Ogden's Graduation and an Update (by Bethany)

Ok, so along time in coming but Ogden's graduation was fantastic. He remembered us immediately, no pause at all and was in my roommate's lap saying hi to her and trying to get to me. What was interesting was that we had him his first two months and then I had seen him once at a year and he actually got a little more excited to see my roommate and I than he did his finishing raisers. I am guessing maybe because they were more familiar and he had not seen us in awhile? He also sniffed my pants all over and got excited, remembering his doggie roommates I'm sure.

He was a little goofy at times but as soon as his harness came in he was very serious. His new partner is named Michelle and she loved him and said he was the best dog in the class. It makes me feel so good to hear her say that! He was the biggest dog in class, taking after his dad, Simon, but was super easy to control which was really nice.

I loved getting to walk him out onto stage and to see him so happy to see all of his people. Michelle was sweet and wonderful and I know they will do fantastic together.

As for the rest of the pack at home.... Doug is doing great but as soon as we tried to get him off his bland food his diarrhea returned full force. So there is a new course of action on that. Other than that he is doing well, loving going out in public, loving people, and having an adorable wiggle. His head is huge, he is quite a cutey, and I am sure he will get comments on that for a long time to come. He had a photo shoot a few days ago so here are some pics. It's so odd how different their coloring shows up inside versus outside. His ears are kind of silly looking as you can see in a couple of the pictures:)

Marina is off to her co-raiser today. She is a college student and will take her for all of her Christmas Break. We are not sure what is in her future because she has lots of small things to work on that may require more one-on-one from a raiser. However, she has enjoyed going on small outings this past week (she was on "house arrest" for a couple months to help work on her confidence) and is getting better and better at her house behaviors.

Oh and we had Tandy last week for two nights and she was SO excited to be home again!

That's it for now.

Bethany

5 Days to Graduation (by Bethany)

It is getting so close! Ogden will be going to live with a woman in Indiana. We are working on his picture book and can't wait to see him again!

Meanwhile, our boy Doug is getting huge and Marina is adjusting to our household. Tandy has been going to middle school (she is a math student) for a few weeks now and is doing great.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!! Here is a picture of Doug. He has had some diarrhea issue so he has been hanging in the ex-pen some:(

News from Emmy Girl..

We got a phone call from Emmy last night!! Well, from Tim, Emmy's person! It is always very exciting to hear from them & know that she is so loved. They recently had their 2 year visit from Guide Dogs and it went well-they will have been together 2 years in December. I'm pretty sure it was just yesterday though..

It sounds like Emmy encounters alot of random dogs where they live and has gotten pretty protective of Tim, which I have a hard time visualizing, but I just want them to be safe! She is still working well and Tim sounded good.

Tim mentioned to Bethany that he plans to keep his promise and return Emmy to us when she can no longer guide..While this is what I have been waiting for every single day since she was recalled 2.5 years ago, if the day comes I will be heartbroken for Tim & Emmy to be apart..We will just hope for that time to be many years from now..

I miss my little monkey,but it makes me feel better to know how much Tim loves her..Take care of our girl if you are reading Tim!!

Kim

Ogden is In Class!!!

So we finally got the call, Ogden is in class! He has been in training since June and in Phase 10 for 8 weeks now. But so have a lot of other dogs out there so we were not sure when a match would be found....

Last time we saw Ogden he was still all legs so I am curious if he will have filled out into his tall body and big head. However, as much as I wanted him to, he does not look much like his dad, Simon, who we raised. He has the height and the big head but not much other than that.

We only started Ogden so we only had him his first 2+ months and then he was transferred to a raiser family who needed an easy to handle puppy because the husband is in a wheelchair. Ogden was that and when he was not at home with the husband he went to work in a hospital office. I had the pleasure of keeping in touch with his new raiser family, getting occasional pictures, and getting to see Ogden at a Leaders Day when their leader kindly brought him up for me to see. That really helped put closure on his raising time as did getting to see him get off the puppy truck at the Boring campus because we were waiting for Marina to arrive to her first raisers.

