Tag Archives: puppy in training

Yakira Book – Yakka

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When Yakira was about three months old we went into the mountains for our annual Christmas tree cutting. I was concerned about how she would handle the snow and if it would be too deep for her. But she was a trooper. She only got cold once and after I warmed her up on my lap she was good to go.

Yakira also loved the biggest toys when she was little. The jolly ball was a life saver because she could attack it and get out some of her extra energy. She never let the size or weight of anything stop her from picking it up and carrying it around.

Yakira Book – Yabber

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Yakira’s dad, Pike, is from an Australian guide dog school so it seems fitting to use a couple of Aussie words in her book.

From a very young age Yakira was a talker. Especially when she was playing she would vocalize with all kinds of noises. Some were happy sounds and some didn’t sound so happy, but I think they really were happy most of the time. She was just pretending.

Once in a while those not so happy sounds would shift just a little and you could hear her frustration. Yakira was patient with Zodiac but sometime she just had enough of his little puppy ways and she let him know politely.

 

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.

Road Trip

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Yakira and Zodiac – photo by Lisa Thomposn

We are off to see Yakira and her partner this weekend. Graduations are so much fun and this one promises to be a great one. Zodiac is going with us and Dune is gets to go to my friend Lisa’s to be puppy sat. I hope she doesn’t get too noisy in her kennel. We will be bringing a career changed dog named Pauletta back with us. She is going back to her raisers who live in Colorado. The will be driving to Utah on Monday to pick her up. She has arthritis in her lower back so she can’t become a guide dog. I’ll catch up on my posts when we get back. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

 

My Joy Jar

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P1040284

This week I found joy in:

  1. some of the names that were suggested for our soon to come “D” puppy
  2. Dune taking a nap under my desk
  3. warm house
  4. Mom & Dad coming down
  5. Dune playing with Zodiac
  6. Zodiac’s progress in staying calm around energetic boys
  7. Dune playing with her toys
  8. Dune learning to go down the stairs
  9. Dune!
  10. talking with Rochelle
  11. sleep
  12. reading all the name guesses for our “D” girl
  13. happy puppy faces
  14. a warm bed
  15. sleep
  16. silence after a Dune tantrum
  17. the sun
  18. looking at the Christmas card from Waffle
  19. cute quilt blocks for Heather’s quilt
  20. chatting with neighbors at book club
  21. teaching boy scouts about Guide Dogs for the Blind
  22. the progress Dune is making on being quiet

Pupdate

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Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug (video of Dune sharing her opinion of the x-pen)

As if you haven’t heard enough about my puppies this week. But it is Friday, my traditional day to give update on my puppies. Forefront this week has been Dune’s arrival. We have had our trying moments since Wednesday but each day gets better. She finally pooped outside last night for the first time. And she learned to go down more than one step today and then surged ahead and took the flight of stairs all the way to the bottom. She is starting to really catch on to relieving outside. Tonight she went to the door but I didn’t clue in what she was telling me until she had a pee accident right there. Hopefully last night’s two-hour scream-fest will be the last. I think we have a tactic that helps her settle down and go back to sleep after she goes outside to relieve in the middle of the night. Tonight will be the test.

Zodiac went to work with Bill again today. Dune had her first “outing” she went to my sister’s house and got to meet her Career Change black lab Clifford. They got along very well. When Zodiac got home from work tonight they were both very happy to see each other and they played together for a few minutes. I’m very proud of the good big brother Zodiac is being.

The phase report came out yesterday as usual but Yakira was still in phase 7. The good part is that the rest of her string was in phase 7 too. So it can’t be that Yakira is having a challenge with the training. Maybe her trainer got sick or something like that. I’ll be very surprised if she isn’t in phase 8 next week.

Dune is here!

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Dune in her x-pen

Our sweet little Dune girl arrived today via Delta airlines. It has been an eventful day full of joy and excitement. She finally fell asleep in her x-pen a little while ago. Dune is confident and knows her mind, she is sweet and seems so tiny. I forget how little they are when they come. I love her color she is on the dark side for a yellow lab but not so far that she is red. She is more of a dark honey color. I think she is the perfect color for her name.

It was fun to experience having a puppy come by plane. The photos below shows much of what it was like. I’m so tired that I’m not going to post much more today. These first few days are hard on the puppy and on the raiser too. We want to much to help them understand what we want them to do, especially when it comes to relieving. But so much has changed so fast in their young lives and they have no clue what you are asking them to do. Dune has a cute temperament to match her face and I’m certain that she will be a joy to raise, though it will surely be challenging at times.

Delta employees bring the crate with Dune and Eagle

Dune ready to get out of the crate

Dune taking a second thought about getting out of the crate. Eagle is in the back of the crate. He is sure he doesn’t want to come out.

