A Very Quiet House

Today was the most feared day for puppy raisers.  IFT Day. (in for training)  We took Joey back to Southeastern Guide Dogs for him to begin his guide dog training.  I have to admit, SEGD did a wonderful job of preparing for this day.  They had about 25 dogs coming in today.  As we drove onto the campus, the street to the parking lot was lined with signs.  Each sign had the name and picture of a dog that was coming back in for training.  Of course we had to get pictures with Joey’s sign. 

We got more pictures at the main sign in front of the Administration Bldg, then headed for the event area to meet and greet other pups and raisers.  While talking to some of the staff, we found out that the missing brother of Joey was indeed scheduled to be there and that his name was Deni (pronounced “Denny).  We kept an eye open and soon saw a large yellow dog having pictures taken at the Admin bldg sign.  Our boys walked over to ask if that was Deni.  We got the thumbs-up from our son and started walking over as they started toward us.  Deni is every bit as large as Joey and just as sweet.  But the similarity ends there.  Joey’s fur is just a little longer than a lab’s but is silky soft.  Deni’s fur was longer, like a golden, but coarse.  Joey has the pointed face of a golden, only black, and Deni has the more squared classic look of a yellow lab. 

The meet and greet was followed by the turning in of our dogs at 9:00.  They called a dog’s name, he came forward, and they took him away.  Joey was the second dog called.  Just like they said he would, he walked away with the trainer without a backward glance, anxious to see where he was going. 

After 5 dogs were turned in, those families were taken over to the puppy kennel for some therapeutic puppy hugging.  After playing with the puppies, we got back to the event area for refreshments and blindfold walks.  That is where you put on blacked-out goggles and go for a walk holding the harness of a dog in training, to give you an idea of what it is like to put your faith in a dog.  Very enlightening! 

Then, presentations by a trainer, and some guide dog users.   

In all, it was a very nice morning.  It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to a dog that you have lived with and loved for the last year. 

Last Call for Photos!

Since Joey is going back to Southeastern Guide Dogs this Saturday to start his official guide dog training and we have less than a week left with him, today we had to take lots of pictures.  We took turns posing with him, both in and out of coat.  Everybody got lots of pictures taken today.   

Joey did a wonderful job of posing, but once he decided he was done, we knew the session was over. 

Next Saturday should be a lot of fun before the tears start flowing.  There are a few dogs with blogs that I follow, that will be there.  If you follow my blog, then I am sure you also read about HRH Berkeley.  She will probably be the smallest dog being turned in, and Joey will be one of, if not the largest one.  Joey has two brothers that have been back at the school for some time, but there is one more out there somewhere that should be coming in Saturday.  We will be keeping our eyes open for a large yellow goldadore.  I don't know why, but I really want to meet his siblings.  Maybe it is just my competitive side wanting to make sure that my dog is the biggest.  (No comments from any of you Sigmund Freuds out there.) 

College Bound

Yesterday, we got the official word.  Joey goes back to Southeastern Guide Dogs on June 4^th to start learning how to be a guide dog.  Up until now, our family has had the task of teaching Joey how to be a sociable, well behaved dog, exposed to as much “life” as possible.  Soon, Joey will start learning the skills that will help him change somebody’s life for the better.  There are several paths Joey’s life can take, with being chosen as a breeder at the top of the scale, to being removed from the program and being put up for adoption at the lower end of the scale.  No matter which path he ends up taking, he will have a great home with a loving family.  We don’t want Joey at the top of that scale.  He has demonstrated his desire to be selected as a breeder, and we understand that only the best dogs get selected.  We would be very proud if he was selected, but hope he is passed over for that honor.  We want him to be a guide dog.  We want him to be somebody’s first guide dog. 

Southeast Guide Dogs is changing the way the dogs are turned in for training.  They are turning it into a more festive event, “Freshman Orientation at Guide Dog University”.  The always tearful turning-in of the dogs is quickly followed by a walk to the puppy kennel for some therapeutic play time with the young pups.  Then, some blindfold walks with dogs nearing their end of training, presentations by trainers, guest speakers representing graduates and handlers of career-changed dogs, and words from the CEO.  

Joey is back home with us after 10 days with a puppy-sitter.  During our vacation at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, we enjoyed our freedom away from the responsibilities of having a dog, but we also missed having the big lugnut with us.  SEGD does not want the pups at the big theme parks, but the days we spent at the water parks and Disney Quest would have been great exposures for Joey.  You should all be familiar with water parks, whether you have actually been to one or not, but some of you may not know about Disney Quest.  This can very simply be described as an arcade, but there is nothing simple about the place.  Remember, this is Disney! 

