Update..

There hasn't been much new in the guide dog world for us, so I have not been staying on top of our blog! We always have a million things going on with dogs, but not really the guide dogs!!

Doug is off on a 3 week puppysit as Bethany just got her new pet puppy, Moxie, an 8 week old yellow lab who is the sister to my dog, Sidney! I have also been fostering three-5 week old lab mix puppies so we have had our hands full of puppies!!

Moxie!!

Doug is a wonderful puppy-we are enjoying him very much and hope he will continue to progress until he returns for recall. Thursday I will be getting Marina for a 9 day puppy-sit! I am very excited to see her & see how she is doing!!

Some of our friends picked up Hominy, FYL, yesterday-she is a Meredith puppy-Meredith is Claudi's half sister (a Simon puppy) so we are excited to meet her as we love all of our Simon related pups!

This is our last remaining foster boy...such a cutie!! :-)

It's been a while..

We haven't been very good at updates lately!! It seems like a lot has been going on though! Let's see..We found out that Simon has been bred 3 times recently..Yay for more Simon puppies!!..

We received "Dax" a MYL in our club at the beginning of January-he is a Bruna/Atrus puppy..Bruna was raised in our former club in Salem & Atrus is the 1/2 brother to our Emmy, so we were very excited to meet Dax, and boy is he cuuute!!

Sadly, Bethany's 11 year old golden retreiver, Fizz, passed away last week so our house feels a little empty with 1 less dog..Strangely enough, we have been planning to get a new puppy from my pet dogs parents and she was born the same day Fizz left us..So, in 6 weeks little fox red female yellow lab will be joining our pack..

(one of the dark ones is ours!)

Today we transferred little miss Marina to her new raiser, Kristy, in Salem..Marina is an amazing puppy who really needs some 1-on-1 attention and Kristy is really looking forward to spoiling our girl..We are really happy she will only be 45 minutes away and we will still be able to see her..

Little Dougie dog is doing really well. He is growing fast and is such a nice dog. He fits in well in our house & is a calm, sweet, big, boy that we love!

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 :-)