Senior Pictures sneak peak

 Erica (Marnie's stepdaughter that has kind of taken Marnie's place with Placer) and I headed out today for Placer's final pictures with us as a Puppy in Training. The big gold dog is headed up to Oregon sometime next week for his formal training. We know he will do well at whatever they ask him to do, and will make us proud.  Here are a few of the pictures we took today... more to come.

I'm sure going to miss this boy by my side...

Thankful

For this:

Recovering

Whew! Glad things are getting better around here... Poor Placer had a weekend that we would all rather not repeat.

Friday we took him into the vet for his diarrhea. They said he was slightly dehydrated, but nothing too out of the ordinary as far as diarrhea goes. They sent in a fecal test and gave us some anti diarrhea meds to try in the meantime... We arrive home, give him his meds and I fall asleep. 72 hours with no more than 45 min sleep does that to you. 2 1/2 hrs later I wake up and my husband says he noticed that Placers head is looking fat. I call Mr Place over and sure enough, allergic reaction. Awesome.
Fortunately, the vet wasn't quite closed yet so I call them up to let them know we are on our way back in. He gets a shot in hopes that his face will return to normal. That evening he decides that he really didn't want his dinner of rice and cottage cheese in his stomach and throws it up. Thank goodness for tile floors!
That night he slept better in regards to not having to go out, but poor guy had the itchies. He was shaking his head and scratching and chewing on his paws. The next day was the same. We tried to keep benadryl in him, but it didn't work as well as we hoped... Good news is, he slept a little more though. Over the next few days he has slowly gotten better... Yesterday we got the fecal results back and he somehow got a parasite. Awesome.

So, new meds, new treatment and we are ready to put this past weekend behind us. Placer is ready to get his groove back... Seriously. He's tired of being stuck at home. Now to figure out how to get rid of the "sick dog smell" even after 3 baths... 

The Sick One

Sometimes its hard to remember that I have dogs- not kids... Especially after being up every 30 min for 2 nights in a row. I think I've cleaned up more diarrhea to last the rest of the time Placer is here... And King for that matter.

Off to the vet...

Staying... for now

Well... after all that... He's not leaving after all.

Word on the street is that there were several dogs unexpectedly dropped from Breeder Eval so they can only take a few dogs back, and because Placer is the youngest one that is eligible, he's not leaving. They are thinking he might fly back sometime in the December or January.

I have mixed emotions about this.

I adore Placer (as I'm sure you know) and I really don't want to see him go. He is great to take out, easy to have around, and fun to play with. We really do love having him around. He's really just at that point we don't even think twice about taking him somewhere.

On the other side, he's ready. I worry about him getting bored and trying to pick up bad habits. I know that sounds silly to say that of a golden retriever, because they tend to be less mature, but he really is ready. I think partially because we expected him to leave, so we worked really hard to get him ready.

But, now that King is old enough, we do get to start alternating weeks with him too. This makes it so much easier to work with them individually...  So I think Placer will get to work on those little things more effectively- like relieving on hard surfaces or learning how to stop shedding... oh wait.

Here's to another few more weeks/months with the Placer-Bear... and being down to 2 dogs. :)

...makes the heart grow fonder...

I've been gone from home for about a week for work/vacation. Judith got to stay home and my sister came to stay with her, while Placer and King went to the co-raisers.

Although it's been nice to have this week without 3 dogs, I realized something...

I miss them! I saw a Dalmatian in New Orleans a few days ago, and I really just wanted to hug it, just for the love of a dog...I miss it. 

I miss Judith's wagging tail when I get home. (and I do mean WAGGING)

I miss a cute puppy King sleeping on my feet.

And yes, I miss Placer's unawareness at how big his tail is while he's looking for love... (needless to say, we can't keep things on our coffee table, at tail level.)

I started crying the other day because I thought about Placer leaving... among other things that I have yet post on. What made it harder, was the fact that I didn't have his fluffy fur to cry into. I'm sure going to miss that big guy. We got the unofficial list on Monday for November 11th.

I don't think I'm ready for this.

But he is, and I'm sure he will do great!

Puppy ears

I love this guy's ears!

They are big, floppy, and soft.

I hope they stay like this for forever like Vinnie...

3 dogs + 1 X-pen

I'm not going to lie.

