Fun Day...and an update

Its official, I am not going to either of the Fun Days this year:( It is just not financially smart for my family to go. I spent more on my internship trip than I had planned or budgeted for. Also, without a PIT it wont be as fun. I hope everyone that is going takes lots of great pictures and has a ton of fun! Oh, and if you are going to the OR fun day, say Hi to the kennel techs that are doing the community run booth!

So far the puppy sitting is going well! Kilo is a little harder to have around than a PIT, but she has been very good. We all went for a walk yesterday, and she was a little rattled by the traffic, but I had put her in a head collar and it seemed to help her focus on just walking.

Speaking of puppy sitting, I totally forgot that I had offered to take one of our club dogs "Maury" from August 1st-8th. I knew I couldn't handle 4 dogs in this apartment, so I am only going to have him from Monday through Friday next week. I can't wait to have a PIT again!

The boys and I went to the dog park last night and there were tons of dogs! There were at least 35 or 40! Most of them were very well behaved, but one of them would not stop mounting Patriot. It was a big husky, and the first couple times it happened Patriot turned around and "told" the dog off. I of course scolded him because I thought the dog would leave him alone. Well minutes later I hear Patriot start barking! Patriot doesn't bark unless there is REALLY something to bark at. I turned around and this dog has him pinned to a rock and is humping away! The rest of the time we were there was spent with me walking close to Patriot so I could keep the other dog away from him. The owners of the dog? Sat on a rock across the park and watched it happen. AGH some people!

Hobbs for some reason was getting a lot of...ummm....unwanted attention from a bunch of boy dogs. Patriot even tried it a few times the first day both boys were back home! I think it must have something to do with him being recently neutered. Hopefully it doesn't become the norm.

Other than that things have been great! Hobbs is quickly learning some new commands such as "Heal" (both the position and the formal recall/return to heal), I am toying with teaching him to "roll over"?, and "on your bed". He learned the clicker in about two seconds, but it tortures Patriot so we have to leave the house to practice. I am trying to find an agility club to join, but my summer has been crazy so it may have to wait until next summer. In the mean time I will be getting his off leash obedience perfected so the jumping and obstacle part will be easier.

Only 1 Day Left!!

Yes it is true! Breaking Dawn comes out in one day and 3 hours!

I am going to my local Breaking Dawn release party at Barns and Nobel tomorrow night!! A bunch of TwilightMoms (and me) are having dinner that night, and then going to the party where we will recieve our precious BD books! After at we are all having a sleepover (though I think most of it will be reading rather than sleeping) at one of the TwilightMom's houses. I kind of have the "night before christmas" feeling in my stomach, and don't think I will get a whole lot of sleep tonight.

200th Post!

I would like to answer any questions anyone has about things that I did during my internship. If you are wondering about something, or you want to hear more about anything I did, just comment and I will be posting the answers in a couple weeks.

Home

I am finally home! I actually got home on sunday afternoon, so sorry I didn't post right away. It was great to see Robert again! I had been so homesick the last week there, and sometimes all I wanted was to see my husband.

My drive home was made easier by listening to the book "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer (yeah the twilight author) and I was somewhat suprised that I liked it! I am only about half way through it, but am completely hooked on it. So to anyone who hasn't read it...even if you are one of the ones who didn't like the Twilight series....read The Host!

It was also really good to have MY dogs to take care of. As fun as it was to have 20 dogs to worry about all day every day, they weren't my babies. And as great as that was, I had to help out a friend who needed a dog sitter. For more about that read my dog blog.

This week is the reliese of Breaking Dawn! I am going to a party with a bunch of fans on friday night and we will all be getting our books at midnight! I can't wait!

Introducing......

KILO!!

She is here! So far she is very stressed, but is handling it well. The first thing she did when she got here was bark once at Turtle. lol. Turtle stood there and then calmly walked under the table where she knew she was safe. I had put the boys in their kennels in my room, and it was good that I did because she was stressed enough just being in a new place. After she had sniffed around some, I decided to introduce her to the boys.

I brought out Hobbs first, and he got a small growl from her as he came into the room. Just to be clear, it wasn't a mean growl. She is soooo submissive that meeting dogs scares her enough that she feels the need to tell them to back off. So of course she got a small correction, and went on tie-down. Hobbs was very careful to say hi to her but she decided very quickly that he was ok. Then came Patriot, who rushed out of the room and completely overwhelmed her. He was walking on top of her before I knew it and she let out another growl while she desparatly tried to find a place to hide. I grabbed Patriot and put him on tie-down, then brought her over to meet him on her terms. She, needless to say, wanted nothing to do with him, but there was no more growling.

Turtle has been quite the source of entertainment for Kilo, so far. She quickly learned that chasing her was very unacceptable, but she still twitches in excitement every time Turtle comes in the room.

