Things...

So, it's been a while since I've updated. :)

We went camping! I didn't know we were going until right before I had Belle, and I had already committed to it. So, I had her for two days and then had to find somewhere else for her to go until her raisers got back. So, I went to the trusty raisers, the Jewells. Seems like they're always there when you have a raiser-need. I called them, asked them if they would mind having a sixteen week old pup for two days, and five minutes later was at their house dropping her off. I then had to get a hold of Belle's raisers, which was pretty hard considering they were camping and out of range. But everything worked out great in the end, and the Jewells loved having Belle.

Anyway...With Miss Belle "out of the way" (As if!! I love that puppy.), we had a fantastic time camping. We had the closest campsite to the beach, because my sister broke her leg and can't walk far. So, we could easily get there. There was also a lagoon, so we could play there too. Blitz is so funny...We got there on the first day and he went crazy on the beach. He had to stay on leash, and it was a short leash, (urg, I forgot the long-lead) but I ran around with him and he tired himself out. The second day he didn't want to do anything but lie around the campsite. The third day he went crazy again. The fourth day he slept again. It's like for every burst of energy he has he needs a day to sleep. He's so strange. On one of the energetic days we were just walking on the beach, (not heeling) and we saw a big flock of seagulls. Blitz saw them, looked up at me, looked at them, then looked at me again. He didn't pull on the leash or anything, just sort of "asked." He's chased birds before but is easy to control around them with his jacket and such on. So, I looked back at him, said "okay!" and he was OFF. (With me slowing him down, poor thing. I can't run quite as fast as him, lol. Now this is where the long line would have come in handy.)

I wanted this to be a vacation for Blitz too, so he actually never wore the jacket the whole time. There were some socialization opportunities, (a bridge that even I was scared to walk on...A grate type thing...) but I didn't try to make him do a whole lot. Ya, the occassional sit, down whatever, but not for training, just because I needed him to at the time. Lol, but he DID get quite a bit of "no people food" training. We went camping with another family, and I actually saw one of the other families young boys (he's four) try to feed Blitz a graham cracker. Blitz refused it! YAY!!! I'm so happy. Of course I corrected the little boy, told him not to feed him any more, but I'm proud of my boy. We've done a lot of training with my little brothers, but as far as I know he's never had a real-life experience.

And today was graduation. It was awesome. There were 5 yellow labs, (Which is pretty uncommon! We don't have many yellows, so it's normally the blacks that dominate.) 2 black labs, and 2 golden retriever/poodle crosses. (Also pretty uncommon! We just don't have many of those at ALL.) 3 of the "D" litter graduated, and one of their sisters (who is a breeder) went into heat that morning. So that's pretty cool...They're all doing their jobs. :) One of Harley's siblings also graduated. This We sat next to the Jewells, and Blitz and Tanner were SO cute through the ceremonies. They're sponsored by the same people, and look a little bit alike. We got pictures, but I need them to be emailed to me. I'll try to post them when I get them.

After graduation, we chatted a bit then left for the Jewells house. They were my ride, and they were having a party after graduation, so wanted to be the first ones to their house. We got there at about noon, and I didn't leave until 5. I was the first there and last to leave. The dogs had lots of fun, but actually didn't play a whole lot. After about a half hour they all zonked out, occassionally chewing on each other. I figure that this is because all of the "problem children" were in time-outs with their raisers. :) Ugh, Blitz didn't go into the pool ALL afternoon, but then decided to get completely submurged just 5 minutes before we left. Thanks Blitz, real convenient there.

There you go! There's your update. :)

So, now it's official. :)

I got this in my mail box today...

Dear Kasey,

Well, the time is here. The day you've been anticipating since you picked up Blitz all those months ago. It is now time for Blitz to come in for training.

We know this is a hard time for you and we would like to try to make it a little easier by inviting you to a Luncheon on August 9, 2008 at 12:00 noon. You will get a chance to meet and talk to the trainers that will be working with Blitz.