3 dogs is hard.

It's not as bad as I thought it would be- but I don't think I'll ever do it again for longer than a few days.

The X-pen is our friend... our best friend. Although, it is not King's friend. He does not like it. He likes to tell us that it is not his friend. Placer likes to push it around trying to get "his" toys out of it- it doesn't work in case you were wondering.

It makes me laugh when I talk to them and they look at me like I'm making perfect sense to them and they are listening.

"Placer, please stop pushing the X-pen in on your brother." "King, you don't need to jump up the side of the X-Pen."

They prove pretty quickly after I finish talking that they really weren't listening to a word I said.

No worries...We have a whole week to teach them how to interact appropriately again before Placer goes back to our co-raisers... and King will start going to our co-raiser's every other weekend this week. (We will be co-raising with Marnie's 14-year-old daughter, McKale for King. We weren't going to because Marnie just had a baby- but 2 days after I got King, they called and asked if they could co-raise again. Yes, please!)

Life goes on and they WILL learn- or at least I will. :) 

One more

Sorry for the millions of brags on Placer lately... Basically, I'm pretty sure no one else wants to hear about it and this way you can skip it if you want. So here is your fair warning... more brags on the Goldog. 

We had his final eval today. We had it with Sandi- who is not our regular CFR but because our CFR is out on medical leave, she is filling in. I think she is great. Very personable and you can tell she knows her stuff when it comes to dogs. She met us at the local mall and did the normal Q&A. 

Does your puppy do well in the crate?

How is his relieving habits?

Is your puppy on food protocol?

Not too bad. 

Then came "The Walk". I don't usually like this part because I get all nervous. I know... after 12 years  of raising- AND being a leader for most of those years- I still get nervous. I know that must transfer to my dog so I try really hard to just relax and do what we normally do.  I like to think that it works. I think I was even more nervous this time because I didn't know Sandi and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Anyway, it was time and she had me take off his headcollar (weird) and she walked him to the corner of the food court and did a few handling things. We got to watch and he did excellent! That's my boy! There was even another Service Dog in the food court and he did great. She then walked him out of the food court and out of sight... 

I felt like a mom waiting for her kid to get out of the ACT/SAT. 

About 15-20 minutes later she came back... with a very happy Placer. She said he did great! He was a litte nervous when she first had him, but once she walked for a minute, did was fine. He walked by some traffic outside and was great and did a lap around the mall. Good Boy! 

She said he's super nice and especially for a 12 month old Golden Retriever, did really well. We are super proud of him and can't wait to see how he does in training! We will be so sad to see him go... my co-raiser started tearing up a little when she started thinking about him leaving- which is bad news for me! I still try not to think about the sad parts of Placer leaving. I know he will do great and make us proud whatever he decides to do!

The "K" puppies are...

We got our letter the other day that had the official names of the "K" litter. There was a name change with the other male, of which we were exited because they used one of our names.

Without further ado... Introducing... The Phoenix and Mamie "K" litter:

King

Kipper*

Katyjo*

Kelty*

Kilda

Kyla*


*The names we submitted.

Kipper and Kyla are in California, Katyjo is in Washington, and we heard Kelty was donated to a school in Canada... so we're just missing Kilda.

Phoenix's next litter with "Aqua" is getting ready to go out soon. 8 pups. 6 male blacks, 1 male yellow, 1 female yellow... Remember how I always say I'm going to ask for a Male Black Lab? I'm not doing so great on that am I? One day we will have the same color hair floating around the house... one day.

Growing up...

Placer reminds me all the time of how much he's grown up. This last weekend King went to my co-raisers house while Placer got to stay here until Sunday night. Because puppy was being taken care of- Placer got to do some fun things this weekend- First, after my last post I started thinking about how I think Placer really COULD stay home alone longer than 30 minutes... With Phoenix we tried doing it once-- and it didn't work out so well (Good bye to a song book from my church mission, several magazines, and a basket that held them all.) so with Placer I've been a little nervous. With this in mind I nervously left Placer free in the house this morning while we went to church for a few hours this morning. I made sure all the doors were shut and toys were out and left. About half way through the service I realized I forgot to take the garbage out. I had some strawberry tops and banana peels in the garbage and was pretty sure they wouldn't be there when I got home...

