Sophie's Training Update

Remember Sophie?  Here's her latest training update!

Work progress:

Pup is class ready, meaning she is ready to be matched with a student. This process could take some time, mean while she will continue to work at maintaining and improving her skills.

Areas for improvement:

Escalators are a challenge that she is working on, as well as confidence and concentration. She can be a little over sensitive.

Positives about the dog:

Wonderful obedience, gorgeous face, loves to give kisses and is great to work with.

Hero Dog Awards

I'm lucky enough to know two of the wonderful dogs nominated for this year's Hero Dog Awards.  Winners get money to donate to the charity of their choice.  You can only vote once a day, so I'm alternating my votes between these two hero dogs:

Robbie
I was Robbie's puppy raiser and had the pleasure of loving him from 6-weeks old until 13-months old.  He is now doing amazing things as a service dog for Joe Roberts.  Read their story and vote for Robbie here.

Rosie
Rosie the Courthouse Dog is an 11-year old golden retriever.  Rosie's owner is the Executive Director at ECAD and Rosie is the mother of many of our ECAD service dogs.  In addition to being a breeder, Rosie worked as a therapy dog for her entire life.  After her retirement, she was brought back into the work force as New York's first courthouse dog, helping a young rape victim testify in court against her repeated rapist.  Rosie is credited with helping the girl win the case.  Read the story and vote for Rosie here.

Sophie's In-For-Training

Just got that dreaded email... it's time for Sophie to go to college.  Like most parents, I feel a mixture of pride and dread that her time has come.  She is still so immature, only 48 pounds, and it really doesn't feel like she could possibly be ready for her formal training at the Guide Dog Foundation.  However, I trust that they will figure her out and, in many ways, it will be nice to have an answer to the "what's gonna happen with Sophie?" question.  For a year now we've been wondering if she will be a guide dog, a vet dog, a service dog, a breeder, or a pet.  Even though it is months away, her in for training is the first step to answering that question. 

Once she goes in for training, the week of July 25, we won't see her again until she graduates.  We will get vague updates every two months and maybe some pictures.  It's going to be hard, especially on my parents, but I know she'll be fine in the kennel and will have a blast with her roommate.  Hopefully I'll get a break in train-the-trainer so I can see her before she goes!

5 Dogs ≠ Relaxing Day Off

While the title of this post is true, 5 dogs does not equal a relaxing day off from my job training dogs, it does equal a fun and exciting and unproductive day spent frolicking outside.

This is how Sophie fell asleep last night

"KK" looking very cerebral in 'her' chair

Sophie being patient with the Pipsqueak

"Whew! Chasing butterflies is tough work"

Oh Gnomes!

It was a wonderful weekend, starting with the Guide Dog Foundation volunteer party.  It was really fun and I enjoyed getting an opportunity to visit with all the employees, puppy walkers, friends, and pups.  I was sad and moved saying goodbye to everybody since I won't be allowed to volunteer with the Guide Dog Foundation any longer.  My new job is with a "competing" organization, so my parents will continue raising for GDF but I have backed off from my responsibilities with them.  It was lovely hearing how appreciative everybody was of my time and efforts and getting to say goodbye to the wonderful people I have worked with. 

At volunteer day, I met Olivia P who is an area coordinator in Georgia for the GDF.  She was visiting to receive an award and didn't know anybody in NY, so I brought her home to hang out with me and my friends coming out from NYC for a beach weekend.  Olivia P was awesome and it was a pleasure having her and talking puppies with her (and I think she had fun, too). Nupur and Olivia, friends from Columbia, came out and we had a delicious BBQ, margaritas, daiquiris, ice cream, and girl talk.  It was an awesome evening.

Well, the flowers are in focus (Nups, Oli, and Olivia P)

This morning, Nups and Oli and I spent the morning at the beach.  We got a tasty lunch, shopped, and got more ice cream.  It was such a fun weekend!

It's Monday...

...and rainy, foggy, and gross in NYC.  But this photo cracked me up because it perfectly displays the chaos and fun that is NYC Puppy Class. 

This is less than 1/2 the group.  Aren't you glad we didn't come into YOUR restaurant for lunch? Pups sure are good, though!  The camera ham is the one and only Sophie.

Squealing Pups and Shameless Fraud

I must share this video of a 4-day old litter of future service piglets puppies and their wonderful mama (thanks to the doting grandma for sharing).  Who knew the milk bar would be so noisy?


I also want to share this article about service dog fraud (thanks to Elin for sharing).  In addition to the problems mentioned in the article, I would add that the fraudulent service dogs are actually endangering the public and the legitimate service dogs.  What's the solution, though?  Should the policy that prohibits asking for proof of service dog legitimacy be revoked to protect those who actually have proof, which would simultaneously intrude on their privacy?  What are some other alternatives?