Ya Ogyden!!!

All the puppies I've lived with..

Reading all of the posts on the guide dog yahoo group (and being home sick) made me think about all of the dogs I have lived with in my 5 years of raising guide dog puppies..Also, after Dougie & Marina Bethany & I are going to take a break for a while and focus on our pet dogs obedience "careers" & pupysit for a while!

Simon was the 1st puppy I lived with..Oh Simon-the big lug-aka big stud as we now like to refer to him as! He was one challenging pup as he got close to recall-only because of his hormomes and size-but we loved that dog and have loved seeing so much of him in *most* of his puppies that we have raised..

Simon

#1..Autumn (FYL)- was the 1st puppy I had a real part in-she was transferred to Bethany & I before being career changed for cataracts.

#2..Emmy (FYL)-the love of my life..Emmy was our 1st Simon puppy, MY 1st guide dog puppy to have from start to finish, my "heart" dog, and both Bethany & I's 1st graduate--of course..

#3..Claudine (FYL)-the polar opposite of sweet, cuddly, 1/2 sister Emmy..Claudi was career changed just before recall for IBS & there was no doubt that Claudi was one of those "only a mother could love" kind of dogs that Bethany & I could never part with! She has turned into the best pet dog ever!

#4..Quebec (FYL)-The sweetest puppy, maybe I had my perfect little Emmy again!? Quebec was CCed at 4 months old for an autoimmune disorder and placed by GDB due to it being in her best interest to not be around multiple dogs..

#5..Dinah (FBL)-My 1st black lab! Dinah was a starter pup that we only had for 3 weeks before a new family in our club was ready for her, but boy is she a sweetheart!! We love our little Dinah and would have been tempted to keep her if the new raisers weren't so excited!

#6..Doug (MYL)-Back to yellow, but a BOY! What was I thinking!? Dougie is about as cute as they come-but DOUG!? What a name..Doug is a starter puppy so we will see how it goes with Mr. dougie dog!

#7..Marina (FYL)-A female yellow lab and niece to Claudine! Marina is a chenille puppy-Claudine's sister and a puppy I have been wanting since she arrived in July to another club member. Marina is a very timid pup that needs some confidence building, so hopefully we can help her get some self confidence before next summer!

Other pups that have lived in our house that Bethany has raised along the way..

Autumn (audi) (Carreer Changed and living with a former co-worker)

Elke ( A working Guide)

Ogden (Phase 10!)

Natara (career changed & living a very spoiled life with family of a co-worker!)

Tandy (just transferred to a great new rasier family)

And many more that have been short timers as eval dogs and puppysitees! :-)

And just for fun..The Day after the love of my life graduated, I went and bought a puppy..A dark yellow female lab-6 weeks old...She turned out to be a fox red lab that is the smartest dog I have ever met that entertains everyone everyday..Miss Sidney hopes she gets to meet Emmy someday :-)

Picture Post and Tandy goodbye (by Bethany)

Ok so to start here are some pictures from the recent Pumpkin Patch outing. For multiple reasons only two puppies, Tandy, and Doug's sister, Deanna were able to make it. But they were quite happy with all the attention to themselves. Here they are at the "fake" Pumpkin Patch. Deanna liked the pumpkin tops so we had to work to get a shot of her without her mouth on the pumpkin:)

Little Deanna...

Tandy and I...

This picture is from a walk Tandy and I took this week to work on distractions and to get some good pictures of her before she leaves for her new raiser tomorrow:(

And this is Doogie!!! (Doug) on our drive home after graduation on Saturday. He was gone 8 days for his vet eval but is back and is doing great. He got a lot taller while he was gone!

And below is a picture of Logger who we met at graduation. He is in Phase 10 of training and is a Simon puppy. Not only is he a Simon puppy but he is pretty much Simon's clone!!! It was one of those, WOW moments to see Logger. It was like going back 5 years to Simon.