After breakfast (that was a fun adventure with three dogs!) I decided we needed to get out and let the three of them get to know eachother on some neutral ground. So we went to the dog park! It was empty which I was very happy about. I let the boys out first and then I let the Kilo loose! She was a different dog! She was still very submissive when Patriot came around, but there was no more growling. Hobbs LOVED her!! They were doing labby scoots around the whole place constantly! He would let her chase him, and then he would turn around to chase her! It was very cute and so nice to see Hobbs playing with a dog other than Patriot! They all got some playtime with me and with eachother, and after about an hour we came home.

Kilo has some basic obedience, but it still a little shaky on some things. I think it is just that she doesn't know me very well yet. Her list of commands is as follows:

Sit
Down
Stay
Leave it
Take it
Crawl
Speak
Jump
Play Dead "Bang"

She is a very cute little girl; smaller than I thought she was going to be, but that is good. Here are some pictures:


Little miss Kilo clinging to her blanket that was dropped off with her. She is kind of protective of it, so it may get taken away.


Shutting her eyes to block out the world


This is how they spent the first hour she was here




You can kind of see the sore on her side. She has been good about leaving it alone, so she hadn't had to wear the cone on her head yet.

HOME!!!

Yes folks! I am FINALLY home with all my boys!! The drive back was long, but I got the book on cd "The Host" which turned out to be really good, so far.....its like a 23 hr book so I am far from done with it lol! I split the drive up again to make it 6 hours and 6 hours so that I didn't go insane. But first, graduation!

I had been debating wether or not to go to graduation and then drive 6 hours afterward, but I decided in the end to round out my time there with graduation. Here is what happened at the July 26th OR graduation:

"New" Breeders
Blossom, FBL raised in Boulder, CO
Rozzie, FYL raised in Castle Rock, CO

Graduate who left earlier, will finish up in the next 2 weeks within-home training:
Hollister, MBL (raised in Corvallis, OR; living now in Faribault, MN)...this little guy had such an amazing personality!!!

Graduates:
Leah, FYL (raised in Keizer, OR & Grants Pass, OR & Corvallis, OR;living now in Cleburne, TX)Deuce, MBL (Portland, OR; Columbus, OH)
Unity, FBL (Aurora, OR; Long Beach, CA)
Prego, MYL (Eugene, OR; Fleming, OH)
Flame, FYL (Enumclaw, WA; Missoula, MT)
Velma, FYL (Yamhill, OR & Carson City, NV & Dayton, NV; Lynwood, WA)
Mannix, MYL (Portland, OR; Gresham, OR)
Forrest, MYL (Beaverton, OR; Great Falls, MT)
Lois, FYL (Bellingham, WA; Porter, TX)
Bea, FBL (Medford, OR; Washington, DC)
Bacar, F Brindle L (Ashland, OR; Portland, OR

Peter, MBL, was the demo dog and did a very good job....I bathed him in preparation for it!

It was a very nice graduation. After my 15-20 minutes under blindfold, I had sooo much more respect for the students that were getting a dog for the first time! It is such a huge trust thing!

It was SOOOOO good to see Robert again!! I had missed him so much it hurt, and I was finally able to see him again!

Robert had gotten Patriot on saturday so he was there when I finally pulled into the apartment complex. I was super tired of being in the car, but as soon as my stuff was out of the car we left to get Hobbs. It was great to see him again!! He was so happy to see Robert and me! Once we got home the boys wrestled for hours and then slept for the rest of the evening. It is so incredably nice to be home with my own dogs! It was a little hard at first remembering Hobbs' name! While I was at the internship, I had to stop calling all the little black labs Hobbs. Now I start to call Hobbs Hobbs, and I have to stop and remember that it really is Hobbs. That probably doesn't make sense.

Kilo is coming to stay the week tomorrow morning! I am still a little worried about how it will go, but I am sure everyone will adjust well.

GDB Internship: Day 10

Today was an amazing day! FINALLY I got to do juno work and work a dog!!! But more about that later. I can't believe that my internship is over! It went by so fast, and I am going to miss going there every day. On the other hand I will be happy to be home, and to have my dogs to take care of and a new one to puppysit....hopefully.

The whole day went perfectly, with no dishes to wash and only one dog to bathe and I didn't mind because it was Lawrence! I helped to clean, feed breakfast, and then cuddled with dogs for almost an hour. Since graduation is tomorrow, we set up chairs for an hour in the morning, which was just the thing I needed to decided to go to that before I go home. It will mean a long day for me tomorrow, but I will survive!

After setting up chairs we had some free time while the dogs napped, so we went into the computer room and checked our emails. Then I wanted to look up this one dog's parents because he looked kind of like Patriot, and I was curious to see if they were related. They weren't, but I did get to read Patriot's training reports!! Because Patriot is a cc'd dog it wasn't a big deal, but normally GDB doesn't like raisers to see the weekly reports on the dog's progress. I wont repeat anything that was said in the report, but all of it made me smile because it described Patriot perfectly! It made me happy to see that he was understood by his instructor just as well as he was by me, and he was only there for two months!! I can only imagine the bond these dog/instructor teams have by the time the dog graduates!

