All About Equine Animal Rescue

This week's Guide Dog meeting was an especially exciting one! 

Our group was able to tour a large animal rescue called All About Equine!

Partner got a chance to go nose to nose with some horses, alpacas, goats, sheep and a turkey!

Partner's First Week of College

I was one proud Mamma last week! 

Partner made it through his first week of college classes!

He did incredibly well! 

He slept through all of my classes and had no trouble hopping up and going to the next one with a simple "Partner, let's go"

There were a few incidents where he was a little... errr... gassy 

Haha.

I have to choose my seating with that in mind-which I haven't had to do for a puppy before.  I have never noticed this about Partner previously so I am hoping that it was just the changes that caused it and it goes away for next week.

Other than that he was so super good! He likes school and trots around campus smiling at everyone we pass.  

I must say, I am pleasantly surprised by the difference in maturity level of the college students.  In High School I was used to getting several inappropriate jokes directed at the dogs on a daily basis but haven't received any so far.

 I got several compliments on how well-behaved he is and my teachers all like him

I can't wait to take him back next week!  

Good Boy Buddy!

**Carrie Update**

Carrie is still in phase 7 this week.  Again, I'm not sure if this is her trainer failing to update Carrie's paperwork (for the zillionth time) or if it is something that Carrie needs to work on that is keeping her in the phases.

Hopefully if it is something she needs to work on she can get through it! 

So hard not hearing about them...

Love you girly.

Beach Bound!

Partner and I are on our way to the Beach! 

Wordless Wednesday: Bending the Rules...

I don't know how many other puppy raisers do this- I probably shouldn't be mentioning it on this blog haha- but every year, just before we turn in our puppies, we let them bend a rule or two just once. 

I thought it would be fun to share some photos of the rule Carrie got to bend! She got to have her first ever edible toy! Guide Dog puppies aren't supposed to have edible toys due to the fact that they can be dangerous and Guide Dogs pays for all the vet bills! So for Carrie's toy, we chose an Antler chew as they are less likely to splinter or chip- they are ground down slowly, and they contain beneficial ingredients such as calcium.  She was 100% supervised during her chew time and it was picked up when that time was over.

And oh goodness was she a happy girl! 

Here are about a million pictures of how happy she was: ;)  (To get the full effect, click on them to make them larger and scroll through that way!)

Disneyland!

A while ago, Carrie got approved to go to Disneyland! So a few days ago we piled all 4 dogs into the car and drove the 6 hours to Disneyland!

Carrie was happy just to be going somewhere

But then she realized how long the carride was and decided to use Duke as a pillow

When we got there, it was late so we checked into a dog-friendly hotel and went to sleep.  The first day in Disneyland, we left Carrie at the hotel.  We wanted to get a chance to scope everything out and do some rides that we couldn't do with Carrie. 

Carrie was a good girl and stayed in an Xpen that I brought along.  We came back twice throughout the day to potty her and give her a good walk. 

 I think it was really good for her to stay behind. We don't leave her much so it was nice to know that she could handle being alone for so long.

The next day was Carrie's day! We took the shuttle over and the first thing we did was get her a Disney hat!

She looked super cute and everyone there loved it! She wore it on and off throughout the day!

After we got her hat, we did some fun Carrie things.  She got to go to Tom Sawyer's Island where we went into all sorts of cool caves and over some really neat bridges. To get to the island, you have to take a big raft and she did wonderfully both times we went on it!

After that we took the train! Carrie wasn't phased by it at all which was good. Then she got her picture in Dumbo!

After Dumbo we took her to that really neat futuristic place with the moving floors. She wasn't at all phased by the moving floors which was weird because even I was a little bit dizzy after walking on them for a while.  We also got to take her on a glass floor! No problems there either!

Looking back, I can't believe we got so much done in just 4 hours! Carrie did really really well.  I am very proud of her and look forward to hopefully getting the chance to take her again sometime before her recall!

A Fun Day!

A few days ago, my mom held a dog training class. She is studying for her dog training license and gave a free class to anyone who wanted to attend to give her more experience.





I went along to work Carrie around these dogs. It was a great experience for her as there was one dog that was extremely vocal.

Overall, she did well considering the level of distraction. There was a huge dog park just accross the way from where that was completely filled with dogs. We were also right in between a skate park, a playground and a trick bike track.

After I had worked Carrie around the other dogs I took her to the playground. They had this really neat rock-type-thing that had steps. This gave us a great opportunity to work with Carrie on heights.

Carrie at the top of the rock! (It was probably about 6ft high)



A picture of Carrie looking down at me

She did reasonably well up there. She was a little shaky the first time she tried the steps. They were nearly verticle and not in a straight line so they were a little tough to maneuver for her.  We did them a few more times until she was comfortable.

After that, I gave her a chance to watch some bikers and skate boarders.

A picture of the bike park

Carrie watching the kids doing tricks with their bikes

She was interested in the bikes and boards but was able to walk away without having to constantly look back. 

I am sure I looked like a complete creeper sitting there taking pictures of the park and my dog watching them haha.

Changing Dog Food

This morning, I got an email from Guide Dogs reminding me that it is almost time to switch Carrie to adult food.

A screen capture of the email they sent to me. If you would like to read it you can click on it to make it bigger

Guide Dogs approves two adult dog foods: ProPlan All Life Stages and ProPlan Large Breed Shredded Blend. The other day I went to our local feed store and found a slightly ripped bag of the ProPlan Shredded Blend for half-off!

In a few weeks, I will begin gradually switching Carrie from her puppy food to her adult food.

Adult food (Left), Puppy food (Right)

To me, switching their food is one of those reminders that she is getting bigger and will be leaving me soon.

I'm going to keep being thankful for every moment I have with her. She is such a special girl!

Working in the Rain

This week our area finally got some rain! It has been dry so long that I'm not even entirely sure that Carrie has had the opportunity see it.

So this morning, I took the opportunity to specifically work her out in the cold and wetness.

She did pretty well. She didn't seem to mind working in the rain all that much.  Actually, it made her a little hyper. She would be walking perfectly for a few minutes and then all of the sudden do a little bunny hop and start wiggling!

It was cute but it shows that we do need more work with it. I am not too worried though as this was technically her first time working in the rain and I'm sure after a few more times the novelty of it will wear off.

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.

Officially a "Big Girl"

Carrie now officially fits into her "big girl" collar:

This collar has a metal plate on it that says that she is a Guide Dog puppy and has her ID number, 53B4.

To celebrate her largeness (54.6 lbs), I took some pictures of the big girl :)

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!