lives with Simon). Most of the litter was in a pen of their own because they had been sick. Below is Rayanne (sp?).

The breeder keeper family says Vonnie LOVES the JollyBall so this puppy is really taking after her.

Simon definitely recognized us but also seemed slightly confused, maybe because he was coming on to campus and knew his family was leaving. We were very, very happy to get to see him again and my sister, Kimberly, who raised him with me for the first 3 months before moving to CA, was happy to get to see him all grown up as she never got to see him after moving.

Bethany

Saying goodbye to Little Quebec

2009-06-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we got to go and say goodbye to Quebec before her adopters came to pick her up!

We had not seen her in over a month and WOW did she change! It was SO good to see her, but she looked so different & was quite the spunky little girl!!

Her face is now long and skinny and she was taller but her legs still looked like little puppy legs (probably from her autoimmune disease). She was really excited to get out and play with us and seemed to remember us.

We were told that she was going to live with a family with 2 kids and hope they will contact us in a few weeks.

Puppy!

2009-06-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we picked up Claudi's sister Chenille's puppy 'MARINA' for a raisers/co-workers who was graduating last night and needed us to watch their puppy for the night..'Marina' is a Chenille/Kentucky pup and being Claudi's niece we were in love before we even met her..She is soo cute! She is pretty small and has this adorable underbite!

She is a bit whiny and a little aloof (like her aunty CLAUDI!!) & she REALLY doesn't like her tie down, but all can be forgiven with the cute Claudi face!

Her raisers are starting her until they go away to college..so...who knows? If she is lucky she just might get to live with her Aunty Claudi until she goes to GDB college!

We found out yesterday that CHAZ is in class to graduate June 27th so we are really excited about that and we leave a week from tomorrow to go visit Claudi's dad, SIMON, in San Rafael!

Our current pup, TANDY, got to walk at highschool graduation last night--pretty cool for a 4 month old pup!:)

Here are some photos of miss Marina..

Tandy is growing up...

2009-05-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Tandy, or Tandy Andy as she goes by, is doing well. She had a rough start to potty training but is on the right track now.

Tandy is going on small outings and getting taller but not bigger. Her sister Tarragon is in our club and she was a whole 2 pounds bigger than Tarragon at 16 weeks.

Claudi is not so sure about another baby puppy but she sure likes her stuffed puppy who we call Patrick:)

And for some Simon puppy news, his latest litter with Crumpet (featured on the Guide Dogs blog) went out to homes in May.

His daughter (and Claudi's sister) Chenille had an M litter and a F YLAB and M YLAB are coming to our club!!!

Natara Update

2009-05-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Natara left for her home almost two months ago now and is doing well. She is a spoiled girl now and loves playing with the family's Cocker Spaniel. They have a very cute game where he sits on the dog bed with a toy and she grabs the other side of it and gives him a ride around the hous
(they have wood floors). It's very entertaining and is so typical of Natara!

Here are a couple of pictures of her last day with us:

And here she is playing at doggie daycare! Oh the life of a career change. The second picture is of her and Claudi.

Visiting Ogden!

2009-05-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is Ogden, the only Simon boy puppy we have raised. He arrived last May and was a starter puppy. We had him from May to July.

We keep in touch with his wonderful new family and recently Bethany was able to visit him.

Here he is all grown up at 14 months with Bethany. He certainly remembered her on first sight and got VERY excited. It was SO cute!

Here he is chewing on the toy Stef sent for him, a Goughnut.

And here he is being a good boy.

He has grown up so much from when he was last with us.

Happy Birthday Claudi!!!

2009-04-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Claudine is two years old today...and her brother Chaz is in phase TEN!!! :-)

Go Chaz!!

For Claudi's Birthday she played couch potatoe...here's some photos of her busy day at daycare yesterday :-)...

Natara is in her forever home..Tandy is here..and we miss Quebecy..

2009-04-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Natara & Quebec

Well, once again I have been bad at updates!

Natara was CCed a few days after little miss Q..Natara for distration issues..We were able to place Tara in an AWESOME home not too far from us with a mother and her 3 kids. They had been secretly hopeing to get Tara for a while and have already brought her in to play at daycare where we work..she is SOO happy and spoiled and looks GORGEOUS in her many many pink collars!!