After lunch I almost couldn't sit still waiting nervously for my juno instructor to come get me. Part of me was worried they would again be too busy, but they weren't!! As soon as I got down to the kennel where I would be doing juno work, I was handed a blindfold. Ok, let me describe what this blindfold looks like because I can just imagine people thinking I was walking around with a scarf over my eyes.

I thought I would only be wearing it to walk with the training and the harness, and then with the dog. When I first put the blindfold on I got very unbalance and said something to the effect of "catch me if I fall over!" It really felt weird and disorienting to be without my sense of sight...more so than I thought it would. After doing some obedience exercises with my "dog" I was feeling more and more lost. I didn't have a clue which way I was facing, and was expecting to run in to one of the huge steel beams at any second.

Those would cause quite the bump on the head!

I had juno do a sit, a down, a stay while I pivoted out in front of him, and then returned to him, and another stay with a formal recall (return to heal). The instructor (T from here on) had the dog misbehave a couple of times so I could practice my correction technique, which she said was very natural and relaxed. Then she got out the harness, one of the American style ones rather than the Swiss ones. Since I had seen many of them she didn't go into a detailed description like she would if I were really a student there to get a dog.

While we were standing there, someone came over and told us that I would not be able to work a real dog, because the ones in their string were not ready. This was crushingly sad!! That was the one thing I was looking forward to the most out of the whole internship! Needless to say that was kind of depressing:(

Then she gave me instructions on how to direct Juno to go right, left, forward, as well as how to probe with my foot to find obstacles. I gave the command "forward" and off we went! I had gotten really disoriented just standing there, so I had no clue which way I was walking or if there was anything in front of me. We walked until we got to the bottom of the stairs and Juno halted, I found the first stair, and the hand rail....with a little help. This was the scariest part of the whole walk! I never realised just how scary it can be to walk up stairs, not knowing how many of them there are! I finally reached the top, and now I was really starting to feel the stress of being under blindfold. It is beyond me how these instructors handle 10 days of this!!!

T took pity on me and let me walk up the ramps the rest of the way up the hill instead of the 3-4 flights of stairs. I was still very confused about just where we were walking, though if I had really thought about it I would have figured it out. There wasn't time or space in my mind though to try to figure it out! Every part of me was concentrated on following the handle of the harness and not running into anything. T reminded me a couple of times to relax my harness arm and just let it act as a shock absorber. It was hard though, and whenever I felt uncertain I would tense up that arm...I guess so it couldn't get away from me lol. We went on a small path that wound through the trees for a ways, to get the feel of what it would be like if the dog were moving around thing in my path. As we walked further, I began to relax and enjoy the experience....as much as I could while still paying attention. At one of the curbs we stopped at, as I put my foot forward I almost lost my balance! I had shoved most of my foot over the edge of the curb and then tried to put weight on it, which would have meant a fall for me had I not caught myself.

By the end of the Juno walk I was getting a hang of the command footwork, and relaxing while I followed. T led me through an obstacle course including a total barricade, which is where the space between the obstacles isn't big enough for both the dog and handler to go through. This is where the dog's intelligent disobedience comes in. If a handler were to probe with their foot and not find anything, they would ask the dog to "hop up" and the dog would refuse. Then the person would have to feel with their foot again as well as a hand. I eventually found the "obstacle" and Juno led me through safely. Then were some more stairs which shattered my confidence, and put me back to holding my breath waiting for the "pole" I was sure to run into....yeah the reality of a pole in the middle of the stairs is small, but that is what I was expecting. T said that is actually very normal for someone under blindfold. Everyone just expects things to jump out and smack you in the face.

Finally we got back to where we started, and I was allowed to take off the blindfold. It was sooooooooo great to see! Even after 20 minutes under blindfold, I was desperate to see again. Then the reality that i wasn't going to work with a real dog set in, and I blurted out "Is there any way I can work a real dog? I was really really hoping to." So T asked a different instructor (I am assuming because I didn't see the first one, and she said yes!!!!!!! I smiled and couldn't stop! They decided that because these were more inexperienced dogs (they are only about half way through the training, I would work without a blindfold and I could just shut my eyes if I wanted. I didn't care! I was going to work a dog! The got out a little yellow lab named Geary (gear-ee) and put a harness on him.

I was handed the harness and gave him the command "forward".....and nothing happened. He looked up at me like "what gives you the right to tell me that? You aren't my trainer!" So I repeated the command as did his trainer. He took off at a very fast pace! If I thought T had walked fast, this was super fast! It was a little hard to keep up with him. He went a few feet and kind of slowed like he didn't know where we were going, but neither did I! Finally I asked him to formally halt and then turn right, which took some encouraging, but he got it. Then he flew to the stairs and halted, the trainer handed me a kibble to reward him with, and I asked him to go forward down the stairs....and he just sat their staring at me. I asked again and then praised as soon as he even looked down the stairs. That worked and he took off. I was SO glad I wasn't blindfolded going down those stairs! I would have died of fright it was so fast! We walked to the gate, and we went through, and I had him halt. He started doing this weird weaving thing in front of me, and the trainer reminded me to step up by his shoulders in the halt position. She explained that this position was like putting the dog in "Park" otherwise the dog would continue to look for a way forward.

