Category Archives: Guide Dogs for the Blind

Pupdate – Good Luck to Zodiac

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Bill, Dune, Zodiac & Raelyn on recall morning

It has been a busy weekend with puppy stuff. On Friday we had a farewell party for Zodiac. Nothing fancy, just some cookies, snack mix and lemonade. It is a tradition with each of our puppies, a chance to celebrate them and give family, friends and neighbors and chance to say good-bye. I think it is also for me. It helps me process the pups departure and come to terms with not having them around. Zodiac had lots of fun. His favorite people from church came and some of his puppy friends. At one point we had five labs at our house. That was crazy.

Saturday we had a big Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy training meeting. Lots of puppies there. With dogs ready to leave for harness training, like Zodiac, to very young puppies who just got off the puppy truck on Thursday. I learned lots of things from the visiting Community Field Representative from Oregon. It was a great opportunity to learn from someone new.

After the meeting Zodiac has his final evaluation. I’ve been a bit paranoid all week that they would decide that he wasn’t ready to go back or they would career change him on the spot. It is crazy the kinds of thoughts that can get into my head sometimes. We took Zodiac and Dune to the movies on Saturday night as one last outing for all of us together.

Sunday morning we got up very early so that we could get Zodiac to Ogden by 7:00 a.m. It was raining pretty hard when we left home but as we traveled north the skies cleared and the sun came up on a beautiful day. The hotel where the puppy truck stops for the night has a lovely walking path with trees and a pond and waterfall. I took both Zodiac and Dune for walks before the puppy truck drivers came out to the truck. Then we helped walk the puppies that had been picked up previously. I really enjoy doing this and meeting new pups and thinking about their puppy raisers. I walked an in-season female named Moxy. She was a happy and good girl. Bill got to walk Zodiac’s brother Zenith. Their temperaments are amazingly similar. Zenith reminded me a bit of Apex (our first puppy in training) which isn’t too surprising since Apex’s dad is Zodiac and Zenith’s grandfather.

We took Dune and Zodiac for one last walk together. Then it was time for Zodiac to get on the truck. That is the hardest part. He didn’t love getting into one of the kennels in the puppy truck but Zodiac did it anyway. We know he is in good hands. They stopped in Boise for a break Sunday afternoon and spent the night in Pendelton, Oregon. Zodiac would have arrived on the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in Boring, Oregon on Monday afternoon.

Another puppy raiser that I know from a Yahoo group dropped her puppy off on campus yesterday. She saw Zodiac’s name on the wall in the kennel kitchen along with the other puppies that are expected to arrive on this recall. I like knowing that Zodiac has been on campus twice before, so he is sure to recognize it on his arrival. There is a whole team of experienced and caring people who are now taking care of him. They will help him adjust to life on campus. The next step for him is a thorough physical to make sure his eyes and heart and joints etc. are all working right. Now we play the waiting game. Waiting each week for the phase report to see how he is doing.

Pupdate – Zodiac’s Book

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puppy in training for Guide Dogs for the Blind

Zodiac

I’ve been working on Zodiac’s book as often as I can since he is leaving in 9 days and I’d like to send a digital copy of it when he gets on the puppy truck. I’ve made pretty good progress, though not at all they way I planned it. (Sometimes plans just have to be adjusted.) Anyway, I’ve got the text all finished and some of the photos placed. I need to get some more photos of him taken before he goes. I have lots of him sleeping and sitting and being calm but not many of him in his wild and fun-loving moments. That is a big part of who he is.  I think I’ll post the finished pages once a week on pupdate day after he leaves. With some luck he could be graduating by the time I get done. So for now, here is the rest of the text.

