Tag Archives: Zodiac

Yakira – phase 1

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Yakira - photo by Lisa Thompson

Yakira – photo by Lisa Thompson

This weeks phase report finally had Yakira’s name on it. She is official in phase 1! It seems like it she has been gone for such a long time. Actually it has been almost 7 weeks. Some of the other dogs that went back on the truck with her are in phase 5. I’m guessing that the Thanksgiving holiday slowed down her start into training. I know I shouldn’t get impatient about it all but I still do. I really do know that it will all work out and that the best life for her is ahead, no matter what road that is.

For more details on what Yakira is learning in phase 1 see this post on Casey in phase 1.

On news on some of the other puppies in our life:

  • Zodiac is doing great. I’ve seen some maturing in the last week or two. He is being much less of a rebellious teenager. Sometime I see him crouch to jump on me and he stops himself. He turns 9 months on Monday.
  • Apex is off on a cruise to the southern Caribbean for more than I week. Sue has promised pictures. I can’t wait to see them. He has such a great life with Sue.

A Basic Pup-date

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Zodiac curled up under my desk

Nothing major going on with the pups but plenty of little stuff. First off Zodiac is part of a three-way puppy swap this weekend. He has gone with Stacey. She is a Jr. High Drama teacher and I wanted him to get some practice being around animated kids and clapping more. He can easily get over excited by such things. Stacey’s puppy Trapper has gone with Karen so he can experience what it is like on a college campus. We have Karen’s pup, Nairobi with us for the weekend. He was transferred to Karen about a month ago and he has made great progress under her care. Nairobi has a good personality and responds well to commands.

Nairobi

I was hoping that Yakira would show up on the phase report this week but she still isn’t there. A couple of weeks ago a fellow puppy raiser was on campus for a graduation and took a picture of the kennel assignments in the kennel kitchen and sent it to me. It was so nice of her to do that. I love getting any bit of info on her. None of the other pups in her kennel have shown up on the phase report either. Next week for sure she will be their. Today Yakira turns 15 months old. It is probably good that it has taken a month for her to get into training. You don’t want them too young when they graduate.

Yakira’s kennel assignment on November 3rd

We will get Zodiac back on Monday at puppy class. Beacon will come home with us that night too. His raiser is going out-of-town for Thanksgiving so Beacon will be with us until Friday. One of the good things about having only one puppy in training is that we are available to puppy sit for other raisers when needed.

The M&M’s

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Raelyn, Bill and Zodiac – the M&M’s

This year for Halloween we decided to dress up as M&M’s. We had a church party last night and a Guide Dogs for the Blind party today. It has been several years since we made costumes for Halloween. I was an original M&M, Bill a peanut M&M and Zodiac was a mini M&M. I bought M&M’s to hand out to trick or treaters next week. I thought it would be fun to answer the door in our costumes. Today’s party we took brownies with lots of M&M’s stirred into the batter instead of chocolate chips. Zodiac did good and both parties and doesn’t seem to mind his costume at all. We took third place in one of the categories of the costume contest and one a new leather leash.

Bill, Zodiac and Raelyn walking the red carpet at the GDB Halloween Party
photo from Karen Fuller

Are you dressing up for Halloween this year?

50 for 50 #41 – A Walk in the Woods

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trail along the back of GDB’s Oregon campus

This past weekend I went with my friend Lisa to Oregon for Parker’s graduation as a guide dog. Lisa finished raising Parker when his original raisers moved to Florida when he was about a year old. One of my favorite parts of the trip was a couple of walks I took. The reminded me so much of the many walks our pet dog, Shadow, and I took while we lived in Boston for a few months. I love how the parks and other areas around Boston keep the natural look of the trees and plants. These walks turned out to be a perfect way to celebrate my 50th year this week.

blackberries

The first walk was by our hotel. From the our 4th floor window we could see a paved trail so on Saturday morning before we went to Parker’s graduation we took Zodiac out for a walk and explored the trail. It was lovely. Everything was freshly washed with last night’s rain. The path wound its way through a little patch of natural vegetation with tall trees and blackberry brambles. I wished I had my camera with me it was so lush with moss and ferns. The only disappointment was how short it was. It came out of the trees onto the parking lot of a Costco that we didn’t know was there.

