Category Archives: Casey

Not a Breeder

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Casey laying on our kitchen floor

I got an email this morning that Casey is being spayed and will enter training as soon as she is recovered. Of all the breeder evals that went back on the truck with her only one is still being considered and that one is a golden. I think Casey has what it takes to be a very good guide dog for someone with a calm kind of life. I can imagine her with someone older, kind of like my neighbor, Virginia, who Casey just adores. Now I just have to wait for her to show up on the weekly phase reports. It will be nice to get weekly updates on how she is progressing. Go girl, you can do it!

Good-bye Casey

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Yakira and Casey snuggled together in the back of the car

We got up super early this morning to take Casey to Ogden to put her on the truck. We could have dropped her off last night but I just didn’t see how spending another night on the truck was going to be of any benefit for her. We got there on time (7:00 a.m.) despite the fact that the alarm clock didn’t go off (it was set for p.m. instead of a.m.) and we had to hustle out the door as fast as we could. We had a bit of a wait once we got there because the drivers where still having breakfast. We could hear one of the pups on the truck making a bit of racket as we were waiting. We had Yakira with us in her kennel and I took her out and she relieved like a pro. So then she got to be loose in the back of the car with Casey. They were very cute together and Yakira snuggled up with Casey. Today is Yakira 2 month birthday so I put the birthday bandana on her and I put the celebration bandana on Casey for recall day.

Eventually the drivers came and I took Casey for one last walk. The hotel they stay in has a really nice walking path with a pond and lots of grass. When I was done I was going to put Casey back in the car so we could put her on the truck later after we helped walk dogs but she didn’t want anything to do with getting back in the car. So I was going to wait until Bill got back from walking the first dog he took out. But one of the drivers said it was fine to put Casey on and then we could come back after walking the dogs and say our final good-byes. She was on the upper level of kennels so I let the driver lift her up there.

Panera enjoying her walk

Then it was time for me to help walk dogs. The first dog I noticed was Panera. Her raiser is on a Yahoo list for guide dog users and puppy raisers and others who are associated with Guide Dogs for the Blind. I had told her that I’d try to walk Panera and get photos of her if I could. Panera got on the truck in Colorado on Friday. She is a big black lab at 73 pounds and not fat. And boy was she ready for a walk. I wasn’t completely prepared for her energy and I got a good shoulder yank the first time she ran to the end of the retractable. I kept a close eye on her after that and we did much better. We completed the circuit and did another half circuit to try to burn off a bit more of her energy.

Bill and Casey in her kennel with a wish bone toy

By the time I got back all the dogs were being taken care of so when Bill got back we gave some last loves to Casey. There was a wish bone shaped nylabone in Casey’s kennel, which is her favorite chew toy. Then all the puppies got two bone shaped doggy treats. And they were happily chewing away. I said by to Kasha who was right across the isle from Casey and Radison who was on the same side as Kasha but closer to the front. I gave Yakira another potty break which she did great on. She said high to one of the truck drivers before we got back in the car. He said the Yakira’s sister Yuma was given to a young, first time raiser in Colorado. By the time we were pulling out of the parking lot is was 8:30 a.m. So much for being on time for church this morning. Oh well, I wouldn’t change anything. It was a good morning even though we don’t know when we will see Casey again. There is always the possibility that we won’t get the chance to see her again. Not very likely but it is possible. Tonight she should be sleeping somewhere in the western part of Oregon and will arrive on campus in Boring tomorrow. We probably won’t hear anything about her for about a month.

Last Puppy Class

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Casey in her Halloween costume

Today was Casey’s last puppy class! We went on our annual trip to the corn maze. This year we were joined by the Park City club so we had lots of puppies. Casey’s brother Crosby was there he will be going back on the same truck as Casey. It threatened to rain but mostly held off until after we made it through the maze and we were eating chocolate cake. The cake was to celebrate all the puppies that are going back to GDB this week. From our club Kasha and Radison are also going back. Karen is getting a new puppy this week just like we are but Gael and Laurene are done with puppy raising for awhile.

Salt Lake and Park City puppy clubs

FrontRunner Ride

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Waiting on the platform for the return trip – Bill & Casey

For puppy class this week we road the FrontRunner commuter train from Salt Lake City to Layton and back. One of the puppy raiser’s husband works for UTA and made arrangements for free passes. Casey has been on the train before when we did they same thing for puppy class last winter. Waffle did good too. I thought she might have trouble with getting on the train and going over the gap but she handled everything just fine. I did quite a bit of food rewards as we walked around by the trains and buses just to make sure she kept moving along and didn’t get into her “I don’t want to move” mode. All the dogs seemed to handle things very well.

This was Waffle’s last puppy class as part of our club. Friday she will be transferred to a high school student. It was also Cobb’s last class. He is going to Colorado for our CFR to evaluate him. Lindsey thinks he doesn’t have what it takes to be a guide dog and so Barb will be decided whether to career change him or send him back for training on the October 15th puppy truck. Just one more puppy meeting for Casey, Radison and Kasha. Boy lots of big changes are coming to our club in the next few weeks.