Dune in my arms looking extra cute

And her name is . . .

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The door bell rang a few minutes ago and it was UPS with a box from GDB. Inside was the puppy packet and her name is Dune!!! I love it. She will be our little sand Dune. Her flight leaves in about an hour. I can’t wait to meet her.

This is so different from getting a puppy from the puppy truck. But it is fun too. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can get both of us under control when we get home from the airport.

D Names

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Yellow Question Mark

I’m sorry to be posting off topic again. But with a new puppy coming I just can’t seem to stay focused on anything else. So I’m going to embrace it, instead of fighting it and getting nothing done anyway.

If you are not familiar with how Guide Dogs for the Blind names their puppies, each litter is assigned a letter and all the puppies in that litter’s names start with that letter. We have been told that our puppy is from a litter assigned the letter D. Also they can only use names that are not in use by another puppy in training for Guide Dogs for the Blind, or one of their current breeder dogs or a working guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind. At any time they have about 3,000 dogs that have unique names. One of the traditions when waiting for a new puppy is to try to guess what name your puppy will have.

So I’ve compiled “D” name suggestions from friends and other puppy raisers and guide dog users I know, for our little yellow pup who is coming on Wednesday. I have a small prize for whoever guesses the right name. To enter, make new suggestions or vote for some of those already suggested. I’ll add new suggestions to the list as I get them.

  1. Dafina
  2. Dana
  3. Danna
  4. Dagny
  5. Dahlia
  6. Dainty
  7. Daisy
  8. Dakota
  9. Dala
  10. Dalmar
  11. Dame
  12. Damia
  13. Dancer
  14. Dandy
  15. Dangle
  16. Dani
  17. Danielle
  18. Danita
  19. Daphne
  20. Darcy
  21. D’Arcy
  22. Darling
  23. Darlington
  24. Darlin
  25. Daria
  26. Darma
  27. Dash
  28. Dasha
  29. Davine
  30. Dawn
  31. Dazzle
  32. Deanda
  33. DeAnn
  34. Deanna
  35. Dear
  36. Deb
  37. Debbie
  38. DebbieLynne
  39. Deborah
  40. Deer
  41. Dehli
  42. Deidre
  43. Deirdre
  44. Deja
  45. Delaney
  46. Delaudid
  47. Delay
  48. Delce
  49. Delicate
  50. Delight
  51. Delilah
  52. Dell
  53. Delphie
  54. Delphine
  55. Delirious
  56. Delta
  57. Deltona
  58. Delve
  59. Demur
  60. Denice
  61. Deschutes
  62. Descript
  63. Desma
  64. Deshi
  65. Destin
  66. Destiny
  67. Detour
  68. Deuce
  69. Devotion
  70. Diamond
  71. Dianna
  72. Diane
  73. Dianne
  74. Diantha
  75. Diedricha
  76. Didgi
  77. Dido
  78. Dill
  79. Dime (Dee-may)
  80. Dina
  81. Dindin
  82. Ding
  83. Ding-a-ling
  84. Dingbat
  85. Dingo
  86. Dink
  87. Dinka
  88. Diogi
  89. Dione
  90. Director
  91. Disa
  92. Discover
  93. Disguise
  94. Diva
  95. Divine
  96. Dixie
  97. Doaa
  98. Doe
  99. Doggon
  100. Dojo
  101. Dolce
  102. Dolly
  103. Dolores
  104. Dolphin
  105. Dominga
  106. Dominica
  107. Domino
  108. Dong
  109. Donna
  110. Dorcas
  111. Donut
  112. Dori
  113. Dorito
  114. Doro
  115. Dorothy
  116. Dorthy
  117. Dream
  118. Dreama
  119. Drew
  120. Duan
  121. Duana
  122. Dulce
  123. Dulche
  124. Dulcina
  125. Dunia
  126. Dusk
  127. Dynamic

Puppy #7

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Today I got confirmation that puppy #7 is coming this next week on Wednesday. We are getting a yellow lab female whose name starts with the letter “D”. She was born on November 11th and her parents are Bosworth and Cava. Yesterday I kept watching for an email from our club leader but it didn’t come. Then today when my husband was opening up the mail he started laughing. Our club leader sent a pick balloon in the mail with the news of our new little girl. I can’t wait to see her.

She is coming in with another puppy for our club on a Delta flight. That will be a whole new experience instead of the puppy truck. Guide Dogs for the Blind doesn’t send puppy trucks to Utah in the winter, so flying them in is the only option. They usually only fly in puppies when the puppy raiser raised a puppies parent. But GDB has more puppies to place now than raisers in the warmer areas can handle so they are willing to send the by plane.

I’ll post about her arrival as soon as I can get myself together while dealing with a 9 week old puppy.