We turned left and flew down the sidewalk. This up to this point I kept my eyes open getting a feel of the dog.....and I was a little reluctant to give up my sight so soon. Finally I shut my eyes and fully took in the wonder of working a real live guide dog. It was amazing! Geary got a little confused when we came to the end of the structured sidewalk and onto the wide open area in front of the auditorium

The little posts that stick up were what confused him. He started around the first one, and then realised he wasn't on a sidewalk anymore, and started to hesitate and weave a little. So I asked him for a little bit of a left turn and he go back on track. Then we walked towards the door of the auditorium and I had him halt and then left again. At this point I was getting out of breath from walking so incredibly fast! We started out onto the stage, but I halted him and asked him to go left towards some more stairs. then we went forward and right. We continued on to a small path where the instructors train the dogs on over-head obstacles. This is a newish concept for the dog I was working, so the trainer had the obstacles set low so the dog would have to duck to go under it....at least on the first one. She clicked and treated him for finding the obstacle, and we continued to the second one. At first this one was low, he stopped and got a click and treat for it. Then I dropped the handle of the harness, and let him relax while i walked back a ways and the trainer raised it to about waste height. I then reworked it with Geary, and he did beautifully!

The whole time I was working him, my mind was flying trying to remember everything I had been briefly taught. Everything was a little overwhelming when it was being applied to a real dog! I had to think more quickly, and be more confident in my instructions to Geary than I had to with Juno.

We made a quick return to the kennels down the ramps instead of the stairs. Geary started to swerve in the middle of one ramp so I opened my eyes and he was moving out of the way of someone coming up the ramp! Good boy! We got back to the kennels in one piece, and geary very cautiously led me all the way to the kennel doors. Where I gave him the "OK!" and let him bounce around for a second being for being such a good boy. I handed the leash back to the trainer and thanked her profusely for letting me work him. I walked back to my kennel completely overwhelmed by the whole experience! I was truly on an emotional high, and actually got a little choked up about it! It was something I will never forget, and I have much more respect for all the blind and visualy impaired people out there who take on the challenge of a guide dog.

The rest of my day was a blur, but I didn't do the evening dishes. I probably should have, but I chose to do community run with one of the instructors instead. It was great to talk with her, and to see the love and respect all the dogs have for her. I was very sad when I walked out the door of the kennel kitchen one last time to go home. I am glad that I am going back tomorrow for graduation as I am not ready to leave just yet.

Ok everyone, I am so sorry that this post has not a single picture of me under blindfold, or with the dog. My camera decided to die, and i had no more batteries:( You will all just have to use your imaginations.

Oh! One part of the day that made me feel like I had finally started to fit in, was one of the dogs. He had barked at me non stop whenever we were in the same room together...every day!! I would have to go in and correct him just to get him to stop for a second. He barks at everyone every once in a while, but me it was constantly! Well, today he finally stopped! I walked in the kennel and past his run, and then I turned to see where he was because I figured someone had taken him out. Nope! He was standing there looking at me. I threw him a huge "good puppy" party and gave him the few kibbles I had in my pocket. I was so happy that he had not barked at me! It went on like that almost the whole day. He started to bark at me once, but a stern look and "quiet" was all it took to stop him.

It was a wonderful day, and this internship is something I will cherish forever! If any of you readers haven't taken the opportunity to apply for the internships DO IT!!! You will forever be glad that you did!

GDB Internship: Day 9

Well today was a pretty rough day for me, and was the first day that I was on the verge of complaining to someone...just to complain.

I woke up exhausted, and never really woke up. I was tired beyond belief all day long. My day was spent doing dishes (morning and evening) and bathing dogs. There was a little community run stuck in there, but dishes and bathing dogs was most of my day. For a while there was a ray of hope because I was supposed to do my Juno work that afternoon. When it came time for that I learned that the trainers were too busy so they would do it tomorrow. All in all it was a hard day, but I am going to go to bed early so that I can at least feel human tomorrow!

GDB Internship: Day 8

I can't believe that, after today, I only have two days left of my internship! It has been such a wonderful experience, and is one that I will never forget.

Today was pretty normal and the only new thing we did was p.c.p.'s in the morning. p.c.p. stands for Pre Class Physicals. It is when all the dogs being considered for the next class are taken to the vet and get a thorough physical. My job in this was to run back and forth getting dogs, taking them in to the vet, weighing them, holding them for the physical, and then taking them back to their runs, and getting the next dog. It went pretty quickly because there were three of us running dogs, and I thought it was pretty fun.

