Carrie was spayed today!

     Today we took Carrie to the vet to be spayed.  She was a little excited when we first got in.  There were other dogs there and I couldn't use food protocol with her since she wasn't supposed to eat before her surgery.  She was able to calm down with calm praise though and you could tell that she really wanted to do the right thing!
     Once she had calmed down I weighed her, she weighs 49.6lbs.  I left after that.
     When I went and picked her up she was still kinda groggy.  When I got her home she walked inside like a little hunchback.  She keeps making super sad groaning noises and giving us looks like this:


Carrie giving her "what have you done to me?" look

 She's never had a very good tolerance for pain so I knew this would be tough for her.  I sure am glad we got this out of the way though!  One less thing to worry about for her when she returns for formal training (hopefully we will make it that far!)

We got a letter today!

     Today we got a letter confirming that Carrie is not being considered for breeder due to her crossbite.  We will be scheduling her an appointment soon!  Surprisingly, I am excited about her being altered! 
     Carrie is the first puppy I have had that has gotten an alter notice prior to going back for formal training.  I'm happy that we don't have to suffer through heat cycles with her- sending them away for 3 weeks is always hard- and we also won't have to worry about breeder evaluations with her when she is back at Guide Dogs.
     For me, Breeder Evals are the hardest part of their formal training because you may not hear about them for months!  Since she will be returning altered, she will be able to skip right to Phase 0, the beginning of training.

6 Things at 6 Months!

     A few days ago, Carrie turned 6 months old!  Here are a few fun facts about Carrie to celebrate her half birthday!

1. Carrie has a large bump on top of her head from her golden retriever genes.  We call it a "Smart Bump" since she's such a smart little thing.
2. She is SUPER food motivated and will do anything to get that magic word that means food is coming ("Nice")
3. She is very photogenic and it is easy to get good pictures of her
4. She is a hyper puppy but is still able to focus and calm down enough for me to take her with me to highschool
5. She can be a bit stubborn and is learning that we can't always do what she thinks sounds good.
6. Carrie is a snuggle bug! She loves to cuddle and if I am sitting on the ground she will come and sit on my lap :)

Carrie's First Thunderstorm!

     It seems like there have been a lot of firsts for Carrie these last couple of weeks!  Yesterday was her very first thunderstorm!  It can be a little nerve wracking for puppies during a thunderstorm- if any of you have seen Marley and Me than you know that some dogs go completely berserk! 
     I was especially worried about Carrie because when we first got her she was a bit afraid of loud trucks (She got over this eventually but it took us about 2 weeks of walks in heavy traffic 3 times a day).  When the storm started though she didn't even seem to notice.  She was much too caught up in the fact that the ground was all wet- this was also her first rain and she thought it looked like SO much fun!  We were even able to let her out on a long line to go play around while the thunder was going on.
     All in all, she handled her first storm wonderfully and there was really no need to worry.

Sorry about not having any pictures, my camera was dead

Carrie's First Eval

So, since I started this blog a little late we will probably have to play catch-up for a little while. 
A few weeks ago, we took carrie to her first evaluation.  She had just turned five months and our CFR (Community Field Representative) wanted to check on her progress.
During her evaluation, the CFR asked me how she was doing, took her for a walk, and checked her teeth and body.  She said that she was doing very well for her age and she looked great.  However, while she was looking at her teeth, I told her that I thought they were really crooked.  She agreed with me and as we looked more closely we noticed that she actually has a cross bite. We took some pictures and sent them to Guide Dogs. 

A blurry picture of carrie's teeth.  You can see that they overlap more on the right and are very crooked

They may decide to alter her because of this. Hopefully we will find out soon!

First Post!

This is my first blog post ever! I finally decided that I need some way to follow my adventures with my guide dog puppies.  Since I'm not crafty enough to put together a scrapbook I decided to try a blog!

Hopefully this blog will cover my daily life with whichever Guide Dog puppy I am currently raising as well as include updates and stories of the puppies I have raised in the past.

Hanalei and I at the beach