  • Zeus – supreme deity of the ancient Greeks: Though Zodiac has always been cute with maturing he now has a certain presence when he wants to, maybe even a little Zeus like in his demeanor. Zodiac started to show signs of maturing at the year mark but it really started to accelerate when he turned 14 months old. Since he was about 9 months old we have been going to the local grade school a couple of times a week to listen to kids read. Zodiac has always been attracted to kids and their happy energy. But with his maturing he can now sit calmly in the hall and watch hundreds of kids walk by. I’m so proud of him. He is really grown-up.
  • Zigzag – a course with sharp turns: Zodiac like most labs has his wild moments when he dashes around the house. Some times I’ve heard this called labby loops. With Zodiac it is more of a zigzag than loops. He runs full speed one direction then abruptly changes direction and then changes direction again. He does this for just a couple of minutes and then he is back to normal.
  • Zillion – an extremely large number: Zodiac is on in a zillion. Though he looks pretty much like many other black labs, he has a unique combination of personality traits that we have come to love and usually appreciate. He has this adorable way of looking up at you without really moving his head. This makes it so the whites of his eyes show. He has a slightly scruffy coat and really thick toenails. Zodiac is curious about everything and always wants to help when you are doing something usual. He loves to supervise me when I’m vacuuming. He is an excellent traveler and enjoys seeing and doing new things. Though he is the sixth puppy we have raised for GDB and he won’t be the last he is the one and only Zodiac.
  • Zingy – full of zing; lively; zesty; exciting: Zodiac has had the best of relationships with two other puppies in training. First was Yakira (puppy #5). When Zodiac was you she was is guardian and mentor. As he grew older their relationship evolved into buddies. Through it all they two of them had many a lively and exciting romps. When she returned to GDB for training he truly missed her. A few months later Dune (puppy #7) came on the scene and Zodiac got to be the mentor. Yakira taught him well and he did many of the same things that Yakira had done for him.  Though Dune’s personality is very different from Yakira’s, Zodiac and Dune have just as close a relationship. They can run full tilt around the house and a few minutes later be snuggled up together for a nap. Dune is going to miss Zodiac when it is his turn to return to GDB for training.
  • Zion – where the pure in heart dwell: Even though Zodiac is far from perfect, you always know where you stand with him. He has a pure heart with no concept of deception. He loves with all his heart and is always happy to see an old friend or make a new friend. This trait will serve him well the rest of his life, no matter what the future brings.
  • Zippy – full of energy; lively; peppy: Zodiac has an odd quirk that he picked up after he was neutered. He loves to rub on people and couches much like a cat. Only problem is he is much more energetic and lively than a cat. So while a cat rubs gently against your leg, Zodiac tends to zip by with a not so gentle shove. I wonder if it is his way of scratching an itchy spot? It seems kind of fitting for his name since the U.S. Navy call their rubber rafts, zodiacs, I figure that Zodiac is our rubber boy.
  • Zoic – relating to or having animal life: Well since Zodiac is actually an animal he certainly is zoic. He has just two siblings, Zenith (male black lab) and Zulu (female yellow lab). His brother Zenith has a white spot on his chest, while Zodiac has just a few white hairs between his toes called Bolo marks, named after an English dual Champion Banchory Bolo because he produced many of these marks in his offspring and future generations.
  • Zonked – exhausted or asleep: Zodiac is great at being zonked. Especially after a challenging outing or in the evening. He is very content to curly up on a dog bed or stretch out on the floor. Usually he has an ear listening for anything interesting happening but sometimes when he is really tired it takes some real effort to get him up and moving again.
  • Zoom – to move quickly or suddenly: Not surprisingly Zodiac loves to zoom around our back yard. We usually keep a Jolly Ball out there at his favorite game is to grab the ball and run from one end of the yard to the other as fast as he can. Once his mouth got big enough he started carrying it around by the ball and not by the rope. He has to crush the stiff plastic with his teeth to do it, but he is plenty strong enough. While he loves to run he isn’t the fastest dog around. He is built more for sturdiness than for speed. I love watching him run happily in the back yard.

