Vida de Vienna

Photo Shoot

2011-01-09T19:35:00.001-08:00

Food avoidance training

2011-01-08T11:16:00.001-08:00

On Thursday, I decided to go help Glenda work with “Wendy” on some food avoidance training. Wendy has had a few people sneak and give her food from the table, etc. and Glenda wanted to reinforce the fact that Wendy should be avoiding food from strangers. I thought this would be a great opportunity for Vienna as well. So I brought Vienna with me and we ended up working with both dogs. To prepare for the training exercise, we seeded the floor with several food items. A piece of bread, pita chips, peanuts, a crumbled granola bar. Wendy was first up and we place a long line on her. We let her explore the area and when she went for the food she got a verbal and/or leash correction. It didn’t take her long at all to remember this “game”. It was as if a light bulb went on and she was like “I remember this.” When she made the decision to walk past the food on the floor, we would praise her like crazy and give her a piece of kibble. She did really well with that, so we made it harder by added some yummy lunch meat on the floor, and then told her to go into a down stay, with the meat very close to her. She never went for anything on the floor. So we praised her and gave her kibble. Next, we made it more difficult by going out of sight. We did this for a very short time, then went back and rewarded her. We slowly built up the time in which we were out of sight. We were able to do it for three to four minutes and Wendy didn’t even try to eat the meat. What a good girl. Glenda was so proud of her!

Next up was Vienna and we started with just the basics on the floor (no meat). She went for it once and I gave her a correction. Then she realized what I wanted from her and she avoided the food completely. She didn’t even want to walk in the kitchen. With a little enticing, she would come in, but she wouldn’t even look at the food. Next, I put Vienna in a down stay with the food all around her.

When she made the decision not to go for the food (or even look at it) she was praised like crazy. She was such a fast learner and she wanted to do it right. She was doing so well that I pushed a piece of bread between her front paws. She did not react at all. So more praise for Vienna!

Next, I decided to put the meat on the floor. She went to sniff it when I put it down but I gave her a little correction then she completely ignored it.

At this point, I knew we could start going out of sight. We stepped out of sight for about 30 seconds, and when we came back this is what we saw. Vienna would not even look at the temptation! PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE!!!

We were able to work Vienna up to three to four minutes with us out of sight and it was not even a challenge. Because both of the dogs did so well with this, we took them one at a time and offered them the food from our hands. Now that was a little more tempting, but with a few little corrections, both dogs were turning their heads and backing away from the food. At the end of the training session, we took a picture of both dogs together. Didn’t they both do a great job?

Finally an update!

2011-01-08T10:03:00.001-08:00

Wow. I can’t believe how long it has been since I have posted about Vienna. She is still the sweet, awesome, easy pup she has always been. She is growing, finally, and she is now 43 pounds. We took her to the vet on Thursday to have her evaluated for Pano. Every now and then, we noticed a “catch” in one of her back hips, so GDB wanted to rule out Pano. Our vet did the evaluation and ruled out Pano, now we need to figure out if this is just normal grow a growing pup or if it is some more serious, like hip dysplasia. We will wait to see what GDB wants to do now, and hopefully they will order some x-rays so we will know for sure.

Over Christmas, we went to my Mom’s house. Vienna did wonderful being in different environment. In fact, it didn’t even phase her. There were a lot of people there, different routines, etc. and she took it all in stride. She even let me take a few Christmas photos of her. Take a look:

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and you are having a happy New Year!

Reyna’s Graduation

2010-12-10T10:04:00.001-08:00

Two days prior to graduation, I was able to connect with Carol, Reyna's handler on the phone. She was a very nice lady from Alabama and Reyna is her second guide. She is a rehabilitation teacher for the blind and she works for the State of Alabama teaching braille, O&M, computers and independent living skills both in home and at a center. I was excited to hear she was employed and worked everyday. This is the first time one of my pups has gone with someone who worked, so I was very happy about that. She has two masters degrees, one in education and another in theological studies. We talked on the phone briefly, but we kept getting disconnected. We had a very upbeat conversation, and she was an outgoing, friendly person. She liked that Reyna was a very well mannered dog, and she also loved that Reyna had a kick to her personality when she was not in harness. Carol said she had exactly the same personality! She said that when people meet her they think that she is very nice and good with people, but as you get to know her, she has a kick to her personality as well. She was so impressed with Reyna's guide work as well. She did share with me that her first guide died tragically, but I will not go into that here on the blog. Carol was very happy that we were all coming to Oregon for the graduation.

We all met in the visitors center then shortly after we were escorted by GDB staff into the dorm. I was totally fine until we started walking to the dorm and I started thinking about seeing Reyna again and I could not hold back the tears. They put each family in separate rooms which was so nice. Reyna's following (all eight of us) gathered in the computer/ reading room which was a pretty big room. Yes, it was obvious by the number of people there that Reyna was loved! A trainer then came in and told us Reyna and Carol would be there shortly. He also told us what a great job we did raising Reyna and what a wonderful guide dog she has become. Then the moment came and Reyna and her partner entered the room.

It was really nice because Reyna was not in harness, and she was allowed to just go nuts! I greeted Reyna's handler and she immediately handed me the leash.

As soon as that happened Reyna was jumping with excitement and she was giving me all kinds of kisses. She was moving so fast that she blurred the pictures

She had a huge smile on her face and she was so happy she almost jumped in my lap. Then she went to each person who was there and did the same thing. She went up to every person as if she was saying "Oh my gosh, you came too" and then she would turn the next person and the next person until she greeted all eight of us! She really was beside herself with happiness.

She kept coming back over to me and giving me her paw. She insisted that I hold her paw, and if I let go she would put it back in my hand. Check out that tail!

Then she would put her head in my lap. Then she would roll over on her back for a belly rub.

Then she decided she needed to give us all kisses.

After all of the kisses, Reyna snuggled in Tyler's (my son) lap and she fell asleep. She was so content to be in his lap again. He just sat there on the floor with her for a long time.

I really appreciated how Reyna's handler just turned over the leash and let her be happy and excited to see us. Seeing Reyna so happy made her handler very happy and that was so good to see. After we visited for a while her handler gave us each a book (that had to do with dogs) and in the inside cover she wrote us all a special message.

The book I got was The Art of Racing in the Rain. Inside the front cover it said:

Dear Stephanie,

Your love and careful training of Reyna has really helped to create a marvel of a guide dog! I am so privileged to have this great gift. Thanks to each of you for being willing to let her come to me after you have invested so much time, energy, consistency, love and devotion to her training. With deep gratitude...

I cannot express how much that meant to us that she wrote a special note for each of us and she really understood the roles we all played in co-raising Reyna together. It didn't take her much time to write that, but the impact it had on all of us made it worth it for us to raise her and then give her up.

In fact, it was so good to see the bonding that had taken place between Reyna and her handler. Reyna could not take her eyes off of her, not even for a second for a picture!

It was so clear that Reyna was happy and that meant so much to me. I went from feeling a little sad to feeling so much joy for both Reyna and her handler. I asked Reyna's handler what she asked for when she applied for her second dog and her trainer said she asked for "Reyna". He said it was that good of a match!

We had some gifts for her and Reyna also, so we gave her those. I made a photo book of Reyna's puppy-hood and she LOVED it.

She still has some sight in one eye (tunnel vision) so she could actually she the photos! Reyna's trainer was with us most of the time and he really enjoyed looking at the photo book.

Then Reyna got about seven brand new toys, and she was happy about that! We continued to visit for quite some time. During this time, Reyna's trainer started telling us about training her. He was clearly in love with Reyna and he kept going over to her for kisses and affection. He said he had been training guide dogs for 13 years, and Reyna was one of his favorite dogs he has ever trained.

He even had a nickname for her, he called her Rey Rey. The emotional connection between the two of them was so strong. He said Reyna was one of the easiest dogs he has ever trained and that she learned everything the first time he showed her. He told us about a time when he was teaching her over head obstacles, and he showed her what to do with the clicker one time and she had it. Usually they pattern the dogs over and over again for the proper response, but not Reyna. She was such an over achiever. He said once he introduced the clicker, she progressed at warp speed.

I guess that explains how she went through training and class in 2.5 months! Her trainer also told us that when they do final testing on the dogs there is a rating scale they use. He said Reyna passed all of her final tests at the highest level possible! Wow, that was pretty neat to hear. But he said she failed her first obedience test because she did the command before he asked for it. LOL. Yup, she is our little over achiever! He laughed as he told as about that! He felt so strongly that Reyna and her handler were a perfect match and he really wanted me to know that.

He said they had 12 class ready dogs and they had narrowed it down to 9 dogs for this class. They needed six dogs. He said there was never any question about what dog Reyna's handler would receive. He just verified the pace was right, and it was a done deal! He also told us stories about going into the kennel in the morning and how Reyna insisted that she worked with him first. She loved the work that much. He said a lot of the dogs do that, but Reyna was much more convincing then the other dogs, and it made her so happy, so he would take her first. He said she had such a love of learning that it made his job so easy. He asked me to raise another dog just like her and send her up to Oregon!

We got our photos taken then we went into the auditorium for the graduation. There were six graduates and we were the first ones up.

Reyna's handler said a few words, and myself and one of my co-raisers spoke.

I said something along the lines of when you raise these pups and they return to GDB we miss them all like crazy. But then, there are some dogs who you not only miss, but who leave a huge void in your heart. Reyna was one of those dogs. I expressed my happiness and joy, and told Reyna's handler that I know losing her first guide left a huge void in her heart and I think GDB picked the perfect dog to begin to fill that void back up again.

I LOVED the Oregon graduation so much more than San Rafael. Having now participated in graduations on both campuses, Oregon is so much more personable and much less systematic.

After graduation, we hung out with Reyna and her handler and I got to see Reyna work a little bit. She was totally amazing!

We had planned on taking Reyna and her handler out to dinner after graduation. The GDB staff suggested a restaurant for us. There were two other graduates who were by themselves. One of them did not have his puppy raisers there and the other one did have her raisers there but they had to leave shortly after the graduation. So we decided to invite both of them along for dinner so they weren't left by themselves in the dorm. They were Mojave's handler and Novak's handler. So we all went out to a very nice dinner. It was the first time all three of the handlers had taken their dogs out on their own. It was really exciting.

I cracked up when we got to the restaurant because the first thing all of the graduates did was order a beer! I guess they couldn't drink while they were in class and they were so happy to have a drink! We all visited for a couple of hours over dinner, and all of the dogs were so well behaved. It was fun getting to know everyone.

As we left the restaurant, it became clear why Reyna was the star of her class. Her guidework and confidence was so far beyond what would be normal for a new guide. She has super high initiative, and you can see how proud of herself she is as she does her job correctly.

We dropped everyone off back at the dorm and then it was time to say goodbye. That was hard for us, but we knew we would see both of them again as Reyna's handler invited us to come to Alabama! I heard from Reyna's handler yesterday and she told me about their flight home and how free she felt as they walked through the airport. They hit the ground running the day after they got home and they went to work. Reyna did well, but I think it was a bit too much of a change for her because she developed diarrhea the next day. Probably just stress from all of the newness. Her handler is going to call me in a few days to let me know how she is doing, and she decided to take a few days off of work to let Reyna adjust to her new environment.

That is it for now! We are so proud of Reyna and we are excited for her and Carol to start their lives together!

Off to Oregon!

2010-12-02T17:01:00.001-08:00

Well, the time has finally come! Tomorrow morning we are off to Oregon to go to Reyna’s graduation. I am really excited to meet her handler and to see Reyna again. I am also looking forward to seeing the Oregon campus, because I have never been there before. I will tell you all about it when I get back next week. Hope all goes well

Reyna’s Progress In Class!

2010-11-23T09:51:00.001-08:00

Yes, that is right! I got the call. Reyna is in class and will graduate on the Oregon campus December 4th! I could not be more pleased :) I am amazed she has gone through training and is in class in 2.5 months!! That's the fastest I have seen a dog go through the process. I am so proud of her! I guess it is time to start getting ready for my trip to Oregon :)

Vienna Update

2010-11-19T09:32:00.001-08:00

For the past few weeks, I haven’t posted much about Vienna. That is because we haven’t been doing much of anything. Vienna had to have surgery, and she is still not back to herself yet. She still has an upset tummy. So until she is completely back to normal, we have been totally laying low. She has been sleeping a lot, just taking it easy. We are in the process of changing her over to a new food to see if that helps, so hopefully that will do the trick. She has been on rice and cottage cheese for so long that she is starting to look boney. So right now I am just trying to get a food that agrees with her tummy, and get some weight back on her. Hopefully, I will be posting about some new adventures soon!