This is what we found:

The happy guy hanging out in the hallway with a bone.

A happy Goldog and the garbage safely... still needing to go out- Fruit intact. What a good boy...


His other adventure was a trip to Salt Lake. Our puppy club rode the train, ate lunch downtown, then went to a show at the planetarium. Placer proved that he's going to show the trainers at GDB his best!

Under the seat on the train.

My brother with Placer on "Mars".

...and Aden and Placer on the "Moon".

I just can help being so proud of this guy and how well he is doing...

The last year...

I forgot to post about Placer's birthday... with all the craziness happening the last week... the Goldog decided to turn ONE on September 7th!

Placer got to go swimming in a pool about 3 weeks ago. He LOVED it... as long as he could touch the bottom.

We don't have him this week... but he did get lots of love for his birthday. We heard that he will most likely be leaving for formal training November 11th on the truck. Having King around has made that a little more real. We will be so sad to see him leave, but he's a really great dog and we think he will do great in training. Whoever gets him will definitely have to be a special person.

King is a pretty nice puppy (He reminds me quite a bit of Phoenix) but he definitely has brought back memories of how far Placer really has come. Placer has always been a pretty nice puppy- easy to have around, willing to please, and fairly confident... but he has had his "quirks". Here is a little look back at where he was... and maybe some brags on where he is now:

Placer was one of the hardest of my pups to get to sleep in the crate... now he LOVES his crate and we can say "Kennel" from almost anywhere in the house and he will run to his crate and wait for us to shut the door. Before he would cry and cry... now we will hear a loud "sigh" from him every so often- but for the most part he crashes.

Placer didn't quite get any of his commands very quickly... Now he's a pro. It took him a while- but now that he knows them- he's on top of it!

Placer used to run and hide when we pulled out his head collar- and by association- his puppy coat... now he runs to the door every time I grab my keys. He willingly will "help" put on his puppy coat and head collar  by putting his head/nose through it and doesn't try to itch or rub it off. He loves to go out and if I don't take him, he's not too happy. His favorite place is going to work...+

Placer was a garbage mouth and a counter surfer as a "teenager" (8-10 months)... now he's allowed to stay loose in the house while we leave him home for short trips. I haven't ventured to leave him longer, but I'm sure he would be fine. It's mostly me that is paranoid... he's always a perfect gentleman and is usually asleep when we get home- or at the door waiting for us with Judith.

Placer had some instances of relieving on walks when he was younger... and now he's reliable on long walks and will relieve on command. (I will admit- I'm terrible at keeping my puppies relieving on cement/asphalt so that is something we will be working on before he leaves because it's been a few months since we've done that.)

 Placer has grown up so much over the last year and we can't wait to see how he does. I love watching these puppies start as silly, energetic puppies... then turn into sweet, focused companions.

Here's to another year of growing...

9-week-old, King

Roll out the Red Carpet....

...Mr. KING has arrived.

 

He looks just like his daddy...Check this link out. They look like twins!

 

He's super sweet and does pretty well during the day... Yesterday I pulled weeds in the backyard and he just hung out with me. He even fell asleep in the gravel.

 

Night time, however, is another story. He's not so fond of the crate and thinks that crying for long periods of time opens a magic portal that will get him out... hasn't worked yet, but he's still trying. He probably has the smallest bladder of any of my pups which makes us VERY glad our house is tile and wood floors for the most part.

He is super sweet though and we sure love him already. Placer met him yesterday and will be coming back to stay with us this afternoon until Tuesday- then we'll be back to our normal trade offs on Sundays next week. He has some of Phoenix's characteristics and it's fun to notice them... it's hard not to compare. One of my favorite things- that I thought was REALLY weird about Phee- is that when he doesn't know what to do, he will just sit. If he's bored- he sits, if he's tired- he sits, if he's excited- he sits. Phoenix's breeder keepers said they noticed that about Phoenix- and now apparently his little boy is just like him.

Hopefully he starts to sleep at night soon- I don't know how much sleep deprivation I can do...

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day!

Baby crate is clean.

X-Pen is clean and dragged... to the back door (it will be inside tonight when I get home).

Baby puppy toys are out, but in the secret hiding spot so Placer and Judith don't get to them. (the puppy crate)

Buying more puppy food tonight.

