Who let Hoops out?

Last night we puppy sat Hoops! What a fun dog. He was different for us because he is a "big boy", and we always raise "little girls". Hoops is such a big blob of love. He is such a snuggler and he always wants to sit right in your lap. If you are sitting on the ground, all 80 pounds of him will come over and he will sit himself directly in your lap. He is really an awesome dog and he has a lot more energy then he lets on at puppy meetings. His tail never stopped wagging, unless he fell asleep.

The first thing Hoops did was he dove into Reyna's toy basket! He was so excited, he kept pulling out every toy, one by one until he found his favorite toy!

Hoops found his favorite toy! WOOOO HOOOO :) Actually he had two favorites. This one and the one in the photo below this. He was so proud of the toys he found that he would parade them around the house and show each and every one of us his prize. He played with Reyna's toys pretty much the entire night. If he wasn't doing that, he was either sitting on our laps or laying with Tyler.

Come back Hoopie......We miss you!

Life of a Career Change. . . . (No, not Reyna)

I don't have Reyna this week, so my posts get sort of random when I don't have her. I got some sad news yesterday that one of my best puppy raiser friends received news that her pup, who was in phase ten, was career changed. It was certainly hard news, but then life of a career change dog isn't so bad. Take a look at Starling, my career change. Starling thinks life of a career change is the best!

Reyna is 11 months old!

Today little Reyna is 11 months old. This photo was actually from the other day when it was Starling's birthday. Starling is our career changed guide dog. Starling turned three on February 21st. When it is Starling's birthday, we sing happy birthday to her and then she always gets a frosty paw. In fact, when Starling hears the Happy Birthday song, she runs over to the freezer and waits for her frosty paw. She is a smart dog.

When I look at this photo of Reyna, she looks very unhappy because she could not have a frosty paw. I felt really bad for her, so I put a birthday hat on her and took this picture. Some times being a guide dog in training means you miss out on all of the fun. Egh!

One other interesting piece of trivia about birthdays is that Reyna and Wendy were actually born on the same day, March 26th, just one year apart! Don't worry Reyna, you and Wendy will have another play date on your birtrhday. That is a lot more fun than a frosty paw!

Progess with elevators!

Reyna had a thing about going into elevators. The doors and the silver plate between the elevator floor and the door made her uneasy. Reyna would hesitate when she approached the open elevator door and many times she would refuse to enter. But now, after a lot of practice, she is comfortable and confident as she enters and uses the elevator. Our hard work has paid off! Take a look for yourself.

Practice makes perfect!

On Friday afternoon, my husband and I went out to lunch. I am going to brag on Reyna here because she has perfect restaurant behavior! We eat out a lot, so she has lots of practice. Smile. As soon as we were seated at the table, Reyna went right into position, which is under the chair. Reyna sits in front of the chair and I give her the down command, then I scoot my chair forward to the table. Reyna laid there under my chair the entire time. She fell asleep and she used the base of the table as a pillow. Way too cute! I put my camera under the table and snapped a photo of her sleeping under the table. I cannot express how nice it is to have a dog who just gets under the chair and falls asleep. I have had other dogs who I would have to give correction after correction as the dog went after every tiny crumb on the floor. Believe it or not, Reyna used to be that dog, but you know what they say, practice makes perfect!

Reyna Conquers Stairs!

A few months ago, Reyna refused to go down these stairs. She would just put on the breaks. She was having issues with shiney, slick surfaces and I don't know if you can tell, but these stairs are very shiney and slick, not to mention steep. We have been working with Reyna on this and it appears she has conquered her fear. Check her out as Tony takes her down the stairs. She is walking on a nice, loose leash and she is walking at the pace of her handler. Yay! She is confident and controlled and we are very proud of her :)

A post from Judi!

Miss Reyna has had a somewhat busy week, a walk and step up on the school bus with James. I was hoping to ride with him on Friday but found out he had Friday off so we took Reyna down to the local school, James bounced a soccer ball around her down the halls, introduced her to the playground equipment and she did fine.

Friday night we went to visit Elizabeth and Joseph. Reyna helped Joseph with his bath, and sat in his room while he played with his swimming pool full of balls she didn't touch one.

She was very good in Elizabeths room. She didn't try and pick up any of her little pieces of 'stuff" but was very interested in a pen with feathers on it. She tried to jump up on the babysitter who showed up to relieve me, but I think that was excitement around Elizabeth jumping around. Saturday we saw you at graduation and then spent a quiet night at home. Today we went to Angel's Camp to spray the weeds on our lot, I relieved her before we went but she never relieved the whole time we were there. We stopped in the new part of Copperopolis they have a"new" town square, and it was "dog" day they were having a Valentine's Dog day parade. Reyna did very well with dog distractions although one dog lunged at her and the people wouldn't move, I almost tripped over her trying to get her out of the way, but we recovered nicely. Long trip back and she has relieved three times so far now that we are home. Well the "Queen" is waiting for her dinner so I must oblige.

Playdate. . .Reyna and Wendy

Reyna and I went down to see Glenda and Wendy today. It was Glenda's birthday. We decided to let Reyna and Wendy have a play date. Today was the first day Wendy and Reyna have really spent any time together. Well those two had a blast together! We went to lunch, then they both played at Glenda's house with all of Wendy's toys. They were great with each other, and both of the dogs had a lot of fun together. It was neat to have the last pup I raised playing with my current pup in training. Both of these dogs have adventurous souls, so they make great play mates. Reyna respected Wendy as the "top dog", and I think Wendy enjoyed that. We walked down to the park and let the dogs play in the tennis courts, then we watched as Wendy practiced finding garbage cans for Glenda. She nailed every one of them. Then Reyna showed off her obedience for Wendy and Glenda. We put both the dogs in a sit, stay and Wendy broke her stay. Glenda repositioned Wendy and put her back in a stay and I was proud that during all of that, Reyna never broke her stay. I worked with Reyna on sit, down, stay, stand and come. I gave her all of the commands with my back to her and she responded to every command! I hope you enjoy the photos I took today.