Reyna’s Progress. Phase 8. Week 2.

2010-11-19T09:20:00.001-08:00

This is Reyna’s second week in phase 8. It is strange to think that one year ago in December, Wendy graduated with her partner, Glenda. Maybe Reyna will graduate in December, too! I can only hope for a match like Wendy was so fortunate to get. That match is so totally perfect, I can only hope for the same thing for our little Reyna! So I continue to wait….hoping that some good news comes soon

Reyna’s Progress!

2010-11-11T11:36:00.001-08:00

Well, our girl did it! She is now in Phase 8! I am so proud of her and I hope she continues to do well and that she finds a good match. Of course, as a puppy raiser, I worry about who Reyna is paired up with. I hope that it is someone who is not too serious and it is someone who can appreciate her fun personality. She has a personality that fills up a room, without being too over the top. She is pretty perfect and I can’t wait to hear about what comes next for her. Good luck my little girl!

Home Depot Shopping

2010-11-08T18:01:00.001-08:00

Today we took Vienna out for a little shopping at Home Depot. She has been just resting over the past week because she had to have surgery about a week ago. She is doing fine, and I am starting to do some socializing with her again. Of course, she did great and she was happy, calm and confident. She is really such an angel and she is so easy to take along. We walked over several different surfaces, met a few people and ignored others. I think she was just happy to get out of the house and do something. We worked on walking nicely on leash, which she did perfectly. Vienna is just a really cool dog! I am so lucky to be raising her

Reyna’s Progress!

2010-11-05T23:37:00.001-07:00

11/4/2010 – Reyna – Phase 7!!

Woooo Hooo! Only one more phase to go. These last couple of phases make me really nervous because I have heard of several dogs who were dropped in phase 8 recently! You never now how things are going to work out. So it is basically just a waiting game at this point. If she does make it to graduation, I will be taking a trip to Oregon! That seems so strange being from California. I am so used to the San Rafael campus. It will be neat to see the Oregon campus, at least it will be something new and different. I know a few puppy raisers who are interested in going to Oregon if that happens. Glenda and Wendy definitely want to go with us because Glenda became so close to Reyna while I was raising her. I shouldn’t peek around the corner, and I know I just need to wait to see what happens

Reyna’s Progress!

2010-10-28T09:12:00.001-07:00

10/28/10 – Reyna – Phase 6

Reyna is moving right along in training and is now in phase six. I am really excited that she is progressing so well in training. That must be because she has an awesome trainer! I have no idea who her trainer is, but they must be doing a great job with her. They are probably getting ready for her final testing. I hope Reyna keeps up the good work

Somebody’s Teething!

2010-10-27T20:10:00.001-07:00

Mr. Perez is losing his teeth! Today I found blood on his Wishbone and one of his molars! He has been chewing a lot, and I think he has actually lost about three teeth since he has been with us. But I was only able to recover one of them . He ate the others :) Yum…Yum. Tomorrow is his last night with us and I bet he will be soooo happy to be with his family again! He is made a lot of progress with us and he does try really hard to be a good boy. But it is like he has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. And you just never know what you are going to get. He is really a big sweetheart of a dog, but I can’t help but think that he would be happiest running on a big ranch all day. I can just see him running in the fields, playing with other animals and swimming in a pond fetching a stick. Yep, that’s it. If guiding is too boring for him, he can be Perez the ranch dog. Oh, and he is WAY too smart for his own good!!

Our Little Vienna Sausage!

2010-10-26T22:07:00.001-07:00

Here she is! Our little can of Vienna Sausage. More to come later…

Sneak peak!

2010-10-25T18:36:00.001-07:00

Well, our club Halloween meeting is tomorrow night and I am putting the finishing touches on Perez’s Halloween costume. His costume was inspired by his name. He will being going as “Senor Perez”. For those of you who don't know his personality, it would be sort of like dressing up Marley from “Marley and Me” in a costume! This shall be very interesting :) Stay tuned for a sneak peak of Vienna's costume. Any guesses what she might be? It is also inspired by her name!!

Reyna’s Progress

2010-10-21T15:53:00.001-07:00

10/21/10 - Reyna – Phase 5

Poor Mr. Perez!

2010-10-18T16:59:00.001-07:00

Today I had to take Perez to the vet. I was doing puppy handling over the weekend with him and I noticed a strong yeast smell coming from his right ear. So I cleaned it really well and there was a lot of brownish discharge. I watched it closely yesterday, but it seemed to be getting worse, so off to the vet we went. I realized the one thing I did not get from Perez’s raiser family was his vet information!

Perez was such a busy boy at the vet. Just FULL of energy! We tried to get his weight but he would not stop wiggling. So our best guess at his weight is 36 pounds. When we got into the exam room, I put Perez up on the exam table. He was nervous up there at first. He only relaxed if I was standing right next to him or if I was touching him. I got a couple of cute pictures while we were waiting for the vet.

He was pretty good for the first few minutes, but then he started to get mouthy and he tried chewing on his leash. Silly boy!

I had to put a stop to that, and Perez wasn't very happy about that. My son Tyler stepped and to console him a bit, and this is how they spent several minutes together. Ah, now isn’t this sweet?

The vet finally came in and took an ear culture, and Perez had a pretty bad yeast infection in his right ear. We got two medications, so hopefully Perez’s ear will be better in a week or so!

Meet Mr. Perez!

2010-10-17T15:39:00.001-07:00

I have a new puppy in the house! Perez will be staying with us for two weeks while his raiser family goes on vacation. Vienna will be staying with Judi, my co-raiser. Perez is the polar opposite of Vienna personality wise. Also, he is about three times the size of Vienna, although they are only a few days apart in age. It is sort of a nice change though. Although he is a “busy” boy, he is a good boy who just needs a little direction. He has been here for three days. The first night was a bit rough, but he is now settling in nicely. Here is a picture of him being such a good boy on tie down.

Perez enjoys bouncing his Kong. He LOVES to throw the Kong and then watch it bounce. Here is a picture of him just as he threw it down and it started to bounce.

Perez is adjusting to our house and we are getting to know him. I look forward to our adventures in the next two weeks!

Reyna's Progress

2010-10-14T22:04:00.001-07:00

10/14/10 - Reyna - Phase 4!

I was excited to get the phase report today because Reyna is offically half way through her training. I hope she continues to do well. Keep it up little girl!

Can you believe it? 29.8 pounds!

2010-10-11T21:54:00.001-07:00

Vienna had a vet appointment today for her final shots. When we got there, they were pretty backed up, and they were also dealing with an emergency. So we had a bit of a wait before we were seen. Vienna enjoyed sitting in our laps as we waited. We held her because she was not fully vaccinated and the vet office id full of sick dogs! The employees laugh as Vienna had rolled on her back in my lap and sprawled out. They said she was the most relaxed dog they have ever seen at the office. I was excited to be there because I wanted to see how much weight she had gained since her last visit. She has had some issues eating when we first got her, so she seemed to be a little behind weight wise. Last time we were there she weighed 18 pounds at 12 weeks. Well, after what seemed like a long wait, we finally got her on the scale. And what do you know, she had gained 11 pounds! Good girl Miss V. When we finally got in a room, I put Vienna on the exam table. She was sitting up for a while, but as the wait got longer, you can see the progression in the photos below.

Patiently Waiting….

Still waiting…... .

More Waiting….

Fell asleep waiting…….

Finally the vet made it in and gave Vienna her Rabies and last Distemper shots. The Vet said she was really impressed with how well behaved Vienna is. She gave Vienna some love and then she was done!

Vienna says, where’s my treat? Don’t I get a treat for all of that people? Ugh.

I am excited that she is now legal and I don’t have to worry about where I take her. Adventures, here we come!

Art and Wine Festival and Dogs!

2010-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took Vienna to the Art and Wine festival. I know she is young, but I knew she could handle it and if it was too much we were fine with just leaving. This was a great experience for her because it was one of her first real exposures to crowds. I thought the crowds would be more of a distraction for her, but they really weren't. She was distracted a little bit if someone made a huge fuss over her, but other than that, she was a champ. They had a live band there, so she was exposed to loud music for the first time. It didn't phase her in the least. And, of course, there were also a ton of dogs at the festival! I was careful to keep Vienna away and not let her greet the dogs. I got a little video of Tony walking with Vienna at the fesitival. In the video, a Bassett Hound shows a lot of interest in Vienna, and Viennna does a great job of not getting overly distracted as she keeps walking by without a problem. Pretty good for a little pup! Take a look.

Reyna's Progress!

2010-10-07T16:44:00.001-07:00

10/7/10 - Reyna - Phase 3

I am happy to report Reyna is in phase three of training. Every Thursday when I get the phase report, I have such mixed feelings. I am exicted and anxious to see her progress for the week, but I am also sad because it is another reminder that she is no longer with us. Wow.....I really miss her this week. It looks like it has been raining up in Oregon. Imagine that! Well despite her name, Reyna really dislikes the rain. I guess she'll get used to it eventually :)

Tennis Court Fun!

2010-10-04T22:35:00.001-07:00

Today Vienna and I went down to visit Glenda and Wendy. We thought it would be fun if we took Vienna for her first run in the tennis courts! The tennis courts are a great, safe place to let your dog off leash for some real running. Wendy gets to do this quite a bit, but this was Vienna’s first time and I wasn’t sure if she was going to be as enthusiastic about it as Wendy. It is about a 25 minute walk from Glenda’s house to the tennis courts. So Vienna was tired when we got there. Glenda took the harness off of Wendy and I took off Vienna’s puppy coat. And then…….they were off! Wendy took of running and Vienna was right behind her. They ran around the courts and Vienna was having soooo much fun!

Vienna followed Wendy around for the most part. Where ever Wendy was, Vienna was not too far behind. It was funny to watch Vienna run because her legs are so long right now and her coordination is off. She would be running right along side Wendy and then all of a sudden she would just fall down. Sort of like she was tripping over herself. Poor little girl. But then she would pop right back up as if nothing even happened.

Vienna had no idea that she couldn’t run right through the tennis net. It was the funniest thing because she was running all out with Wendy and she was headed straight for the net. At the last minute, Wendy turned quickly and went around the net, and Vienna ran straight into the net! She went flying into the net and then sprung off of it like a rocket! I don’t think she had any idea what hit her. I rolled on the ground laughing so hard, and Glenda wondered what was so funny. I tried to explain it through my laughter, but it was one of those things you really had to see. She actually did it one other time, and then she finally realized she had to stop when she got to the net. It is so much fun watching her explore her world for the first time!

After that, Glenda did some obedience work with Wendy and Vienna. They were really excited, but the both managed to focus. Here is Glenda working with Vienna and Wendy on “sit”.

Here Glenda is working on recall with the dogs. What good girls!

Glenda gave both the dogs some water since they had been running around a lot. Here is a picture of Vienna drinking water out of Glenda’s hand.

Once both pups where refreshed with water, they both just walked around the court together. They were pooped out, so they just wouldn't run anymore. But they still had a great time wondering around together!

I think it is safe to say that Vienna LOVES the tennis courts. I think we will back here another day for some more fun :)

First trip to Petco!

2010-10-03T21:42:00.001-07:00

We went to Petco yesterday to get Vienna a new toy since she has been teething. My husband carried her because she has not had her final shots yet. Plus, there is a Parvo and Kennel Cough outbreak in our area. Fun, huh?

So we ended up at the sterile bones, and we let Vienna explore the bones a bit. Some of the sterile bones were stuffed with a meat type filling. Of course, that is the kind Vienna wanted, but we had to convince her that she wanted a plain old sterile bone without that yummy filling!

As we were leaving, we stopped to let Vienna watch the birds. She was so cute just sitting in my husband’s arms staring at the birds as she was trying to figure out what they were all about. These birds were not only moving around a lot, they were also very noisy! Vienna handled this just like she does everything, like a puppy mature way beyond her age!

Puppy Teeth, Puppy Teeth!

