Halloween pumpkin

This was our measly little Halloween pumpkin for the year. Lyn carved a face and then stuck 2 well-chewed antlers for horns. I thought it was a creative use of the antlers. I had been trying to find a way to dress up Ardella as a unicorn with one of the horns, but never got around to actually doing anything about it. I like the pumpkin better.

I heard from the raiser of one of McCoy's litter mates today. McCoy is in the Auburn area and is in good hands with a co-raiser of her group. He's with this person temporarily until a permanent home can be found for McCoy. She assures me McCoy is doing well. I was so happy to hear this news!

Back in the spring when I went to Tallahassee I met a woman in a knitting store who had a guide dog. We talked about puppy raising and the fact that she had just completed the paperwork and evaluation to get a wheelchair guide from the Boring campus. I knew it would take awhile, but just last week got a forwarded letter from a club member in a nearby club that a woman from Florida had been placed with a wheelchair guide from their club. I found out it is the same person I met. She's coming out in December and wants me to take her to all the knitting stores in the area. I'm so excited. Names aren't forthcoming until I have permission to use them here. Guide Dogs is such a small world!

October 31 Graduation

Karren and I attended graduation at Guide Dogs today to see this handsome fellow graduate.



That's Peso. He had some awesome raisers and went to an awesome handler.

I was happy to talk to a few of my puppy club members, one in particular with whom I discussed co-raising a puppy. I would start, she would finish. I think this is an exciting possibility. We both have newly career changed dogs in our homes, but it's something we'd like to do in the near future.

Annalynn is in the kennels being treated for a UTI and waiting out her heat cycle. She should be spayed soon and then will be coming home to Karren. We went up to the kitchen to get some word on Annalynn and I checked the boards to see what dogs were in the kennels. I was especially interested in Kennel #3. Certain readers of this blog might be interested in this too:



One of the reasons I'm hopeful about getting another puppy to raise - either a transfer or co-raised puppy - is that we've been puppy sitting Titan, an almost 5-month-old golden retriever puppy for the trainer of our puppy group.



Titan is not a guide dog puppy, but is being raised by guide dog methods, just a little more relaxed. He's a great puppy to walk, is cool and calm when approached by other dogs, and he's the softest puppy I've ever felt. I'm hoping he sheds a little so I can spin his fur. I swear he's softer than cashmere! Anyway, he interacts nicely with Ardella and Aidan and that's why I'm thinking raising another puppy can be in future plans.

Titan is huge! He's almost 5 months and here he is beside Ardella who is 3 days away from her first birthday! They're the same height.

Rainy Dogwalk Friday

I got a taste of what dog walking is going to be like for the next 6 to 9 months! It was raining hard when I woke up this morning and drove to the humane society. There were 3 walkers - 1 person took the green pod and 2 of us did the orange pod together. There were tons of dogs. I lost track of how many I walked. I had 2 escapees, 5 dogs who wore harnesses, and 1 dog with diarrhea who relieved in a perfect square around me. That took a long time to clean up. I was drenched when I got home despite wearing a hoodie, raincoat and rain hat. I can see that I will need to buy rain pants, too.

My two right middle fingers have been hurting a lot lately - I'm worried about carpal tunnel - so I went to see the volunteer coordinator to see if I could not walk dogs with harnesses. She had a cat in her office named Marsha. I've been looking at Marsha on the website and at the shelter since I started volunteering. Marsha is getting kennel crazy and depressed. The VC has started keeping Marsha in her office for part of the day so she can get out of the cat room. The VC recommended that I foster Marsha and I really liked that idea. She's been at the shelter since May and is a beautiful young calico cat. She came to the shelter with babies, was fostered until the babies became adoptable, and now is waiting for a home of her own. She tends to be chosen as a potential cat, is always a #2 choice and so gets overlooked a lot. Her foster parent said she had no trouble with other cats or dogs, so I put in papers for fostering after I got home this afternoon. I was told by the foster coordinator that they'd call me this afternoon. I'm really hoping to bring her home today or tomorrow for a few weeks.

So... I lasted a month. I really have a hard time resisting cats. I am not adopting her - just fostering. There is a difference, right? : )

Agility and Roaming with the Dogs

Ardella and I had a good time today at the Animal Enrichment Center consulting with Megan Kate. Megan Kate feels that Ardella needs to do something fun like Agility, so we signed up for a class after seeing how Ardella reacted to some agility equipment. She had no problem whatsoever, and Megan Kate thinks this will boost Ardella's confidence tremendously. She didn't think Ardella should start with obedience classes yet, but when she's been doing agility for awhile, I'll enter her in some next-step obedience classes (Bachelor's class) where we'll be working a lot with dog distractions and stay commands, among other things.

