A New Year and New Puppies!

I Would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope everyone else has had as great of a year as I have!

To kick off the New Year our club has welcomed 2 new puppies!

Introducing...

Male Black Lab, Lipton!

Lipton is the first puppy for his new raisers. He will also be going to the same school as me! Yay! He will be too young to come to school for quite a while though...

But it is always exciting for me when new people start raising at my school.  When I started raising I was the only guide dog raiser there. Now there are up to 6 raisers at the school at one time!

And Margueri, a female golden retriever!

Our group also raised 2 of Margueri's half siblings.

Sabrina:

And Schafer

 (I don't have a picture of him, Sorry).



Unfortunatly they were both Career changed for Hip Dysplasia :(

I hope miss Margueri has no similar problems!

To a new year with new puppies!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Noe is in phase 8
Harlene is in phase 0!
Weston is in Breeder Evals
Jamaica is in Breeder Evals
Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is still in 8. Hopefully she will be matched when the new class comes in!

The Nutcracker Ballet

Well, First off, I would like to wish everyone happy holidays! I hope you all had a great Christmas!  These last few days have been super busy but now we are finally home so I can catch up on my posts.

Our Christmas was pretty fast-paced this year and Carrie handled it wonderfully. She wasn't too phased by all of the new people and dogs coming and going. 

She was a good girl this year and Santa brought her a new (Hot Pink) Gentle Leader, a new leash, and a Tutu (You will see why later!).

The day after christmas we piled everyone in the car and headed down to San Franciso to meet up with even more people!  Carrie got a chance to stay in a hotel room with a bunch of little kids!

The next day we went to the Nutcracker! This is the first time I have had the opportunity to take one of my dogs to the ballet so....

We dressed her up!



Carrie waiting for the Ballet to start
(Notice her pretty new leash made by Mandy and Saxon)

A closeup of her Tutu :)

I must say, we all had so much fun! Everyone who saw her pointed her out. A bunch of little girls came up and told me they thought she was beautiful!

I was also very impressed with her behavior while we were there.  She stayed under the seat the whole time and slept.

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Noe is in phase 8
They have decided not to use Harlene for breeder. They took a look at the litter and decided they just had more energy than they wanted to breed for. She will be spayed and put into a string
Weston is in Breeder Evals
Jamaica is in Breeder Evals
Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is still in 8. Hopefully she will be matched after the holidays!

Wordless Wednesday

9 Things at 9 Months!

I am a little late with Carrie's monthly post. A lot has been going on here with the holidays and giving up Hanalei. 

So for her 9 things at 9 months I thought I would give you guys 9 pictures of her, starting at 9 weeks, and going to 9 months.  I tried to choose pictures that I haven't already used on this blog.  Enjoy :)

1st puppy meeting 9 weeks

10 weeks

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

Goodbye Hanalei

I recieved Hanalei as a tiny 9 week old puppy.  From the time that I first got her I knew that she was incredibly special.  She slept through the night from the first day we got her and has never done anything intentionally bad.  We called her a "pure soul" because she always seemed to want to do her very best to make us happy.

In August, Hanalei was Career Changed from Guide Dogs due to a very small cataract in one of her eyes. Luckily, the cataract is so small that it is very unlikely that it will ever affect her vision.

Since that day, Hanalei has been in training for a new job- Assisting a woman in a wheelchair.  We always knew that Hanalei would end up working. She loves to learn and has perfect manners in public.  We began teaching her the tasks that she will need to make her new owner's life easier and more enjoyable. 

She learned how to:

Pull on ropes to open or close doors, drawers and cupboards, make and unmake the bed,  etc.

Retrieve fallen objects of all shapes, sizes and textures and place them carefully into a lap without chewing.

Walk safely and confidently next to a wheelchair without pulling or lagging.

Follow a wheelchair through tight areas.

Gently pull pants up and down to make it easier for her new owner to go to the bathroom.

Step up onto a stool so that she can have her new vest put on.

