Category Archives: Banta

Kongs and Wish Bones

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Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We are still getting use to only having one puppy in training around. We miss Banta and her huge spirit that can fill up a house with her energy. Casey is adjusting well to being the only dog in the house. She is ready to be on her own. Banta did a great job of mentoring her. We went to the library today and to SuperCuts for much needed haircuts. I decided that it was time to make things much shorter. I’m tired of having hair get in my face. Casey did very well. Later in the day I decided to stick two of her Kongs on the end of her nylabone wish bone. She had fun chewing on the end that didn’t have a Kong on it.

Recall Day

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At noon today we put Banta on the puppy truck for San Rafael, California. There were eight puppies getting on the truck today. (I think that was the right number) It was a very different experience than with Apex because with him we dropped off early in the morning and there were no other raisers dropping of their pups off that morning. All of us where gathered there at the truck and no one wanted to be the first to put their pup on so I figured we might as well go first since Banta is early in the alphabet. She went right into the kennel on the bottom left side of the truck in the very back. She handled it all like a pro and got in the kennel just fine.
It is so quiet around here without Banta’s huge spirit. I’m amazed at how much calmer Casey is too. I had a cub scout pack leaders meeting her tonight and Casey did just great. Usually I have to confine her in the kitchen. She has grown up a lot in the last month, but that isn’t all of it. Casey gained a lot of confidence from Banta’s mentorship but she is ready to be on her own now.
We are going to miss her so much but I’m excited to see where her career path takes her. It will probably be a month or two before we hear anything on Banta unless they find a major problem early in her medical exams. So now starts the waiting period. She will arrive in California on Thursday afternoon.

Banta, Clifford & Juaquin our club’s November recall pups
Bill with Banta and the puppy truck
Banta on the puppy truck
 

Freedom Day

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Banta has been on “house arrest” for the past 4 weeks because she has been in season. Today was she was finally cleared to return to normal socializing activities. After baths for both the girls we headed off for some fun. Casey spent the morning at work with Bill, while Banta and I ran some errands and took a walk along the Jordan River. We got a good coating of snow last night but most of it was melted by the time we got to the trail. It was so nice to get to have her out and about. The only bad thing is that we only have one week of “normal” life until she gets on the truck to return to Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Aunt Lisa Visits

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Today Banta turned 15 months old. It is also her last day of confinement from being in season. One of her favorite people came for a visit today, her “Aunt Lisa.” Lisa gave both the girls lots of love and kisses and they really enjoyed it. Banta especially loved playing tug. Tug has been one of the mainstays on helping Banta cope with her confinement of 28 days. Banta is an expert at tug. She uses all of her 56 lbs. to maximum effectiveness. Banta has a head whip that can dislocate you shoulder if you aren’t paying attention. Lisa likes to say that Banta would have no trouble taking care of her young in the wild if she needed to.

What a Night

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We had one of those crazy nights that come to puppy raisers every so often. I should have seen at least part of it coming. Casey pooped at about 10 p.m. and then pooped again right before bed. It is unusually for her to poop so close together but I didn’t clue in. Well we all got to bed with the girls sleeping in their usual places at the bottom of our bed. Then about 1 a.m. I heard one of them walking around in the empty kennel. I got up to check what was going on and found Casey wondering around the room and two piles of loose poop in the kennel. I was upset that she didn’t wake me up to take her out but also so glad that she picked the easiest place in the room to clean up. I took her outside to relieve while Bill started on cleaning up the kennel.

After everything was cleaned up I put two and two together and realized that Casey was having a problem. So I grabbed the quilt off the couch and settled down to sleep on the floor by Banta and Casey. About 3 a.m. Casey got up and I woke up to take her out but I wasn’t fast enough. She went straight into the kennel and deposited another load of loose poop! Bill didn’t wake up this time so I was on my own doing the clean-up.

About a half hour later Banta decided to add her part to the fun. But instead of poop she went for the other end of things. When I heard the retching I grabbed the closest thing to keep it off the carpet, my quilt. I yelled for Bill to grab a garbage can but he didn’t make it in time. Banta’s face had the funnest expression on it between the two deposits she made on the quilt. Her stomach was empty of food so it was just a some liquid. When I was sure that she was done. I took the quilt, rinsed it off in the shower downstairs and threw it in the washing machine.