Yay for baby "K" puppy coming.

Crossing our fingers that it's cool enough for "K" to fly in at 7:15- if not it won't be until 9:30.




Okay, I'm kind of ridiculous...

Yes, that's right, 3 dogs at our house

It's finally hitting me that maybe I'm a little crazy.

I keep telling myself that 3 dogs really isn't that bad- especially because I'll still be co-raising Placer so really it will only be every other week- And assuming he goes back the beginning of November- that's really only 5-ish weeks with 3 dogs.

It doesn't seem that long- but at the same time- I'm still a little nervous.

I think a lot of the nerves are because I don't like to have "doggie" stuff out in our living space and with one more dog- it's going to be a necessity. (It's probably a psychological thing. I don't want people to avoid coming to our house because it smells like dog, dog hair is everywhere, or dogs are just underfoot all the time. Any Psychologists out there want to analyze that?;) ) I don't mind the toys, and Placer/Judith do have a wandering dog bed- sometimes it's  hidden in the laundry room with the rest of the dog stuff but, sometimes it's in the Living room and sometimes it's in our bedroom, sometimes it's in our piano room, and it even went camping with us this weekend, but for the most part, everything is in the laundry room. I think I will have to accept the fact that to stay sane- at least for the first few weeks- I will have to drag the X-pen in the kitchen and have a baby crate in our bedroom. Sigh...
  
Anyone have any other suggestions? Especially to help limit the jealousy- although I'm pretty sure Placer gets jealous when I even look at another dog.

I think it will be great. It will be nice to have a pup that will be ready to go out when Place leaves... and we got pictures of them this weekend. They sure are cute! The males are about Phoenix's color, but the girls are a darker red. I'll post them sometime next week... Is anyone's club getting a "K" pup soon?

7 days...

I don't think I have to say more than that...

7 days.

He found a travel buddy so he's all set up and will be here about 7:00 next Thursday night :)

Birthday Boys...

Happy Birthday to Joaquin/Phoenix. 

Yes, that's right- these boys have more than just complimentary names... they share a birthday!

Joaquin turns 3 today and is in New Mexico, happily working with his partner, Crystal.

Phoenix turns 2 and is due to be a daddy again today with Black Lab, Aqua. These pups are lucky enough to share a birthday with some special dogs.

August 26th is a good day to be born.

We got the names for the "K" pups... I'll post them once they are all out to their raisers. They used a few of our female names, but none of our male names. We're a little sad we didn't get to name our puppy, but it's still fun to know the names of the pups and put bets on which name it will be :) We're thinking "K" will be here the evening of September 5th... and beyond...?

Meeting ideas Please

I just need help...

We need some new meeting ideas...

Training...

Games...

Socializations...

Help me out!

Waiting

I'm not a very patient person...

Obviously.


Apparently, Puppy raising is all about extending patience.

First, waiting for the final decision on Phoenix.

Next, waiting for Judith to come home.

Now, it's waiting for Mr "K".


Sorry, guys... I'm impatient.

(p.s. all I really want at this point is an arrival date... that's all... 19 days and beyond....?)

"K" name overload

Just about 3 weeks until Mr Yellow "K" comes... Here's the LONG list of names we submitted for the Males. (I had about the same about of female names.) Any bets on which 2 names they'll use?... if any...


