10 months and counting...

I can't believe my boy turns 1 in a little over a month. There's a lot of exciting things in the works over here, but its always a little sad to think that I've spent more time with my boy than I have left.

I love how he still wiggles his way under my bed even though he should be too big.

I love he sleeps on piles of laundry/any blanket.

I love that he chooses to curl up on the smaller side of the floor in the car.

I love when his ears go back to show me how hard he's trying to be good.

I love how he wiggles around me in circles, making sure he gets petted as much as possible.

I love his face on my bed in the morning.

I love his beautiful, sleek coat and golden brown eyes.

I love how he knows what I mean when I say "we're going to see Shayna and David"

I love that he has flawless house manners.

I love playing "where's your toy?"

I love sitting on the floor with a huge cuddle bug, or how he snuggles right in when I lay on the floor with him.

I love this dog, and love the past 8 months.

Fun Day approaches!!

I know I haven't been on here in a long time....and a lot has changed. Vicente is 10 months old, neutered, and no longer being co-raised. He's a great boy. 

We're curious: how many of our online friends are going to the Oregon Fun Day?? 

It takes a club...

You know the cliche saying about "it takes a club to raise a puppy"? In our case that's totally true. There's no way I would be able to be raising Mr. Vicente without my club.

Today my co-raiser is out of town (I have to work during meeting times which is why I have to co-raise) so one of my leaders is taking V to the outing and will have him for the next day and a half also. When he did his first puppy trade with her, she noticed that he is really whiney on tie-down (probably because they have 2 other dogs and I don't have any, so he wanted to play) and he had a difficult time settling in a work environment. Since he'll possibly be going to work with my co- raiser, it's important that he gets this down. So my awesome leader will have her own pet dogs, her own PIT, AND my PIT. She's going to try to work on his annoying whining and teaching him to settle down at work for a day.

Not to mention that I've had to set up special meetings with our leaders because sometimes meeting in person to work on an issue is worth 2,000 emails. My leaders are awesome.

AND we have really great club members. My co-raiser told me that V is really out of control and dog distracted at the meetings. So I've been meeting up with club members outside of normal times to work on dog distraction and just get some good training in. Everyone has been awesome.

So that's really it today. Just a shout out to Puppy Guides and the wonderful people who are helping me turn Vicente into the best possible dog.

Long time

Sorry it's been a while...Vicente is his normal little self. He's always been laid-back but recently there have been some struggles. Like he doesn't like traffic. Or didn't. I'm not sure if it's totally past yet. We've been working really hard on it, and my leader had him and said he was good with it. We started introducing him to the bus very slowly because of his fear of loud cars. So far he's been on it twice, once with his best friend in training Argo. I only took him once, my co-raiser and leader took him the other time, and while he showed some signs of stress, he did very well. I'm thinking of adding little bus rides to our weekly training.

BUT, even though there are some tough days, with either mischievous Vicente or timid Vicente, I'm really hopeful for his future. I just sent this e-mail to my leaders:

I know we tell you all our problems, so I wanted up tell you a happy story. My little 12 year old brother helped me with my first 3 dogs and is so excited to get his own puppy in 2 years. Today we went to watch his middle school team wrestling meet, but he was injured so I let him have Vicente since we were going to be sitting together. Vicente was amazing. He walked on a perfect loose leash, navigated bleachers that didn't have stairs, and even saw a working service dog come in to the meet. He was interested, but maintained a perfect sit. During the yelling and whistle blowing and clapping and buzzer sounding of the meet, he just watched the people and eventually curled up on the bleacher floor. Walking out was the same....perfect "let's go" as he navigated a couple sets of stairs and a couple little crowded areas. I'm so proud of this puppy. Even with his bad days, he's such a wonderful dog, and just wanted to share with you :)

They all have their personalities and problems, but when it comes down to it, I'm so honored to be raising such a wonderful little guy.

The V's

We got to meet all the V puppies yesterday. So much fun! Vicente is like all of them in various ways. The boys all look identical, and the girls are pretty similar, too! Funny thing is Vicente was the smallest boy when he was born, but now he's much bigger than any of the other pups! He's probably twice the size of Valora and Vicky. But it was a great time and I'm so glad I got to meet them and their people.

Learning House Manners

V has wonderful house manners. 98% of the time, he's happy to be chewing on a bone or napping. However, recently he's been foraging. I think it's mainly because he's a hungry growing boy. Upping his food has seemed to help a lot. But today I decided to seed the floor just to practice good house manners. In the picture (you might not be able to see it all) but we have a pencil, Tostitos, a couple of approved toys, his dog bed, leather boots, a beanie baby stuffed toy, and a bowl with a hot dog. He's done a lot of learning :)

Fears be gone

The past few weeks have been interesting. We've learned a lot about Vicente. He had kennel cough and then diarrhea (which is finally going away!). Made it difficult to potty train because he just couldn't hold it. Then he showed us this really intense and weird fear reaction to walking out doors. Only out, never in. Only businesses, never in the house. Most of the time with his head collar on, but not always. Grates, man hole covers, puddles, and going down stairs were definitely "not his thing."

Today I took him on a walk around the neighborhood since he's had his shots and can walk where other dogs have walked, now. He did every surface perfectly. We did some work on stairs and he was in perfect "let's go" position the whole time. I'm so impressed with this little guy. He's just a baby, but he's incredible with how he reacts to most distractions, and it seems like he's been doing this for a million years. The fears are completely gone, and he's just a happy little guy when we go out to see the world.