When we had the dogs out on tie-down I took a video of the retired guide Maureen (I can give details now; she is back with her puppy raiser) and her weird chewbacca noises. She wouldn't do it very well, but right at the end you kind of get an idea of what she sounds like.

The rest of the day was spent cuddling with dogs, and walking dogs, or playing with them in the grassy area. We were all excited for the end of the day partially because Maureen's raisers were coming to pick her up. Maureen got a bath and was brushed out, and then we got her a new cc'd collar. Finally at the very end of the day they showed up in the Kennel Kitchen. They looked very excided, as I can imagine they were! I remember when I got Patriot back I couldn't think straight I was so excited! When maureen came in, I expected her to be more excited, but I think she just saw them in December when she graduated....that and she was wearing a headcollar so she knew she had to be good. After the headcollar came off she was more excited.

Dishes rounded out my day, but I didn't get very far into them because I started late after maureen had gone. Today was another homesick day, but I tried to just push it out of my mind. Tomorrow I get to work with a trainer and do my Juno work!! I don't know if that means I will be working with a dog as well tomorrow, but either way it is tomorrow or the next day!

GDB Internship: Day 7

First off I am going to try to keep this short, because I need to go to bed......and because yesterday's was a novel!

Today was a pretty normal day. Feeding, Cleaning, and Tie-down time. It was cloudy the whole day, so most of the teams went out to work both in the morning and in the afternoon. This made for a somewhat quite kennel! The dogs that were left needed walks so I took most of them in the morning. First things first though, I took this picture of one of our dogs while he was sleeping on tie-down in the center section of the kennel. I thought it was absolutly adorable!







So since I walked all but one dog in the morning, I decided to take the last one out to the grassy area in the afternoon. He had a great time because he is a cc'd dog waiting for placement so he got to play fetch.


One side of the grassy area.....



And the other.


The big boy wondering around smelling before getting down to the business of......



running like a possessed dog with his "Fun Ball"

Also in the afternoon, I bathed and did medicated soaks on a few dogs from another kennel. So I got to say hello to some more of the dogs on my list. I have noticed though, that not all the dogs on my list are in the kennel.....that or I haven't seen them anywhere.

I am really looking forward to the next few days because at some point they are going to do "juno" work with me, and then have been work a real dog! For those who don't have a clue what "juno" work is, it is where the trainer is acting as the dog so the "blind" person (me) can get a feel for the hand signals and foot work that goes along with working with a dog. I really hope there will be an extra person around to take a picture or two of me doing both the juno work and working the dog. I also have all my fingers crossed that I know the dog they let drag me around under blindfold. Anyways the rest of the day was normal. I ended up doing dishes again, but this time, some how, I finished washing and stacking all of them!!! I will have to take a picture for those who haven't ever seen the wall of bowls.

Happy Month Day to Hobbs!!

Today Hobbs is 16 months old! I can't believe he is that old already! I miss him, and Patriot, and my husband so very much! It will be nice to be home with my family!

Oh! On that note, I just offered to puppy sit a friend's dog for next week....from tuesday through sunday. The dog is a big 80lb FYLB named Kilo, who has a wound on her side so she isn't allowed to go to lake powell with her people. Here is her owner's blog with some pictures of her and her owie. I am excited and nervous as I have never puppy sat for a non GDB dog before!

GDB Internship: Day 6

First of all I posted on my personal blog about my weekend in Seattle, so go check it out.


Today was a good and bad day. It was only bad because for some reason I am super homesick and it kind of ruined all my enthusiasm for the day. I don't normally get homesick, so I don't know what it up with me today. Hopefully it goes away so I can enjoy the 4 days left of my internship.


As for the rest of the day, it was AMAZING!! It started off like normal with cleaning and feeding, then I tried to keep myself busy for the hour before I went out with the team. When I say team I mean the team of instructors I went out with. Finally I got the word that they were ready to leave so I rushed down to the van and we took off. It was only then that I realized that my camera was in my purse under the counter in the kennel!! I was pretty bummed that I didn't have it, but you will just have to use your imaginations and I will try to be descriptive.


We went to a very quiet neighborhood, which was the first surprise for me. I thought these dogs would be far enough along in their training to be going out to busier places. I later found out that they go to a quiet for two reasons. The first is that these dogs are only on their 14th or 15th workout and are not ready for the really busy stuff. And the second it so that the dog has only one thing to be focused on...the car!


GDB is using the Prius for almost all of its traffic training now, so one of the supervisors was driving along, setting up 7 or 8 situations for each dog. I walked along with the first three dogs which was really the first time I have seen these dogs work for more than two seconds. I never got to really see Calliope work, and all the other times I have met working guides, it was on a bus or in a store so I don't get to see them in action.