2010-10-03T21:24:00.001-07:00

Vienna is teething and she has lost four teeth so far! I must be crazy, but I think puppy teeth are so adorable! I just had to get a picture of her cute little teeth. You can tell from the picture that she is about to lose a few other teeth on the top. And do you know what amazes me? How quickly her permanent teeth come in once her puppy teeth are lost. I really love this part of puppy raising!

Training in cars

2010-10-03T21:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Vienna got some practice with riding calmly in different vehicles. She always rides in my car without any problems, so I thought I would take the big diesel Ford F350. It is just a big loud truck, and a totally different experience for Vienna. The first problem we encountered was getting in. I can barley get into this truck, and if it weren’t for the running boards, you could just forget it. So basically there is not way Vienna could get in own her own right now. So I just pick her up and put her in. That is probably best for her joints anyway.

Vienna started in a sit on the floor board of the front passenger side of the truck. As we drove down the rode a bit, she started slowly sinking into a down. She laid there with her eyes open for a few minutes, then her sleepy face came over her and I knew it wouldn’t be long before she was sound asleep.

At first, she curled into a little ball on the floor. Then the dream barking started. Even though the truck was loud and bumpy, it didn’t stop Vienna from falling right to sleep.

Before I knew it, she was sound asleep in that half pretzel position she just loves so much. She is such a well adjusted little puppy and nothing really bothers her. Not even the roar of a diesel engine! Looks like we can start working on something else!

Reyna's Progress!

2010-09-30T12:26:00.001-07:00

9/30/10 - Reyna - Phase 2

GDB Homecoming!

2010-09-27T22:02:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I went to GDB’s Homecoming with Glenda who has my third puppy Wendy. We also decided to take Vienna along at the last minute. I had to work on Friday, so we didn’t get to the Hotel in San Rafael until around 5:30pm or so. We checked in and before we even had our bags in our room the phone rings and it is Vickie Kennedy and all I hear on the other end of the line is “Aloha”! Yes, Vicki is from Hawaii and she has been a GDB board member for many years. She invites us to come have cocktails and cheese in her room. You just got to love her! Glenda, Wendy, Vienna and I finally made it down to Vickie’s room where we enjoyed a glass of red wine and a cheese plate and just visited together. Vickie’s puppy raiser Gayle (who is my good friend) was also there with us. It wasn’t long before Morgan Watkins and his puppy raiser Nona joined us as well as Susie Cherry who was later crown “Homecoming Queen” at the dinner. Fun! We all visited and chatted and Morgan wanted to hold Vienna. So here are few photos of Morgan and Vienna together!

We all hung out together until about 7:45pm, then we went to dinner together. At dinner, a few others joined us. Barry Stone who produced the move “Sniff” and his wife Kim, as well as the star of the Sniff, guide dog “Mikey” and his handler. Paul Walker, GDB’s alumni board chair and his guide dog “Avanti” also joined us. Here is a photo of some of us at dinner.

Vienna did not come to dinner with us. I left her in the hotel room in her crate so she wouldn’t be too overwhelmed! When we arrived back in our room after dinner, Vienna was sleeping. Vienna did such a great job in the hotel room during our entire stay. Here are a few photos of Vienna our hotel room:

See, Vienna REALLY is an angel! Look at her halo. No Photoshop involved :)

And here is my all time favorite photo of Wendy from the entire weekend. I love, love, love how spoiled she is. She deserved it!

This is a picture of Vienna's first ride in the elevator. She was so good!

After Glenda and I chatted in bed for a while, we both fell asleep well after midnight. Room service called and woke us up at 6:45am asking us how we wanted our coffee! So we got up and went to relieve the dogs. No accidents! Yay Vienna. After we had our coffee we went down stairs to breakfast, and as we were looking for a place to sit I saw Lynda and Tamera. Tamera is the first puppy I raised and I have not seen Lynda or Tamera since their graduation three years ago. I walked over to Lynda and gave her a hug, but I did not greet Tamera because she was still working. At first I thought maybe Tamera forgot who I was because she was so serious and she didn’t not acknowledge me at all until……..Lynda took her harness off and handed me the leash! Wow…what a reunion we had. Tamera reacted the exact same way she did when I saw her at graduation. She was jumping in the air, slamming herself into me with excitement. She would not stop giving me kisses. Over and over and over again. She went so wild, that people around us commented on how crazy she was acting, and then someone (I don’t know who) told them I was her puppy raiser and we had not seen each other in years. The people stopped and one started crying saying it was the sweetest and most emotional thing they had ever seen. Pretty soon I had an audience watching of guide dog volunteers and guide dog users. One of the volunteers from GDB actually held Vienna for me while Tamera and I reunited. Eventually, I had to make Tamera calm down, because she was getting a little too nuts. She rolled over on her back and I laid on the floor and rubbed her tummy. After she settled, I was able to get a picture of her. Boy, did we really miss each other!

After all of that excitement, I barely had time to eat before the panel discussions began. Glenda and I did manage to scarf down some breakfast though. I saw Megan and Pasta and Sarah and her pup at breakfast. The discussions lasted about three hours. Vienna was an angel in a room full of 80 guide dogs. She stayed right at my feet and did not fuss or make a sound. Everyone around us was so impressed she was able to do that being only three months old. And so was I quite frankly. There were active guide dogs whining and having more trouble than Vienna. I couldn’t believe it! Take a look for yourself.

See what I mean? No whining to go outside……nothing. She just hung out with the big dogs like it was no big deal! After the panel discussions, we met Lynda and Tamera for lunch. My husband and my son joined us, as well as Glenda and Wendy. We had to drive two cars to the restaurant, so I ended up taking Lynda and Glenda. It was quite comical as we were walking from the parking lot to the restaurant as I attempted to give two blind ladies directions at the same time. It sounded something like this. Glenda turn left. A few more steps, ok, now Lynda take a left. Then one of the dogs would just think they knew where we were going and they would start off in a totally different direction. Then it was “Everybody Halt!” I would go get the one that was off track and resume our walking. Pretty darn funny to anyone watching. But it was pretty stressful for me. I am completely used to directing one blind person and a guide dog because I do it all of the time. But directing two at the same time really challenged my verbal navigation skills! Needless to say, we all made it safely into the restaurant. We had a wonderful time catching up with each other. Lynda and I talk on the phone every now and then, so we didn’t have three years worth of catching up to do, but there was plenty to talk about. Here is a photo of me, Glenda and Lynda with our dogs outside the restaurant.

I think they are both very beautiful people, don’t you? I am so lucky to have them in my life. I felt very honored to have THREE of my dogs at Homecoming! My first, my third and my fifth!

After lunch Glenda and I went back to Lynda’s hotel room and we visited. It was nice to have this special time with both of these wonderful ladies. While we were there, I took a picture of all three of the dogs together.

They took the harness of both Wendy and Tamera and the dogs played for a bit.

We made it over to GDB around 5:30pm, went to the gift shop and then got a glass of wine and visited with everyone. I saw Dianne and Hibiscus, Marybeth and Tennyson, as well Jen and Nixon. It was so nice meeting everyone from the GDB Lounge, and I hope everyone enjoyed Vienna! We took our seats for the dinner and sat for awhile and visited. Then a student in class came out and asked if she could sit with us. We welcomed her to our table and heard about her first week of class. She was matched with a dog named “Rhea”. I am not sure if I am spelling that correctly. She was a very nice lady who had tried to find out if her puppy raiser would be at Homecoming, but no one would tell her. She was a retrain student and we very much enjoyed talking with her. I went over to see a few other friends at other tables, and they asked me to bring Vienna over. So, of course, I did. Before long, I had requests from every table around me to see Vienna. I went around to everyone one by one and let them hold Vienna. It was so wonderful because just holding Vienna brought such great joy to each person who held her. I love how puppies do that. People were even holding Vienna on their laps getting and posing for pictures. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. Vienna handled it very well and did not get stressed in the least. She was happy to just be flopped from one person to the next!

After dinner and the awards were over, we went back to the hotel and went to the hospitality suite, which was so packed you couldn’t get in. So Glenda and I went to the bar for a drink. Not long after we were there, Lynda called and I went over to get her so she could join us. Glenda and Lynda have the same eye disease, and they have a lot in common so I just sat back and listened as they both talked about their lives and their experience with blindness. This is a photo of Tamera while we were at the bar. Yep, she’s tired!

Glenda left when her husband came to pick her up around 9:30pm or so. Then Lynda, Tamera, Vienna and I went back to the hospitality suite and chatted with some very nice people until around 11:30pm or so.

Lynda took the harness off of Tamera and she gave me the leash and Tamera and I just sat on the floor together snuggling. I had Vienna snuggling on one side, and Tamera on the other. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

Lots of firsts!

2010-09-26T18:59:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went to GDB’s Homecoming and it was filled with all kinds of firsts for Vienna! It was the the first time she stayed the night in a Hotel, it was the first time she experienced an elevator (she got a lot of practice with that!), and it was the first time she was around over 80 working guide dogs! It was also the first time she attended a meeting / seminar. She was the youngest puppy in attendance, and she was just as well behaved as all of those older, fully trained dogs. It was also the first time she met my first guide dog puppy Tamera, who was there with her handler Lynda. And it was the first time I have seen Tamera since graduation three years ago! (Yes, she remembered me and she went nuts!).

I’ll have a post about Homecoming soon. Just wanted to share some of Vienna’s firsts with you!

Reyna's Progess

2010-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

9/23/10 - Reyna - Phase 1

Well, she made it. She is finally in a training string and is currently in phase one! I see her brother Rolex, is still in the back class waiting. Hopefully he will be assigned to a string soon. This is a happy day :)

More restaurant work….

2010-09-20T19:36:00.001-07:00

Recently, we took Vienna out to breakfast. She has been in a few restaurants and has done very well, so I decided to take her to a more challenging place. The reason this restaurant is more challenging is because it is VERY busy, VERY small, and the floors are always full of distractions!

Because of all of this it took Vienna a few minutes to settle. But before long she found her usual spot right on my foot. She loves feet by the way. She just likes to be really close to me and she like to be touching me. This seems really sweet, and it is, but I don’t want her to become so attached to me that she doesn’t want to be on her own. So I asked my son, Tyler to take her for the rest of the time we were there. I thought for sure that within a few minutes, Vienna would be inching back over towards my foot. But to my surprise she did not do that at all. Instead, she laid down very nicely between my son’s feet. But she did not insist on touching his feet. I was really proud of her! Especially for not going after every piece of food on the ground. Good job Miss V!

Fake Service Dogs

2010-09-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

Over the past two days, I have seen FOUR fake service dogs. The first was in a restaurant. Picture this. A woman who looks as if she is entering the Miss America pageant walks in to the restaurant pushing a pink stroller. Inside the stroller was a little purse pal type of dog, who was wearing clothes. The dog was even wearing rhinestone jewelry! On top of the dogs clothing, there was a little jacket that said “service dog”. Really? A service dog dressed in clothes, wearing jewelry and being pushed in stroller. Ya, right lady! People obviously don’t realize how stupid they look. The very fact that the “service dog” was being pushed in a stroller and not walking on its own four paws is a dead giveaway it is not a true service dog. I am sure if I asked this woman, she would tell me it was a “emotional support” dog. However, if she really knew anything about service dogs, she would know that therapy dogs do not have access rights.

One of the other fake service dogs I saw was today while I was shopping in Costco. We were checking out, and I heard someone question a lady about why her dog was in the store. Her husband pipes up and tells the store employee that it is a service dog. So I looked over and I saw yet another little purse pup who has no vest on what so ever. The dog was laying in the area of the cart where you would normally put a young child. The dog was laying on a pillow while it was being pushed in the cart. Come on people! If you have to push your dog in a damn cart, it is likely not a service dog!