We ran into a service dog at one of the water parks.  He was a peanut detector for a child with a very severe allergy.  This is one type of service dog I had never heard of before, but I can easily see the importance of it.  We ran into the same dog at Disney Quest a couple days later.  I think Joey would have enjoyed both places.  We are returning to Ft. Wilderness next week for a weekend with the Cub Scouts and Joey will be going with us this time.  One last camping trip before going off to college. 

Puppy Camp and Disney Camp

Our boys are out of school for the next week for spring break, so we are taking a Disney vacation.  Ten days at Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground.  Since we are going to be doing the parks, Joey is NOT with us for this trip.  Southeast Guide Dogs does not want the puppies exposed to the theme park setting.  Joey does very well in large crowds.  He does very well with constant loud noises.  We help him do very well in the hot sun.  But, put all those together along with all the other distractions a theme park has to offer and even the most highly trained guide dog can be overwhelmed. 

We were looking for a puppy-sitter that could take Joey for those ten days, then a week before we were to leave, our AC decided to set up a full-blown three week puppy camp with somebody in another puppy raiser group near us.  Two days before we were leaving on vacation, I called the guy that would be taking Joey to make arrangements to drop off the dog.  Well, guess who is in the hospital?  I am not in panic mode yet, but I need to get some other arrangements confirmed before I let the wife know that there is a problem with puppy camp.  She is really looking forward to this vacation and I don’t need to let her get upset.  I got a call from somebody else in the group that was going to be camping Joey to let me know they had a replacement home for him.  Since we were planning on leaving Friday morning for Disney, it was much better logistically to transfer Joey on Thursday.  I called the new sitter, Doreen, and it turned out she would be driving home from Orlando on Thursday afternoon, which would put her driving thru my area.  I made arrangements to meet her at a truck stop in my town, right along the interstate she was driving.  Any apprehension I had about leaving Joey with a stranger, disappeared when I met Doreen.  She was great with Joey; not allowing him to get too excited to meet her, playing with him when he sat and tried to control his excitement, rubbing his belly, etc.  She talked about other people in her group that would be handling Joey during the period.  By the time we went our separate ways, her with Joey, and me without, I knew Joey would be in capable hands. 

It has now been two full days without a dog.  I haven’t gone this long without a dog since we got our puppy almost a year ago.  He has been with me almost 24 hours a day.  Even when he was at his first puppycamp, I was camping another dog in his place that was so much like him.  These last couple days I have only told my boys “sit”, “drop it”, and “no noise” a handful of times.  I guess I kind of miss the big guy.

Polo Anyone?

Last month at the Southeast Guide Dog Walkathon, I met a few of the people and dogs in another puppy raiser group from the St. Petersburg area.  One of them writes a great blog about her puppy, Berkeley.  You can see her blog here.  Their group frequently goes to the Sarasota Polo Club to watch the matches and party.  They say it is also a great exposure for the puppies.  Think of it as a tailgate party with horses.  Cheryl invited us to join their group at a match.  Yesterday was the day!   

Now, the closest we have ever been to a polo match before was watching the movie “Pretty Woman”, staring Julia Roberts.  Cindy was looking forward to going, but ended up having to work that day.  She might work just one Sunday a year and it happened to be this one.  I got the boys and Joey into the car and headed for Sarasota.  We got to the polo club and started looking for the people we were supposed to be joining.  We didn’t see any dogs or the green shirts that SEGD puppy raisers wear when at public functions.  I finally parked and sent the boys out to walk the line of tents to see if they could find puppy raisers.  I got Joey out of the car, let him relieve himself, then put on his coat and started walking after my boys.  I met them at the far end of the field right after they turned around to come back.  Then I sent them to walk on the other side of the tents while I walked this side.  I hoped that somebody would see Joey in his coat and me in my green shirt and let me know where to go.  Sure enough, somebody saw me and walked out to talk.  They were just setting up their tent and didn’t have any dogs there yet.  I had brought my own sunshade in case in was needed, so I pulled it out of the car and got it set up alongside of their’s.  I was looking around at some of the other people there.  On one side of us was a group where the ladies were all in their dresses and big hats, just like in "Pretty Woman".  On the other side was a tent with a bunch of palm fronds and bamboo and people dressed like Gilligan’s Island.  It was a theme thing.  There were prizes for the group with the best décor, food, drink, etc. 

Eventually, puppy raisers started showing up with puppies.  The subject of the blog I mentioned above, Berkeley, was there along with a couple others. 