Kacie
Kangley
Karmel
Karol
Kascade
Keeper
Kelso
Kelvin
Kendal
Kent
Kenzy
Kettle
Kibitz
Kibble
Kingslyn
Kingston
Kipling
Kirkland
Kitkat
Knight
Korelli
Krayola
Kresley
Kringle
Kentucky
Keil
Kennan
KalstonKirby
Kearsley
Krypton
KalelKendall
Kimball
Kearney
Kringle
Kipton
Kilmer
Kenton
KentKash
Kaddy
Kenzington
Kalipso
Kamino
Kemp
Knoxville
Knox
Keean
KruiserKrue
Kennedy
Kelson
Kelso
Kyon
Keno
KlausonKlipton
Kobe
Keegan
KramerKandor
Kong
Kelby
Kailand
Kacer
Kellen
Kayson
Kosmo
Kamas
Kaleb
Kodak
Kearns
Keats
Kansas
Kendall
Kingston
Kudos
Knight
Kermit
Kooper
Keaton
Kannen
Keane
Kedrick
Keefe (Keif?)
Kareem
Kai
Kyzer
Keegan
Knave
Kei
Koi
Kwinn
Kono
Kelland
Kingman
Kellan
Knocks
Kuade (Kwade?)
Kyson
Knoton
Kyron
Kye
Kazoo
Klayton
Kourt
Kradall
Klipper
Kipper
Kneader
Knave
Kailo
Kayak
Kallen
Klay
Knotts
Knicks
Khol
Kort
Kastle
Kurt
Kilroy
Kal
Kotter
Koslo
Kongo
Kershaw
Kipling
Kwasi
Kable Klondike
Keisel
Keymont
Kessler
Kleinfeld
Kevo
Karro
Keegan
Kirtland
Kirkland
Kinect
Koda
Karouso
Kelter
Kelto
Klayton
Kaden
Kimber
Kindle
Kam
Kinder
Kamryn
Koa
Kale
Kardashian
Kawaii
Kempe
Kitner
Kasey
Kace
Khaki
Katum
Kix
Kione
Karino

Why can't I just keep them both?

Quiet.

Placer is gone for the week at our co-raisers...

And we're puppy sitting a working guide Black Lab named Daniel (who is SO handsome by the way)....

It's weird how you can be sick all day, laying in bed or on the couch, feel like you're all alone-- with TWO dogs in the house.

Even if Placer was home and sleeping... he tends to wake up every few hours (or anytime I move) to make sure I'm alright... or that I'm absolutely, positively sure I don't want to play tug with or pet him.

The peace and quiet of having two big dogs that are both over a year old.

Not a usual thing for our house...

Confessions of a Lazy Tugger

Placer playing tug... laying down at his first day back on the job

This last weekend we got to head on up to San Rafael, CA to meet up with Phoenix's new family... and Placers litter mates at Fun Day. It was fun to get away- even if it was a super quick trip.

Don't worry that the litter mate pictures are on my husband's camera.. so you get my cell phone pictures for now.  Just picture 3 more Placers in the picture... all about the same size except one, the female- Palm. His brothers, Pacer and Pryor look just the same and both seem to be nice pups like Place. One of the raisers said that 2 of the "P" goldens (Peanut and Patriot) have already been CC'ed which surprises me with how nice Placer is and how well his other brother in Utah (Pilgrim) is doing. Here's our trip:

Placer in a Gas station in Placer County, CA

Alcatraz (his BFF and my co-raisers Guide Dog) and Placer 

We got to see Phoenix again. He wasn't too happy to have to wear his head collar, but he looks very proud to be a daddy and we even got to see his babies! (on the monitor, but still!) His Breeder Keepers are a wonderful family and love him a lot. Only 5 weeks until the puppies are ready for raisers! We can't wait to see what names they use! (We're hoping the really dark one in the middle is a Male.)

Mamie and the "K" babies on the kennel kitchen monitor.

Phoenix sure has some cute babies... Almost White to Dark Red.

He's Official now!  Getting his bandanna.

Place in San Francisco waiting for Rick to come out of Bubba Gumps with a Po Boy to hopefully share with him

The results after San Francisco

Placer and his new buddy, Griffin. We brought Griffin home for his new raiser.

 Overall, it was a fun trip and a nice vacation. Hopefully we get to take another trip out there sometime in the future to watch Placer graduate and introduce Mr. "K" to his daddy and his predecessor.

He does like her!

Tonight, as we were getting ready to go to bed, we let both dogs out and started on our nightime routine. Placer was acting super unsettled and started running from our room to the back door and barking. He hardly ever barks (if at all) so it was super weird. He got in trouble, but was really stubborn and kept at the back door. I started to think that something weird was going on in the back yard, so I opened the door to show him, nothing was outside that he should be worried about. As soon as I opened the door I was greeted by a very relieved little black lab. We thought she was in the living room sleeping this whole time! Good to know Placer is willing to risk getting into trouble to save his sister from camping out all night!

They're both inside and happy now...

Oh, and P.S. I need "K" names to submit for 6 puppies- 2 Males and 4 females! Born July 6.

Yay for Phee being a dad!

