The newest puppy raiser

Meet Camden.

We like him... well most of us do. King isn't quite sure yet and Lana has been at the sitters so she hasn't met him yet.

Who couldn't love that face though? But really both of those faces...

House arrest: day 8

I think this one is getting real tired of this staying home stuff...

When I get ready to go in the morning, she will go sit by the door then when I open the door she pushes her head against the glass door to try to sneak out with me... poor puppy!

Last night I took her on a car ride and that seemed to make her happy, but I think she's just one of those dogs that's born to go.

...or maybe she just likes being with me.

Either way, she still has 20 more days of house arrest.

Terrific Two's

In all the craziness I'm a bad dog mom and forgot to wish King-a-roo a Happy 2nd Birthday! We felt pretty lucky to get to raise Phoenix which got us this cute guy- and now we feel even more lucky that he's our forever dog!

We sure love this big, yellow, HAIRY boy- and wouldn't trade him for anything. He's going to be a fantastic big brother!

House arrest: day 3

Poor Lana Lou... on house arrest for the next 4 weeks or so.

It will be a little nutty around here with the baby coming sometime in the next 2 weeks and her in season, but we will get through it... somehow!

All the Single Raisers

It's been a while since I've raised my own puppy... and in the last 2 months we have gotten to experience it again first-hand.

Our co-raiser decided it was time for her to go back to GDB to get a new Guide Dog so in preparation for that, we are now Lana's only raiser. It's still weird sometimes remembering that we will still have all 3 dogs next week. Sometimes when I plan something that would be really great to take a dog to, I still think "Will I have her that week?" then I remember I have her every week.

It's been fun, but an adjustment. A few things that we've learned having 3 dogs again:

- It's easier to have 2 dogs and 1 puppy in training than to have 1 dog and 2 puppies in training (see last time we had 3 dogs- Judith, Placer, and King.)
- Judith is ALWAYS the boss... then King... then Lana. Although Lana sometimes will try to boss her way up to the top of that ladder. King is wimpy sometimes.
- Sometimes crate time is necessary to continue with sanity.
- Cleaning up the back yard more often is critical to having a somewhat alive yard.
- There is never enough water in the water dish.
- When people come over, at least one has to be on tie-down or in the crate... usually two. 
- There's always a dog around.
- There's always a dog around.
- There's always a dog around.


We sure love all 3 of our pups, even if it gets a little nuts.  I will be a little relieved for the break over the winter, but I'm sure come spring puppy truck time, I will be itching for some puppy breath!

13 going on...

Happy birthday this past week to the cutest Black Lab on the block.

We sure love having her around and are so lucky for this girl to keep us in line.

J-K-L

From right to left the Saturday nap in alphabetical order:

...and that can't be comfortable, Lana! 

Almost Placer

I can't believe it's been a year since we've seen cute Placer-boy. I heard from them the other day and it sounds like they are doing well and working hard. I love that.
Emails and phone calls like that make my puppy raising heart happy. I don't know if the recipients of our dogs know it, but it makes my day to hear how they are doing.

While Placer is up guiding in Montana, his brother, Pryor lives here in Utah with his blind person, Patti. She is a sweetheart and invited us over to play last week.  We loaded up all 3 dogs and headed to their house- about 20 min away.

It was a fun time for all the pups... she has a retired golden guide named Sonoma that Judith enjoyed being an old lady with and King, Lana, and Pryor loved chasing each other around. It was strange seeing Pryor- who looks just like Placer- and not having him recognize me. He sure is a handsome boy. :)

Needless to say, they were all crashed out by the time we left. I think Lana put herself to bed by 8 and didn't make a peep until 8 the next morning. (She's usually an early riser.) Here's some pictures of the fun:

Spring!

King has been enjoying the warm weather when he can. (It snowed 2 days ago but was 55 yesterday.) He and Lana love to go out and run... Judith will even take a few laps with them before her sunbathing. They are starting to get that "outdoor-sy" smell... its also the time of year for shedding. That means a grooming session... for the big dogs, they get to go to a groomer friend for their "de-shedding" and Lana hasn't quite started blowing her coat so she will get a good furminator brushing. We are hoping for less hair in the house... but with 3 big dogs (I use big loosely in relation to 39 lb Lana and 50 lb Judi) hair is what happens.

Canines and Cupids

Last Friday, our club had a booth at a local doggie daycare facility. They have had us before and its always great exposure for the dogs and people. There is usually a pet photographer that will take free portraits of the dogs that attend. Here are my cute puppy's pictures:

Puppy trading

This is cute Kite. She came with Lana on the puppy truck and was originally intended as a starter pup for her family. So far, they are planning on keeping her until recall. She's a nice girl- very female golden-y if you know what that means, but her raisers have done a good job with her.
We will have her until Tuesday and Lana Lou gets to come back for the day then to the co-raser's house. Hopefully Kite stays this nice for us... her only fault so far is she sounds like a barking toy puppy at 3 am for about 15 minutes then goes back to sleep. She will learn...