I knew the first dog they pulled out to work, so it was great to see him work! This was the first ever traffic set up for all of these dogs. They were doing what they call "traffic conditioning" which is where the instructor cues the dog for the proper response. They do this in several different situations, and basically let the dog get a feel for what is expected of them. It is a pretty stressful workout for the dogs, so the route is easy and quiet. The different situations they put the dog in were:

• A car coming at them while they are crossing the street (both coming in front of the dog and behind) - The dog is expected to stop, back up, or speed up, depending on the position of the car.
• A car pulling into a driveway towards the dog - The dog is expected to stop and/or back up
• A car backing out of a driveway in front of the dog - The dog is expected to stop
• A car backing out of a driveway AS the dog is walking behind it - The dog is expected to back in a straight line until it is clear of the car
• A car stopped in front of the curb when the handler askes for a "forward" across the street - The dog is expected to stand still until the car is out of the way.

There were quite a few of the car pulling into a driveway and backing out of the driveway ones, and a few of the crossing the street ones. The only situations they only practiced once were the the intelligent disobedience, and the one where the car back up while the dog is behind it. The latter one was pretty scary for the dogs because the trainer would squeeze the dog into the car so that they were bumped by the car. After that situation, the dogs go to stop working for a little while and just be praised, to get rid of any excess stress it caused.

It was very wonderful to see how much these puppies/dogs LOVE their work! Many of them just couldn't work hard enough to please their trainers! One thing that made me smile every time was how happy they were to find the up and down curbs. They all look so proud of themselves for finding that curb.

After walking along with the dogs for a few routes, I hopped in the car for the rest of them. Being in the car it was very interesting to see how each dog reacted to the cars. Some obviously were offended that this car was trying to run over them, some were only interested in smelling the car and its tires, and some were so focused on their work that they didn't notice the car until it was almost on top of them. I also got to talk to the supervisor about traffic, and about the training of the dogs in general. I learned something new about dogs that I didn't know!

I learned that when you are training a dog, and it seems like they totally understand and are doing everything perfectly and then a couple weeks later it seems like everything fell out of their brains and they don't know anything you taught them, it is NORMAL! When this period of forgetfulness happens, instead of correcting the dog for disobeying something they "know" how to do, you should be patient and wait for that moment when they consciously make the decision to do the right thing. That is when the dog will learn the most, and if corrected the dog can shut down and sometimes that shut down isn't something you can fix!

The training supervisor that was driving the car was very willing to answer my questions, and clearly has such a passion for his work. I could have picked his, and the trainer's, brains all day long! It was really interesting to see the difference in handling skills between the two experienced trainers we had with us, and the apprentice trainer. The more experienced trainers almost made it look like the dog was the one stopping for the car, not that the trainer was cueing the stop. There is a lot more to being the trainer of a guide dog than just walking along behind it!

After we had worked 9 dogs, we headed back to campus just in time for lunch. After lunch I walked a bunch of dogs, and helped with other miscelanious things around the kennels. We found out that both of the guides in our kennel are going to new homes (as retired guides) soon, so that was very good news. One of them went home for the night with one of the staff, and all day today she (the dog) was looking for that person to come and take her again! It kind of tore at my heart knowing that she was already that attached to this person who had "rescued" her from the kennels. Luckly I think that person is going to adopt her, and she took her home with her again tonight!

I helped with feeding once again, and then got to help with community run! I really love doing community run because the dogs absolutly love it. We got some new toys for the outside so the dogs enjoyed having something new to play with. It was just one new "Egg" toy...if you have been to fun day you know what it looks like....but the dogs loved having something new in their "yard". I also bathed three dogs at the same time! Well, they all needed medicated baths on different parts of their body, so I would put the medication stuff on one dog, put it on tie-down and move on to the next dog, and so one until it was time to rinse them. It was actually kind of hectic!

I DIDN'T HAVE TO DO DISHES TODAY!!!! I was so very happy about that! All in all it was a very fun and informative day.

Weekend in Seattle

I have been having a blast in Portland OR working at my dream job for the last week! I decided to go visit my sister and her husband in Seattle WA. I drove the three hours to their apartment on Friday night....then promptly went to sleep. On Saturday we went into Seattle (they live in Kirkland) to the Pike Place market which was really cool! They had a lot of seafood out for people to buy so the whole place smells very fishy. There are whole rows of fresh vegetables and fruits. Here are some pictures of our day.

My Sister Jenetta

The famous Pike Place market sign

There were TONS of people there!

There was even a vendor selling tons of pasta

The flower vendors were overpowering to the senses!

The very first Starbucks ever

After the market, we went to the "Bite of Seattle" in the center of the city. It was kind of like the food section of a state/county fair. There were lots of people and really good food! I had a gyro and some spicy curly fries.

The space needle

James and Jenetta

This is a fountain at the bottom of a huge cement bowl. There were a bunch of people playing in the water, it looked really fun.

This was the weirdest thing! This couple was taking wedding pictures at the bottom of the bowl and in the huge crowds of people.

They even had their wedding party there!

This was one of the food vendors. They were cooking whole salmon on these big sticks!