And below are picture of Marina. The first is a recent one of her at a hockey game and the second is one of Kim and I holding her right after she arrived to her raisers last summer. She will be coming to us tomorrow as Tandy moves on. It will be bittersweet....

And because I am feeling sentimental about letting Puppy #16 go here is a list of what I love about Tandy.

1) Her spotted ears.

2) The way she always checks with me when someone else tells her to do something.

3) Watching her play with the Jolly Ball.

4) How great she is in her crate at work.

5) How she walks on a loose leash and you almost feel like you are not walking a dog.

6) How much she loves dog beds.

7) How much she loves kids.

8) How she notices everything in a way that always reminds me of a kid seeing something for the first time.

9) How she always looks sad but I can tell when she is happy.

10) Her good people greetings.

11) How hard it is for her to know what I want from her sometimes but how she will repeat the same thing over and over again if she thinks that is what I want.

12) That she is gangly looking and I will never get her confused with any of my other puppies.

13) That she loves me.

I know I am making a good decision for her in the home she is going to and that she will LOVE it there. Sometimes I just wish I remembered before I said yes to taking a new puppy that no matter what age it is always so painful to say goodbye.

Bethany

Marina's pretty face...

Less than a week!

We have not posted much lately..I think we have been too busy with dogs!! Alot is going on though!

Dougie dog is almost 4 months old and continuing to have nasty poo in and out of his crate almost daily..Last Friday he went to GDB for some health evaluations..We think he will stay on campus until this Friday-and we have to say we couldn't be happier about that! My house can't take any more nasty pooping in the house! Poor guy-he finally decided he IS a lab and will eat his dog food and now it is just going right through him :-(..Other than that he is a sweet little puppy who fits in pretty nicely in our house and seems to like he will love going on outings!,p>

Tandy is continuing to work through her "teenage" months and bring us a new challenge every week, but is a very sweet girl. Next week she is being transferred to a new raiser family in our club as their 1st puppy. She will get to go to school everyday with the mom in the family & live with 2 teenage boys. We think she will be really happy to be a spoiled only dog in her new raisers home.

(Tandy-Andy)
Sooooo..just when you think we will go back down to one PIT...my favorite PIT and little "mini-emmy" MARINA is being transferred to me NEXT MONDAY!!! I am soo happy! Marina's co-raiser went to college and cannot have her in the dorms, so I get to finish raising my dream puppy! Marina is currently having some confidence issues on outings, so we will have to take baby steps on outings, but I am confident that we are going to LOVE being together the next few months. I just adore her!! She has the best wiggle ever and my pet dog loves her as well. Only 6 days until we get our "Arina"!!
I think that is all for today!!

Ogden is still in phase TEN! Bethany is waiting..waiting..waiting..

Ogden Update

Ogden is in Phase 10 for the second week in a row!!! We are hoping for "the call" sometime soon:)

This is a picture I got of him after his ride from his finishing raisers in southern OR and upon his arrival to campus. I tried to stay really quiet so he would not get confused when he heard me but I swear he turned and looked for me when I was talking!!!

Tandy has been at lots of puppysitters lately because we took in a puppy named, "Trini" to evaluate for 2 weeks. Tandy is growing up and since her spay has been SO sweet, I've heard this can happen after a spay but all of my past puppies that have been spayed have not changed a bit.

Tandy at Fun Day:

Doug is doing much better. He still whines but doesn't cry and he is just adorable. He is not much of an eater so we are trying to convince him Labs really DO love to eat!!!

More pictures of him to come soon.

Bethany

All about Dougie..

Just a few photos of Doug (Dougie as we call him)...
He sure is a cute little guy! :)

DOUG..

Well, our latest starter puppy arrived on Thursday and well, let's just say our eardrums will never be the same again!! Doug (Parkay/Bingham) is a cute little yellow boy with a set of lungs on him like none we have ever had!!

He has a very fun personality and is really cute! We are looking forward to working with him over the next month or so and seeing how he progresses & then will hopefully transfer him to someone in our new club!