Now, Joey has been sort of heart-broken since his girlfriend, Elle, went IFT in January.  Yesterday, he was his old self again with a new target in his sights.  He was totally infatuated by that sweet little Berkeley.  The other pups, Commodore and Bruce, hardly got more than a glance from Joey once she showed up.  I was constantly correcting Joey, and getting him to lay down.  He even ignored the occasional ice cube he was given because he just wanted to be with Berkeley.  She was being very well behaved, occasionally getting nose to nose with him, then turning around and laying at Cheryl’s feet.  When the polo match was getting ready to start, they had a flag bearer on horseback circle the field along with all the players.  I got Joey out to the very edge of the playing field to get a good look at the horses.  He sat there very nicely, looking at them, then ignoring them.

At one point in the afternoon, the group next to us, (the castaways, not the ladies in the hats) started making drinks with a hand-crank blender.  Berkeley did NOT like that blender.  A little growl came out of her, which quickly escalated into a full-blown outboard motor type warning to stay clear.  I never heard such a loud growl come out of a puppy like that.  I think everybody was as surprised as I was.  She seemed to settle down pretty quickly, as more drinks were made and she stayed quiet. 

Oh, I just got an email from Berkeley’s raiser.  She has gone into heat (the dog, not the raiser) and is spending the next two or three weeks at the SEGD campus.  No wonder Joey was so distracted!

Happy Birthday Joey

I have to apologize for the lack of new posts recently.  Things are definitely happening in Joey’s life right now, but not too much at a time that was worth writing about, I guess.  We celebrated Joey’s first birthday a couple weeks ago, which should have been a big enough event to write about.  But, I just wasn’t able to get into a creative mindset to post something about it.  It really wasn’t a big deal, Joey wasn’t constantly bugging us for days, reminding us his birthday was coming.  I guess that is just our sons that do that.  But, I just realized that very few one-year-olds understand when their birthday is.  They are just happy to get some cake.   We were going to have Joey’s party after dinner.  Cindy wanted me to get him a party hat for the occasion.  I went down to the grocery store on the corner, but they didn’t have any hats in the party aisle.  They used to have a party store in this plaza, but I had never been in it and never really understood the need for a store that just sold cheap costumes, balloons, and birthday candles.  Wow, I bet they used to have party hats when they were open!  I knew better than to come home without a hat, so I headed for a bigger grocery store further down the street.  Again, no hats in the party section.  Oh, I didn’t mention that I left Joey at home while I was trying to find his hat.  It was supposed to be a surprise party.  After two unsuccessful stops, I knew I had to grit my teeth and go to the dreaded Wal-Mart Supercenter.  They have everything there.  I was surprised to find only three different hats there.  Now I had to make a decision.  Do I get the red Hot Wheels hat, the blue Superman hat, or the yellow Spongebob Squarepants hat?  I decided that the yellow hat would look the best on a black dog in the pictures we would be taking, so I grabbed a package of them (Of course I have to get 8 hats, not just one) and headed for the checkout.  This is the worst part of shopping at Wal-Mart Supercenter.  I wonder why they go through the expense of installing 57 checkouts when they only hire enough people to run 3 of them.  Why do they have a person at the door just to say hello to you when you come in?  That same person can say hello when while running a checkout station, can’t he? 

Anyway, I finally got home with the hats.  We had dinner, then started Joey’s party.  We didn’t make him a special doggy cake, but did get him some ice cream.  This was very special ice cream we never heard about until we became puppy raisers.  This was Frosty Paws doggie ice cream.  We even stuck a candle in it so we could sing happy birthday properly.  Putting the Spongebob Squarepants hat on him wasn’t nearly the ordeal I expected it to be.  I think he was too focused on that ice cream in his bowl to worry about a stupid hat on his head.  After singing, our sons blew out the candle and removed it so the dog could enjoy his treat. 

                                                    Joey also got a new Kong toy.

This last Saturday our puppy raiser group was at the Fun Fest at Sun City Center.  For those of you not from west central Florida, Sun City Center is a very nice, large retirement community.  Our group sold strawberry shortcake in the food booth area, and had another tent set up for all the pups on the other side of the fest.  One of the SEGD trainers was there with us and led a couple obedience sessions.  Several interested people stood around watching and asking questions.  I, not Joey, was the one that got distracted when answering questions and almost missed our turn at walking in front of the other dogs. 

 Our area coordinator brought a couple harnesses since we now suddenly have 7 pups that are a year old and ready to start getting familiar with them.  Joey sniffed it a little bit when I held it in front of him, then calmly allowed me to slip it on him.  I buckled it on and let him get used to it.  He never paid any attention to it.  I took him for a little walk around the fest .  As puppy raisers, we do NOT hold the handle of the harness when our pup wears it, we still walk him with the leash.  Joey wore that harness proudly, just like when he is in his coat.  Puppy raisers will agree that their pups act differently when they are in coat, more mature, more professional.  Somebody remarked to me that Joey looked like he was born for that harness.  Uh, yea, he was!  A couple people in the group took some pictures of him for me. 