Jealous of Judith

Placer's trying REAAALLY hard to be a black lab... Can you see his black patch?

This is how everyone should spend their summer...

9-month Glamor Shots

About a month ago, Lindsey invited us to get pictures taken with Hallie and Savoy... Here are some of those pictures:

I love his cute tongue...

I just think this picture is goofy.

Isn't he handsome?

I love...

I love that we heard from Phoenix's breeder keepers.

I love that they had his grandpa Kentucky.

I love that they live so close to GDB.

I love that we will get to see him in July at Fun Day.

I love that they sent us pictures!

I love that he has a FAMILY!

Congrats to Phoenix for getting the best family for him and for getting to be a daddy! (They said they just dropped him off for a second round of "dates".)

I hope Placer gets just as lucky with his future person as all of my working dogs have so far. (I'm sure my CC dogs are taken care of, I just haven't had contact with any of them except Vinnie.)

All of them have been the best for that dog.

I love that GDB cares enough to take care of all their dogs!

It's not a muzzle, it's a headcollar

This is a muzzle:

or this:

Today, while I was putting Placers headcollar on him- getting ready to take him on his daily walk during lunch we stopped for a minute under a tree to wait for my co-worker. As we were waiting in the shade a woman yelled to me "Why does that dog have to wear a Muzzle? Is he mean?" 

Yup... yup- this 65 lb ball of fluff resting in the shade with a "Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy in Training" coat on, that I take every where with me- is mean.

Poor guy wasn't happy the flash went off in the middle of his nap.

 Hardly.

Speaking of the ball of fluff, he's doing great... now.

Ever since right before Judith came home (about 2 weeks ago), he's been showing signs of extra stress, which isn't like him at all. He's always been a chill-out, whatever kind of dog. We think he might have picked up on the change and had a mini freak-out. He didn't want to go anywhere, was having accidents, and puddles of drool just appeared.

Woah, woah woah!

Is this our Placer puppy? The one that loves to go with us? The one who would do anything for anyone that pets him?

Luckily, after house arresting him for a week and teaching him how live nicely with Judi... he's back to his normal self and much more relaxed again.

Like my co-leader explained it- It was just the "perfect storm"... He's 10-ish months old, a major change, plus he's a golden... all of that equals a very stressed out Placer.

We're so glad he's back to being his normal, happy self.

You know you're a puppyraiser when...

... You have loose kibble in your purse from a bait bag...

                                 AND... can tell which dog it's for by the size, shape, and smell of it.


Ah... my life...

Pointy-eared dogs

I decided recently that I just don't do pointy eared dogs..

Not saying that they're bad dogs... or people that like them are bad. I commend those who can- and do- successfully have a pointy-eared dog. They are very cute and I love that you can tell exactly what they are thinking just by their ears- but...I just can't do it myself.

I don't think I could have raised a Shepherd...

And my sister has a Chihuahua that doesn't like me or my puppies... 

But, since before we were married, my husband has been begging to get a husky... I had heard about their personalities and I KNOW these are not the dog for us. Too much energy, whining, barking, and just way too smart. (I prefer the ones that don't learn "Down" until they are 7 months old *ahem*JoaquinPhoenixPlacer*ahem*.) They are bred to work- and work HARD. We just don't have the lifestyle or patience to do it.

Because of this desire that my husband had, we agreed to puppy sit a 4-month old Husky puppy overnight, for a friend of our co-raiser (the day after Judith comes home- Poor Placer thinks he's being mobbed out of the house!). I know it was just overnight- but I was hoping she would be "husky" enough to deter him away from the breed.

Well... it worked.

He's officially stated he wants a LAB for the rest of his life. (He does love Place, and he definitely appreciates him more now- but his heart is still with Phoenix and Judith is quickly confirming his love. I knew she was sweet, but I had forgotten how perfect this girl is!) I've been trying to convince him that a Mastiff is what he really wants- but no go. I'm fine with that. I love my labs- and now I'm glad we don't have to "try" the husky thing once (for 10-12 years) before he believes me...

We just aren't pointy-eared-dog type of people.

(*sigh* She is finally not crying or barking or freaking out in any way... so what if maybe she's on the couch. It's not our good couch- it's the one we're storing for my brother from the thrift store... but she's asleep. *breath, breath*)