Be calm and quiet during her new owners college classes.

Push cross-walk buttons.

Thoughout all of her training she showed us that she really did love to learn and work.  Even though she couldn't be a guide dog I think that this is what she is meant to do.  She adores her new handler and I don't think we could have matched them better. 

I hope she and her new owner have a wonderful time together! 

Some pictures of my time with her:

Dirty nose! 9 Weeks

10 weeks

8 months

9 months

Lei meets mickey- 9 months

15 Months

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Noe is in phase 8 waiting to be matched
No news on Harlene in Breeder Evals yet.
Weston and Jamaica will be heading back for training this weekend! Good luck guys!
Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is in phase 8 still, waiting to be matched!

Blog Award!

I would like to thank Paws for independence for giving me my first blog award, the Liebster Blog Award! Paws for independence is a wonderful blog about raising little Haddie for CCI.  I have really enjoyed following her blog and seeing the differences and similarities between Canine Companions for Indpendence and Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Some other blogs I would like to give this award to:

Want to go for a Walk: I met the author of this blog while on my internship at Guide Dogs over the summer.  She just started her blog and I am certainly looking forward to hearing about her job at the GDB San Rafael campus!

Life With a Guide Dog in Training in College:  I had the pleasure of meeting Ashley's dog, Medford while I was on my internship as well.  He and his brother were amazing dogs and I have enjoyed hearing about him thorugh her blog.  She is getting ready to bring home a puppy that is hopefully his very soon!

Guide Dog Puppy: This blog is just amazing! Mandy and Saxon do a great job of blogging about their adventures! Mandy also makes beautiful leashes for sale at her Etsy store.

Ours for a Year: I love love love hearing about the amazing life of Career Change Cabana!  Not all dogs are meant to be guides and Cabana's life as a CC dog shows that her life can be just as glamorous! I especially love the post about "Before dog and After dog".


Sorry if I gave this award to people who have already recieved it. There are so many great blogs out there and I love reading about all of the amazing programs out there for the dogs! I would love to maybe someday raise a puppy for another organization.  The blogging world has really opened my eyes about what is out there!

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Noe is in phase 8!
Harlene, as far as I know, has completed her breeder evaluation.  They are still waiting to officially pull her for breeder because she has never been into a season.  Hopefully she will soon!

Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is in phase 8 still, waiting to be matched!

Wordless Wednesday: A Baby Carrie Picture

Carrie Meets Santa

We took Carrie to get her picture taken with Santa yesterday! I picked the picture up today and boy is it cute! She is sitting kinda funny and I think it captures a little bit of her dorky-ness.

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Tradition

Every year at Christmastime we make an ornament for our tree.  We use Plaster of Paris and create a mold of our dogs' paw.  Here's how Carrie's turned out this year:

Here is Hanalei's from last year:

And Fairfield's from 3 years ago:

(Tisha's, unfortunately, was lost)

It has been really fun seeing the differences in their paws.  Hanalei had the biggest paws of any of my puppies!  I hope someday I will be able to get another one made for Tisha.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

So over the Thanksgiving Break we took Carrie to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was really good for her and we had fun doing all of the little kiddie things with her!

They have this really neat place where you can push buttons that make noises of whales and seals.  Carrie thought this was very interesting and we thought it was hilarious. 

There was also a cave-type thing where water rushes over you every couple of seconds.  At first she was really interested in the swirly water. 

After a few moments of this, a toddler came up to her.  She sat while he petted her and then he suddenly pulled his binky out of his mouth and tried to give it to her!  She was a good girl and refused it but it was pretty cute.

Overall it was a perfect outing for her.  It was fairly crowded, had lots of small children and had a lot of things she had never seen before.  There was an adorable penguin that followed her around for a while.  We couldn't get Carrie to pay attention to it but the penguin deffinately did!

Another One Joins the Group!

Say hello to Fiddler!



Thank you Kirsten for taking such cute pictures!