This is just a fun day for you and the other puppy raisers for moral support and to say good-bye to your puppy until Graduation Day. After we are done eating, talking and playing, we will walk the dogs down to the kennel where you will be able to put them in their runs.

Please give us a call to let us know that you will be attending or for those of you who cannot make it or prefer to bring in your puppy on a different day, we also need to know.

Please feel free to call at any time and we will let you know how Blitz is doing in his training.

Enclosed you will find a questionnaire to be filled out and brought to the luncheon, along with his Veterinary Medical Record and jacket. If you would like to bring a toy to share with the others, please do so. (Hard rubber toys, Kongs, hard bones would be great!)

Again, thank you for all the love, support and a job well done!

Sincerely,

Louise Henderson
Puppy Program Manager

So yes, I already knew the date, but now it's official. 21 days left.

On Wednesday I went to Ventura's puppy group's pizza/pool party. We sold the most amount of raffle tickets and won the party. It was amazing! Blitz got to play lots, though after about fifteen minutes he was eyeing the dog bed in the corner. The pool was amazing...It was walk in, but Blitz still didn't go any further than what he could stand in. He loves water, so long as he's not actually SWIMMING. He just likes playing submarine.

My dad gave me the final answer: I WILL be able to bring a dog on vacation with me! YES. I've decided to take Dixie, a 2 1/2 year old yellow lab. (She's a breeder) I'm really excited, she sounds like the perfect dog for the trip. Mellow when you need her to be, but can get really goofy off-leash. I'm afraid Blitz would have been pretty boring, because yes, he does play hard, but not for long. There are a lot of places for a dog to play it's heart out where I'm going, so I'm glad Dixie can get really active.

I have Belle again! I LOVE this baby. She's SO cute. She's great at obedience, but like Joanna said, still needs work on the whole heeling concept. We walked over to the DMV today, (Very short walk) and on the way there she was pulling and on the way back she was lagging. Lol, gotta love her though. And she's still only 16 weeks old, so she's got lots of time to improve. She's grown a ton since the last time I had her.

Well, that's all I have for an update now. :)

Quirky Blitz

Yes, it is now my turn to tell of all the quirks my pup has.

1. Snoring. Yes, Blitz snores. When he's awake. He'll just sit there, staring and snoring. Especially when he's hungry. I've asked some littermates, and apparently both Ella and Andie do the same thing.
2. Blitz will not run if he's on leash. He runs and does "lab laps" without it on, but if it's on...No way. This is terribly inconvenient when I'm in a hurry.
3. Blitz eats every day at 5 o'clock. So, everyday from about 4:30 'til I feed him, he follows me around, snoring and staring.
4. Blitz LOVES my brothers, and their bed, which is just a mattress on the floor. (It's a bunkbed, but the bottom bunk is on the floor.) He doesn't see any difference between a dog bed and this, so I often find him sleeping on it. He doesn't get on the normal furniture, but I've been trying to break him of this. So, I'll be looking for him, he'll know it, and sneak out of the bedroom and go lie somewhere else. He thinks I don't know he does it, but I do.
5. Blitz hates the run around games, he likes stationary wrestling, so if the other dog is wearing a leash, he grabs it in his teeth and keeps the dog from running. If it's a small dog with a tail, he'll grab that.
6. When there are kiddy pools, Blitz will pick one and just run in circles in it, splashing as much water with his snout as possible. Unless I tell him to go to the other pools, in which case he'll pick a new one and stay there.
7. Blitz understands what "go away" means, though I didn't teach it to him. He also understands "go to your room."
8. Blitz has never jumped up on anyone or onto furniture. So I don't even know if he knows it's wrong. I've never had the chance to teach him not to.
9. He doesn't seem to understand dogs who bark a lot. He just looks at them funny when we're passing by a house with barky dogs.
10. Added: Blitz is vocal, but not barky-vocal. He will mimic baby talk. Like, I'll be hugging him talking baby talk, and he'll shove his nose into my stomache and start mimicing what I'm doing, influctuating exactly how I was!

