Guide Dogs for the Blind: Puppy Sitter

Cha-Cha-Cha Changes

2012-04-23T14:47:00.004-07:00

The main reason for this post is because of my some major life changes. :) We found out last Tuesday we will be welcoming a little baby boy to our family around the end of August. We could not be happier and are excited for this big change that will be happening. We have been married almost 7 years (come August) and have loved traveling the world and getting to know each other.

With that being said, we decided to take a break from puppy-sitting and being actively involved with Guide Dogs. I will still update our clubs facebook page and receive pictures from one of our club members to update. I basically post the same things here as I do there so if you want to "like" us on FB: Training-Paws-Puppy-Raisers you wouldn't be missing much. :)

If you would like to add me as a friend on facebook, I am the admin on that page so feel free to send me a friend request. I will continue to read your blogs and comment so no worries there!

With that, I'm sure I'll be back at some point because we love being involved and volunteering. :)

Thunder Dog

2012-03-30T14:53:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I finished reading Thunder Dog which is an amazing story about a man named Michael and his guide dog Roselle that survived the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. If you are looking for an easy and great read, I totally recommend it.

I'm always looking for good books to read so do you have any recommendations? Yes, I did read the Hunger Games already, but still need to see the movie. :)

Question

2012-03-14T11:17:00.002-07:00

Does anybody have a great website for purchasing GDB approved dog toys? If they offer free shipping or quantity discount, that would be awesome too.

Thanks for any/all suggestions! :)

Puppy Updates (3/5/12)

2012-03-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Kyra was dropped for her fear issues . She has been adopted by a wonderful family!

Trinka was also CC'ed after being in Phase 8 for the past couple of weeks. :( She developed a love for squirrels, birds, and other dogs. She has been adopted by her raising family and will be big sister to Amara! :)

Our leader (who had Kyra) was supposed to get a puppy on the March truck (that was yesterday), is actually waiting until the April truck as there is a possibility for a golden puppy!

We welcomed Gia (a yellow lab) to our club back on the 15th of February! She is 5 months old and was born 9/28/11 to Jenkins and Favor. I will try and get some pictures of her soon.

Here are some random pictures from the middle of February:

Amara-Almost 4 Months Old (She is so soft and such a little fluff ball!) :)

Becky at a little over 11 weeks:

Kyra:

Up close of Kyra:

Valeria:

Valeria-8 Months Old:

You must pass Valeria to get to the food!

Puppy Updates (2/9/12)

2012-02-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

Trinka is in Phase 8 (the final phase) this week! Needless to say, we can't wait to get the call that she is in class and has been matched with the perfect partner! :)

Kyra is being transferred to another club to finish out her training. The hope is that a new raiser and environment will help her outgrow her fear problems

Since Kyra is being transferred, our leader will be getting a new puppy in March! :) (Yes, this will make the third new puppy in our club in the past few months).

She's here!

2012-02-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to introduce to you "Becky!" She is a spunky little thing and awfully cute. :) She has two sisters down in Oregon (Brie and Brooke) but aren't sure where the others ended up. Here are some pictures:

Also, here are two pictures of Valeria from yesterday:

2012-02-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow, two posts in one day? :) I just had to share that Trinka skipped over Phase 6 and is in Phase 7 this week.

And with that, I'm done! :)

New Puppy Coming

2012-02-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

A new family from our club will be receiving their first puppy this Sunday. Miss "B" is a black lab from the Alonzo x Reann litter born 11/27/11. Wanna see her cute face? Click here! :) I am hoping to go to the puppy truck on Sunday but we will see how my Sunday plays out. If not, I'll at least have an update with a name and maybe a picture or two from someone else in our club.

2012-01-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

Come to find out, Medford is the dad of Amara! : ) Thanks to Ashley for keeping me updated. Here is her post: Great News!

I'm not sure if you heard but we have been hit with snow, ice, and wind up here. Schools were closed all last week and a lot of them are tomorrow because of no power still. I ended up not having Valeria so there is nothing new to report there.

Trinka was still in Phase 5 this week.

That's all I have for now. :) I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Puppy Updates (1/15/2012)

2012-01-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Trinka is in Phase 5 this week!

Wednesday we welcomed Amara to our club! :) She will be the fifth puppy for the family raising her (they also raised Loyola, Malta, Jessa, and Trinka). She is a golden retriever who is 12 weeks old. Her paperwork says her parents are Ralph x Pilar (she was born October 22nd, 2011) but apparently there is some DNA testing going on. :) She is either half or full brother to Andrew! I guess we will know more later. Here are a few pictures of her. The first one is her sporting her puppy jacket.