Pupdate – Zodiac’s Recall

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studio shot of Zodiac ( black lab) - 3 months old - close up of his head and shoulders with just a little bit of pink tongue sticking out

Zodiac at 3 months

I’m working on my post about step one of the DOABLE approach but it probably won’t get done until tomorrow. But I have some late breaking news about Zodiac our puppy in training for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I just got a call that Guide Dogs wants him to return for his harness training on the next puppy truck. So on the 19th of May early in the morning we will be putting our fun-loving boy on the truck. A couple of weeks ago he wasn’t going back until June. But par for the course in puppy raising things change and now he is on the truck. They usually don’t take neutered males until 15 months old and Zodiac turns 14 months on Friday. So he will be on the young side.

There are lots of things to do before he goes back. I’ve got an extra report to write and I’d love to finish his book so I can send a pdf along with him. Plus we like to throw a farewell party for our pups before they leave to give family, friends and neighbors a chance to say good-bye. I’m trying not to feel panicked about this because I know everything will be fine but my stomach isn’t sure it agrees.

Pupdate – Zodiac’s Book

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Zodiac - puppy in training - January 2013

Zodiac

A few weeks ago I made a goal to get two words done each week on Zodiac’s book. You probably aren’t keeping track but I haven’t posted any pages from is book in the past two weeks. So much for that plan. I have done some work on his book. Last week I gathered all the photos I have of him in one place. Some of the photos where tough to know if it was Yakira or Zodiac. I need to do better at adding information to the photos in the metadata when I take them. That is one of those things on my long-term to do list but that hasn’t come close to seeing the light of day.

I also took some time and decided what I would focus on with each of Zodiac’s “Z” words. Lots of them have similar meanings but I’m happy with the topics I’ve come up with. I also have all the “Z” words in the book with their definitions. Now it is just a matter of finding or taking good photos for each word and writing some text.

Today I thought I’d get to work on a few pages and place some photos too. But instead I got text written for 8 spreads but no photos placed. So here is what I got done today:

  • zaftig – full-bodied; well-proportioned: Most puppy raisers think their dog is the cutest, but of course they are wrong, Zodiac is really the cutest puppy ever! He was a very solidly built. At 13 months he was 65 lbs. even though he isn’t a very tall dog. He has the cutest way of looking up at you with the whites of his eyes showing. Zodiac has matured into a very handsome nicely put together dog.
  • zany – comically wild or eccentric: One of the Zaniest things that Zodiac loves to do is dig in his empty dog dish. I usually take it to mean that he would like some ice cubes. Zodiac loves ice cubes! He will grab an ice-cube or two and dash into the living room to munch down on them or chase them around the kitchen. It could be that he is really trying to say that he wants more dog food but he never gets that. He hasn’t ever done this before a meal. Well, he has me pretty well-trained to the ice-cube thing.
  • zap – strike suddenly and forcefully: Jumping is probably my least favorite thing about Zodiac. Sometimes it comes so unexpectedly when I’m sitting at my desk working on my computer and “zap” his paws land abruptly on my arm and shoulder. I sure hope that his future handler loves this trait because I think it is just part of who he is. We have been able to moderate it but not stop it all together.
  • zax – a hatchetlike tool for roofing slate: Once in a while Zodiac uses his paws like a zax and punches you. The most memorable time was when my friend Lisa, and I along with Zodiac and a career change dog name Osaka where driving through the night to a Guide Dog for the Blind graduation. We both too tired to drive so the four of us slept in the car. At some point Zodiac punched out with one of his paws and caught Lisa in the eye. Boy did that ever hurt. I’m pretty sure her eye got scratched but it healed up fine. Of course Zodiac wasn’t trying to hurt her, she just got in the way of a powerful paw stretch.
  • zealous – ardently active, devoted, diligent: Zodiac is very zealous about life and what it likes to do. Sometimes it comes across as stubbornness. I’ll never forget our first day together. He was exploring his new house and decided he wanted to go it the spare bedroom. This is our cats territory and off-limits to the dogs, so I picked up his puppy leash and stopped him. He did like that and pulled harder to go into the room. I think we spent 10 minutes with Zodiac trying to go forward into the room and me preventing him. To his credit he learned his lesson and we never had that battle again.
  • zeek out – (slang) to lose control of oneself: Zodiac has always been attracted to sounds and somewhere along the way he learned that the doorbell usually meant something interesting was about to happen. When Zodiac hears the ding-dong, he gets all excited, barks a couple of times and runs to the door.  I then ask him to step back from the door and wait calmly for me to answer it. Sometimes he does better at this than others.
  • zenith – highest point or state, culmination: (this is for his graduation day or whatever his career of choice)
  • zephyr – thing of fine, light quality: The only thing about Zodiac that  is fine and light is his hair. He is a lab so he has plenty of hair. It is the thickest and scruffiest of all our puppies. Though as he has grown up it doesn’t seem so scruffy.
  • zero hour – a decisive or critical time: (this is for recall day)
  • zesty – energetic; active: Zodiac has always had a zest for life. He is a fun-loving boy and loves to be out doing things, going new places and making new friends. Zodiac is sure that everyone he meets is just as happy to meet him. He is ever the optimist that something fun is just around the corner. I love the happy light that is typically in Zodiac’s eyes.