Zodiac

A few hours later. Zodiac and I were exploring Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in Boring while we waited for graduation time. Lisa was visiting with Parker and his new handler. I had heard about what students call “the Oregon trail” on campus and I set out to see if I could find it. We did! on the back edge of campus there is a loop that runs along the back of the kennels and then into what looks like the natural growth of the area. It was very much like the trail by our hotel with lots more blackberry bushes and huge tall trees. This time I was prepared with my camera and got a few shots off. We took the loop twice and enjoyed every minute of it. For me there is nothing more therapeutic than a walk through nature. This was perfect after the long drive from Utah. I’ve learned over the years that I need to have sometime out in nature to be at my best in coping with the stresses of everyday life. I don’t do it often enough these days.

ferns and moss covered wood

leaves and pine needles on the trail

Zodiac enjoying a sniff

50 for 50 #40 – Have a Party

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Party Table

When I made my idea list at the first of the year of things I thought would be fun to do to celebrate my 50th year, one of them was having a party. We have the tradition of having a farewell party for each of our puppies in training before the return to Guide Dogs for the Blind for the next stage of their training. Today it was Yakira’s turn to be the guest of honor. It isn’t anything fancy just a chance for our friends, neighbors and family to say good-by to the puppy. It is kind of a thank you for the little things they do in helping us raise successful guide dogs. For many people it is the first time they have seen the dog “out of jacket” and how they behave at home. At Apex’s party many people comment on how much like a regular dog he was at home.

voting for official portrait

We have a few treats and it is just a time to relax and enjoy each others company. I think the party helps me to mentally and emotionally prepare for the puppy to leave us. For Yakira’s party we had everyone vote for their favorite photo to be used for Yakira’s official portrait on our puppy portrait wall. We also had a card for everyone to sign. I’ll keep the card up somewhere until Yakira finds her next place in life, either as a breeder, a guide dog or in another career. Bill made cookies and caramel (these were a huge hit) and we had Scooby snacks and popcorn.

Yakira’s card

We also had a couple of Yakira’s good friends come to the party. Clifford (my sister’s career change dog) was here the party and Osaka (a fellow puppy in training) came to say good-by too. The four pups had lots of fun together. I have a celebration bandana that Yakira wore as the guest of honor (and so that visitors would have an easier time keeping track of who was who). With three black labs in the house it was quiet the party. The only treats for the dogs were bowls of ice cubes, given out at regular intervals.

Yakira, Clifford and Zodiac playing

It was a fun evening and both Yakira and Zodiac are exhausted. For that matter so are us humans. We have an early start tomorrow to get Yakira to the truck in the morning so I’ll wrap this up now.

Zodiac’s Big Bad Day

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Zodiac and the cone of shame

Today Zodiac went to the vet to get neutered. It is kind of funny because he was scheduled to do this last week on Monday. But Bill forgot and feed him so we rescheduled for the next day. Then when Bill got to the vet, the total came up to much more than the $200 Guide Dogs for the Blind is willing to pay for a neuter. So Zodiac got a second reprieve. Now we needed to find another vet and with the trip to visit Banta coming up on Friday we decided it would best to wait until this week. But today the inevitable finally caught up with him.

When I went to pick him up, he was very happy to see me. But walking with the cone of shame on and still recovering from the anesthesia, he had some trouble actually navigating to the car. Zodiac isn’t doing so well with the cone. If he runs into something he just stands there and doesn’t try to move. I finally got him to lay down with my help. He is still kind of out of it and started to do pathetic little whines so I took the cone off for a while. But I have to watch him very close because he wants to lick his stitches.

Zodiac stopped cold by the desk leg

Poor little boy. I’m sure he will feel better soon but he has never experienced anything like this before. Yakira doesn’t quiet understand either but she seems to be catching on that he isn’t his normal, “I’m ready to have some fun” self.

 

50 for 50 #36 – Jordan River Trail

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Zodiac waiting to get out of the car

Today we took a walk along the Jordan River. This trail is one of my favorite places. I use to take our pet dog, Shadow there all the time. I even learned to roller blade on that trail a few years ago. I don’t get down there much lately. Since Apex, none of our puppies have had so much energy that a neighborhood walk can’t take care of it. The weather was beautiful this morning and there were lots of runners and bikers on the trail too. I prefer to go during the week when it isn’t so crowded. I’ve walked that trail in all kinds of weather from hot summer days to stormy ones with snow and cold wind. It is a little slice of nature running down the middle of the Salt Lake Valley.

Bill holding Zodiac and Yakira on the retractable leashes ready to hit the trail

When we lived in Provo, Shadow and I often frequented the Provo River trail. It is an awesome trail too. I think I should make more of an effort to get out into nature more. In the past it always helped me deal with the stresses of life. Even though I have a lot of things on my plate these days maybe taking time out to be in nature once a week or even every couple of weeks might rejuvenate me and help me to handle my to do list better. I’ll have to give this some thought. Do you have favorite places that you haven’t been to in a while?