He got to meet some of our firefighters today when we were on our walk. The fire truck had pulled in and we walked around the area until they got back to the engine and he got a picture with two of them on the front of the engine (it's on his Facebook page). No one can believe he's only 4 months old because his manners are so wonderful. I'm so glad we got this little guy. And I absolutely love that I'm in contact with one of his sisters on Facebook. Amazing how similar they are.

Really? A whole month?

I can't believe it's been a month already that we've had my Sweet Baboo. He's such a lovey boy and I am so happy that we got him (even though I still want that LGX someday). Vicente is an amazing dog in the house. He's less than 4 months old and can be loose on drag line. With supervision of course. But I don't have to be sitting and staring at him. All he really wants to do is touch his people. When we're on outings, sometimes he'll put his paw on top of my foot or he'll lean up on my leg. This afternoon I was standing at my counter and he came over and poked his head between my feet and just stood there.

He definitely looks bigger, too. The puppy truck comes on Sunday and our club is getting 3 new babies. I'm hoping Vicente and co-raiser will get to come with me, I'd love to take another picture with him next to the puppy truck to see how much he's grown! I know it's getting tough to carry him. He gets his 16 week shots on Saturday, so it'll be interesting to see how much he weighs now!

When I went to Ellensburg to visit my college friends on Friday, I had complete strangers tell me that they would adopt him if he was cc'd. Random people added him on Facebook. He's just that kind of dog that anyone can fall in love with. All I can say is there will be some lucky person/family in his future.

15 weeks

This week's challenge: the teething puppy and all the crazies that brings with it.

14 weeks

Goodness, I can't believe how time flies!

Happy 14 week-day to the V litter! Vicente is happy, healthy, and growing like a weed.

He's doing super well with grasping the ideas he'll need to master as a guide dog. For instance, his house manners a pretty wonderful, he knows the idea of the "let's go" position, and he's just started wearing the head collar all the time. My co-raiser has done an excellent job with him, teaching him to wait at doors and the "that's enough" command.

Obviously, he is a baby so there are more things to work on than things he's really good at. He's still figuring out the "sit" command. He knows it in theory but doesn't always do it on command. He knows what "come" means, but only wants to come when he sees the food lure. He's all of a sudden started getting afraid of getting in the crate in the car. When I let him ride on the backseat floor he's fine, but if he thinks I'm going to put him in the crate in the car, he starts balking. He also doesn't like getting out of the crate in the car. Today at puppy-trade he was totally fine walking into the store that we traded at, walked through it like a pro, but then refused to move when we were walking out and into the parking lot. My co-raiser is going to try and isolate some of the behaviors this weekend to see if we can figure out exactly what's causing some of the fears.



But I mean, with all that said, he's a phenomenal dog. I'm sure most of these issues are just baby things that he'll outgrow. I'm impressed with his progress since we got him 3 weeks ago. He's figured out relieving (most of the time) and kennel cough is gone!

Oh, and he's not a fan of baths :) but he's great with grooming! I can brush, trim his nails, clean his ears, and almost brush his teeth with toothpaste and he doesn't fight me at all.

One more thing...in case you haven't seen, Boo has his own Facebook fan page :) https://www.facebook.com/GDBVicente

I love this guy

12 weeks!

He's 12 weeks old today. 23.5 pounds, knows the general idea of his name, come, let's go, DYB, and wait. He's gotten exponentially better at not whining in the crate, not being vocal on tie-down, walking on leash, working towards being housebroken, he's great at being just on dragline, and is a total cuddlebug.

He reminds me a lot of Lawrence, which is awesome because Lawrence was a great guide. He's definitely a soft dog, but he has been doing well when he can take it slow. Today he got to go to his co-raiser's house and I miss him already...but it's nice to not have to run home on breaks. Overall I'm really excited to spend the next year with this dog!!

The circle

So I'm sitting here with my little cuddle bug on my lap, he's falling asleep, and Janda's song came on my iPod. When both Janda and Arturo left, they had a song that just summed up how I felt. Janda's is Every Time We Say Goodbye.

I know it's early to be thinking about this, but I was looking at Vicente's Facebook page and then Janda's, and listening to his little baby snores was kinda sad. Raising guide dogs is one of the most incredible experiences in the world, and getting to see the joy all my working guides and career changes have brought their families is worth every moment, but I already can't stand the thought of sending back my little smart, vocal, sweet baby boy.

Vicente

Janda


I'll leave you with a section from the lyrics of Janda's song especially for everyone who has recently sent back a puppy:

"Everytime we say goodbye, I die a little,
Everytime we say goodbye, I wonder why a little,
Why the Gods above me, who must be in the know.
Think so little of me, they allow you to go.
When you're near, there's such an air of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere, begin to sing about it,
There's no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to
minor,
Everytime we say goodbye."

Meet Vicente

This guy is just lovely. I have to work all night so he's hanging out at my co-raiser's house. It's sad, but better for him and my co-raiser gets to spend time with him!

First impressions:
-he is VERY responsive to people and attention. He was already sitting and just staring at us when we were petting him. He also loved following us around the parking lot when we were trying to get him to DYB.

-a little vocal and mouthy, but I think it's just baby stuff

-he seems really sweet and cuddly and was very happy getting passed around all morning :)