I'll add more when I think of them. :)

We also had quite the scare this past weekend. (No, don't worry, nothing happened to Blitz.) I was dogsitting a chocolate lab named Sienna, and on Monday I noticed she had a bump on her cheek, the size of a golf ball, that was all bloody. It was completely out of nowhere...I can only assume it came somewhere during the night, and that she was scratching at it. We called her owners, and they asked us to take her to the vet the next day, Tuesday. We ran to the petstore for an E-collar for the time being.

We were SO scared it was cancer or something...She's 10 and has had cancer before. She also wasn't eating and was dry gagging/throwing up. Turns out it was just a hot spot, due to stress, she wasn't eating because she was stressed being in a new environment, and was throwing up for the same reason.

I felt awful because all this happened to her in my care, and they felt awful because she caused so much trouble. But really, I'm just happy she's okay. She's REALLY sweet. The e-collar has kept her away from it, and the vet gave a spray and some antibiotics, and shaved around it. So, she's doing a lot better now, especially since she's with her family now.

And I can now breathe. I was so worried she would die. I would feel awful having a dog die in my care. :(

Puppy meeting...And some news.

Yesterday we went to the annual puppy potluck at GDA! The staff broke out the puppy pools in the off-leash area, and the dogs had a BLAST. Blitz was being really restless when we first got there, not to mention naughty. He kept trying to play with the other dogs, WITH HIS JACKET ON! He normally does fine with the jacket on. As soon as he got into the off-leash area, he started running back and forth, dipping himself into each pool as he passed. There were three pools, set up down the run, and he'd jump in and out, head for the next one, and so on, then turn around and repeat the process. He didn't want to play with the dogs OUT of the pool, but if they came into them, by all means, let's play! After a ten minute session he was calmer, then we went back in and about five minutes later he was tired, and asking to go out of the off-leash area. After that, we went to talk to Ella's raisers. (Ella is Blitz's sister, as you may remember.) We also ran into AJ, another sibling of theirs. AJ is absolutely ginormous, at least 4 or 5 inches taller than Blitz. (And Blitz is fairly big.) AJ is also going IFT on August 9th. :-( Ella is still on breeder watch, so she probably won't go in, unless she's taken off of breeder consideration in the next few weeks.

Today Blitz is at Disneyland with Cheri, who has Darcy. Darcy's a breeder now, so she can't go to Disneyland anymore.

Now for the bad news. My dad has told me that I can't get another puppy right after Blitz. In fact, I won't be able to get a puppy until after this school year is over. The reasons are kind of complicated...I made the announcement on a forum I'm on, and filled two pages answering peoples questions about why I'm not going to raise for another year. BUT I will be able to puppy sit! I'm going to tell Louise to call me any time there's a dog who needs puppy sat. I hope to get "in between" dogs, dogs who are IFT and have to go to a home for a bit, or just pups who need sat. Really, any dog will be fine. No, they won't be mine, but it's better than nothing.

For now, I'm enjoying Blitz.

And just in time for her birthday!

Jaylie's 2nd birthday is tomorrow, and she got an early birthday surprise! She made it into this summer's newsletter! Scroll down to the last page, (It's marked as page five, but it's at the bottom) and she's in the bottom right corner, looking at the seal. You can't see her face, but that's her. I didn't expect them to put that one in, because it's not exactly a good picture. The point is that it shows that our guide dog puppies have gone to aquariums. There are A LOT of puppies I know in this one, including Oceana, Camry, Fisher, Wissel, Orion, Frank, Gunnar, and quite a few others.

http://guidedogsofamerica.org/partners_25.pdf

Happy Birthday Jaylie!! I miss you and love you!