Phase 4

Yay! He's moving along! Way to go, Placer!

Half way through... You can do it, Place!

"P" goldens are slowly trickling into training... Primrose- who went back before Place is in phase 7, Pilgrim-who went back with Place is in phase 6 (I'm pretty sure he's in a different string, he's been in different phases since phase 1), Pryor- is in 3, and Pacer is in 0. I know at least Patriot and Peanut were CCed in puppyraising, but not sure about the others.
We met Palm at Fun Day, but didn't stay in contact... We shall see if we see the rest show up on the reports....

Phase 3

I usually check the phase report at 6:30 a.m. on Thursdays, but that's only because I would be distracted at work wondering where he is.

This morning there was a little "3" next to his name. Yay! He doing some preliminary testing this week! Good luck, Buddy! I know you can do it!

Bark for $1

The other day I was at the craft store check out line (I have an addiction to the craft store... maybe because it's right across the street from my office.) and as I was getting my wallet out King stood up so I told him to "sit". The cashier looked at me and very seriously asked "Oh, is he not ready to start learning how to count money yet?"

What?? I looked at her very confused and said politely "I'm not sure what you mean?"

She replied "I heard since blind people can't count their money, they teach the dogs to do it and they bark for how much money they have."

Not Kidding.

Not even a little bit.

I tried hard not to laugh as I responded "Nope. Each blind person has their own system to knowing what denomination of bills they have- usually they fold it differently or ask someone who is with them."

Then I slid my credit card.

Will you train my service dog?

Warning: This is a "soapbox" post. 

My least favorite thing about raising Guide Dog Puppies- which really isn't all that bad- is the fact that EVERYONE thinks we are experts on dog training and specifically, how to train a service dog.  I don't mind giving people advice on dog training. That doesn't bother me at all... it's usually the ones that ask the "service dog" questions.

All the time, I get:

"My Aunt just bought a beagle puppy and wants to make it her service dog. How do I do that?"

"Do you know how I get one of those coats for my dog? He's really good and he would be really good for my son."

"I'm going to go adopt a dog and make it a service dog for my niece. She is autistic... I think? But really likes dogs."

My favorite:

Random person: "Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy in Training... Oh I train Guide Dogs!" 
Me:  "That's cool. What school do you raise for?"
RP: "Just for myself. I have 3 kids with multiple disabilities so I train the dogs for them. We should get together and do some training."
(To her credit I have met one of her several "guide dogs"- aka service dogs in training (...that are 3-years-old... and she has had since they were puppies... when does the "training" stop?)- and he seems like a good dog from what I have seen.)

Great.

Here is my confession:

I'm not service dog school. 

I have been raising GDB puppies for 13 years now and have been in leadership and taught puppy classes for a good portion of that. I feel like I am a good raiser, meaning I can teach a puppy to sit and come. I can teach a puppy not to jump on people or pull on leash. I can even teach a puppy to not pick food up off the floor...

 But,

 I don't teach my puppy to retrieve things off the floor, I don't teach my puppy to open doors, and I don't teach my puppies how to pull wheelchairs. (All which have been requested of me.) I'm sure I could teach that... but I don't and it should be left to someone who does.

Don't think I'm uncaring. I usually will ask "Well, what exactly do you want the dog to do?"

If it's more of a therapy-type job I will refer them to find a good dog trainer in the area, get a CGC, and tell them that Therapy animals aren't considered a service dog so they are more of the "stay home most of the time" with a few special privileges.


 If they haven't gotten a dog yet, I will have them check out CCI's website to see if they qualify for something under them.

Usually people say, "I don't know. Come with me everywhere."

Awesome.

That's when I say... "You should probably figure that out before you start doing anything..."

Phase 2 and the morning before...

I love being able to check the phase report right when I get up. Points to GDB for thinking of moving it online!

Yay for Phase 2 this week! Hopefully he's enjoying his time and working hard. :)

On the homefront, King is not having a good day... This morning he woke up to no breakfast. This dogs LIFE is food! I think he just about died when we had to feed the black dog, and he was in the back bedroom. "Why does he not get breakfast?" You ask? Well... The other day King got his neuter note. Poor guy won't know what hit him... All he knows is he's not getting breakfast.

Phase 1

Yay! Placer finally moved up! It feels like he's been gone for forever...and should be in phase 8 by now...

...but probably not. He really has only been gone a month-ish and its been over the Holidays so I guess GDB has an excuse. I'm just not patient!

Every Thursday I get on the reports as soon as I can and search for his name... Every time I miss it and have a mini-freak out that he's not on there... Then everytime, I look carefully back through the "P"s and find his name "Placer M GLD 1". Then all is right with the world again... Here's to another week of Place working hard at guide dog school.

Warm

King does not like the cold. Poor guy came to the wrong state... Apparently he's a California boy all the way. (With a name like King, how could he not be!)

Yesterday he came to work with me and I almost had to pick him up because of the amount of ice melt and snow on the ground. He pushed through and made it to the nice warm comfort of my office. Good thing or her might not have been able to enjoy this heater vent when he got home...