The next two pictures are petty much the same though the second shows how white in coloring she is:

Our club will be getting a new puppy on the Feburary truck. That is all the information I have on that for now. :)

I will have Valeria for a couple of days this week so I'm sure there will be a little update on her soon.

I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year!

Braille Burgers

2012-01-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

This morning I saw an article about a company in South Africa that created "Braille Burgers". Here is a link to the article and I would recommend watching the three minute video at the end. :)

Wimpy Creates Braille Burgers

Puppy Updates (12/15/11)

2011-12-15T19:43:00.000-08:00

Trinka is in Phase 1 this week!

Kirsten has been career changed for behavior problems and is back down in Oregon waiting for her forever home.

Cadence is finally going to be going to the Seattle club. She went into season and was down at the Oregon campus and just came back this past weekend.

I haven't puppy-sat in awhile and FINALLY had the chance to take Valeria to work with me for the day. She is a sweet little thing that is really easy going but loves the dirt from mole hills (she is a little bit of a garbage mouth).

Below are some pictures of Valeria and from our Christmas party....Enjoy! :)

Valeria at her raisers house:

Valeria at our house:

Valeria (L) and her career change sister Lomita on the (R):

Valeria at work with me(5-1/2 months):

L to R: Valeria, Kyra, and Kirsten

Kirsten:

Kyra:

Kyra with her antlers on:

Valeria:

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year! :) My sister is getting married this weekend so we have family coming into town and then it's Christmas and New Years. It seems like this year has flown by and I'm looking forward to what next year has in store.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-07T13:42:00.001-08:00

(Valeria out on a walk with me at lunch)

Puppy Updates

2011-12-02T13:02:00.001-08:00

Trinka will not become a breeder because her teeth were slightly crooked. (I don't know why, but I find this kind of funny). She will be placed into the next string for formal harness training.
We welcomed transfer Valeria (a 5 month old black lab) from Guide Puppies of Seattle. If you click on the link, there is a picture of her cute face.
Kyra and Kirsten are still doing well.
Our club Christmas banquet is this weekend so hopefully I can get some updated pictures!
If you are on Facebook, come on over and "like" our clubs Facebook page HERE! :) I am the Admin, so if you want to add me as a friend, I would love it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Puppy Updates

2011-11-11T20:27:00.001-08:00

Cadence is being transferred to the Seattle club next week
Kirsten is in season
Kyra is doing well
Trinka is heading back tomorrow for breeder evaluations! Good Luck to Trinka! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :)

2011-10-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

Teen Blinded by Stargardt's Disease Chases Dreams With Guide Dog

Can I just say, I love this story! :) I was a XC (Cross Country) runner in High School and this story just makes me smile all around. I totally admire her.

Three Things

2011-10-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Three Things:

Simba was career changed for barking. :/ He went back to the family that started him and they are so happy to have him back!
Trinka will be heading back next month as a potential breeder! Hopefully she makes it! :)
At our last meeting, we welcomed Kirsten who is a one year old female black lab that was transferred to our club.

That's all I have for now! :)

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

2011-10-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

The first of October our club (along with two other clubs) participated in our annual pumpkin patch and corn maze outing. My husband and I happened to win for the second year in a row! I mainly attribute that to Kelli (the leader of one of the other clubs) amazing sense of corn maze map reading. We had Simba for the day which is a brother of the famous chocolate lab Snickers! Simba was transferred to our club and he's a BIG dog. As in I don't remember the last time we had a dog that big in our club. He's just really tall and STRONG. I was able to get pictures of all the dogs in our club though truth be told, some cooperated a little bit better than the others. :) Here they are in no particular order:

Cadence:

Kyra:

Trinka:

Simba:

We also got a new transfer dog to our club, but I won't have any information till our club meeting tomorrow. Also, Trinka is on breeder watch and will probably be heading back next month. I will leave you with this picture of Simba. He was totally worn out so he was laying on his bed and I was taking a little nap on the couch. I woke up to this and was trying really hard not to laugh...HI SIMBA! :)

GDB Clubs Page

2011-09-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to do this for a while but I FINALLY put together a list of GDB Clubs on a separate page to help others find litter mates and make the GDB family seem a little smaller. Please email me at gdbpuppysitter (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to add your clubs page or if a link is not working.