I seem to have a radar for spotting these people, and when I see them it really upsets me. And it makes it difficult to train a real service dog when these little dogs are yapping, growling and barking at you. Besides the fact that this is completely illegal, it reflects badly on legitimate service dog teams and makes it harder for them to have their access rights. Service dog teams are granted access rights for the dog to help the person do something they cannot do themselves, or cannot do without great difficulty. Actually, dogs do not have public access rights, only person with the disability has these rights So what makes service dogs so different? First off, they have had at least 18 months to 2 years of intensive training, and are proofed to extreme levels. These are not just well behaved dogs, they have to be trained to such a degree that you can stake your life on them. They are also extensively groomed and very healthy to a level that it is safe for them to be in public places. This is not something that most pet owners have any real concept of. These dogs go through so much training to earn the right to be in public places, and it is very upsetting to see some one just take there pet and throw a service dog vest they bought on line on the dog and bring them in public places. That brings me to another way you can likely tell a real service dog from a fake one. If the dog is a true service dog it will have a harness on or a vest with the name of the organization from which it was trained. The vest does not just say “service dog”. I realize service dogs are not "required" to where a vest, but why wouldn't you have your dog where one if it was truly doing a service? It is easy to tell the vests that are bought "online" vs. ones that are issued from a school or legitmate organization. I haven’t even mentioned the problems these fake service dogs cause our real service dog teams. I also don’t think these people realize the liability they would have if their so called service dog injured a real service dog. In fact, I am willing to bet that they have no liability insurance on the dog that is supposedly providing them service. I am also willing to bet they think they are covered by their homeowners insurance, but homeowners insurance will not cover you when you are doing something illegal. Actually, these people probably have not even thought about their liability if their dog hurts another service dog. They are pretty much cluless! These people just need to keep their dogs out of places where they do not belong! Thank you very much :)

The Back Class

2010-09-18T18:01:00.001-07:00

It’s strange to me how we find out information about our pups who are in training. Reyna has been in phase 0 for three weeks and I have been wondering what was going on with her. My leader told me that Reyna was being recalled to Oregon because they “needed dogs”. I wondered why if they needed dogs for training so badly, many of the dogs sent there from San Rafael where just sitting in phase zero? Well, I think I found out what is going on with Reyna. But it was not from a leader or CFR, it was from a fellow blogger! Martha G went to the Oregon campus today for an outing with her puppy club. She found out that when Oregon recalls dogs, they recall two classes. One class goes straight into training, and the other is what they call the “back class”. The back class waits for a later string to start training. I am not sure why they do recall this way, but I am sure there is a good reason. If someone knows why, please enlighten me. During this time, the back class works on obedience, and gets used to different collars, such as the head collar, etc. Reyna will need some extra work with the head collar, so maybe this is a good thing! I am so happy I finally got some real info. on my little girl. Thank you, Martha!

Progress with the head collar!

2010-09-18T15:36:00.001-07:00

I have been working with Vienna for a few weeks to get her acclimated to the head collar. We started off with the head collar protocol and did that for about a week. I worked her up to where I could buckle the head collar, but the collar was still loose. Vienna wore the head collar around the house just getting use to the feel of it. The next week, I continued with the protocol, but this time I actually fitted the head collar. She did well with that as she wore it around the house and played with it on. I tried to make sure she was doing “fun” things when she had it on. After several days of doing that, I started walking her with the head collar on, (but the leash was not attached). Well, that is were we ran into problems. She acted out in the typical way dogs do when they don’t care for the head collar. She pawed at it like crazy and basically just refused to walk at all. I worked with her over the next week, and she became much more accepting of it. A few days ago, I attached the leash to the head collar and started talking her on short walks. We had a really positive first walk, and Vienna didn’t fuss about it at all. I have been walking her with it on over the last few days, and she has completely accepted it. No pawing at her nose, no trying to rub it off on my legs, no refusing to walk, nothing. So it appears as if we have finally conquered the head collar. That was quite a process, but it goes to show you that if you go slow, and take it a step at a time and don’t try to rush the puppy, they do adjust to it.

I personally do not like using head collars because I like a dog who does not need some sort of apparatus to behave nicely on leash. I think of the head collar as a band aid and it doesn’t address and fix the issues. People also become dependant on head collars and that is not good. It is important that raisers work their puppies with a head collar as well as without so the dog and the raiser do not become dependant on it. Vienna by no means “needs” a head collar, but Guide Dogs asks that raisers get puppies in training accustom to wearing one. Many graduates use head collars, so the puppies need to be accustom to wearing one just in case their handler chooses to use one.

I was very happy with Vienna’s walk today because she acted as if she had never had an issue with the head collar. I am really proud of her progress, she did great!

On our walk I had an opportunity to work with Vienna on some different surfaces. One of the surfaces was a metal manhole cover. She walked right over it without any issues. Yay! This was so nice since my last pup had so many surface issues. We ended up working her through them, but it was sure a lot of work! Vienna has been such a nice puppy to raise so far. Let’s hope she keeps it up!

Vienna’s first movie!

2010-09-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

Tonight we took Vienna to her first movie. We played it safe and saw “Easy A”. Being just three months old, I thought Vienna was way to young for a movie. This was a homework assignment from my club and I was told that I should take Vienna even though she is still such a baby. I was worried because I wasn’t sure she would settle and I was concerned about her having an accident. Normally, I wouldn’t take a puppy until it was around 4-5 months old. But there is really nothing normal about Vienna. She is just a very well behaved puppy who seems to be mature way beyond her age.

We got there really early and got seats at the very top of the theater so we would have more leg room. I brought a little blanket for Vienna, hoping she would just curl up on it and fall asleep. And you know what? That is exactly what she did! She literally slept through the entire movie. I had to wake her up when it was time to leave.

I have to admit, that I carried her out of the theater because she had been sleeping for almost two hours and it was a LONG walk to get outside. I was thinking prevention here. As I was leaving the theater a young man came up to me with the most serious look on his face and asked me if he could have Vienna! Ya, right, like I was just going to hand over my puppy. It was funny because he did not have any expression on his face, like a smile or anything. He just asked me with a totally straight face if he could have her.

We made it outside and I found the closest relieving area, and Vienna immediately did her business on command. She walked the rest of the way to the car with the sleepiest little face and a sleepy little walk. What an angel!

Reyna’s Progress

2010-09-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

9/16/10 – Reyna – Phase 0

All of the dogs who went to Oregon are still in phase 0. Maybe Oregon is not as good at updating phase reports, who knows! I miss you Reyna. I hope you have a nice trainer and that you are learning lots of new things :)

Shark Attack

2010-09-15T22:34:00.001-07:00

Vienna helps with bath time!

2010-09-15T19:48:00.001-07:00

Tonic immobility in dogs?

2010-09-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

Tonic immobility, is a natural state of paralysis that some animal species enter by turning the animal upside down on their back. The animal can remain in this state for up to 15 minutes. You have probably heard about this in sharks, if you have ever watched “Shark Week” on the Discovery channel. But this is not something that has been observed in dogs, until Vienna came along.

I noticed it the first day I got her. I held her in my arms and she rolled on her back. Then she flopped her head back, rolled her eyes back in her head, and her entire body went limp and she didn’t move a muscle. She stayed like that until I rolled her back over. Over the next few days, if I picked her up and rolled her on her back, the same thing kept happening. She went into a state of Tonic Immobility. Whenever she is getting a little wound up, I can just roll her on her back and she instantly goes motionless and limp until I roll her back over. It reminds me of the sharks I saw on TV who did the exact same thing when they were rolled on their backs. In fact, some killer whales have figured out that when they roll sharks on their backs, they don’t move. This has become a hunting strategy for them. Pretty interesting.

Vienna goes into this state consistently, every time someone rolls her on her back. I find that most of the time she rolls herself on her back when she goes to sleep. So, even though research says tonic immobility does NOT occur in dogs, I think I have proof of it laying right here at my feet.

Yesterday, I told Stephanie about it and she wanted to give it a try. The first photo was taken right after Vienna was turned on her back, and the second photo was taken a few seconds later.

So there you have it. Vienna may go down in history as one of the first dogs who can go into tonic immobility! Maybe I should let the breeding department at GDB know about this one :)

Vienna hangs out with the big dogs!

2010-09-13T09:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Glenda, “Wendy” and Stephanie came over and we went to lunch and had pedicures, then we went for a nice walk. I decided to let Vienna come along with us to lunch. In some ways, she is still such a baby, and in other ways she is like a mature guide dog. She is physically still so small, but her behavior makes me think she is older than she is. I have to keep reminding myself she is only three months old! Before we went to lunch, Vienna and Wendy hung out together. They were pretty darn cute. A real guide dog, and a little puppy in training who is full of potential.

We went the restaurant, and both Vienna and Wendy settled nicely. Here are a few photos of Vienna while we were at lunch. She really has this restaurant stuff down!

And here is Wendy:

After lunch we went home and dropped off Vienna, then we went to get pedicures. Wendy was so good and just laid by Glenda’s side while we were all pampered. We came home, then we took Vienna and Wendy for a walk. Vienna did really well walking and keeping up with Wendy. She also did a good job walking on leash and staying at my side. I was impressed with how long she was able to walk without getting tired. She was exposed to a variety of things such as traffic, people, bicycles, other dogs, strange noises, water and even some ducks! It was fun watching her discover the world! It was also great spending time with such wonderful friends :)

Vienna plays with her Goughnut!

2010-09-12T22:38:00.001-07:00

Tonight while Vienna was on tie down, she started playing with her Goughnut. I thought it would be fun to get a little video, so here it is!

Bonding in the kitchen? I think so!

2010-09-11T21:22:00.001-07:00

So I am enjoying Vienna entirely way too much! Can you tell?

This was Vienna as I was cooking dinner tonight! She is way too sweet :)

Sorry about the pictures of my feet! It is not something I would normally put on a blog, but I had to make an exception tonight. I am actually getting a pedicure tomorrow with Glenda and Stephanie (and Wendy, too!)

Ready for Restaurants? You bet!

2010-09-11T12:44:00.001-07:00

Last night, we took Vienna out for the first time to a restaurant. We went to Pasta Pomodoro. I took Vienna here with Stephanie a couple weeks ago, but we played it safe and ate outside. Very low risk. But Vienna was perfect and just slept through our lunch.

Last night we were brave and decided to eat inside. Last week Vienna finally got a puppy coat that actually fits her, so the timing seemed right. However, I was totally prepared to leave and get our food to go if it didn’t go so well. As we were seated, I placed Vienna in a down (we are still working on that command) underneath my chair.

To my surprise, she settled right away. Well, I guess I wasn’t that surprised considering her personality, which is very content and easy going. After a few minutes, she just fell asleep and I barley knew she was there except for the occasional repositioning she did to get comfortable throughout our dinner. Take a look.

This was just too easy. She is such a wonderful little girl. Our homework from our club this week is to go to a movie. Hmmmmm……I have never taken such a small pup (3 months old) to a movie before, but I was told she could do it so I will be taking her this weekend. I’ll post about how it went next week. Hope everyone has a good weekend :)

Reyna’s Progress

2010-09-10T11:32:00.001-07:00

9/9/10 – Reyna – Phase 0

Fun things about Vienna!

2010-09-10T10:11:00.001-07:00

She snores - Loudly!
She belches
She talks to her toys
She talks in her sleep
She stores kibble in her cheeks for late night snacks
She hops away from her food bowl, then hops back to eat
She LOVES to sleep on her back
She goes into a tonic trance she lays on her back (like a shark)

Hard day at the office

2010-09-08T21:25:00.001-07:00

Vienna has been going to the office with Judi, my co-raiser. By the looks of it, it seems Vienna has been working really hard at doing one thing……sleeping on her back! She also snores really loud, so hopefully the customers don’t hear her! Check her out:

From what Judi tells me, she has been really good in the office most of the time. Not to shabby for a three month old little pup, huh? To me she looks like a professional sleeper! LOL. Good girl little Miss V.

DRIVE - New GDB Command

2010-09-05T21:34:00.001-07:00

Vienna is one of the first puppies who is learning a new command that will be very useful for her future partner. Vienna was chosen to be in this new pilot program where we teach puppies the “drive” command. This is Vienna the day we picked her up from GDB practicing the “drive” command. Not bad for her first time, huh?

* Disclaimer – This is all in fun and GDB has no such pilot program. But that would be really something if they did! I just had this cute photo and wanted to share it.

First Puppy Class!

2010-09-02T21:57:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, Vienna went to her first puppy meeting. She was excited to see all of the dogs, but she quickly settled in and laid down at my feet. When the meeting started, I volunteered to demonstrate an engagement exercise called stop, start, change direction. Vienna had only done this a few times, but she did fine. The idea behind this exercise is to have your dog really paying attention to your movements. You do not look at your dog, and you are completely silent. You take two steps and stop, then change direction. Your dog should stay at your left side, and just “follow” you. It is sort of like a dance with your dog. You do not correct your dog if it is out of position or if it pulls ahead. You just change direction and start again. I have been doing this with Vienna for the past few days, and she is really focusing in on what I am doing and she is learning to stay in position.