Last Saturday we picked up puppy #5 (for me) and #15 (for Bethany)..Tiburon/Geraldine pup, Tandy..She is 10 weeks old and a very sweet girl..She seems fairly low energy and likes to cuddle with people and dogs..I was very sad to see that she is a very light yellow as I had expected a DARK Tiburon pup, but she is a sweetie and seems to fit in nicely..

TANDY
Quebecy is still waiting for her forever placement..We miss her very much..

Claudine's sister had puppies this week!! 7 of them! We can't wait to see/hear about them in a few months! We really really want to raise one, but who knows where we will be in the world of puppy raising by then????

THE perfect puppy that will never be a guide dog..

2009-03-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, Quebec has been career changed..Her strange health issue isn't getting any better-nor is it being diagnosed for certain..Basically, her joints are swollen and her body seems to be attacking itself..She is being put on prednisone for the short term and we are looking for the perfect home for the PERFECT puppy...

Because the whole house should be sick at once..right?

2009-03-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

Claudi, Sidney & Quebec

Two weeks ago we came home to a very sick puppy..limping, crying, swollen legs..Little did we know that this was just the beginning of what seems like a never ending weeks of vet visits, carpet cleanings, trips to Guide Dogs, daily medications, waiting by the phone and on and on...

It all started with little Quebecy..What we thought may be pano turns out may be something more serious...What? We're still waiting for test results..but we do know that the poor puppy is on antibiotics, 2 different pain meds and is still a sore and sad puppy..

Quebecy..

Then there's Claudi our perfect little princess of a career change..our girl with IBS..our girl who has absolutely zero control of her IBS attacks when they happen..the girl who should be the cover girl for a carpet cleaning company..I guess Claudi didn't want to be outdone by the puppy because she ended up at our local vet with a severe IBS attack a week ago Friday..some blood tests were done and off we went...until Sunday...Claudi was one SICK pup...6 hours and $300 later we were home from the ER vet with a humpback lab pumped full of IV fluid!!

Swollen Claudi!
Oh but Wait! Natara could not be outdone by either of these pups! While we were in a rush to get to the vet we had left miss Natara alone in a room and needless to say a bored puppy is trouble! Tara decided to chew up part of a picture frame...2 days later miss Tara was throwing up etc and made her own little trip to the vet just to be safe...She was fine, but sent home with some meds...Because 2 dogs on meds in the house isn't enough...

Natara & her brother Niguel

As of today we await word on Quebec and took Claudi in for some new meds...an hour later Claudi is sitting here like a chipmunk-her face all swollen up from the prednisone that is supposed to be helping her poor stomach...Oh this poor dog...Wait..Poor Raisers!!

Our 5 girls..

2009-02-22T16:10:00.001-08:00

Natara, Sidney, Claudi
All the girls in our house are growing, keeping us busy, eating lots and doing all things puppies do!

Quebec is 3 months old and 21 pounds..She is SUCH a good puppy..She loves the other dogs, sleeps through the night, is basically potty trained, looks ADORABLE in her coat, plays with her toys on her tie down, cuddles, comes when she is called, etc.. She is very much like our Emmy!

Natara is 9 months old and 50 pounds of craziness..She is still an energetic girl with as mind of her own..She has been going on puppysits more frequently and has been getting to go to highschool.

Tara going to her bed...

Claudi is 22 months old and a great big sister :) She couldn't be a happier CC..Claudi has gotten even quirkier with age and shown us so many reasons why she would not have been a happy Guide dog..

Pet Dogs Sidney and Fizz are 15 months and 10 years old..Sidney loves her gdb sisters-especially the littlest one! Fizz, she could take them or leave them all!

Sidney..

Photos from our crazy house...

2009-02-08T19:07:00.001-08:00

We are puppysitting "Avani" this weekend....She is a 3 month old Bruna/Bingham pup that fits in nicely with our crew..

And then there's the one moment in each week that we get Natara AND the chihuahua to sit still at the SAME time...

Pet Dog Sidney and CC Claudine Pose for the Camera :)

My Baby Girl is 3 years old today..

2009-02-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Emmy "Monkey"

Our Guide Dog Emmy is 3 years old today..We miss her SO much, but are very happy she is guiding an amazing man in Missouri!

