Visiting Simon!!!

So after 3 years we finally got to go see Simon again! We were headed down to a NASCAR race in Sonoma and planned into our trip a visit to see the boy. Unfortunately his breeder keepers were going out of town so the best way to visit was a trip to campus where Simon and his breeder "sisters", Vonnie and Belinda (retired), were going to stay while their parents went on a wedding anniversary trip.

Here are some interesting pics from campus... I would assume the first is for overhead clearance training and the second is the virtually silent electric cars that the dogs have to be able to do traffic work around. Emmy's partner, Tim, was telling us that Emmy (who was trained before GDB had these cars on campus) saved him from a car like this when he repeatedly told her forward and she refused. He then took a step forward and she pulled him back as the car came by!

It was nice to go to campus but we were sad to not get to see Simon in his home. It was great visiting with his family though especially his breeder keeper "dad" who showed us some of his tricks and told us all about how much Simon loves going to work every day at a machine shop with him. Simon obviously adores him and the feeling seems mutual!

Funny story about Simon... when I first contacted his breeder keepers after he was placed with them they asked me how I taught him to bring in the newspaper? They said he did it every morning for them like he had been trained!!! Obviously he had not been taught that but he (and daughter Claudi) love to carry things around when excited. I guess Simon now not only brings in the paper but also brings his "mom" her slippers every morning. What a good boy...

The sad part of our visit was that Simon has really aged. It is odd that some dogs age well and others do not. Simon got darker, slightly heavier, and his face is turning white. He is only 5 but looks older than that. Oh the joys of middle age:)

The SIMON we remember.

And SIMON now.

I promise it only looks like I'm choking him.

He is over 90 lbs. now. He was 78 lbs. at recall.

Here he is waiting for a command.

He was so happy to have the head collar off.

After seeing Simon and helping check him into the kennel we took a short tour. We stopped to see the puppies and were specifically looking for Vonnie(X Kentucky) puppies (since she lives with Simon). Most of the litter was in a pen of their own because they had been sick. Below is Rayanne (sp?).

The breeder keeper family says Vonnie LOVES the JollyBall so this puppy is really taking after her.

Simon definitely recognized us but also seemed slightly confused, maybe because he was coming on to campus and knew his family was leaving. We were very, very happy to get to see him again and my sister, Kimberly, who raised him with me for the first 3 months before moving to CA, was happy to get to see him all grown up as she never got to see him after moving.

Bethany

Saying goodbye to Little Quebec

A few weeks ago we got to go and say goodbye to Quebec before her adopters came to pick her up!

We had not seen her in over a month and WOW did she change! It was SO good to see her, but she looked so different & was quite the spunky little girl!!

Her face is now long and skinny and she was taller but her legs still looked like little puppy legs (probably from her autoimmune disease). She was really excited to get out and play with us and seemed to remember us.

We were told that she was going to live with a family with 2 kids and hope they will contact us in a few weeks.

Puppy!

Yesterday we picked up Claudi's sister Chenille's puppy 'MARINA' for a raisers/co-workers who was graduating last night and needed us to watch their puppy for the night..'Marina' is a Chenille/Kentucky pup and being Claudi's niece we were in love before we even met her..She is soo cute! She is pretty small and has this adorable underbite!


She is a bit whiny and a little aloof (like her aunty CLAUDI!!) & she REALLY doesn't like her tie down, but all can be forgiven with the cute Claudi face!

Her raisers are starting her until they go away to college..so...who knows? If she is lucky she just might get to live with her Aunty Claudi until she goes to GDB college!


We found out yesterday that CHAZ is in class to graduate June 27th so we are really excited about that and we leave a week from tomorrow to go visit Claudi's dad, SIMON, in San Rafael!

Our current pup, TANDY, got to walk at highschool graduation last night--pretty cool for a 4 month old pup!:)

Here are some photos of miss Marina..

Tandy is growing up...

Little Miss Tandy, or Tandy Andy as she goes by, is doing well. She had a rough start to potty training but is on the right track now.

Tandy is going on small outings and getting taller but not bigger. Her sister Tarragon is in our club and she was a whole 2 pounds bigger than Tarragon at 16 weeks.

Claudi is not so sure about another baby puppy but she sure likes her stuffed puppy who we call Patrick:)

And for some Simon puppy news, his latest litter with Crumpet (featured on the Guide Dogs blog) went out to homes in May.

His daughter (and Claudi's sister) Chenille had an M litter and a F YLAB and M YLAB are coming to our club!!!

Natara Update

Natara left for her home almost two months ago now and is doing well. She is a spoiled girl now and loves playing with the family's Cocker Spaniel. They have a very cute game where he sits on the dog bed with a toy and she grabs the other side of it and gives him a ride around the hous
(they have wood floors). It's very entertaining and is so typical of Natara!


Here are a couple of pictures of her last day with us:























And here she is playing at doggie daycare! Oh the life of a career change. The second picture is of her and Claudi.

Visiting Ogden!

This is Ogden, the only Simon boy puppy we have raised. He arrived last May and was a starter puppy. We had him from May to July.

We keep in touch with his wonderful new family and recently Bethany was able to visit him.

Here he is all grown up at 14 months with Bethany. He certainly remembered her on first sight and got VERY excited. It was SO cute!

Here he is chewing on the toy Stef sent for him, a Goughnut.

And here he is being a good boy.

He has grown up so much from when he was last with us.

Happy Birthday Claudi!!!

Claudine is two years old today...and her brother Chaz is in phase TEN!!! :-)

Go Chaz!!

For Claudi's Birthday she played couch potatoe...here's some photos of her busy day at daycare yesterday :-)...