There was a band of hippie people playing at the event, and their music was actually good!

There was a couple people who felt the need to dance to it, and there was one really drunk guy who was dancing by himself.

After the event we went home and took a nap. That night we went out to the movie HellBoy...which was ok but not good. Then we went out to dinner at a little Mexican place and I had an AMAZING seafood chimichanga!

Today we went to church and then had yummy waffles for lunch/dinner. Then I headed back to Portland to get some sleep before starting work early the next day!

GDB Internship: Day 5

Today was a great day! It started off pretty normal with cleaning, feeding, and the instructors doing community run. Then we cuddled with some dogs, and surprisingly had no vet checks which is great for the dogs. Then we put the dogs away, walked two of them, and then I bathed of them. One of the dogs I bathed must have had super undercoat or something, because it took me a good 15 minutes of rinsing before I got all the conditioner out of her fur!

At lunch time I went up and ate with the students that are in class right now. It was great to see them working and interacting with their dogs. The dogs look at their new partners with so much adoration it is incredible! After being in the kennels and seeing how some of the dogs have a hard time dealing with it, it is great to see that after just two weeks or three weeks they are calm and re-adjusted to being normal dogs....well as normal as a guide dog gets! I sat at a table with three students, a first timer and two re-trains, they were all very nice and I loved listening to their stories. Lunch was a BLT and the most amazing tomato soup I have ever had! I don't even like tomato soup!!

After lunch it was back to the usual. We did community run and I ran my quad of the kennel by myself (granted it was only two dogs at a time). Then was more quiet kennel time, and I made a point to get some dogs out who I hadn't cuddled with yet. One little black lab girl is so small and adorable! I think she is becoming another favorite....that may be because she reminds me of Hobbs.

On that note, I MISS MY DOGS!!!!! I cannot believe how much I miss my boys!! I was fine until last night when I was looking through my photos, and came to the most recent ones of Hobbs and Patriot. It almost made me cry!! My leader hasn't called me about Hobbs going to the vet so I am hoping that means he got over whatever gave him diarrhea. He will be a free puppy do be normal after Tuesday! That is when the vet said he could play and get exercised again. Here are some pictures of my babies:

I didn't get around to taking any more pictures today, but if I am allowed to on Monday, you can bet I am going to take a million of them! I am not going to give any more hints, because I think that last one was a pretty obvious one.

During afternoon "naps" we made some stuffed kongs for the dogs. I put naps in " " because the dogs have never been more awake (and noisy!) than they were while we were stuffing those kongs! I was going to take one of the CC'd dogs to the grassy area to play, but after like 5 minutes another kennel needed me to bathe one of their dogs. I finally got to go into TK3 which is where most of the dogs I am supposed to say hi to are!! I didn't have much time, because they needed him to dry before we fed dinner, but I did say hi to....well here is just an updated list:

Velma - yes
Loden - Yes...he is in my kennel
Lawrence - Yes
Lester - Yes
Lizzie - Yes...in my kennel and I am staying with her raisers
Remington - Yes...he is in my kennel
Sakino - no
Bono - no
Getty - I saw him/her but didn't get to say hi
Riff - no
Forrest - Yes
Femke - no
Belvedere - no
Bea - no
Duncan - no
Ontario - Yes
Andera - Yes

The rest of the no dogs on here, are probably in TK3 so if I have a chance to go back in, I will look through all the dogs. Maybe on one of my breaks I will do that. Dishes finished up my day....as usual!

On my way home, I got gas, and the GPS pointed me in a new direction. I decided to go the way it suggested, even though I could have driven a few miles to be back on the usual route home. I am sooo glad I went the new way! It was about 20 minutes longer, but it was amazing country to drive through! I think I will drive home that way again sometime so that I can take pictures....not while I drive though because I would die. The road was just two lanes that wound through forests that are so close to GDB. There were huge fields of cows, and fields of tree farms! Many of them were the kind of bushes and small trees people plant in their yards. It was nice to relax before I left for my 3 hour trip to my sister's house in seattle.

GDB Internship: Day 4

Today was great! I helped with community run again finally!! It was really nice, and it was the most dogs I have been out with so far. I took some pictures early when the instructors were doing Community Run, but I think I may ask one of them to take some more on another day. Then I am sure they will get some better ones.

I am not sure who's face got in the way but he jumped up right as I pushed the button.

We cleaned this morning like always (I tried to use a squeegee and failed miserably!), and then most of the training dogs went out again for the day. We ended up with more dogs than would fit in the center section, so some of the dogs stayed in their runs with some toys. The other dogs got to cuddle for a while. One of the boarding guides in my kennel is such a funny girl when she is on tie-down. When someone comes close, but not actually to her, she will put a toy in her mouth and then starts to whine but it sounds like chewbacca! It is really funny!