Casey & Waffle Farewell Party

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Invite for Waffle’s & Casey’s Farewell Party

We have the tradition to have a Farewell Party the Sunday before each of our puppies gets on the truck. Since Waffle is transferring to the high school program on Saturday and Casey gets on the truck a couple of weeks after that we decided to combine the two parties together. It is just a relaxed fun time where friends, family and especially kids from the neighborhood and play with the pups and see them in their home environment. We had a card to sign for each of the girls. Usually we have a guess the puppy name contest but since we don’t know what letter of puppy we are getting yet we had a vote for your favorite photo contest. We have an official puppy portrait wall and I had narrowed Waffle’s photo down to four and thought it would be fun for people to vote on which one they liked best. We had an obvious winner. So I uploaded it here because I didn’t get any photos take at the party.

winning Waffle portrait – taken by Lisa Thompson

Now I need to get this photo prepared to take to Pixels and have a canvas made for our wall. I don’t think I can get it back before she leaves but hopefully it won’t take too long to get done. Waffle is finally big enough to wear her big girl collar. The other pups have been able to wear it at 6 months but Waffle has such a skinny head that it could easily slip off. Our little girl is getting all grown-up and ready to leave the nest. Friday is going to come really fast I’m afraid. I wonder if it will be harder to had a puppy off to another raiser than it is to put them on the puppy truck back to Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Four Blabs (Black Labs)

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Radison, Clifford, Casey and Hallie on the deck

Today we had four black labs at our house for a few hours. In addition to Radison and Hallie we have been puppy sitting Clifford while the Johnson’s are out of town for a few days. Then we added Casey. She has switched to Lisa’s house for last half of the swap. Lisa has been wanting to take Casey one last time before she goes back and Lindsey is really busy and having two dogs means that one of them has to be home in the kennel for extended periods of time. So it works out perfect. But Lisa was going to the temple with her family today and that is the one place that she can’t take Casey with her. So she dropped her off here. It was fun to see one of our little girls for a few hours. It was also fun to have four crazy black labs all in the same place.

Waffle

We got news about Waffle’s future today. The rumor had been going around that she wouldn’t be transferred to the high school program until the next puppy truck could bring the school dogs from Colorado in the middle of October. But we got word today that no the transfer will happen on September 30th. That is less than two weeks away. The morning after Waffle gets back from the puppy swap she is going in to be spayed. The recovery is 5 to 10 days. Then it will only be a few days after that until she will be transferred. Wow that is going to come fast.

Week Long Puppy Swap

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Waffle and Casey in the kitchen

Today was the start of a week long puppy swap involving all the puppies in the club. Casey went to spend the week with Lindsey for evaluation since she will be returning to guide dogs soon. And Waffle went to the Allegra’s to be handled by the youngest member of our club Ceely. We are going to miss our two sweet girls. A week is a long time to be away from them. Waffle is as tall as Casey now and she will probably be taller when she gets back. He neck and head are so small still that the adult dog collar still slides off her head.

Radison and Hallie sharing the same doggy bed

We brought home Radison who is about 10 days older than Casey. We have puppy sat Radison a couple of times before so it was fun to have her back. Lauren, Radison’s raiser made sure that I knew that Radison needs cuddle time every night before she goes to bed. Radison has a cute little white patch on her chest. Our second pup is Hallie who is one of the younger puppies in the club. Interestingly Hallie is Banta’s half sister having the same dad. They seem to be good pups and are getting along better with each other than I thought they might.

Casey

Also I took Casey into the vet to day to get her Rabies booster and her other annual vaccinations. We are suppose to go ahead and do these if they are due more than a month before recall. Casey’s are due 2 days more than a month so I went ahead and took care of them. When I weighed her she was just 48.8 lbs. I knew that she had lost weight (which she needed to do) but I hadn’t realized that she was below 50 lbs. now. She really isn’t a very big girl.

Utah State Fair

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Waffle and the sheep

The Utah State Fair was our outing today. This was Casey’s second time to the State Fair as we took her and Banta last year. She handled everything very well but couldn’t care less about the animals. Waffle was a different story. She found the animals very interesting and some of them were equally intrigued by her too. She did great with them and remained very calm. The rest of the fair was a different matter. Waffle had several panic attacks where she would bolt to the end of the leash with her tail between her legs and spin around when she got to the end. We couldn’t pinpoint what was scaring her but after a few moments of having her just stand quietly she would be ready to move on. Our best guess is that it was some kind of sound she was reacting to. We didn’t stay too long after Waffle started having trouble because it was clear that she had had enough.

Healing Fields

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Waffle and Bill walking through the Healing Fields

Today we took the girls to the Healing Fields in Sandy. It is right by Bill’s work and it is a fun opportunity to expose the pups to lots and lots of flags. Plus it is a neat thing to experience all the flags, each one representing a person who was killed on September 11, 2001. This year each flag had a tag attached to it with the name and a short bio of each person. The flags were also group by the location where they died.

Swiss Days Outing

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We packed up the girls this morning and drove up to Heber Valley to attend Swiss Days. I thought it would be a good opportunity to experience some new things. We park at an area they had set up in a field and rode a shuttle bus to the festivities. There were so many people it was amazing. We brought Apex here a couple of years ago but it wasn’t nearly this crowded. Casey did great but Waffle had a couple of fear reactions. One was walking by the bus. But mostly she did just fine.