After that, I demonstrated a chin cradle which is a technique to help calm a puppy. That was about all little Vienna did during the meeting. She then curled up in a tight ball and slept for the rest of the meeting. Here are a couple of pictures:

Oh, I should mention that I have changed clubs! I am now with a brand new group that just formed in Danville called the San Ramon Valley Guide Dogs. The change has been exactly what I needed. This club is a lot smaller than the Contra Costa group. We have approximately ten dogs and a fabulous leader :)

Vienna’s first vet visit

2010-08-30T17:51:00.001-07:00

We took Vienna to her first vet appointment this afternoon. She was due for her second round of shots and a general check up. The first thing they did was get her weight, but that took a minute or two because she kept moving. Once she settled down, we found out that she weights 18 pounds.

She was so skinny when we picked her up from GDB, and she wasn’t eating well. But we never weighed her prior to today, but I have a feeling she has put on a few pounds. At least I hope that is the case. I am really hoping before too long we are not able to see her hip bones anymore.

Next was the dreaded temperature. Vienna was soooo good. She did not even make a sound or a wiggle while the vet tech was taking her temperature. Everyone was very impressed!

The vet came in after that, and Vienna and the vet met for the first time. Vienna makes sure she feels loved by giving her a kiss right smack on her lips! The vet pretty much instantly fell in love with her!

She gave Vienna an exam, and listened to her heart. She told Vienna it was a good thing she had such a healthy sounding heart because she has a really important job to do when she gets older.

Tyler held Vienna as the vet gave her the vaccines, and again Vienna didn’t make a wiggle or a whine. Good girl, Vienna.

After Vienna was done with her appointment, Tyler gave her a great big hug and kiss for a job well done! I hope all of her visit go as smoothly as this one did :)

New blog name!

2010-08-30T16:59:00.001-07:00

Since as of yesterday, I am no longer raising Reyna I thought it was a good time to think of a new name for what is now Vienna’s blog! I am sure I will still post updates on Reyna as I get them, but primarily I will be sharing my experiences with little Vienna. So I racked my brain trying to think of something that related to raising puppies that started with a “V”. Everything I came up with just didn’t work. Visiting Vienna, Vivacious Vienna, Victorious Vienna, see what I mean? They all pretty much sucked. Then I told my son, Tyler, I was trying to think of a new blog name and he just rattled off with “Vida de Vienna”. Which means “Life of Vienna” in Spanish. So just like that, we have a new blog name thanks to my son. Thank you Tyler! Let me know what you all think of the new name.

A sad day and a heavy heart.

2010-08-29T22:38:00.001-07:00

Today was recall day for Reyna. This day never gets easier and Reyna was no exception. We spent most of the day with her hanging around the house, then we went for our last walk together. We went out to lunch, and then around 3pm we headed over to San Rafael. We checked in with the kennel staff, then we took Reyna back to the kennel. The moment she stepped into the kennel, this sadness took over her. I felt so bad. She just sat there hanging her head with the most sad expression on her face. She was confused and scared and it was extremely difficult to see her like that. All of our other pups were happy and wagging their tails when we brought them back. It was like they were sort of excited. Not Reyna. It was clearly sadness and confusion. We all took turns going into the kennel to say goodbye to her. Why are hellos so easy, and goodbyes are always so hard? We want Reyna to do whatever it is she is meant to do. We will leave that up to her, and we will be happy with whatever path she chooses.

Judi and James say goodbye to Reyna.

James and Reyna in the kennel.

Myself and Reyna as I say goodbye in the kennel.

My son, Tyler, gives Reyna one last hug good bye.

Reyna looking at us with a sad, confused look on her face.

This photo says it all. Just look into those eyes :(

Tyler says his final good bye to Reyna.

There really isn’t anything else to say other than this was absolutely the most sad recall I have ever experienced. All our love Reyna…..we loved you with all we had for the time you were with us. Now it is time for the next phase of your journey.

A new day, A new dog!

2010-08-24T16:53:00.001-07:00

Vienna came back to life today! What a relief! We think she just got dehydrated from having diarrhea and not eating or drinking very much for the past few days. Once she finally started drinking water, she perked right up! Today she has been playing with her toys and hopping around a bit. She has slept today, but she is definitely not lethargic anymore. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to help out this cute little pup. You all know who you are, and you are all awesome!

Is there something wrong or is it just me?

2010-08-23T19:38:00.001-07:00

This is what Vienna has done all day today. Sleep. I have to wake her up to feed and relieve her. Then she comes back inside and immediately goes to sleep again. She didn’t even eat dinner tonight, she had no interest. Could she really be this lazy, or is something wrong? Maybe she doesn’t feel good. It just doesn’t seem right to have just picked up a puppy and I can’t even tell she is in the house! She is so quiet and sleepy. At first I thought she was just mellow, but it seems to be getting worse. Yesterday she started to come out of her shell a little bit and had bouts of playfulness, but today she has been a zombie. She sleeps all day and all night. She just lays down everytime I try to get her up and moving. I have never had a puppy like this, has anyone else?

A Post from Judi. Lafayette Reservoir!

2010-08-22T20:01:00.001-07:00

Reyna woke up this morning with more than the usual vim and vigor that is normal. She was into everything and playing roughly with all of her toys, we decided that the best thing to get rid of this excess energy was a walk. Phil, Darcie, James and I took Reyna and Cody to the Lafayette Reservoir. Well James wanted to run so he ran ahead with Cody, Reyna was beside herself with all the smells and what I call "dogs gone wild" after putting her in a sit 5 times and making her wait until I was ready we finally managed to come up with a nice loose leash walk. We were walking along just fine trying very hard to avoid tiny barking dogs on retractable leashes but our biggest problem was a family behind us with two kids one on a skate board and one on a scooter. The scooter person would come up right behind us and I am talking inches and stop wait for her family and then do it again, the skateboard person would just go up and back. Reyna was a real champ she never reacted to any of it, the noise or the kids or the scooter and skateboard. We finally stepped to the side because the whole thing was really annoying and the family walked by and asked me how the training was going. I wish I could have come up with a good comeback. Anyway the rest of our walk was good, the reservoir walk is a good learning place for older puppies because of all the smells and dogs and just people around. No one asked to pat her which was nice although most people don't have any control over their dogs, we finally ended up walking a distance behind a gentleman that was training his two German Sheppard's to ignore dogs. We almost made it to the car after dodging strollers, bikes, scooters and skateboards, and our last few feet encountered a man with a huge Mastiff type dog on a retractable leash telling it to leave Reyna alone. Reyna was a gem and paid no attention to him and kept right on walking, it made me a little nervous but she just walked right through it. So now we are at home with a very tired girl, I think we are both going to take a nap.

Judi

Say hello to Vienna!

2010-08-21T22:41:00.001-07:00

Even though we still have Reyna, we were asked to take our new pup early because GDB has several older pups in the kennel who need homes. So yesterday we went up to Guide Dogs and picked up our new bundle of fur! Vienna was born June 9, 2010 and she is a David and Zante pup. She is a yellow lab.

So far she is a sweet and peaceful pup. She was really good on the ride home from Guide Dogs, in fact she fell asleep in my arms. She has been good in her crate and ex-pen, and she slept through the night! She walks nicely on leash and just has a sweet and sensitive personality. The only problem we are having with her so far is that she will not eat. She has no interest in food at all. She has not eaten in 24 hours, so it is a bit concerning. Hopefully her lab switch will turn on and she will realize that she LOVES food. She is probably just stressed from the change in her environment so hopefully she will adjust soon. But I have to tell you I have never had a lab puppy that won’t eat, so this is totally new to me. Right now she is asleep at my feet, and she pretty much slept all day today so I don’t have much to blog about. Maybe tomorrow will be more eventful. We are so pleased we got such a wonderful puppy!

Reyna’s Recall . She’s off to Oregon!

2010-08-21T22:14:00.001-07:00

I got word the other day that Reyna is being recalled on August 30th and she will be trained on the Oregon campus. I am not thrilled about that, but I understand that the Oregon campus apparently needs dogs. So what can you do? We have had so much FUN raising Reyna. She is the most happy dog I have ever raised and her energy fills up the house. There is going to be such a void when she leaves. She has been ready for several months, so I am glad she will be able to move on to the next phase of her life. We will be keeping a close eye on her and we will miss her more than she will ever know.

A post from Judi! Reyna on Vacation.

2010-08-21T21:59:00.001-07:00

Reyna went on vacation with the entire Rowe family in August to The Feather River Park Resort in Greagle CA. Feather River Park is a resort dating back to the 1920's and all the cabins are real log cabins.

The Rowe family has been going for 25 years. Reyna was a welcome addition to our cabin everyone who knows us stopped by the porch to say hi and give her a pat.

She was always good with her greetings. Reyna spent time at the lodge and at the pool, she also spent time splashing with Cody and the grandchildren in the creek that runs behind our cabin and in the Feather River.

She took a long walk everyday through the woods and into town, on one of our walks there was a very persistent loose dog that was following us but she looked back a couple of times and kept on walking on a loose leash. Reyna visited the Greagle Store which dates back to the 1800's and we bought groceries and walked around through the town.

Reyna was also part of Hot Dog night at the pool she sat between two 2 year olds while they ate their hot dogs and never made any attempt to even sniff them.

We were all so happy to have Reyna on this vacation because the entire family that she has met through various social functions was there not only to play and talk to her but to say goodbye. We are all sad to say "goodbye" to our girl she has a special place in everyone's heart, but we know she is going on for a better purpose and for that reason the whole family is proud of her. We all love you Reyna.

The Entire Rowe Family.

Ruining Reyna?

2010-07-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

The other day I received word from an anonymous instructor (who’s name MIGHT be similar to mine!) at GDB that I in fact did not ruin Reyna by putting booties on her. Phew……..! Sometimes it is REALLY nice to have instructors following the blog :) She was not aware of anything that prohibited puppy raisers from exposing pups in training to booties, but I am still not exactly sure about it. The trainer went on to tell me that no one at the SR campus has had to spend any significant time introducing booties to any pup in training (even the body sensitive ones). They all wiggle a bit or pull their paws away, but they just use lots of praise and food. Good too know! Reyna didn’t do any of that. She just laid there and let me put the boots on without a problem. She is such a good girl!

Just thought I would share the news that I don’t need to change my blog name from “Raising Reyna” to “Ruining Reyna!”

Blues and Brew Festival and a Chihuahua!

2010-07-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

Today we took Reyna to the Blues and Brew Festival. I thought it would be a good place to socialize her. There would be crowds of people, loud music and probably other dogs. Well, I was right! It turned out to be a great place to socialize Reyna. When we got there, we just walked around and exposed Reyna to the people and the music. Here is a video of Reyna when we first got there. My husband is walking Reyna through the event. She does well for the most part. At the end of the video you get a real taste of Reyna’s social personality when a woman comes by, calls to Reyna and bends down to visit with her without any warning. It happens so quickly there wasn’t much my husband could do. That is just life of a puppy raiser :) People are so attracted to these dogs, and because Reyna was appropriate with her interaction, (no jumping, etc,) she was allowed to say hello. Reyna always does well with saying hello to people and she does a good job remaining calm.

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzXblMH7ss

ere are a couple of pictures of Reyna throughout the day.

Reyna did beautifully with the people and the loud music. But she also did REALLY well with the dogs. And there were lots of them. Some well behaved and some not so much! But Reyna was not distracted, even by the dogs who were barking and growling at her. She had a wonderful opportunity to meet a tiny Chihuahua. I don’t think Reyna has ever seen a dog so tiny. I know I have never seen a dog that small. In fact. at first Reyna was trying to figure out what the heck it was. She did a good job staying in a sit while I moved her closer so she could check it out.

Since Reyna did so well with that, I decided it would be ok if Reyna got a closer look at this little thing. We allowed Reyna to smell her backside so she could figure out what the heck this thing was. All went well with that, but the little Chihuahua was a little scared of Reyna. We let them sit and check each other out a little longer, then we decided they could interact again.

