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.

Braided leash giveaway

Fellow blogger, Mandy and Saxon, is hosting a leash giveaway!  Everyone should get over there and check it out! She hand-makes them and they are absolutely beautiful!

Goodbye Harlene!

Today my friends said goodbye to their little girl Harlene.

She will be going in as a potential breeder! Good luck Harlene!

The Tough Job of a Puppy in Training

Being a puppy in high school means that you have one important job: BE GOOD!

To accomplish this task, all one must do is sleep :)

Who knew sleeping could be so tiring

Phase Report

Puppies raised in our group:
Nalo graduated last weekend!
Lyndon is in Phase7
Noe is in Phase 3
Harlene is set to head in for formal training this weekend! She will be in Breeder Evals!

Hanalei's littermates:
Halette is in phase 8!
Hermes is in phase 8

So Super Busy!

This past week has been incredibly busy for Carrie and me!
We have been doing SO much! And it's only going to get more hectic as we get into the holidays!

Last Friday, Carrie came with me to school where she went to another rally!  She dressed in her lime green and behaved herself beautifully!

After school, we went home for about an hour, then went to a guide dog meeting and then directly after that we went and saw Disney on ice!  She was wonderful during the performance as well.  She slept the whole time- she had to have been tired after having such a busy day.

The day after that, Saturday, we helped out at a fundraiser for a friend of ours at whole foods.  I was in charge of making balloon animals (which popped alot!).  Carrie handled this fine as well.  The first pop woke her up but after that she learned to ignore them.  She was also exposed to a ton of small children who came to the event.  While we were there, I painted a pumpkin for her:

On Sunday we tried to take it a little easy but I still took her out for some traffic work.  We walked to Apple Hill next to the backed up traffic.  It was great for her to get used to the smells of the traffic while it was moving slowly.