Even though that wasn’t how I planned to go ahead, in the end, I think it just matters that I’m making progress and not that I follow my previous plan exactly. To my way of thinking, plans are to help us move forward. I don’t always get a project broken up in a way that really works in real life. Then, I think it is important to just go with the flow and feel good about your progress. Does that ever happen to you? How do you handle it when your plans and reality don’t work together?

 

 

Zodiac’s Book – getting started

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Title page for Zodiac's Book

Title Page for Zodiac’s Book

As our time with Zodiac comes to a close, I’ve been wanted to get started on his puppyhood book. I have a template so many of the design decisions are already made. Beside speeding up the process of completing each book the template gives a continuity to the series. Today I picked a font (Hobo Std) and two accent colors (blueish green and yellow). The colors might get changed as the book comes together but they are a good start. I also picked out 19 “Z” words to describe Zodiac. Finding “Z” words was a challenge but I did it.

  • zaftig – full-bodied; well-proportioned
  • zany – comically wild or eccentric
  • zap – strike suddenly and forcefully
  • zax – a hatchetlike tool for roofing slate
  • zealous – ardently active, devoted, diligent
  • zeek out – (slang) to lose control of oneself
  • zenith – highest point or state, culmination
  • zephyr – thing of fine, light quality
  • zero hour – a decisive or critical time
  • zesty – energetic; active
  • Zeus – supreme deity of the ancient Greeks
  • zigzag – a course with sharp turns
  • zillion – an extremely large number
  • zingy – full of zing; lively; zesty; exciting
  • Zion – where the pure in heart dwell
  • zippy – full of energy; lively; peppy
  • zoic – relating to or having animal life
  • zonked – exhausted or asleep
  • zoom – to move quickly or suddenly

The next steps are to work on the text for each word and find and/or take more photos to help illustrate all the “Z” words. Zenith will be used to talk about Zodiac’s partnership, hopefully as a guide dog, so that one will have to wait. Also zero hour will be about putting him on the puppy truck so I can’t do that one either. But I hope to have the rest of the pages done by the time he returns to Guide Dogs for the Blind. Then I can put it on to a cd and it will be given to his handler while they are in training. It is lots of fun for them to learn about how their dog was growing up in the raisers home.

Zodiac will probably be in the truck in 8 to 10 weeks. With 19 words to do I better get at least two spreads done each week. So that is my goal. I’ll post them here on pupdate day to help me be accountable for that goal. Since I’ve already do so much this week, I work to getting one spread done for Friday.

Do you have a project with an upcoming deadline that you are working on? I’d love to hear about it.

Related articles

Pupdate

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Black Lab Clifford, Yellow Lab Dune and Black Lab Zodiac

a Dune sandwich – Clifford, Dune and Zodiac

It has been a few weeks since I actually got a pupdate post written. Zodiac and Dune are doing good. It looks like Zodiac probably won’t be returning to Guide Dogs for the Blind on the next puppy truck in May. There are 25 dogs older than him and the truck only holds 19 dogs. I’m glad to get a few more weeks with him.