So here is the second interaction, Reyna and the Chihuahua are nose to nose without any problems! What an accomplishment for both dogs. It was so good for Reyna to have this opportunity, because we are never around dogs this size. We are big dog people, and all of our friends and family are big dog people, too. So this made taking Reyna to the Festival soooo worth it!

Here is a close up for you. I love that!

Speaking of friends, we met one of my friends and her pup “Serenity” who is a CCI pup at the Festival. Serenity is just barely five months old, so this was a lot for her, but it turned out to be a great experience. Here is a photo of Serenity and Reyna together at the end of the day. Both dogs did great. And we were actually able to taste some beer, considering it was a beer festival. Lots of fun was had by all!

Alden Lane Adventure

2010-07-24T22:13:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, Glenda and I took a trip to Livermore to the Alden Lane Nursery. Of course, Reyna and Wendy came along too! I am in the middle of remodeling my backyard, and I wanted to get some ideas for plants and landscaping. This was really the perfect place because they have such a large selection of plants. Wendy and Reyna enjoyed walking around and smelling the flowers. Both dogs were very good as Glenda and I stopped and looked at the plants and wrote down which ones I liked.

There was a very pretty fountain in the middle of the nursery, so I thought it would be a nice spot for a photo op. Wendy and Reyna were happy to take a few photos, but then they both wanted to continue to explore the nursery. One thing that was really neat was there were these HUGE oak trees everywhere with really, really long branches. They were pretty amazing to look at. I found one tree that had a branch that went from the ground all the way up to the trunk of the tree. It was sort of like a balance beam, but wider. I showed it to Reyna, and to my surprise, she walk right up into the tree! I guess all of that work with the agility equipment in our club paid off. So there Reyna was, sitting in a tree, literally. She was so confident and you would have thought she had done this a hundred times. So, of course, I had to get some pictures of this. Here are some pictures of Reyna in the tree. She had a blast in the tree and she had to be told to get out of it. I wonder what other people in the nursery thought when they saw a guide dog puppy in a tree? Yep, this GDB puppy has special talents! Check out how happy Reyna was in the tree:

These next two pictures might be GDB calendar worthy!

Wendy was not interested in climbing into the tree, so when Reyna finally got down we took a photo of both dogs in front of one of the trees. You can see in the background the long tree branches. It was very cool!

After the tree adventure, we went over to check out the water features. I allowed Reyna the opportunity to explore the water fountains because I wasn’t sure if she had ever really seen one up close like that before. She had a great time exploring them, and she kept trying to bite at the water! Silly girl.

The other thing that was neat about this place was that they had little buildings everywhere like the one below. This one was the Botanical Bistro, I thought it was so cute that I got a photo of Reyna and Wendy in it. Reyna was happy to do this because it provided her with some shade, and she really needed a break from the sun. It was pretty hot out that day!

It was a successful trip on two levels. The first was that I found everything I needed to finish my backyard. And second, it was an awesome socialization experience for Reyna (and a good place to take pictures, too!)

Reyna’s got her red shoes on!

2010-07-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Reyna and I went down to visit Glenda and Wendy, and Glenda bought these red booties for Reyna. A few weeks ago when we all went up to Murphy's for the weekend to see the Sugarland concert, Reyna ran around in the yard so hard that she ripped two of her pads :( I am not sure if it was the running or if it was the heat from the brand new blacktop that was just put in, but nevertheless, Reyna damaged her pads. They did not bleed, it was more like an abrasion. Reyna walked around for the next few days very slowly and carefully. You could tell her little paws were sore. Poor little girl. Glenda was there when all of this happened, so she thought Reyna needed some booties like Wendy has. Each student that graduates from GDB gets booties for their guide dog. They use them in the extreme weather such as snow and also when it is really hot out so the dogs don’t burn their pads. It certainly got me thinking about why it is that puppy raisers are not given these as well? It is no different for us than for the graduates with the exception that the graduates use the booties when their dogs go on escalators to prevent damage to the dogs pads.

We thought it would be good if Wendy put on her booties when I put them on Reyna for the first time. It is so funny to watch a dog who has never had booties on before. Reyna was great with letting me put them on her feet. We had no problems at all. When she started walking, she was doing this high stepping thing, and it was sooo funny to watch. But after a few minutes, she adjusted just fine. I have a video clip from when Glenda and I were getting use to the booties. This was about 5 minutes after she had them on. Check it out.

After a few minutes, we took Reyna and Wendy into the backyard to explore a little with their booties on. Here is a video clip of that.

Since Reyna doesn’t mind wearing her boots, I will make sure when it is really hot outside or when she is running hard that she has her little boots on to protect her paws. I think she looks pretty darn cute in them, too!

A post from Judi "All Girls Weekend!"

2010-07-22T22:42:00.001-07:00

Reyna and I went on an "all girls weekend" to visit with my friend Annette in Fresno. Annette lives in a "co-housing" community. Everyone helps everyone else out; there is a community kitchen and everyone can participate in making dinners or you can choose to eat in your own home. There is a community garden which Reyna and I explored, plus we got to meet lots of interesting people. Reyna and I were invited with Annette for dinner at someone's house on Friday night. Reyna was perfect even though there were three cats in the house. Lots of the community dogs took an interest in her but she was on her best guide dog behavior. It was really hot so we devised a relieving plan that included going out at 5 in the morning (Reyna's idea) and during the day only walking in the shade or on bark along the side of the walkways. Saturday was an all day trip to Huntington Lake east of Fresno...it was warm at the lake so I set Reyna up with her on little umbrella shade area she could lay under it and still have a full view of the lake and all the people going in and out.

We did several walks into the lake to cool off and Reyna loved the water she really didn't want to swim she wanted to play and look for rocks.

Several dogs went by us including a black lab that was loose with out his people and she completely ignored him! (Good Girl). Back to Fresno and the heat 105 yuck and dinner. My friend has a cat Reyna was interested in her but we came up with a plan that Reyna had the run of the house during the day and Jade could be out at night. Saturday night there was a big celebration dinner in the community room for one of the residents I decided to leave Reyna at the house because the area was so crowded and being held outside, plus very hot. She was great in the house no worries and was happy to see us when we got back but she had all her toys with her so wasn't that concerned. Anyway back to Walnut Creek and Mia's birthday party on Sunday...Reyna was really happy to see all the grandkids and was happy to be back in her own spot. All in all a great weekend for everyone.

Reyna’s Recall?

2010-07-15T22:24:00.001-07:00

Where does the time go? Could it really be time for Reyna’s recall? It seems like it was just yesterday when Reyna was 12 weeks old getting her picture in her puppy coat for the first time. She was a little cutey wasn’t she? I thought I would update everyone on this subject because I had several people asking about it. My CFR thought that Reyna was going to be on the June recall, because she turned 15 months old in June. But they only wanted three dogs in for training in June from our area, so Reyna was not on for June. I was told there was a chance that she would be recalled this weekend, but I found out a few days ago, there are still several dogs ahead of her, so she was not on for the July recall. So now we wait until the August 15th recall. I believe she will be recalled in August, but that is really just a feeling I have.

In the past, puppy raisers in my area were given about two months notice for recall. Now that GDB has changed everything, they are only recalling the exact number of dogs they need, instead of a set number of dogs each month. But what that means is they wait until the last minute to see how many dogs are cut from breeding and put into training. So we are now getting sometimes less than a weeks notice for recall. I am glad GDB has this all dialed in much more efficiently, but I don’t like the fact that we have no clue if our pup is being recalled until last minute. So as of right now I am planning on August for her recall, but we will have to just wait to for the offical word!

A day at the salon with Reyna

2010-07-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, I took a trip to Napa to get my hair cut and colored. I decided to take Reyna along, and this first photo is of Reyna in the car as we were driving to Napa. Don’t worry, I took this picture when we were at a stop light.

I have been getting my hair done by the same person for over ten years, so she has had the opportunity to meet all of the pups I have raised. When we arrived, Reyna felt the need to go over and say “Hi” like she always does. I asked Megan to ignore Reyna this time because she was trying to hard to interact with Megan. Of course that was really hard for Megan to do, but she did it :) I found a little spot in front the chair where I was sitting and I put Reyna in a down stay. She laid down and stared at me for a while. She does this thing where she just locks eye contact with me. You can see this in the photo above. But she was a really good girl and she laid there quietly while Megan put color into my hair.

Then it came time for the cutting part, and I thought for sure Reyna would be interested in all of the flying hair. But nope, she just laid there with her head down on the ground just looking at all of the pieces of cut hair, but not going after them in any way. I was really impressed, and so was everyone else in the salon. When it was finally time to leave, Reyna bounced up and was ready to roll. She is such a good girl and I am happy she did so well. I think that might be the last time she goes with me to the salon, because she is getting to recall age. I hope she knows what a joy she is to have around and how much I am going to miss her.

Awesome weekend and the Sugarland concert!

2010-07-11T18:40:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went up to Ironstone Winery to see the Sugarland concert and it was incredible! We went up to Murphy’s for the weekend with Glenda and “Wendy” and Glenda’s husband John. Reyna has been to concerts before, so I knew she would do great. The fun thing was that Reyna had her BFF Wendy at the concert with her and they were truly wonderful. Everyone kept asking if they could take their photo while we were waiting for the concert to start. The photo above is one of the many times we posed the girls for a photo op. They were both so happy to be together they had huge smiles on their faces.

We had great seats, but they were so close together and their was no room for the dogs. We couldn’t even put them under our chairs because the chairs had a bar at the bottom which prevent the dogs from fitting underneath them. So luckily we were on an isle and we just moved the dogs when people needed to walk by.

You can see how tight the isle was by this picture of Wendy. She was so good about just laying there by Glenda.

Reyna on the other hand, could not get enough of Glenda. She kept creeping over to get closer and closer to her. Then Reyna would sit up and nudge Glenda to get her attention so she would pet her. Reyna basically didn’t leave Glenda’s side the entire evening.

Reyna did lay down, but as you can tell, she is at Glenda feet. (Glenda is wearing the white dress). But of course, Glenda didn’t mind, in fact, she loved it!

It was REALLY hot and it was an outside concert, so the dogs got a little drink before the concert started. They drank almost a whole bottle of water. These girls were thirsty!

Sugarland started playing and they were awesome! The amount of energy coming off of that stage was like something I have never experienced. The music was so loud, that you could not only hear it, but you could feel it going through your body. When the music started Glenda and I looked at each other, and you could tell we were both thinking the same thing. Was this going to be too loud for the dogs? Well, I looked down and this is what I saw. So I guess the answer to our questions was, heck no! As I looked down, I saw that Reyna was using Wendy as a pillow. They were both just sound asleep.

Then they switched to this position. It looks like the two of them are hugging. Soooooo darn cute!

The concert was so much fun that I don’t think we sat down during the entire concert. I was dancing around to the music, but I had to keep both of my feet in the same place because I had Reyna’s head on my right foot and Wendy’s head on my left foot. By the end of the night, both of my feet were asleep :)

We didn’t get home from the concert until after midnight. The pups were so sleepy. On Saturday, we spend the day laying around the pool, and Reyna and Wendy both went swimming and they had a ton of fun playing with their beach toys in the pool.

Last night, we cooked a fabulous gourmet meal, and we sat out side enjoying dinner with the best bottle of Cab I have had in a long time! We sat outside enjoying the view and a beautiful sunset. Now that’s the life :)

These photos were taken last night after all of the fun was over. Check out the two BFF’s snuggling up and sleeping together!

GDB trains service dogs and creates friendships!

2010-06-27T22:09:00.001-07:00

One of the most rewarding things about being involved with an organization like Guide Dogs for The Blind is the friendships it creates. My newest friendships are inspired by a mutual love for “Wendy”, the last GDB pup I raised.

As some of you may know, Wendy’s handler, Glenda and I have become very close friends. We like each other so much we actually get together every week! After Wendy graduated, I sent Stephanie, Wendy’s trainer, whom I did not know at the time, a slideshow that was a tribute to the work she did with Wendy. Click here to view the photostory I sent to her. I created this as a thank you for all of her hard work, and I honestly did not expect a response. But to my surprise, I received the following email.