Pups and Firefighters!

Tonight at our guide dog meeting, we had some surprise visitors. Three firefighters came with a huge fire truck. The first thing we did was go outside and walk around the fire engine with all of the noise and lights. Reyna did well, but she did have a reaction when she got close to the hot exhaust. We had to rework that a few times, but she was okay after that. Then Reyna got to meet two of the firefighters with all of their gear on. She LOVED the first firefighter, who is the one shown the above picture. She was not afraid at all and she just enjoyed visiting and smelling his suit and gloves.

Next, Reyna met the second firefighter, who was a little more scary looking. He had on a full face mask with the oxygen. As Reyna approached him, the air from the mask went right into her face and she decided he was a play toy. She was so excited and she had so much fun with the air that was coming out of the mask. I think it was a combination of the air hitting her face and the sound it made that got her so happy. She was not misbehaving in anyway, she was just having fun with the guy in a very appropriate way. Reyna did not have a one ounce of fear. She was just confident and happy! Here are some photos of Reyna meeting the firefighter in the oxygen mask.
Reyna thinks pups and firefighters were made for each other!

Wonderful Day!

I wanted to post something today about Reyna's week, but I am waiting on some photos from Judi, so maybe that will happen tomorrow. Instead, I will tell you about my day today. During the week when Reyna is at Judi's, I tend to spend time with Wendy and Glenda. Today I went down to Glenda's and I brought Starling (our career changed guide dog). Since Wendy grew up with Starling, we thought it would be fun if they had a play date. We got to Glenda's and Wendy was really excited to see Starling again. Wendy was showing Starling all of her toys, and trying to get Starling to run around the house. Starling is not one to break the rules, so Wendy had a very hard time convincing Starling it was okay to run around in the house. Starling started to run with Wendy, but then she looked up at me and decided against it. Then we left Starling at Glenda's in the crate, and we went out to a very nice lunch. We went to a nice cafe and sat outside because the weather was so beautiful. We both had a fabulous salad. There was not much room for Wendy under the table, so she had to lay next to the table, and it was pretty cramped on the patio but Wendy did great. After lunch, we went back to Glenda's and got Starling and we all went for a walk. On the way to the park, Glenda decided she wanted to teach Wendy a new word "Trash Can". So she used the clicker to have Wendy target the trash cans when she was given the command. First Glenda showed her what the trash can was, and clicked and treated her when she found it. It only took one or two times and Wendy was finding all of the trash cans along the walk way. I would tell Glenda when a trash can was coming up, and then she would tell Wendy "trash can" and Wendy would take Glenda right to it, every time. Here is a picture of Wendy finding the trash can for Glenda.

Wendy has been with Glenda for two months now and she knows the following words: home, mailbox, park, crosswalk, tennis courts, water fountain and now trash can! After that, I did some off leash obedience with Starling while Glenda and Wendy watched. Then we let Starling and Wendy run around and play together. They had a blast! Starling taught Wendy how to play "find it" with the Goughnut stick. Wendy would find the toy and touch it with her nose, and Starling would actually find it, retrieve it and bring it back to me. When we got back to Glenda's I showed Glenda how to use a grooming tool on Wendy and we use some Miracle Groom on her as well. Then both dogs took a long nap and Glenda and I had a chance to visit for awhile. I feel so fortunate that I have developed such a strong friendship with Glenda. It is truly a puppy raisers dream. Wendy and Glenda are the perfect match! Wednesday is Glenda's birthday, and I will be taking her out to lunch with another puppy raiser and one of the board members from Guide Dogs. Today was just a wonderful day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have Reyna this week, but I went to the graduation at Guide Dogs yesterday and Judi and James were there with Reyna. Emmylou, a dog who was raised in our group graduated and it is always fun to go support members of our club. My nieces were with me, and they both love dogs, so I thought it would be fun for them as well. Graduations are always so hearwarming, espeically if you know a student or a dog in the class. It is also a great place to take your pup in training from a socialization perspective. There are large crowds of people, a long period of time in which the dog is required to be patient and quiet, and of course, all of those awesome dogs!

I sat across the isle from Judi, James and Reyna and I was able to take a few pictures. Maybe some day Reyna will be on that stage:)

As graduation was ending, they brought out the demo dog who was Divine! What an honor. Divine was raised by one of my favorite puppy raising friends, Lynn. I grabbed my camera and started running around taking pictures so Lynn could see her. She was so happy and her tail never stopped wagging. She just looked wonderful, she is the cream of the crop! Wendy was the demo dog the graduation prior to her class, and now Divine has followed in her footsteps, so let's hope she gets into class this week. Lynn wasn't able to be there to see Divine, so I made this video for her. (Sorry Lynn, for making you cry!)

Outing at Blackhawk Plaza

Yesterday, Reyna went on an club outing with my husband, Tony. The outing started out with all of the raisers switching dogs, then they drove over to Blackhawk Plaza. This gave the pups a chance to ride in a different vehicle. Part of this outing was that you could not work your own dog. This teaches the dog to be responsive to all handlers. Lynn worked with Reyna.

As you can tell, Reyna did not mind at all working with Lynn. Reyna loves her! When they arrived at the Plaza, the group walked around the Plaza and they took the dogs into several stores.

Then, they worked the dogs around the ponds, exposing them to ducks and geese.

They did stair work with the dogs.

Then they worked on dog to dog interactions.

They also worked on down, stay. Reyna did very well throughout the entire outing!

This picture of Gayle and Romeo is too cute! I just had to put it on the blog.