Our girls (especially my pet dog) aren't quite sure what we have brought home, but in a few days we should all settle in..Too bad Doug has zero interest in food and therefore stuffed kongs do nothing for him! :-)

Good thing he is cute!!

Ogden and Meredith

I'm on my laptop so no pictures in this post but we have some Simon puppy updates!

Ogden (who I started) is in Phase 8 of training for the second week!!! I'm so proud of him and so hope he becomes a guide (that is if he wants to of course).

And Meredith, a Simon/Cagney puppy raised by a good friend of ours and puppysat by us a few times, is officially.... a BREEDER!!!

We want to start one of her puppies if possible! Meredith is a gorgeous and big (65 lbs) female black Lab.

I have also heard that Fame (Simon/Loma), a cross of Simon's, is on breeder eval. And his brother, Furley, who we babysat a few days after his arrival for 5 days, is in class. He is going to be a fantastic guide dog.

Simon now has multiple daughters that are breeders. They include Chenille (Simon/Alanis), who is Claudi's sister and often mentioned Marina's mom, Rose (Simon/Hibiscus), Meredith, and possibly Fame.

And on other news, Tandy Andy is doing better and better. She was having some diarrhea and relieving issues in the house but the switch of foods and a course of antibiotics seems to have helped this.

Claudi however is fighting ongoing IBS issues. She usually has at least 2 days per week of having issues. We are considering a specialist. Has anyone ever seen a specialist for something like this?

Bethany

Photos..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureleaders2009/

I posted some photos of all of our girls on flickr..:)

Puppy News...

So the puppy will be from the Parkay/Bingham litter and his name will start with a "D"!...His sister little miss black lab will also be joining our club in just 11 days!!

We were kind-of hopeful that we would get a puppy from the Alanis or Kentucky litter so that we could have a half sibling to Claudi or Marina, but atleast the puppy will be related to Dinah :-)

Male Yellow Lab..

So I decided to get a MALE yellow lab next month..as a starter pup..See, I was fostering this ADORABLE chocolate boy puppy last week & decided I wanted to try a boy starter :-) Bethany had Ogden who is in Phase 8 right now, but he didn't have a big enough personality to fit in with our all girl household so we will see how the next MYL does..

Now, if only we could get litter details!!! I have some picked out that I would really like him to be from, but for now we WAIT...I am so impatient! We also have a 1st time raiser in our club getting a puppy and she can barely stand the waiting!

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of my foster pup who went to his new home today!!..Tandy will be happy that she can come home now :-)

Fun Day..

We had quite the group at Fun Day yesterday..We took Dinah, Tandy, CC Claudine & met up with the girls in our club Jill & Ali who are raising my "Mini-Emmy", Marina!

We also have 1 pup IFT (Ogden), and many, many Simon pups we wanted to get a glimpse of so we had many things to keep us busy..It was very cool to be able to take Claudi with us to Fun Day..She was on her best behaviour as a CC dog and wore her red bandanna proudly (although it really didn't match her PINK hawaiian collar I got her!).


I was really excited to meet Marina's siblings & Bethany wanted to see Tandy's so we did that (see photos of course!)..We also gave Dinah to her new raisers..They have raised 1 puppy before, but are new to our NEW club & have not raised in a few years so are very excited to be getting Dinah..I hope they like her-she seems like a very nice puppy.


(Marina's)

(Tandys')
All of our dogs were very, very good for the long, busy, day! The day ended with us seeing Emmy's half brother (atrus's) puppies being delivered on stage. I was extremely jealous of the people who got Marley--not for his name--but he is related to EMMY--AND DARK in color--that for those of you that know me is what I wait for in every puppy we get! I am waiting for my dark red GDB pup. I have my dark red pet dog, now I want a dark GDB dog!!*sigh*...Notice in the photos..Tandy is the lightest in her littermate photos....:-)

On our way out Tandy & Claudi posed on the Puppy Truck that neither of them have even been on! All of our pups have either flown or driven in the past 5 years so we thought we might as well pretend to have a "puppy truck" photo! :-)