 After wearing the harness for a while, I took it off to make it more comfortable for Joey to lay down back in the tent area.  Don’t want to overdo it the first time.  Joey seemed to stay in that mindset though.  The other pups were playing with each other and fighting over the toys, while Joey just laid there and watched them.  It hasn’t been that long since Joey was the most doggie-distracted of the bunch.

 

The newest pup in our group, the one we sponsored and named in memory of our former AC, Dave Kelly, was there and expecting a special visitor.  Kathy, Dave’s widow, came to meet the puppy for the first time.  It was a very special meeting as you may expect. 

I promised to put a link to Dave’s new blog and here it is.  http://daveyseverydayadventures.blogspot.com/

Hey Wheat Thins!  If you guys start following blogs as well as Twitter, we could use some cheese and crackers at one of our group meetings.



2011 Walkathon

We went to the Southeast Guide Dog Walkathon yesterday. 

This was our first one so we didn’t know what to expect.  We were surprised at the huge number of people and dogs that were there.  Of course there were lots of puppies in training, but there were also lots of working guide dogs, therapy dogs, and SEGD breeder dogs.  Then there were the dogs that are not part of the SEGD program.  Every kind of dog from chihuahuas to great danes were there.  We hoped to find Joeys parents and littermates so we could get some family pictures, but there were so many people and dogs there that it would be like finding------well, you get the idea.  We know Joey’s father is a golden retriever named Norm, and we checked every golden we saw there.  No Norm.  Joey’s mother, Janie, is a black lab.  Good luck finding her in this crowd where 75 % were black labs.  We did ask everyone that had a “Breeder” coat on their dog, but couldn’t find Janie.  OK, how about the littermates?  Joey has three brothers;  one black and two yellow.  We knew the black one, Kenny, would not be there.  One of the yellow ones is named Albert and is in another group near us.  I found one of the raisers in that group and found out that Albert was not at the walkathon.  The other yellow pup is still unknown to us.  I checked out every large yellow dog that looked like it might be a goldadore pup, but couldn’t find him. 

Oh, this is supposed to be Just About Joey, isn’t it?   OK, Joey must have thought he was at Doggie Disney!  He is so distracted by other dogs and here he was in the middle of hundreds!  He is getting better all the time at controlling himself around them, so he wasn’t too hard to correct when he got distracted. 

We were just starting our third lap around the park when the boys started whining about how tired they were.  Instead if listening to them complain for the rest of the day, we decided to go sit in the shade and watch the people and dogs walk past us.  Almost right away, I saw somebody I had been wanting to meet.  Joey’s sponsors also sponsored another dog they named Elvis.    I had been wanting to get pictures of the two dogs together. 

I recognized his raiser from pictures on their group’s website. When I was introducing myself, a lady walking with him introduced herself to me.  She was the raiser of HRH (Her Royal Highness) Berkeley, a sister of Elvis.  Please check out her blog if you haven’t done so yet.  So, we were in the presence of royalty.  Between the King, and Her Royal Highness, Joey needed to act respectable.  To him, acting respectable is not sniffing their butts. 

   After a few pictures, the royal siblings continued their walk and I took Joey back over to the main tent to check out more possible family members.  My family went to ride the little train that was running around there.  I still didn’t find Joey’s family, but staff members of SEGD recognized him from his days at the school during his puppy camp, and stopped to say hello.  Lots of people were surprised that Joey was still a puppy in training.  At his size, they all thought he was older and must have been career changed or something.  We were taking to the handler of “The Don”, one of the largest dogs to graduate from the school in recent history.  Standing side by side, Joey actually appeared to be just a little taller, but is definitely outweighed by the Don by about 25 lbs.  The Don is NOT overweight, just very well filled out.  Picture Arnold Schwarzenegger  at 6” 2”, standing next to a normal tall man who was just an inch or two taller.  Arnold would still be considered the larger person.  And so it is with the Don. 

When my family was done riding the train, they started looking for me.  I, along with 90% of the people there, was wearing a white Walkathon t-shirt. 

My son remarked to my wife, “OK, white t-shirt and a black dog, this shouldn’t be too hard”. 

In other news, our group’s new puppy goes home with his new raisers tomorrow.  They, along with all of us, are very excited about “Dave”.   There will be a new blog out there very soon about him.  Those of you that followed “Ellie’s Everyday Adventures” will soon see a new post there that will direct you to the new blog.  I will be sure to post a link to it as well.