Hello,

I can’t express enough in words how deeply appreciative I am of your sincere ‘Thanks’ and for taking the time to put together the video. Wendy is so photogenic. I was surprised and happy to see the photos from working her around the obstacle course at graduation. As you can tell, I kind of like Wendy :) Well, I like all my dogs, but she was so cute with that extra ear flap causing her left ear to hang heavier.

I would love to meet Glenda and please, pass my e-mail address on to her.

I hope you have a happy holiday and a good New Year.

Take care,

Stephanie

And just like that, two new friendships were formed. Stephanie, Glenda, “Wendy” and I have gotten together on many occasions. But it is really our love for Wendy that has brought forth our new friendships. Many times I also bring Reyna with me when I go visit with them, and Reyna and Wendy have become best friends. They really love spending time together, and it is hard to pull them apart. Well, Reyna really loves Glenda too, so it makes it really hard to convince Reyna when we need to leave :(

Our latest adventure together was this past weekend. We all went hiking together. Glenda had Wendy of course, I brought Reyna and Stephanie the trainer brought her dog Pete. We hiked along a creek bed with water falls. Glenda and Wendy were way out in front of us, leading the way. It is hard to keep up with those two. Eventually, we made it down to the water and we let the dogs play in the water to cool off. The path way down to the water was not exactly easy, and it really wasn’t good for a blind person and a guide dog. But of course, that didn’t stop Glenda and Wendy. On the way down to the water there was a big drop off which was hard to navigate, and then there where rocks every where that created a very difficult surface to walk on. Good thing Stephanie the trainer was there to help Glenda down to the water. I just kept thinking to myself, if Glenda got hurt her husband would never let me take her anywhere again! But thankfully, both Glenda and Wendy made it safely!

When we got down to the water, Reyna was instantly fascinated by a twig that was in the water. She tried picking it up a few times, but she decided it was not her thing. So what was her thing?

Well, believe it or not, it was digging for rocks! Reyna was absolutely fascinated with all of the rocks on the bottom of the creek bed. She was just overwhelmed with all of the choices she had. She would dig and dig at them and look all around until she found the perfect rock. Then she would pick it up and hold it in her mouth!

While Reyna searched for the perfect rocks, Wendy and Pete enjoyed playing fetch with sticks. They both enjoyed it when we would throw the stick up stream a bit and they would both rush over and see could get it first and bring it back to us.

Pete had one other fascination that had nothing to do with the water. Well, he is a cattle dog, and within a few feet from where we were there were free roaming cattle! I thought he did a great job containing himself. Yay Pete!

We spent a long time at the waters edge as the dogs played. It was a nice way to take a little break from hiking and cool off a bit.

After the hike we all went back to Glenda's and we hung out for a while. Then we decided to end the wonderful day with Margaritas (thanks, John) and Mexican food! I would like to thank Glenda and Stephanie for their wonderful friendships and GDB for making it all happen!

Guide dog pup or agility dog?

2010-06-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we went to my sisters house for a Father’s Day BBQ. My sister has a dog named Jesse, who is an Australian Sheppard. My niece, Sara, who is a little dog trainer in the making, has made a make shift agility course out of garden tools and other things in the yard. She has trained her dog Jesse to run trough the course. She really wanted to see if Reyna could do it, so I told her she could try it. I thought it would be good for Reyna’s confidence. It took some time, but before long Sara had Reyna going over the jumps and running through the course. The course started with a jump, then she had to run up the stairs of a slide and then run down the slide, jump over a few polls on the ground, then it ended with another jump. At first, Reyna would go around the jumps, but eventually she got the idea from watching Jesse do it and from Sara encouraging her . The photo above was taken after both the dogs completed the course. Think they enjoyed it?

Here are a a couple of video clips I got as Sara was teaching Reyna how to do the obstacles.

Reyna makes new friends!

2010-06-21T16:06:00.001-07:00

My niece, Sara’s softball team was in the championships, so we went to Napa to go watch her game. I also thought it would be a good experience for Reyna, since she has never been to a softball game. It was really hot that day, and there was little shade, but Reyna made herself comfortable by a complete stranger!!

Believe it or not, Reyna has never meet the person in this picture with her. But Reyna quickly made friends with her, and wormed her way right into this woman’s heart. After a while, Reyna laid down next to this woman and she was the happiest dog in the world. Look at the grin on her face in the picture below. She is sure a happy dog!

Sara’s team won their first game, so we wanted to stay for the second game, which was the championship game. There was about 30 minutes between games, so we went over to see Sara, and Reyna went into the dugout and made friends with the entire softball team!

Reyna was great and she allowed all of girls to pet her. I think Reyna thought she had died and went to heaven. She got so much attention from all of the girls. Reyna was good about letting everyone greet her, and she didn’t jump on anyone. She was also good because she didn’t lick anyone who was petting her. Reyna kind of just laid there and soaked up the love!

The girl who Reyna is resting her head on told me she wants to be a Veterinarian. Reyna must of been able to tell she really loved dogs, because she wouldn’t take her head out of this girls lap. Of course, the girl was just loving it, and above is a photo of my niece Sara, with the girl and Reyna. Look at how content Reyna’s face is.

I really like these next few pictures. You can tell how much Reyna and Sara love each other. What sweet interactions!

Amongst all of the fun, we did have an opportunity to work on some food avoidance training. In the photo below, Reyna demonstrates self restraint as Sara eats a pretzel in front of her. The funny thing is that Sara dropped this pretzel on the ground and salt went flying everywhere and the pretzel landed right on Reyna’s head! I am sure you are wondering if Reyna devoured the pretzel. Well, I am happy to report that she did not! When it happened, she looked up at me like “Oh Mom, what do I do now?” I told her what a good girl she was, and she just sat there starting at what was left of the pretzel.

The great news is that Sara’s team won the championship game, and below is a photo of Reyna and Sara with her trophy. Look at the smile on Reyna’s face!

Best friends :)

2010-06-17T18:11:00.001-07:00

Wendy and Reyna

Reyna goes to work!

2010-06-17T18:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I took Reyna to work with me. I am a Dental Practice Management Consultant, so I go to various dental offices every day. Reyna does great going from office to office with me. It is really good for her because she has to adapt to what ever situations we are faced with. Since I am not an employee of these offices, I do not have my own desk, and Reyna does not have a designated “spot” like most puppies in training do. I run staff meetings and trainings most of the time, so Reyna has to just find a place on the floor and curl up and go to sleep while I work. Take a look.

A post from Judi!

2010-06-17T17:31:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I took Reyna to San Francisco. We went to Pier 39 first and it was so crowded it was hard to maneuver. Reyna got a little stressed with all the people walking so close to her, but she never stopped walking. Once we got out by the sea lions she could hear them but couldn't see them. They were barking and she didn't know where it was coming from, plus there was a really large boat warming up its engine to take off. When we finally got close, she was a little reluctant because of all the different noises and people crushed around, but once she could see things and put a visual to the noises she was just fine. We kept praising her and telling her how good she was doing. She really enjoyed watching the sea lions!

We then walked out by the water and we just stood there and enjoyed the view and let her relax. We then walked back on to the pier and she stood next to the big merry go round while Mia and Darcie rode on it. She was great.

But this is really interesting, she would refuse to get ahead of Mia in her stroller, it was almost like she was protecting her. If we got behind or ahead she would speed up or just wait for Darcie to catch up. Reyna was always touching Mia with her nose just to make sure she was okay. We had lunch and she was great...and then went to the Aquarium. It was soooo crowded but she was just wonderful! She was so relaxed and she just laid down and looked up at the fish.

On the last level there were touching exhibits. James was walking her from place to place and I made a trip to the restroom because he wanted to keep her. On my way literally fighting my way through the gift shop, I almost tripped over a working guide. I touched his arm and said hello, but he was very shy Indian man. He was there with his family and he said he had his guide for about two years. I think he said her name was Evelyn. By the time we got back with Reyna, he was gone. I looked outside but couldn't find them. Anyway, we went on down to Fisherman's Wharf and a stop to look at the submarine and liberty ship.

After that we started heading back to the car. Over all, most people were respectful of her working and just looked, but other people did not understand. One Chinese man would not stop "clicking' his tongue at her while we were eating, even though I told his English speaking daughter she was a working dog. Anyway, Reyna was a very pooped puppy last night. Oh and we had no relieving or surface issues :) We wanted to get on the streetcar but they were so jammed I thought it would be a very bad experience for her, so maybe something to be done on a weekday. All in all I think our trip was a huge success!

Guest star of Reyna’s blog. . it's Sheba!

2010-05-31T22:14:00.001-07:00

This weekend Reyna went back to Judi, and we unexpectantly got Sheba until Tuesday. She is a 11 month old black lab. Her family had to leave town on a moments notice, so we were asked to take her. Today, my son wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shop, and I thought it would be a great experience for Sheba.

Sheba has done something sort of strange the past couple of days. When she sees her leash and her puppy coat, she turns and runs to my bedroom and hides in the crate. And she will not come out.

I took a picture of her as I tried to convince her to come out of the crate. I am not sure what this is all about, because I have puppy sat her many times and she has never done this. Maybe it’s too hot and she wants to stay in where it is cool? She has done this twice so far, so I will let her raisers know about it. Well, I did finally drag her out of the crate and we headed off to the Bass Pro Shop. My 16 year old son drove us there, and somehow I am still here to tell you about the trip!

We were starving when we arrived, so we went over to Red Robin for lunch.

When we sat down at our table, Sheba went right underneath the table like a good girl. She actually did not move a muscle until we left. What a good girl! Here is a picture of the way she just laid under the table. I think she was hot and the tile floor felt good. Poor black labs…they get so hot!

After lunch, we went into the Bass Pro Shop. There are all sorts of crazy distractions in this place, and Sheba could care less. She walked very calmly as we shopped around for a while.

Tyler wanted to look at some hunting knifes, so we had a long wait in the hunting department just waiting for some assistance. She just sat there very patiently and looked into the glass case as if she was contemplating a purchase!

After we finally got help in the hunting department, I decided to take Sheba around for some distraction training. Our first stop was the dog toy isle. However, it was not a challenge for Sheba as she was more interested in me than the dog treats!

Next, we stopped by some decoys to see her reaction, but yet again, she was more interested in me than the ducks!

We moved on to a fake Wolf, which she was interested in. She kept smelling and licking the Wolf’s ears. But she was not distracted, just a little curious.

Next, we exposed her to ducks and geese! She was sooo good. Since she is technically a bird dog, I though this would be more difficult. But nope……take a look!

Once we finished the distraction training, we had a chance to do some stair work. But these stairs were really different because they were surrounded by big fish! Another thing that made these stairs challenging was they had a very loud waterfall around them. Sheba was a little sensitive to the sound of the water, but she didn’t miss a beat.

On the way back down the stairs, Sheba noticed an overhead obstacle. Or should I say an overhead distraction. Ya, that is more like it. The birds hanging on the wall and the ceiling really caught her eye!

When I refocused her, we finished the stairs and then we went over to an indoor pond that had huge bass in it. It also had a couple for fake guys fly fishing. Sheba had no interest in it. She is such a great dog!

I thought since she didn’t have any interest in the pond, that she might be distracted or afraid of a very large stuffed bear. Well, Sheba wasn’t afraid or distracted by it, she actually made friends with it!

I finally found something that interested Sheba. There is this large glass wall with huge fish in it. You can walk right up to it, and Sheba calmly sat there watching these huge fish as they swam by. It was really cute to watch her head move back and forth as she followed these big monster fish.

Before we left, we took Sheba outside and my son Tyler took these photos of her. I think my favorite picture is the last one.

Considering that she is not my dog, I sure do love her a lot!

Reyna rides a ferry!

2010-05-28T23:20:00.001-07:00

Recently, our puppy club took a trip into San Francisco. We rode the ferry over from Oakland. My club has done this outing every year, but every time they have gone, my pup has been too young to go. I was excited to give Reyna another public transportation experience. There were several different surfaces we had to walk over before boarding the ferry. There were several silver metal surfaces that would have freaked Reyna out when she was a puppy. But now that she is older and more confident she just walked right over them without any hesitation!