The girls both slept the rest of the night with no more incidents but needless to say I didn’t sleep too well. Waking at the slightest move by either one of them. All in all consider there were three piles of loose poop and two puddles of throw-up the clean-up was about as easy at it comes. Thank goodness I got to sleep in this morning.

Ear Trouble

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Casey has decided that Banta’s ear is the best chew toy. It is rare these days for Banta’s ears not to have slobber on them either wet or dry. I’ve been discouraging it but Banta doesn’t seem to mind so it is hard to catch Casey chewing on them. They seem to be quietly hanging out together and the next thing I know is Casey is at it again. Well today I had already cleaned Banta’s ears off several times when just before Casey and I were ready to head off for puppy class, I was in for a shock. Banta’s ear was bright red. Apparently Casey is in the middle of loosing a tooth and she left behind as much blood as she did dog slobber!

Puppy Teeth

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Casey has been teething for several weeks now. I usually know she is loosing a tooth because Banta has blood on her face, ears or body from Casey. It is surprising how much it shows up on a light colored dog. I have been able to save teeth from both Apex and Banta but I wasn’t sure I would ever find one from Casey. She likes to pick up tiny rocks from the ground so I figured that most of her teeth would end up in her stomach. I’m not willing to go through her poop to get a tooth! Now I actually have two of her teeth. I got the first one yesterday. Casey and I were at a district committee meeting for Boy Scouts and noticed that Casey was interested in something on the floor. I checked it out and yeah it was a tooth! Today 24 hours later I noticed she was chewing on something and it was another tooth. Now I have a matching set.

Today marks one month until Banta returns to GDB. It also marks the 10th day of being in season. 18 more days of confinement. Mostly it hasn’t been too bad but she was bit feisty with Casey a few times today and I had to devise new tactics to keep them apart but let them have some freedom. This evening she has been doing the sit and stare at me thing. I tried everything I could think of, potty break, tug, cuddle time, none of it seemed to work. I tried to get a picture of her with the “stare” but she squints when the flash goes off.

Puppy Food

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Banta and Casey love their food like most of these lab pups. Casey has had some diarrhea issues and is currently eating a combination of Science Diet i/d and Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy food. She has been eating Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy food since she started eating solid food at GDB. She never had really normal firm poop since she came to us in August and then it all got worse a few weeks ago. So we decided to try a new food. She does just fine on the i/d food which is kind of the equivalent of chicken and rice. My theory is that she has trouble with wheat and Eukanuba has no wheat so that is what we are switching to. We are taking the switch really, really slow. Today she got 1 cup of the i/d and 1/2 cup of Eukanuba at each meal. We will keep her at that level until we are really sure that she is handling that fine then we will move to equal parts of each food. If all goes well she will be eating just Eukanuba and have well formed poop in just a week or two.

Volleyball Game

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Tonight we went to a women’s volleyball game at BYU. I played there about 30 years ago now and they like to have a night were they invite the alumni to come to one of there games and have a little get together. I thought it would be lots of fun to take both our girls to see the game. So I was very disappointed when Banta didn’t get to go. Casey did good but thought she should get to go explore the whole place and didn’t really want to settle down. It was nice to see some of my old teammates too. They were playing the University of Utah but didn’t do very well and lost in three games. It was just as well. With Banta home stuck in the crate I didn’t want to be away too long. After the game we did some socializing. One person was very interesting in becoming a puppy raiser. Who knows maybe I’ll see her with a puppy of her own in the future.

In Season

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Today we were having our usual picnic lunch with Bill when Banta rolled around on the quilt and I realized she was in season. She had made it this long and somehow we thought she might make it back to GDB before she had her first season. No such luck. Now we have 28 days of “house arrest” she can’t do any socializing. She can’t go on any walks. She has to relieve in the back yard instead of our normal spot on the driveway. The two dogs that have common fences with us are both intact males so we will have to make sure that they don’t get motivated to try to climb over the fence. Doug, a black lab, doesn’t actually live there anymore but he visit often. Charley, a beagle, is mostly out just during the day. I went over to Target with Casey while Bill took a nap and picked up some size 4T-5T pull-ups to help keep the mess from getting all over the house. It will be less than 2 weeks when Banta is able to go back to her normal activities until she gets on the truck for GDB.