This little guy came into our club a few days ago.  He is from the Johnny & Pebbles litter.

Thanksgiving Break!

Over Thanksgiving break we went to Monterey to spend time with our family.  While we were there Carrie was able to spend a lot of time with a bunch of little kids.  There were 6 kids between the ages of 2 and 8.  She was really really good with them.  The babies were super intersted in her.  They would go to give her a kiss and open their mouths like little kids do :).

She was very well behaved and was allowed to be off leash in their house.  During dinners she politely kenneled under the table and stayed there until she was told to it was okay to come on out.

We also had to the chance to take her to the Monterey Bay Aquarium but I will be posting about that later.

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Lyndon went off for in-home training! I hope he is happy with his new partner!
Noe is in Phase 7! Go Noe!
Harlene is still in Breeder Evals! She is the last in her litter to be looked at for breeder!

Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is in phase 8 still, waiting to be matched!
Hermes graduated last weekend with his new partner!
Hestia also graduated last weekend as a breeder!

Back to school...

Carrie and I started back to school yesterday!  We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will be posting about what we did over the break within the next couple of days!

Christmas Trees and New Puppies!

Every year our puppy club decorates a christmas tree on the highway in our area.  Each puppy raiser decorates an ornament for their dogs.  Our whole group then gets together and decorates the tree!



The finished product!

While we were there I was able to snap some pictures of one of our newest members, Dover!



A little blurry but such a cutie!

We have another puppy that joined us recently but I forgot my camera!  He is a male yellow lab named Wes.  He is his raisers' first puppy!  Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures next time I see him.

Phase Report

Puppies Raised in our group:
Lyndon has been matched and is now in in-home training!
Noe is in Phase 5!
Harlene is in breeder evals

Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is in Phase 8!
Hermes was matched and is set to graduate this weekend in San Rafael

Wordy Wednesday :)

Did you know that Carrie is actually a Shar Pei?

See the resemblance?

Image via Cutefunnypics.com

Not so much?

How about now?

Happy Wednesday :)

8 Things at 8 Months!

8 months ago, Leslie gave birth to 8 puppies at Guide Dogs for the Blind's campus in San Rafael.  Their names were:

1. Cadence

2. Cameo

3. Cammie

4. Caprice

5. Carrie

6. Cavalia

7. Chip

8. Clancy

Carrie was one of the darkest ones.  Of the littermates that I have seen they are all much lighter than her.  If anyone has any information on any of them I would love to know! I heard recently that Cadence is being transfered to the seattle club. Good luck to her and her new raisers!

Happy 8 months C puppies!

Remembering the Tired Days

I was looking through pictures today and found this one:

Carrie was my first puppy that openly HATED her crate.  For the first two weeks she cried and cried for hours at bed time.  At one point I was so tired I barricaded the two of us into a corner using a puppy X Pen, grabbed blankets, pillows and a dog bed and just crashed. 

I think she was as tired as I was. 

Apparently someone in my family found us like this and decided to take a picture.

Shortly after this, I descovered that the reason she hated her crate so much was because she didn't have a blanky (Guide Dog Puppies aren't supposed to have blankets in the kennel in case they were to eat it and get a bowel obstruction). 

I ended up getting special permission from my leader and she hasn't made a peep since. (Nor has she ever eaten her blanket)



Phase Report

Puppies Raised in our group:
Lyndon is in Phase 8!
Noe is in Phase 5!
Harlene is in breeder evals

Hanalei's Littermates:
Halette is in Phase 8!
Hermes is off the Phase reports this week.  Hopefully this means he has been matched!

There Was a Farm That Had a...

Where we live allows us to have many animals.  Here are a few of the animals Carrie is able to be exposed to around our property:



A Mama Llama and her baby

  

Baby duckies (who have since grown up and become big, grouchy duckies)



Albert the Goose

Prince Charming

Horses!

Living on property with a lot of different animals lets Carrie get used to a variety of destractions which could be beneficial if she goes on to become a guide.