Another suggestion that I am excited about is to go to Well Balanced Dogs and let Ardella run around with a trained pack of dogs to get her comfortable in social situations. This facility is in the Ridgefield area and sounds like something we can enjoy doing from time to time while we're waiting for agility class (in late November).

I also came home with an herbal medication called Tinkle Tonic to help with Ardella's bladder issues and a suggestion that Ardella walk an hour every day. We've also got a plan to help Ardella with her car issues. It's very much like the car introduction plan that is in the Guide Dog manual but we're starting over.

I've switched Ardella to a different food - Canidae Grain Free Formula. I've been introducing it to her gradually and can see it's agreeing with her digestive system. She also seems to be scratching less.

Megan Kate felt I should give Ardella a good solid foundation before trying again to raise another puppy. I know this is true, but the desire still tugs at my heart. I have joined the Guide Dog career change Yahoo group and hope to get active with them. I'll be puppy sitting a Golden Retriever puppy starting next weekend. At any rate, I don't lack opportunities to get involved with dogs so I'll just sit back and enjoy whatever I do between now and the next puppy.

Vacation over

Alas, all good things come to an end. Vacations are always too short and first days back to work are the worst of days. I'll spare you all the boring details.

After coming home, we just hung out at home. I went to Stitchcraft and bought a sweater pattern for some yarn and I knit a lot. I walked dogs on Friday, had lunch with my club leader to plan dinner for an outing at a pumpkin patch this coming weekend, read a lot (The Given Day - best book I've read this year) and just enjoyed being with pets and family.

Ardella and Aidan have been enjoying one another most of the time. Here they are in a rare moment of being still:



Ardella goes to see the trainer on Wednesday and we'll decide where to go from there after the session.

It looks like I'll be puppy sitting 1 or even 2 Golden Retrievers towards the end of the month. That will be new and should be tons of fun.

Finally, a friend put this clip on Facebook and I felt I needed to share. While playing it both dogs went bonkers thinking there were fighting cats in the house. Enjoy!



EDIT: I forgot to add the most important information. We got the adoption papers for Ardella on Saturday- she's now officially our pet.

Vacation

McCoy left us for the Seattle area on Friday and I've been sort of down about it. He awoke around 11 p.m. on Thursday night with diarrhea and had to go up to Seattle anyway, so I felt worse since he wasn't well. To my amazement, we never had any accidents in the house or in the crate while he was sick. I hear the poor boy is still not feeling well, so I don't know what is going on with him. He was not around sick dogs, we rarely took him out of the neighborhood while we had him, so I don't know what he picked up. I hope it's resolved soon. I don't know where McCoy is other than I know he is with a co-leader of a group north of Seattle.

Meanwhile, Lyn and I are both on vacation this week and we were able to get out of town for 2 days. We took Ardella to the beach. It was a successful trip and I think Ardella enjoyed herself. Here we are when we first got to Cannon Beach:





Ardella was interested in the smells - her nose was on the ground constantly. I think she noticed the smells before she saw the ocean.



It's fun to dig in sand:



Tasting the water:



Noticing waves:



She enjoyed walks on the beach with Lyn and would start pulling toward the direction of the beach whenever we went outside.

We can't take Ardella into restaurants and public places, but fortunately Cannon Beach is pretty dog friendly and we took her into a pet store on the main street in town. There I bought her a new toy - it's stuffed, has a rattle in the tail, squeaker in the head, and it's made with some stretchable elastic so it's floppy and can be shaken, squeaked and tugged. She loved it. While we can't take Ardella into public places, there are some things she can do if we so choose, as demonstrated in the next picture. I do believe the girl enjoys her new pet status.



Ardella is lying on a sheet we brought with us from home. The idea is to get her to always lie on the sheet so if she gets on furniture or the bed, she lies down on that sheet and when we have company the sheet goes on the floor and that's where she always lies down.

Ardella enjoyed meeting new people and was a wonderful traveling companion. She didn't seem to enjoy the car ride, but recovered quickly when we reached our destination.

As far as I know, we introduced Ardella to the beach and I am delighted that she enjoyed it so much.