Deep Breaths - a lesson in patience

I always tell prospective puppy raisers that one thing a good puppy raiser must possess is patience.  Some dogs test this virtue more than others, and I must say, in the battle of the wills this weekend, Sophie has won.  Sometimes Most times she is a perfect angel, an absolute pleasure to be around, a dog that shows promise for a wonderful career ahead of her.  Other days, she has the devil in her.  Let's just say, the devil seems to be getting a little too comfortable in Princess Sophie's body over the past few days.  My left knee is killing me from a jam-packed day of walking and training her yesterday.  It hurts so badly that the only way I am going to survive a week of full-time Sophie duty (my parents are traveling), is by putting her in a gentle leader for a few days.  For anybody who hasn't tried it, the gentle leader is a collar/harness gadget that slips over the dog's nose to give the handler more control of the dog's head and limit pulling.  It works like a charm and greatly increases Sophie's one-week survival outlook.  It's totally cheating for trainers to use it, but this week, I'm going to be a cheater.  In addition to losing all self-control, chasing children, birds, and squirrels, Sophie has flipped her entire bowl of food all over my living room and tripped my neighbor - and this is just the past 12 hours.  Her only excuse for these puppy nutsies is that she may be coming into heat and her hormones may be raging out of control.  We've all been there, and for that, I will cut her some slack.  If only I could just slip her a Midol.  Reminder to self: I love my puppy.

Check out the bulldog that came skating through puppy class in Columbus Circle yesterday.

        

My (losing) Guide Dog Puppy Raiser Story

The Guide Dog Foundation held a story competition for puppy raisers. The prompt was to "tell us about your time as a puppy raiser and what it has meant to you. We are looking for stories that tie in that dreaded but expected moment when you have to return the puppy you have been caring for over 12 months."

The 6 finalists were posted today and I hope you'll visit the Guide Dog Foundation Facebook Page and vote for your favorite story by clicking "like" and/or commenting. They are all worthy, wonderful stories about the joy, laughter, challenges, and tears that come with being a puppy raiser. Since my story wasn't selected as a finalist, I don't get the "prize pack" (Nancy will have to tell me what's in it), but I do get to share it with you here. Enjoy and please share your own (losing winning) stories in the comments. 

On my kitchen table right now there is a silver gift bag filled with purple and yellow tissue paper.  Inside the gift bag is a scrapbook chronicling the most significant year out of all 24 I have lived.  On each page of the scrapbook, I see the sad, expressive eyes offset by the big goofy smile that greeted me every morning of my most significant year.  The first page of the scrapbook shows a pile of indistinguishable black puppies in the parking lot of my apartment in North Carolina, crazed and thirsty after a 10-hour drive from New York.  I still don’t know which squirmy, blubbery, delicious mush in the picture is the one that I loved that year.  The second page of the book shows him engulfed by a bright yellow vest that is dragging on the ground behind his little bowling-ball body.  As I turn the pages of the scrapbook, I see all of his “firsts”.  His first car ride, his first puppy class, his first romp in the fall leaves, and his first frolic in the rare Carolina snow storm.  There he is sitting on the lawn at a baseball game, on his first airplane, wearing a silly Santa hat.  And then, all too quickly, there is his last puppy class, his goodbye puppy cake, and him sprawled on the seat next to me in the moving van that would take us from NC to NY, where we would each move into a new home – separately. 

 

I will never forget what it felt like leaving him at the Guide Dog Foundation that day.  I remember one of the volunteers offering to hold his leash while I took off my coat, and the mere act of passing it to her for a moment had me erupting into tears.  I remember sitting in the conference room with Maria, completing his training report and trying to tell her all of the “important” things she needed to know about him.  He loves carrots, but hates string beans.  He throws up if his meals aren’t exactly 12 hours apart.  He walks slowly, but not too slowly, just kind of slowly.  He needs a bed to sleep on, otherwise he can’t settle down.  She let me say it all, everything I needed to tell her.  And then she led us to the little kennel in the sterile little exam room, where she asked me to take off his leash and collar and put him inside.  The floor of the temporary kennel scared him as the metal cracked under his paws and I instinctually slammed the door before he could hop out.  

The last time I saw Robbie was when he was in that little metal kennel in the exam room, his sad, expressive eyes staring through the bars as I left with tears pouring down my cheeks.  Tomorrow I will take the silver gift bag, filled with purple and yellow tissue paper, with the scrapbook and his favorite bone inside it, to Celebration Sunday, where I will give it to the veteran who has gained a new lease on life because of my most significant year.  I could wait and write this story tomorrow, but I don’t need to.  I know it was all worth it, all the love, all the tears, and all the middle of the night busying, because I know his veteran will be perfect for him.  I know he will learn that Robbie likes carrots but not string beans and that he needs a bed to sleep on and that he walks slowly but not too slowly, just kind of slowly.  I know that Robbie will be perfect for him, too, and that each day he will greet him with those sad, expressive eyes and that big goofy smile that I loved so much.       

Robbie on his first day of "work"

Celebration Sunday - his veteran is truly a perfect match