Since we can't hop on a plane and go see her I thought I would post some photos of our monkey girl...

Such a pretty girl..

We Love you Emmy!!

New Puppy....

2009-01-29T08:10:00.001-08:00

QUEBEC

We are officially CRAZY!!:) We now have 4 dogs under age 2 and a 10 year old! On Tuesday we welcomed starter puppy "Quebec"!

SHE is a 8.5 week old Female yellow lab from Bosworth/Della! She is our first puppy in 5 years to not be related to Simon! We are thinking we will have her for 2-3 months..

So far she is very sweet, cuddly, and slightly soft..She really likes people and gets along well with our zoo. Did I mention that she is GORGEOUS!?!?!

Quebec & Claudi

Claudine LOVES Snow!!

2008-12-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

Claudi

Who knew!? Our CC little princess who has to be pushed out the door when it's raining and lifts up her paws like it might kill her to walk in a puddle...LOVES the snow!!

Claudi and her BFF, pet dog Sidney, got up early with me every day for the past week to go outside and see what the night had brought us! As of today-we have a total of 10 inches of snow plus some ice and still snowing!

Sidney

That's all for today..Natara is *trying* her best to be a good girl while we are all STUCK in the house!! 3 people and 6 dogs for a week is getting old! I will leave you with Claudi's pretty snow face...

What Natara has been up to...

2008-12-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

NATARA

Natara has been a busy girl lately! She is almost 7 months old now! Bethany and Natara have been going a ton of places and little miss Natara has become a great little dog...in public!!

She is still testing her raisers patience with her crazy zipping through the house and endless amounts of harassing the pet dogs, but she is doing so well in her "job"!!

Today, Natara got to experience her first SNOW DAY!! She looked soo pretty playing in the white fluffy stuff with her sisters..

Tomorrow she is supposed to go to her 1st Christmas party with her brother Niguel, but...the snow may keep us locked in the house!! With 7 dogs--Natara is in heaven! :)

Claudi's sister Cessna is in phase 8 and her brother Chaz just returned for training so we are looking forward to watching them progress! Although, we are happy to have our Claudi and not be worrying about watching her on the phase reports..:)

Photos..

2008-11-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we puppysat another Simon puppy, Meredith...

Claudi (Simon/Alanis), Natara (Simon/Holly), and Meredith (Simon/Cagney)
Tara, Meredith and Claudi after a game of Tug!

Tara Sleeps!!

We love our Simon puppies....when they are all grown up!

2008-10-27T18:06:00.001-07:00

Natara

I know, I don't update this very often..I've been waiting to say something really interesting or exciting!:) But, now that a few of you have pointed out my lack of news I decided to write a bit..Natara is finally--I repeat--finally growing on me a bit:) She is learning to stand/lie in one spot for longer than one minute at a time and is TRYING at times to listen..We call it the "Simon stubborness"..all the girls have had it, they have just all had it to varying degrees and well, she has taken it to a new height! She has her mommy's adorable face and really does well on outings so she has potential..She is just a high energy pup with a strong will! Her health issues seem to be getting better so we hope that we will be able to concentrate on her behavior now and turn her in to the "perfect" girl her sisters all are:):)

Claudine was at the emergency vet yesterday with an allergic reaction to lord only knows what-she is our "special" girl that is forsure..Her entire face likes to swell up like a little chipmunk now and then only responding to steroid injections...Yes, she was meant to be our Career Change :)

Bethany called to check on our guide, EMMY yesterday--they just had their first year check up and are doing great! Apparently my girl is TEN POUNDS overweight but otherwise fine! I can't believe he let my baby girl get fat, but I am happy to say that he loves and adores her almost as much as me..

Baby Emmy

We got Simon's breeder photos the other day and Bethany has been trying to get Claudi to pose like her daddy...I'll leave you with that!:)

Daddy SimonDaughter Claudi

Is she all grown up yet??

2008-09-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

Natara is almost 4 months old now and most days we wish she would hurry up and "grow up"!! She is an extremely energetic puppy!! Yesterday we caught her actually sleeping on her tie down more than one time and we think she might be sick--no joke!

She is so cute and so sweet, she just never seems to be able to relax! She is in constant motion--how great for someone who loves to be on the go all the time!!