One of my puppy leaders actually did a post on the GDB blog about our outing. Click here to read the post. (On the blog, there is a photo of me and Reyna and two other puppy raising friends walking at Fisherman’s Wharf.) Reyna fell asleep on the Ferry on the way over to the city. Once we got to Pier 41, there was a long wait to get off of the Ferry. While we were waiting to get off, Reyna was allowed to greet a little girl who was really interested in her. Reyna did well and stayed in a sit and did not lick the little girl. Now that is an accomplishment!

We ended up at the beach and we decided to let the pups experience the sand. Well…….Reyna went crazy when she felt the sand squeeze between her toes. She was running in circles around me and flipping all over the place. I really worked on getting her to actually “walk” on the sand. So we inched along the shoreline, step by step, and I was moderately successful at getting Reyna to calm down. The photo below was taken after I had really been working with Reyna. She looks like she is really calm in this photo, but believe me, she went wild!

After we left the beach, a few of us went to Starbuck’s for some coffee. Below is a photo of Reyna and I with a couple of other raisers. Yes, we are multi-talented puppy raisers. Coffee in one hand, and a guide dog puppy in training on a loose leashes in the other!

Two guides and a pup in training!

2010-05-24T21:20:00.001-07:00

Today Reyna, Wendy, Glenda and I went up to Napa to spend the day with Dianne and “Hibiscus”. We went out to lunch at the Firewood cafe. It was a great little place that we had not discovered before. We had a nice time visiting together, and Reyna had fun hanging out with real guide dogs. All of the dogs did beautifully. I was especially proud of Reyna for being just as well behaved as Wendy and Hibiscus. Even though Reyna had a higher energy level because she still has a lot of puppy in her, I really couldn’t of asked for better behavior.

I came across a few occasions when I needed to put Reyna in a “down-stay”. One of the times was when I took this photo. She did a great job and she maintained her stay until I returned to her and released her.

After lunch, we walked a new route with Dianne. I did my best to describe the route and help her and Hibiscus become orientated to the new area. It sure made me realize just how difficult it is to get around without vision. It was also challenging because Wendy and Hibiscus have very different paces. Hibiscus goes very slow because Dianne has balance issues, and Wendy is more like a race car driver. Wendy would come up from behind and try to “pass” on the left. Glenda did a great job with slowing her down.

The roads were really uneven, and several of the sidewalks were also uneven creating a several tripping hazards. This made me very nervous. The dogs did a good job at stopping and showing these dangers to Glenda and Dianne. No one fell, so it was all good. There was also an overhead obstacle that both of the dogs missed. Glenda reworked it, and Wendy did well on the rework. Hibiscus had a big smile on her face while she was working the new route. I have never in my life seen a dog who is so concerned and careful with her handler than Hibiscus. This dog is truly amazing. She literally watches every single step Dianne take to make sure she doesn’t fall. She is so amazing to watch.

After we did the route, Dianne treated us to a drink at Starbuck’s and the dogs enjoyed sharing a cup of ice. We had another nice visit, and the dogs took a little rest. We dropped Dianne off at her house and then we headed back to Glenda’s. When we got there, we let Wendy and Reyna play together for a while. These to dogs just love to be together. And they are so good to each other. Glenda’s house is one of Reyna’s favorite places in the world. When it was time to leave, Reyna put on the breaks and tried to stay with Glenda. Reyna absolutely hates leaving Glenda and Wendy. She wouldn’t even get into the car. She wanted to stay with Glenda. She keep running back to Glenda. Poor thing, she never wants to go home when we visit Glenda and Wendy. With some convincing, I was able to get Reyna to get into the car. She pouted all the way home. It is so hard to end a good day, so I completely understood how Reyna felt. She is now asleep on her tie down. She sure wore herself out today hanging with the big dogs!

Finally. . . Reyna Stands!

2010-05-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Finally, after 13 months Reyna has really learned the "stand" command. I have to admit, I am not good at teaching this command. So it is really my fault, not hers. Today, it just dawned on me that I have been totally confusing her and she didn't really know what I wanted when I gave her the "stand" command. She would always offer me various behaviors, because she wants to please me and do right. But the poor thing was clueless because her raiser was not being clear with her.

So tonight, I decided to mark the precise moment in time when her butt popped up from a sit into a stand. I used the word "good" as a verbal marker. We are not able to use food when training this command, so I wasn't sure if a verbal marker would work without food. Well, within 10 minutues Reyna understood what I was asking her to do and she was consistently doing the command correctly. Take a look at the video. I am so proud of her! (and proud of myself for FINALLY figuring this out!).

A LONG day in San Francisco

2010-05-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago, we took Reyna into San Francisco for the day, We took BART to the Civic station and walked to “Tommy’s Joint” for lunch. There was a line out the door, but it was good practice for Reyna. Reyna fell asleep under the table while we had lunch. After lunch we walked from Vaness St. down to Fisherman's Warf, Yes, it was a LOOOONG walk. But it was walk full of wonderful socialization experiences for Reyna.

Reyna walked with confidence and she was not distracted by the noise of the city. She calmly crossed busy streets.

Reyna also waited very nicely at street corners while we waited for traffic to clear. Here she sit comfortably on a man hole cover. It doesn’t bother her in the least.

We also had many opportunities to work on bird distraction. In the picture below Reyna walks by a bird as it flies away. The bird is circled in red on the right side of the photo. It sort of blends into the background.

After a few minutes of watching the birds, Reyna was able to completely ignore the birds. She got so good at ignoring the birds that at one point, a bird came flying right at her at eye level and the bird nearly landed on her head!

During our walk, we also had many opportunities for Reyna to face the dreaded “silver” surfaces. As a puppy, she refused to go over these surfaces. We stopped working these surfaces for awhile, then I carefully re-introduced the surface to her. Now she walks over them like they never bothered her. What a good girl!

And then there were noises. Lots of them. As a puppy, Reyna had some noise sensitivity, so it was great to see her not react at all to the loud motorcycles. There was also a fire engine that past us and it was blowing its horn and Reyna could care less. She just kept walking down the street!

Below was Reyna’s reaction (or lack of a reaction) to the loud, passing fire engine! Go Reyna!

We finally made it down to Fisherman’s Wharf, and there were plenty of crowds for Reyna to experience. She walked right through the crowds without trying to introduce herself to everyone who walked by her. That was a HUGE improvement for my social little puppy! In fact, that was the most significant improvement for Reyna, and it shows me that she is finally started to mature and she is mastering her impulse control! Wooooo Hooooo! I was so proud she wasn’t going up to everyone saying “Hi, my name is Reyna, what’s yours?”

Reyna experienced a cable car, and below is a photo of her next to the cable car.

This is Reyna sitting in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. It was hot at this point, and you can tell by the fact that Reyna is panting in this picture. Poor girl, she was thirsty after all of that walking!

Reyna finally got a drink of water. I still can’t believe I paid three dollars for a small bottle of water and I gave it all to Reyna. Yup, I sure love this little pup!

After a LONG day, we finally made it to the Embarcadero BART station. It was almost a seven hour day in the city and the best thing was that Reyna didn’t need to relieve until we got back home. Now THAT was an accomplishment!

Distraction training at Sportsmart!

2010-05-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted. Things have been really busy for us and there is a lot in the works that I will share with you at a later date. Yesterday, I took my son over to Sportsmart to get some fishing stuff for his camping trip this weekend. We brought Reyna along, and Tyler put Reyna in "down stay" in an isle in the fishing section. Reyna had all kinds of "smelly" bait around her and she just laid down and stayed in her "down stay" for about 30 minutes while Tyler picked out a new reel and had line put on it. While we were waiting for that to be done, I decided to take a little video of Reyna being so good. There is one point in the video where there is a loud noise, and Reyna doesn't break her stay! Tyler even walks over to her and places a hat on her three times, and she remains in her "down stay." Talk about a distraction! Take a look.

An artfully fun day!

2010-04-18T08:48:00.001-07:00

Today my husband and I took Reyna downtown Pleasanton. We went to a very nice lunch, and Reyna was perfect. After lunch, we walked Main St. to see the life like bronze sculptures that were created by artist Steward Johnson. These sculptures were so amazing and so incredibly life like. Right down to finger prints. There are eleven statues total. We stopped at several of them and took photos of Reyna by the sculptures. She was such a good girl, putting up with all of the photos I was taking. It was a good way to practice “sit-stay”, and I am happy to report Reyna never broke her stay. She is just the kind of pup who really wants to please, so she is fun to train and work with. She did very well with the loud noises, skateboards, loud motorcycles, lots of dogs and plenty of people. She was allowed to greet two people. One was a little baby girl who was about eight months old. She did fine, but she licked her hand a few times. Ugh! She greeted the second person very nicely so I would say she redeemed herself!

Below are some of the photos I took today. I hope you enjoy them.

This sculpture is titled “Yuck, go fetch”. Since it was a man kneeling down next to a black Labrador, we just had to get Reyna’s picture next to it. At a glance, it looks like Reyna is part of the sculpture.

This sculpture is titled “Coming Home”, This is by far the most emotional piece of art. It is of a father coming home from war as he embraces his daughter on his home coming. Reyna doesn’t quite blend in with this one, but she is sure cute sitting there being a good girl in her sit stay.

This sculpture is titled “Shaping Up”. It is a sculpture of a woman jogging. She is in a jogging suit, running shoes and she has head phones on. I put Reyna’s leash into her hand so it looks like she is running with Reyna. The only problem is that Reyna is in a sit, so it doesn’t look quite right. Oh well.

This sculpture is titled “God bless America”. The sculpture is a of man and woman who look like Ma and Pa Kettle. They are holding a pitch fork in front of them and they have a suit case next to them. This was the most life like sculpture. I took some close up photos so you could enjoy the detail.

This sculpture is titled “Sidewalk Judge”. It is a man sitting on a bench dressed in cowboy attire complete with cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a walking cane.

This sculpture is titled “Midstream”. It is of an older gentleman fly fishing off of a bridge. The detail in this sculpture is amazing. He is wearing waders, a flannel shirt, a fishing hat with lures on them and a basket full of rainbow trout. The detail on the fish is stunning. This is definitely on of my favorites.

This sculpture is titled “On top of the news”. It is of an older gentleman sitting on a bench dressed in a suit and tie. He is reading the news paper and he has a little black and white dog sitting in his lap licking his chin. My husband sat next to him and put Reyna on his lap for the picture. Reyna thought that was really special as you can see the big smile on her face. It appears that Reyna enjoys the arts!

If you live anywhere near Pleasanton, I would recommend going there and checking this out. I believe these sculptures are on exhibit until June. This is also a great place to socialize pups in training. Lots of other dogs an plenty of distractions, loud motorcycles, etc. plus some beautifully and unique art. I have posted below some addition information about the exhibit.

Eleven life-sized sculptures by internationally recognized bronze sculptor Seward Johnson come to Downtown Pleasanton on April 1, 2010.

Johnson's statues have been on exhibit worldwide for the past three decades. The 80-year-old Princeton, N.J., resident has created more than 350 of the life-size bronzes, said Amy Blank, associate curator of the Sculpture Foundation.

An heir to the Johnson & Johnson empire, the artist takes a year to complete a sculpture from conception to completion and produces four to seven annually.

Other cities, including Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Paris and Osaka, Japan, have displayed Johnson's work. A collection is touring Europe and is currently in Italy.

The foundation rents out 10 to 50 sculptures to large cities or one to two pieces to smaller organizations such as schools, libraries and museums, Blank said. The pieces are also for sale. Single-figure sculptures start at $86,000 and multifigure pieces start at $120,000.

These temporary sculptures depicting everyday activities will be installed at various locations to generate interest and increased appreciation for art events of this type. Timed in conjunction with the grand opening later this year of the Firehouse Arts Center, this is the first expansive public art commission selected the Seward Johnson sculpture project as a starting point based upon its broad appeal and relative ease with which the event could be coordinated.

Look for Seward Johnson sculptures at the following selected locations:

Gay 90’s Pizza & Pasta Co., 288 Main Street

Fleet Feet Sports, 310 Main Street

Murphy’s Paw, 410 Main Street

Meadowlark Dairy, 57 W. Neal Street

Comerica Bank, 600 Main Street

Museum on Main, 603 Main Street

The Wine Steward, 641 Main Street

Sincerely Yours Cards & Gifts, 711 Main Street

Little Valley Winery, 739 Main Street

The Rose Hotel, 807 Main Street

Main Street Green, 890 Main Street