Reyna rides a ferry!

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!

Guide Dog in Training or Therapy Dog - How about both?

Today our club had and outing to an assisted living facility. This facility allows our club to meet in one of their activity rooms at no charge, so we thought it would be nice to let the residents visit with our pups. We started off with a question and answer period and then we did more or less a therapy dog visit. A few of the dogs went into the center of the room and showed off their obediance, and Reyna and I did that. Reyna did everything perfectly, except the stand command. I am not to worried about that because the last few people I know who have been to GDB say they don't even teach the students to use that command. Strange huh?

Reyna got excited when it was time to visit with the residents. She was a little "hoppy" at first, but then she realized that was not going to work if she wanted to greet people. She was soooo happy when she was able to greet people. She would look at the line of people sitting and waiting for her and it was as if Reyna looked up at me and said "Really, mom? I get to visit with all of those people?" She went from one person to the next, to the next like a professional therapy dog. It was fun to watch. Her tail never stopped wagging. There were a couple of things we had the opportunity to work on. One was licking and the other one was to teach her it was not appropriate to "paw" at people when they were petting her. My little dominant girl just can't help herself sometimes. One things for sure, if she doesn't become a guide, she would sure enjoy this therapy dog work!

Outing at Blackhawk Plaza

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

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

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

They did stair work with the dogs.

Then they worked on dog to dog interactions.

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

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