She weighs 29 pounds and is doing really well on outings, just keeping us all on our toes in the house.

On another note...Claudi got her Canine Good Citizen last week and is proving to be the greatest CC ever :) We couldn't love her any more and she makes us laugh every day..She is the quirkiest dog and we are waiting to see if her sister, Chenille, makes it as a breeder.

(Claudi and pet dog Sidney are BFF's)

Natara's 3 months old

2008-08-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well, Natara has been here what 3 weeks? And yet she still is not potty trained!! A year from now we will laugh at this right!?

Tara LOVES her big sisters and spends most of her time going to work with Bethany..She is SUPER cute, but the least photogenic puppy we have ever had-thus, the lack of photos lately!

We wanted a more active puppy than Ogden and boy did we get one--this girl NEVER stops! She isn't wild or naughty, she just never stops moving, pacing, walking around,throwing the toy around, chewing on her sister, darting for the water bowl, ETC! She is just always ready for action and looking for trouble:)

One thing she is GREAT at is walking on a leash-she came knowing how to do one thing and that's walk on lead :)

More soon :)

Claudi's life as a CC

2008-07-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

I know, this blog is mostly to track Natara's life with us, but she is away with Stef and Bethany for a few days and so I thought I would write about miss Claudi..

(The house feels empty with only 4 dogs and 1 person!)

She was CCed last week for some health issues (we saw this coming for some time) and boy is she living the life!

Yesterday we went to my work (dog daycare) and played all day long with dog friends and then her "boyfriend", Owen came home to stay with us for a week...

Today-back to daycare for a 6 hour play date with many many boyfriends-including MYL CC Riley (Astro/Daria)..

Tonight...a visit from my parents (oh you should see the whole body wiggles and hear the sounds!!) and then some playtime with before mentioned boyfriend Owen and 8 month old lab sister Sidney!

Then bedtime on my bed--with her head on the pillow and all...It's rough to be a newly CCed girl--with 10 new PINK collars, but it suits Claudi very well!!

Claudi says it is time for her dinner!:)

Natara's First Day Photos

2008-07-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

Natara's First Day with us--July 26, 2008...
Natara
May 15, 2008
Simon/Holly

The Perfect Little Emmy/Claudi Face! She looks like Emmy from the front and Claudi from the side! Holly and Simon must be in their too:)

Playing with her Pet sister, Sidney, already...She had no fear of our 3 other dogs-she walked into the house like she owned it!

I think she is going to fit in...and she even slept for 6 hours last night :)

Ogden Photos

2008-07-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Ogden went to his new raiser home today...Stef and Bethany were very sad, but it sounds like he will do very well with them...We can't wait to see him at Fun Day!! He is going to be such a cute dog!!

Ogden
March 24, 2008
Simon/Cher

Photos of Claudine

2008-07-26T11:30:00.001-07:00

Claudine

April 23, 2007

Simon/Alanis

Claudine with Ogden....half siblings..

Christmas 07..our supermodel:)

Claudi's first trip to the beach

Pumpkin Patch 07

Picking up Claudi at the airport..

Photos Of Emmy

2008-07-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Emmy
February 8, 2006
Simon/Darcy

Typical Emmy

Our Graduate got so big!!

We didn't want to say goodbye...

Emmy's best friend Lilah.

Emmy's first meeting.

Photos of Simon..

2008-07-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Simon
Wallace/Rajean
February 13, 2004

Around 5 months old.. Before his head got soo big!!

Simon showing off his Harness before he left for San Rafael!

Baby Face Simon!

The Last time we saw him at his Graduation as a Breeder!

Guide Dogs For The Blind "Simon" Girls

2008-07-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

What the heck-we are just about to start on our 4th Simon puppy-3rd Simon girl-so why not start blogging about it?

Bethany raised Simon-aka "Mr Perfect"..

Then being her roommate, I decided to join in on Simon's first liter and helped raise THE most perfect PRINCESS and Guide Dog ever my Emmy "monkey"..

After Emmy we raised Claudine-who just got CCed for health issues and now lives with us and her 2 pet dog sisters.

Then came Mr Ogden whom we convinced our 3rd roommate to join in on and we quickly discovered he was just too laid back to really fit into our all female household..

We are now getting ready to welcome Simon puppy # 4 "Natara"..