If you are reading this on my actual site, you will see I added a new tab at the top. If you are reading this in a viewer, the link can be found here: GDB Clubs

Facebook

2011-08-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Being pretty much on Facebook everyday, I was asked if I could set up a Facebook page for our local GDB club. It's a work in progress, but if you want to "like" us, it would pretty much make my day. :)

Here is the link: Training Paws Puppy Raising

Oregon Fun Days 2011

2011-08-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

I will start off by saying that this years Fun Day seemed to have less people than the last few years. For those who went to the California Fun Days, did it seem about the same, more, or less? I was able to get some litter mate pictures though for those who asked. Sorry it took me so long to post this, but things have been nuts around here and we leave for Florida on Thursday so I needed to get it done before then (or you might have had them in time for Christmas!) :)

Here are some pictures of Saxons' siblings Salsa and Stanton. I don't remember which is which (though Salsa is a female and Stanton is a male). That is what happens when you wait to long to post so Mandy, I apologize!

I believe the first two are of Salsa:

I believe this one is Stanton:

Next up I have some of Snickers' siblings Snapple and Sherbert! I know who is who because Sherbert had her skirt on (thought you can't really see it in the pictures). Also, Simba (another sibling of Snickers) was transferred to our club so I'm sure we might have him a time or two before he heads back or is career changed for his alert barking. Neither dog was apparently in the mood to get their picture taken so this is the best one I have (which isn't great):

Sherbert:

This is a picture I took yesterday of Simba at Macy's Shop for a Cause:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures for Tartan or Jorinda litter mates as none of them showed up. :(

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! I can't believe fall is right around the corner!

Updates, Updates, Updates! :)

2011-08-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow I have so much updating to do that it's going to have to be in bullets!

Congrats to Valentino who graduated last weekend! He will be living in Medford, Oregon with his new partner. He had a pretty cool formal training as he was able to go Disney World with his trainer for a conference! Here he is in harness:

Joanne was career changed for cataracts. She came back up on the last truck and will be living with a lady name Joanne (Yes, you read that right) :) Here is what she looked like the day she came back on the truck from Oregon:

We welcomed Kyra to our club! She is a yellow golden/lab cross. She came up on the truck with three of her sisters. The funny part in all this is she actually has the same mom as Joanne...Small world huh? :) I saw her a week ago and she is such a sweet little thing. Here she is:

We had an overnight guest named Kristi a few weeks ago. She is a 16 month old yellow lab transfer to the other club we work with who is really small for her age and her commands are stellar. I found out today that she was career changed for dog distractions. :( By the way, who loves puppy-sitters!?!?! Kristi does!

Pembrook (the "golden boy") as I called him was career changed. He recently started aggressively barking at other dogs and even barked at the CFR's dogs in her house. No bueno Pembrook. :( He will be placed by GDB.

We are apparently getting a 13 month out Male Black Lab named Simpson to our club in the next couple of weeks. He likes to bark when he gets happy. :) He will be living with the family who raised Marlin for the next couple of months before he goes to formal training or is career changed.

FUN DAYS! This weekend...Come see me! I'll be at our booth selling toyswith Training Paws. Also, this is your last chance to let me know if you want litter mate pictures! Just send me your puppies name and birthday and I'll try my best. Speaking of, our fellow club is getting a new puppy! Yippy for new puppies! :) I will leave you with a cute picture of a yellow and black lab that came up on the last puppy truck:

"R" Litter

2011-07-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Does anyone happen to know anyone who got a puppy from this litter?

5/25/11: Jenkins x Petal-4 males, 2 females (They would be a lab/golden cross)
Littler Letter "R"

If I was able to raise a puppy, I would totally have one from this litter. :) I'm just wondering where they ended up.

If you are in need of a little puppy fix, here they are:
Jenkins x Petal Litter

In Class! :)

2011-07-18T21:26:00.001-07:00

I got an email from our leader that Valentino is in class and set to graduate on the 30th of July! Congrats to Valentino, his new partner, and first time raisers. :)

Litter-mate Pictures

2011-07-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

If you are going to the Oregon Fun Days, let me know as I would love to meet up and say hi! :) We will be selling GDB approved toys!

Also, if you would like me to grab litter-mate pictures for you, please let me know your puppies name and birthday and I'll try my best to grab some pictures for you! :)