Category Archives: My Life

Puppy Photo Shoot

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Lisa set up a photo shoot for any of the puppies in the club that wanted to have their pictures taken at the Murray Library tonight. She did this last year and the photos of Banta turned out so good that there was no way I was going to miss this. I made Casey a little Christmas ruffle to go around her neck and took some ribbons too. Lisa and Karen also had reindeer antlers too. It was fun seeing how each of the puppies react to the props and having their photo taken with the full set of lights and back drops. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

 

Regional Christmas Party

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Today was the big regional puppies in training Christmas party at the Center for the Blind. There were more than 30 dogs there, including some career change dogs. It was fun to see Clifford again. We enjoyed a pot-luck meal and then they divided us up into 3 groups to play games. One of them was dog tick-tack-toe. In this version the pup has to stay in a sit or a down. If he gets up then the spot opens up for the other team to take the square. Bruce got this great shot of pup tick-tack-toe.

Puppy Tick-Tack-Toe

He also took some cute photos of Phoenix who has transferred out of our club. His raiser’s work wasn’t cooperating with him being there and she felt bad about him being alone so much.

Phoenix

After the games we had the gift exchange. It was fun to see the variety of dog related gifts and which ones everyone wanted. Poor Joe kept getting his gifts stolen. It was a fun evening. It is amazing that you can have so many dogs in one room and they all get along so well.

Pulled for Breeding

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We got an email today saying that Banta has been pulled for final breeder evaluations. Of the eight dogs that went back for breeder evaluations only two are still being considered for breeding, Banta and another yellow lab female named Nordica. It will probably take another 4 to 6 weeks for Banta to confirmed as a breeder. The next news will probably be a call from the breeding department.

Trip to "Our House"

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Our local cub scout pack makes a trip every year to a local nursing home called “Our House” to decorate their Christmas tree and sing a few carols with them. The boys did a great job working together to get the tree done and then we gathered for some singing. One of the boys even played the piano for the residents. That is a first since I have been in cub scouts. Casey did a good job and didn’t even scare anyone. The year I took Apex one of the ladies was deathly afraid of dogs so we had to keep a very low profile.

Casey “helping” to decorate the tree

Bringing Home the Tree

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My family has a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. For the last several years we have gone out the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had more snow than we have had for several years so the going was a bit tough. Casey totally loved it but it was too deep for Langley to handle for very long. He played with my nephews and their cousins and had a grand time. After cutting down our trees we have a “tail-gate” party with hot baked potatoes with all the fixings including chili, hot chocolate, hot cider and lots of other treats. The pups got a bit cold so they snuggled in the car while we snacked. I forgot to take my camera with me up the mountain so the photos are very slim, but we all had a grand time kicking off the Christmas season.

Thanksgiving

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We gathered at my sister’s today for Thanksgiving dinner. It felt like we were packing up the kitchen sink as we were getting ready to live. With two dogs to take along and one of them very young we needed a bunch of stuff for them plus the food we were bringing for the feast. Casey and Langley enjoyed themselves and were both very good puppies. They spent the time while we were eating in their crates but got to play tug and hang out after the meal was over. Langley was pretty funny when he tried to walk on the wood floor in the kitchen. He did the slip and slide, especially when he got to the end of the leash and tried to keep going. His little feet just went round and round. It was like watching a cartoon character running in place.

Little Langley

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Langley & Casey sharing a nylabone ring

We are puppy sitting a cute little puppy for the Thanksgiving holiday. Langley (black lab male) arrived this afternoon. He was originally going to come tomorrow but his raiser wanted to get out of town before the storm hit so she dropped him off this afternoon. I think he is about 13 weeks old. He came on the last puppy truck a couple of weeks ago. He is really a good boy. He is doing great on his house breaking but has some trouble with barking. Sometimes he has the cutest way of grumble barking when he doesn’t like how things are going. I’m sure that he will grow out of this. He was sick with diarrhea last week so he is still on antibiotics. I put the pills in his food but he proceeded to eat around them. I had to resort to shoving them down his throat which he didn’t like at all.

Casey & Langley sharing the dog bed

 
Casey and Langley are so cute together. It brings back so many memories of when Casey was this age and Banta was the mentor dog. Casey learned well from Banta and she is doing so good with him. Though she has been a bit of a momma’s girl. She is usually quite independent but she has been following me around.

Carl Bloch and Front Runner

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It was a busy day today. Kasha and I meet two of my good friends from our days of living in Provo and went to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. Kasha enjoyed flirting with the other people at the exhibit. I would be looking at a painting and suddenly realize that she had caught someones eye. She is such a cute puppy and her Golden Retriever side sure loves to meet everyone she sees. The exhibit has several huge alter pieces on loan to BYU from the churches in Denmark where they have hung for more than 100 years. They are amazing to see in person. He has such an amazing way of capturing the inner depth and feeling of people. The exhibit is free and well worth the time to see it. Follow the link below for more information.

Carl Bloch Exhibit

Tonight for puppy class we went on Front Runner to Roy and back. I was so excited to get there and see my Casey girl. I missed her. Kasha is a cute little energizer bunny but she isn’t Casey. We saw her as we arrived at the trained and swapped puppies back. I had to give her some extra loves, I was so happy to see her. We had puppies from the Utah County club and the High School group as well as our regular puppies. (The two newest puppies from our club, Phoenix and Langley didn’t come). All the puppies seemed to do really well and they all settled down and had a nice snooze. On the way back Casey curled up way under the seat and really went to sleep. It was my first ride on Front Runner too. The train is very nice and some of the seats have a table between them so Bill was able to get some work done on his lap top while we traveled. It is good to have Casey home.

Photo by Bruce

I found out tonight at puppy class that Clifford has been career changed because of cataracts. Oh such sad news! He will be coming back to his raisers home over the weekend. It makes me a bit paranoid about cataracts because the Porter who was raised in our club was career changed for the same reason this past summer.

Kasha in Primary

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Kasha got to go to Primary with us today. We were substituting in the three-year old class today and I thought that Kasha might have a bit of a challenge with all the little kid energy. But we woke up to about 9″ of snow this morning and she had a grand time on the walk home from choir practice and helping us shovel the driveway and side walk. I think she was on the tired side by the time we got to church and she actually fell asleep in a class with five little three-year-old boys. I think as she matures she is going to be a great puppy. I meant to get some photos of her in the snow to share with her raiser but somehow it just never got done.