King doesnt mind sharing... but in the bottom picture Judith was laying on her bed making sure Kite didnt get to it. 

Thoughtful Thursday

Lana Lou

Meet the newest addition to our Guide Dog family... Lana. I know I've introduced her before since she's been a puppysitee, but we are officially co-raising her now.  She is currently 5-months-old and adorable! Her daddy is the same and Placer (Franklin) so that will be fun. :)

She is my first girl in a really long time so we will see if there really is a difference (Since Monet- 5 years ago!) I really jut love that the boys tend to be more cuddly and more forgiving. We just decided we'd better take advantage of the chance to co-raise with Marnie again because a) she's an awesome co-raiser and b) we are going to have a 2-legged baby in July!  We are super excited, but I couldn't see myself getting a brand new puppy in May then having a baby 2 months later. I know I'm crazy but I try not to be too crazy.  :) Any help or suggestions on raising a puppy and having a baby would be greatly appreciated.

Lana will be 10 or 11 months old by the time the baby comes so that will be a good age. :)

Welcome, Lana Lou!

"The King Has Returned"

(100 points if you know what movie the title came from.)

I know its been 2 weeks since he's been home.

Life has gotten crazy between holidays, my grandpa passing away, and prepping for the new semester...

School starts tomorrow so hopefully we will be as normal as we can be right now.
:)

King is enjoying his new life as a couch potato. (As you can see from the pictures.) We are puppysitting 14-month-old FYL Dune for a few days and he has been great with her. She's a little bit of a higher energy dog and King will get the energy out with her outside and come inside and lay down on the dog bed when he's had enough. I'm pretty happy having him back... Judith is too. I was a little nervous because Jude is definitely an only child type dog, but she actually doesn't mind him and he is totally respectful of her.

We start officially co-raising Lana next week so we will see how that goes. Updates to come...

One-way ticket home

Well... Kingaroo decided that coming home would be much more fun that being a Guide Dog. The official reason was Relieving (surprised at that one) and Body Sensitivity (not really a surprise). We always said the body sensitivity would be what got him, if anything.
GDB checked into a few other jobs for him, but most required a jacket and we all know how that would go... so next week he's coming home.
We are sad he decided not to be a guide dog- but are so excited to add him to our family. We are hoping to do something fun with him like nosework, rally, or agility. He's a fun dog and Judith will be happy to have a brother she can boss around.
Where does that leave puppy raising?
Well, in January we will start co-raising Lana the golden. She's a super sweet girl- and just opposite of the Male Black Lab I was hoping for. Ha... oh well. Between King and Judi's hair- it won't really matter.

Phase 6!

You're almost there King!

This phase is work in more urban areas... and pre-matching starts now. Here's hoping his perfect match is ready for the best Guide Dog ever soon!

Keep going, Kingaroo!

Puppysitting-palooza

Remember how we took 3 weeks off of puppysitting? Well apparently its 3 weeks off = 3 puppysits. :) for the last week we've had Volt (10 month old Black Lab) and Lana (4 month old Golden) then for the next week or so we will have Yanni...

It actually wasn't super terrible- both Lana and Volt are super nice dogs and we just did the crate/tie-down trade off. We will see how Miss Judi fairs after all this... Yanni is a 15 month old pup so I'm not TOO worried.  He's also a Phoenix pup so it will be fun to have him.

Phase 5!

And this is why King's trainer is totally my favorite person right now!

They updated paperwork even with the holiday. Phase 5 is when he's really starting to make decisions and even gets to do a few blindfold walks.

Keep going buddy and we will see you soon!!

Holiday training

I think everytime I have a dog in training over the holidays, I remember why I don't like having a dog in training over the holidays.

Today King was hanging out in phase 3 again, which is fine, but I realized he will probably be stuck there for the next few weeks until after Thanksgiving.  Then comes the Christmas holidays and it seems like they gets stuck in a black hole again.

I guess as long as he's there, no news is good news...

Keep going King!

Phase 3

This morning Kingaroo showed up in phase 3! That's exciting... I'm still crossing my fingers for him.

He gets to take his preliminary test this week with an instructor under blindfold. Reading about that in the phase descriptions reminded me of the workshop we just went to in Colorado a few days ago. We watched a few videos of dogs in training and how they train them... I thought of King while we were watching them. They used quite a few yellow labs about his color in the videos- adding to me missing him.

Just keep up this rate of training and I'll see you soon, Kingaroo. :)