A Hard Decision

So, Ardella and McCoy met on Friday evening and I've been busy keeping them separated because they love each other so much that they play constantly any chance that they get. They play alligator mouth, and let's run like wolves through the house chasing each other, or let's play alligator mouth through the crates. In other words, they are building such an attachment to one another that it's affecting McCoy's learning to be raised as a guide dog puppy. Plus, I'm exhausted!

Lyn was at Quarterly Meeting from Friday through Sunday evening, and when he returned I was a mess. I couldn't do it, but Lyn contacted our leader and said something had to be done about our situation, that it was far from ideal. So, after several conversations, e-mailing back and forth, me changing my mind, all of us hoping to keep McCoy in the club somehow, I was contacted this afternoon to be told that McCoy would be leaving with my leader for Seattle on Friday afternoon. He'll be spending the weekend with my leader and going home with another puppy club leader on Sunday.

I'm sad, but it's all about what's best for McCoy. I take some comfort in the fact that he's being raised in an organization where all the raisers are like an extended family for the puppies. I'm assured McCoy will be in good hands.

In the meantime, I will be puppy sitting. I have the advantage of working at home so my puppy sitting times are not limited to weekends. I'll also keep attending club meetings to keep up with the new changes. We'll be getting Ardella adjusted to being at home and getting her involved in activities. My leader told me to think about getting a transfer puppy next time and not a new puppy and I think we might ask for this in 6 months or so.

She Remembered!

I confess, I didn't think Ardella would remember me, but she did. She looked very alert as I approached her, her tail started thumping and wagging against her crate, and when Michele handed me her leash, Ardella darted out of her crate and jumped on me, then jumped on Keri. It was a sweet reunion! There is a picture of this - but I left the camera with Keri and have to get it back. I'll add it when I do.

It was a quick trip up to Seattle and back, and Keri and I stopped at a rest area to secure the crate Phineas was traveling in, and to relieve and water the dogs. We got home by 2:30, and dropped Phineas off with Amy whose dog Boomer was so excited to see Phineas again. Apparently he had been missing him. Phineas knew when we were approaching his house - he sat up at exactly the place Amy told me he would sit up.

When we got home, Ardella seemed to know who she was. We drove into the driveway at the same time a group of middle school girls saw Ardella and they rushed up to see her. She was excited to see them, too. Once in the house Ardella saw Aidan and they had a grand chase and romp in the back yard. She ran all over the house, up the stairs, jumped on my bed, jumped off, and ran down the stairs again. She remembered toys, her bed, where the food was, the area of the room where she was fed, where the blueberries had been, the neighbors - it was like she had never been away.

I took Ardella to The Animal Enrichment Center to fit her for a Martindale collar and picked up an antler and some chicken treats for both the dogs. I've asked for a consultation with Megan-Kate, the head trainer, just so I can figure out 1) if we need to work on stress issues, and 2) to see where to start with classes for Ardella. Everyone at the center seemed to have a good impression of Ardella. She was very friendly and calm.

I think Ardella is a calmer dog that she was when she left us, and that could be due to her being spayed. She also gained a little, so I'll be feeding her just a cup of food twice a day now. I may up it to 1-1/2 if we are exercising a lot.

Ardella has yet to meet McCoy - he's at a sitters. I'm waiting for him to return - possibly tomorrow morning and then hopefully I will have my camera back by then and can take some pictures.

It's so good to have Ardella home. My daughter wants me to change her name, but at this point I don't think I will. She'll always be Ardella to me, but I can call her Della if I want to since she can now have a nickname.

Edited: I got the camera back. Keri and Ryan managed to take this picture and I can't help but think they're trying to give me a message!

Tomorrow!

"Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you tomorrow, you're only a day a way!"

Went out for a forbidden toy splurge today. Also came home with some food samples and pumpkin blueberry treats. I'm going to be driving up north tomorrow and will coming home with 2 dogs - Ardella and Phineas. I'm not keeping Phineas, but since I'm driving up that way I might as well bring home another career changed dog. What an adventure!

I've been reading more about dogs and language and checked out this book from the library on calming signals that dogs give to one another. I tried yawning, lip smacking, blinking, and head turning with McCoy and all these things seemed to calm him down a little. He actually yawned back. I'm actually more interested in using these things with Ardella, but out of curiousity thought I'd try them out on McCoy. It's a fascinating book whether I use the techniques or not.

So, until tomorrow, goodnight!