We were a three dog household for the last three days. My sister’s career change, Clifford was here. The three of them had so much fun together. Clifford looks very like Zodiac so it takes careful observation to know who it who.

The other great news this week was an email from Yakira and Diane. It sounds like they are doing great. Here is some of what Diane had to say:

My orange tree is in full bloom complimented by the newly opened scents of my roses freezias and lilacs.   From many other gardens the sent of jasmine contributes to the spring ambiance.

Today Yakira and I took an absolutely delightful 5 mile walk.  This has been a bit of a struggle for Yakira but she is finally demonstrated a willingness to walk decent distances at an excellent rate of speed. Honestly I would call our walk today a 10.  Before to long I can see that we will be enjoying a routine walk of 9 to 10 miles.

I have recently taught Yakira to drink from a safe water bottle.  Our walks are long enough and the weather will be warm enough that she needed the compliment to her food rewards of, of course, a portion of her daily food ration, as well as teriyaki beef jerky from Costco.  My retired Guide, Bettyjo, enjoyed the jerky as a reward and so I anticipated that Yakira would also find this an excellent motivation when developing new behaviors.  I am looking forward to also incorporating apple slices into her food rewards.

I absolutely love giving Yakira water from the cute little 8 oz water bottles.  She is so cute that everyone who passes by while she is drinking uuus and ahhs about her.

Yakira and Bettyjo get along famously and the cats have come to accept her as a member of the family too.  It is really nice to see all of them getting along so well when we are not working.

I have to say that Yakira is the best shopper I have had.  We walked along the arcade here yesterday for the first time.  She did a really amazing job in stopping at each open door to determine whether or not the store was the one I was looking for.

Yeah for news from one of our puppies! Yakira sure has an awesome life with Diane.

Pupdate

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Zodiac & Dune

Dune and Zodiac are both so cute. Well maybe Zodiac is more on the handsome side these days. He is a year old now and no longer looks like a puppy. They really enjoy each other’s company. It is amazing how many times the two of them will be laying down near each other and Dune looks like an exact copy of Zodiac, except she is smaller and yellow (of course).

We found out at puppy class this week that Zodiac is scheduled to go back to Guide Dogs for the Blind on the next puppy truck. That truck is expected to come on May 18th. I’ve had it in my head that he would be returning sometime in June but it isn’t looking that way. I figured out how to put a count down widget here on my blog so I can count down to his departure. I was so proud of him on Sunday. I got up to teach a lesson at church and left him by my chair. I forgot about him because I was so focused on teaching. But he was very good, even with a little toddler distraction right by him.

Dune has had some challenges this past week or so. Our snow all melted and she didn’t like not having snow to pee on. She had 4 accidents in one day! It had been about 3 weeks or more since she had a single accident let alone 4 in one day. She is doing better now but we are having to pay a lot more attention to her relieving. Since she was very young she would let us know when she needed an extra potty break by sitting by the door. Dune isn’t doing that much any more.

Dune is making some progress on her kennel stress. While she still isn’t quiet while we are gone she isn’t stressing out so much about it. Before she would get so stressed that not only her jaw was wet with drool, but the whole front, down to her legs would be soaked. Now even her jaw is dry. She also got the last of her puppy shots this week, so now she can go on walks and to parks and places like that.

We also got an email for Banta and Mark this week. It is always so exciting when I see that I’ve received an email from one of our puppies. Here is some of what Mark had to say:

Banta is doing very well.  For the most part she is working perfectly.  She has her stubborn moments.  We finally had a big snow a week ago.  Banta likes about 6 inches of snow.  We got about 10 inches and she seemed annoyed that all of her favorite places to play had too much snow.  Eventually she got in there and played like a crazy little girl.  She is so much fun, I love her to death.

All in all it has been a good week on the puppy raising front.