Yakira enjoying the Jordan River Trail

 

Zodiac’s Littermates

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Pomona with Zulu, Zodiac and Zenith

One of the things that Guide Dogs for the Blind does for puppy raisers is the littermate photos. With each litter of puppies they take photos and a couple of videos when they are a week or so old and then again a couple of weeks after that. With Yakira they had the photos uploaded to their Flickr site before we got Yakira but Zodiac’s litter was posted not long ago. Today I finally had a chance to go and look them up. I was also able to look up the names of his siblings in this year’s Fun Day book. The yellow lab in these photos is Zodiac’s sister Zulu and the other black lab is his brother Zenith. Sometimes I think I can tell which one is Zodiac but I don’t think there is a way to be sure. Correction on that, as I was just looking closer at these photo I realized that Zenith must be the one with a small white spot on his chest. Zodiac doesn’t have a white spot. Yeah! I’m really excited that at least in some of the photos I know which one is Zodiac. Anyway, I enjoy seeing how they looked when they were just tiny little things.

March 13, 2012 Video (Zodiac is the one hidden under the newspaper)

March 27, 2012 Video (zodiac is the black one not moving around much)

Zodiac

Zodiac and Zenith

Zodiac or Zenith

Zodiac or Zenith

 

The Revolving Puppy Door

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Yakira and Zodiac

There have been lots of coming and going of puppies in the last few weeks and more to come in the next few weeks. Zodiac has been on puppy sits two weekends in May because we went to Wood Badge. He also had two weekends in June. The first because he was too young to go with us to Casey’s graduation.

Parker at Rockaway Beach

Next my friend Lisa had a family reunion to go to. Her dog Parker needed to come to our house to be puppy sat because he had some anxiety issues and was most familiar with us and our house. Parker and Lisa went with us to Casey’s graduation. So Zodiac went to Karen’s and Parker came here. Instead of Parker going to Karen’s. Osaka, Karen’s dog was in season and her house isn’t approved for an in season female. Another puppy sitter could take Osaka for about a week but then had committed to puppy sit someone else dog. Yakira was still on house arrest from being in season herself and they don’t like us to have three puppies in training in the same household. So that meant that Zodiac had to go off again. That meant that we had Yakira and Parker for a few days.

Osaka

A few days later Parker went home and Yakira was cleared to socialize again, so Osaka came here and Yakira went to Karen’s and Zodiac came back home. Osaka was a good girl but she is a lab golden cross (mostly golden retriever) and she has that soft golden coat. Soon after we got her I noticed that she had mats behind her ears. She had been at another puppy sitters before we had her and they have a swimming pool. Osaka must have gotten the mats while there, maybe from getting wet in the swimming pool. Well I didn’t have a clue how to get the mats out. I tried but with no success. So Karen came back to our house toward the end of that week and brought some golden retriever type grooming tools. Plus she worked for quiet some time getting the mats out from behind Osaka’s ears. Goldens certainly need more grooming than labs. Well Karen was nice and let us keep Yakira for the weekend. We stretched the three puppy rule but it was fun to have her home. All three dogs got along very well together.

Finally we got Yakira back home early this week. We have had Zodiac for about two months and he had only gotten to go out and socialize with Yakira a couple of times. By the time he earned his jacket, Yakira was in season. Then she swapped with Osaka. I’ve really had to think hard to keep track of which dog I’m talking too. A couple of times I just couldn’t come up with the right name in a timely manner.

This next week we are headed off to Martin’s Cove for a short pioneer trek. We had originally planned to take the dogs with us but it is so hot that we decided it would be better not to have them there.  We will be home less than 48 hours before I head off for Girls Camp all the following week. Bill is helping out the first day so two more puppy sits are in the works. My friend Lisa’s dog Parker went back to Oregon for formal harness training yesterday so she will thankfully be available to puppy sit both dogs. Summer is crazy with puppy raisers going every which direction. She will take Yakira and Zodiac while we are in Martin’s Cove and then while Bill is helping us get up to Girls Camp. Then she will take Zodiac while I’m gone the rest of the week. That way Bill won’t have to come home from work in the middle of the day and a puppy won’t have to spend the whole day in the kennel.

That should take care of our puppy swapping around for a while. We want to take a trip to Colorado toward the end of the summer to visit Banta. But I think we should be able to take both puppies with us on that trip.

Puppy Photo Shoot

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Yakira and Zodiac by Lisa Thompson

A few weeks ago Lisa Thompson, did a photo shoot for the puppies in our club and this week I got a cd with the photos. She was our club leader until a couple of years ago and she has access to a photo studio through her job. So once or sometimes twice a year she invites the club to come and she and a friend of hers take wonderful pictures of our pups. I have a wall about our stairs where I hang the “official” portrait of each of our GDB puppies. All but Apex’s are from Lisa’s photo shoots. I have them printed on 10″ x 10″ canvas at Pixels, where she works with their name and the year they were born. I’m so excited to get Yakira’s and Zodiac’s images up on our wall.

Now I just need to pick which pictures to use. I’ve narrowed it down to these. I thought it would be fun to see if any of you have opinions of which image you like for their official portrait. Just comment and let me know what you think.

Yakira #1

Yakira #2

Yakira #3

Yakira #4

Zodiac #1

Zodiac #2

Zodiac #3