I made a good find on one of the puppies when I was scratching his belly, I found a red sore which ended up being a bunch of little round sores all over his stomach! So he went in for a vet check, and got a medicated bath. Then we cleaned the outside, and walked some of the cc'd dogs. While on our walk we passed by a dog in the early stages of sidewalk-less training. It was learning to go around cars that were parked along the side of the road. The dog was doing a pretty good job until we walked past with 4 dogs, and it got distracted. But as soon as we were gone, the dog got right back to its work! I swear I could watch them train these dogs for a year straight and still be absolutly facinated!!!

For part of the day, I was up in the puppy kennel cuddling with some of the little pups in there. Oh, to answer a question...The puppy kennel is for transfer pups that are in between homes, or puppies who needed a medical eval, or early cc'd puppies waiting for placement, and I think we puppies there who are waiting to be spayed/neutered.

I realized today that I forgot to talk about the worst part of my job! Lol, no, I am not complaining, that is how the kennel tech who trained me described this the job of cleaning the drains. In front of the kennels and runs, there is a gutter for all the water from cleaning. In it are three drains that have screens to catch all the dog hair so that it doesn't plug up the sewer system. It really isn't a bad job, which tells you how much people like to work here, if that is described as the worst part! The first time I cleaned them, we found 2 little green frogs. We let them go outside the kennel area, but they were really cute! If we find any more I am going to take a picture.

Today was the turning point, I hope, to where I feel like I know what I am supposed to do. It is only during the quiet times when I am not sure what to do, because we do something different almost every day! I finished up the day by helping to feed the dogs, and washing the dishes....which is getting easier every day. By the time I got home, I was suprisingly still energetic, and am still pretty awake at....9:45pm! I have to go to bed though so I don't crash hard tomorrow evening while I drive to my sister's house!

To keep everyone reading through the weekend (I wont be posting Saturday or Sunday) here is a hint of what is happening on Monday:

For those who know(or find out) what this is a picture of: Don't ruin it for others!!!

GDB Internship: Day 3

Sorry for the late post! My internet was having some issues last night, so I didn't worry about it. Plus I was falling alseep eating my dinner, so I went to bed early.


Today was a pretty calm day. All but one of the training dogs in my kennel went out with the trainers, so we had a total of 6 dogs to take care of for most of the day. After cleaning our kennel, and the puppy kennel, while the instructors ran community run, we fed and then pulled all our dogs into the center section for a good loooong cuddle time. It was nice to just sit and make these dogs happy by being someone to snuggle up to. The one dog that was left home from the training string was there because it had an owie on its foot, that turned out to be nothing serious.



Then we cleaned the outside runs and locked everyone inside to nap. While they were napping I got to play with the cc'd dog that is assigned to the Kennel Tech/CWT that I am assigned to. I was supposed to teach him a trick, but he didn't want to focus long enough to try it more than twice which was pretty frustraiting. I finally got him to kind of put his head down on the floor, on command, when he was laying down, but the behavior was not very consistant. When he got it right, though it looked like he knew what he was doing.

By then the nap time was over so two kennel techs and I walked most of the dogs left in our kennel. I realy enjoy the walks, because then I can relax and think for 5 minutes.....it gets pretty hectic in the kennels. After that was lunch which is always pretty boring.

When we got back from lunch, some of our dogs were back from their route, but most of them were still out. One of the dogs who came back happened to need a bath so I took him up for that. I am really impressed with how good the dogs all are in the bathing room! Maybe they get worked with on it a lot, but they all just stand there like statues!

The only sad part about today, was that I didn't get to do any community run. I really like getting out and watching the dogs play. Oh, well maybe tomorrow. I did get some exciting news about something I am going to be doing on Monday, but I think I am going to keep you all in suspence until then. Just know that I cant wait until then!!!

The afternoon was basically like yesterday, just cleaning, nap time and feeding. Today I was scooping the food, and sorting the bowls, which suprisingly can be pretty confusing the first time! But I only ended up with two or three extra bowls of food. Then came the dishes....I hope that I am not doing this every day because it is not a good end to the day. If I am though I will do it without complaint and will do a good job. Aparently they have had some whiney interns this year so they are happy to have one that is happy just to be at GDB.

Here are some more pictures, mostly of the kennel part of campus. Enjoy!


TK1 - My kennel


The outside runs, and community run areas


Looking up "the hill" towards the puppy kennel


Looking down the hill towards TK2 & 3 and the recieving kennel


Some of the dogs during cuddle time


One of our handsome cuddle buddies....sorry about the crazy eyes!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

The best part of my day yesterday was that it was my birthday and I got to spend it at GDB! Most of the way through the day, I was told to go up to the administration desk to talk to someone. I was a bit nervous, thinking I had done something bad and was about to get in trouble. When I walked in I saw these:






Yep, my dear husband planned to have 24 colorful roses sent to Guide Dogs for my birthday! It was a little embarassing, but I was grinning like a fool the rest of the day. I love my husband, because he does things like this when I least expect it. He is in Baltimore, on a business meeting for heavens sake!!!!

Robert I love you!