Pupdate – Scavenger Hunt

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Dune

For puppy class this week we met at the Valley Fair Mall. I thought it would be the usual socializing but our leader divided us into two team for a scavenger hunt. The two little puppies, Dune & Eagle, stayed in the center of the mall while the rest of the pups went off to find the things on the list and take photos of our puppies with the items we found. It was lots of fun. The mall was rather quiet and so the clerks were always happy to help us and the pups went lots of places all over the mall. Here are some of the photos.

Dune in Akyra’s lap

King & Zodiac in the arcade

plastic fork in the food court with King & Zodiac

a bouquet of flowers with Zodiac and King

Zodiac, King and a stuffed bear

King and Zodiac by luggage with wheels

Our Scavenger Hunt Team – Bill, McKale, Raelyn, King & Zodiac

Yakira Book – Cover & Title Page

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Yakira – Cover
(photo by associate of Lisa Thompson)

In honor of Yakira’s recent graduation and since I finally have her puppyhood book finished I decided it was a good time to do a series of post on her book. This is the fifth book I’ve done for the puppies we have raised. You can see Apex’s, Banta’s, Casey’s and Waffle’s books by following the links on their names. (Oops, I’ve never posted Apex’s Book. I’ll have to put that on my to do list.) I designed Apex’s from scratch and then made a template based on it for all of our black dogs. Then a tweaked the coloring for all of our yellow dogs. I customize for each one by changing the font for their name etc and the accent colors for that font. Using the template really helps in speeding up the time it takes to put each book together. I also like the continuity that it brings to the series. Beside using the template for the layout, all the books text is based on the concept of taking their initial and finding words that start with the same letter to describe their personality, trait or memory of that puppy. Yakira was a challenge because of that. If we succeed in getting an “X” puppy someday, I think I’ll have to adjust that guideline and find words containing the letter x.

Yakira Book – title page (photo by Lisa Thompson)

Pupdate

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Zodiac

Zodiac Eval:

On Monday Zodiac had an official evaluation by our CFR (Community Field Representative) at Trolley Square. Last Saturday we had an optional outing at Trolley Square to give our pups a chance to experience the environment ahead of time. Zodiac had trouble on Saturday with layovers and animal distractions at the Best Friends Animal Society. I was feeling a bit stressed about his eval. We worked on his lay-over and he got some better. He was so good at church on Sunday. I was sitting next to a mother with a crawling baby. This little girl dropped food and chucked toys and Zodiac handled it all perfectly. That helped me be more relaxed about Monday.

He wasn’t perfect on Monday. Her refused to do the layover. Now we have a new food protocol for helping him with that. We had the last eval slot of the night so Best Friends was closed, so he did perfectly there. She commented on his strong neck when she took him for a while and some kids decided to create a big distraction at the wrong moment. For that she suggested more time on the flat collar and less on the head collar. Overall I think he did ok. His next eval will probably be just before he returns to Guide Dogs for harness training.

Dune in her new puppy in training jacket

Dune’s Jacket & Three Months Old:

At the end of the eval for Zodiac, Dune got her jacket. It was a fitting day to earn her jacket since she turned three months old on Monday too. She has been getting bored at home and wanting to have new adventures. With her jacket she is legal to go out and start socializing. On Tuesday Dune got to go to the Library and a short trip into our local grocery store. She was so excited and wanted to meet every person she saw. On Wednesday we had a women’s meeting at church and so I took her. She settled down pretty good. The food protocol is great for this. She gets a kibble every few minutes for sitting and then laying quietly on the floor. She got lots of oohs and awes because she is so cute. On Thursday Zodiac went to work with Bill so the two of us had a quiet day at home. She wanted to go with them so bad. Dune laid on the landing by the door for about an hour after they left. This morning Dune got her first chance to go to work with Bill. I picked her up before noon. She is too young to handle a whole day at work. She did pretty good, once she accepted that the tie down wasn’t coming off.

Both pups are doing good and they both have things to work on. But they bring lots of smiles and laughter to our lives.