Malcolm Returns

I posted about a week or so ago that Malcolm was cc'd from Dogs for Diabetics. That call was heart breaking for me and I cried for days. He was a really great boy and had really hoped he would make it through their program. However, the stress of so many changes had caught up to him and he started to alert bark and alert growl again. He did it when I first got him but after working with him on it got him to stop. I had a short time to decide what to do with him. While I have a lot of respect for Guide Dogs career change placement department the thought of him going to someone who might not keep in touch was to hard so I decided to bring him home and place him.

One of my friend's had placed two of her golden career changes with a family, but 2 years ago one died of cancer so they were wanting one. After hearing more about them and thinking it over I decided they would be a great match for Malcolm. I had my friend contact them and tell them about Malcolm. They were thrilled to hear I wanted to place him with them. I explained we would do a week trial run to make sure it was a good match.

On June 21 the puppy truck came to pick up one of the dogs in our group for formal training, drop off 2 new puppies and drop off Malcolm. It was at the truck I met the family who would be taking Malcolm. After talking with them for a short bit I knew I made the right choice. Once the truck pulled up I handed the puppy truck driver my leash and they got Malcolm off the truck. Soon as I said his name he lost it and went crazy. He jumped right up on me and kept licking my face. It was a priceless moment. Once he settled down some I took him over to meet his new family and their other golden career change, and he quickly liked them. Our group got two new pups a male golden lab cross named Moab and a male golden retriever named Akron. Once the truck left it was time to say goodbye again to Malcolm. It felt weird to be saying hello and goodbye to him all in a mater of an hour.

Malcolm's reaction to seeing me again

He lost total control of himself

Malcolm meeting his new family for the first time

Malcolm and his new friend Chuck

New puppy in the group Moab male golden lab cross

New puppy in the group Akron a male golden

Malcolm's new family text me when they got home and the other day saying how much they love him. He has been swimming in their pool everyday and has been playing fetch as well. I will be giving them the paper work in a few days to fill out for his adoption and then he will be officially their forever boy.

Lots of Catching Up To Do

A lot has happened since I last posted, so this will be a longer post. To start of last week I got a call from my leader saying I needed to call her back right away. Once you have raised for a while you know that is never a good sign and usually means bad news. I called my leader back right away and braced myself for whatever she had to tell me. She broke the sad news Malcolm had been career changed from Dogs for Diabetics, and would need to decide what I wanted to do next. He had been dropped for alert barking and alert growling in the home so any other service dog option was out of the question. One of my friends knows a family who had 2 of her golden career change dogs but one had passed away from cancer few years ago and were hoping to get another career change. We explained to them that Malcolm was career changed for having a cataract, alert barking, and alert growling and if they were ok with these issues we would consider placing him with them. They were perfectly fine with these issues, so Friday Malcolm will get off the puppy truck and go home with them. They will do a week trial to make sure it is a perfect match before I give them the adoption papers. If they do adopt him he will be one spoiled boy.

A second thing that has occurred was poor Agent getting very sick. He spent pretty much all last week with severe diarrhea. He started having it Wednesday and by Friday he was so sick we had to take him to the vet and leave him there so he could be treated. The vet ran a bunch of tests and it showed no poison or parasites were in his system. Our guess is we bought a new bag of food on Tuesday and so there might have been something wrong with the food. The poor boy was so sick his butt is now raw and so is his muzzle from licking to try to clean himself. The vet says Agent is doing better his stools are back to normal and he will come home today. He definitely gave us a scare and we are glad it was nothing very serious.

Finally an update on Pinnacle. Pinnacle turned 4 months old yesterday, and has been going to some new places. To start he went to his second dinner. We took him to the country club we belong to. He did pretty good the place has carpet and there was different food smells all around so he took a while to settle, but once he settled he did great. Everyone there loved him and loved his name since there is a golfball brand called Pinnacle. Pinnacle also had his first long trip and first Fresno meeting this past weekend. Pinnacle and I drove to Fresno on Friday and he did excellent in the car. He just chewed his bone and slept in the crate. Once we got to Fresno he explored my apartment and kept me busy by wanting to chew on everything. After dinner time though he calmed down and fell asleep. Saturday we got up and went to my Fresno guide dog group's meeting. The meeting was at a bowling alley so this was another first for him. He really wanted to play with the other dogs and took a bit to focus. All the Fresno raisers loved him and his goofy personality. Once in the bowling alley he was confident and had no issue with the noise. He was a bit interested in the bowling ball so we will be working on that. Other than that he did great. After the meeting we drove home and he slept the entire 2 hr drive. Yesterday was father's day and my dad wanted to go to Mass. I agreed to go and take Pinnacle with us. When we got there it was packed and we had some difficulty finding a seat but finally did. Pinnacle did great he went under the bench like he was suppose to and pretty much slept. Only time he acted up was when someone put the foot part down and poor Pinnacle got squished once it was put back up he settled back down. He got tons of compliments on how good he did. The Father even came over to us and said how much he loved Pinnacle and did a blessing on Pinnacle so that was fun.


Besides all this craziness we have been taking it easy and working with Pinnacle on being in the car and on his commands. Sorry there are no pictures but with a lot of stress I haven't gotten any good ones to share. Pinnacle has his eval with our CFR today so hopefully that goes good.

Last week/Good-bye Malcolm

So it has been almost a week since I turned Malcolm in for Formal Training. To start off we did some lasts with him during the week. He said his goodbyes to my teachers and they all said they were going to miss their "favorite student". I also took Malcolm to see his last movie G.I. Joe and of course he did perfect. On the Thursday before I turned him in for training I took him to dinner with my sister and her boyfriend. We went to Cheesecake Factory since it was his first outing with me so it was only right that I took him there one last time.On Friday night my mom drove up to Fresno to watch Malcolm while I went to the Clovis Rodeo/Dustin Lynch concert (I hd bought the tickets for me and my friend before I knew Malcolm was on the recall for that weekend). My mom said he did great. I had dropped Agent off to be boarded so that I could focus Friday and Saturday on Malcolm. When I got home I let him get in my bed since it was his last night with me. He didn't last long as he jumped right off as if to say no I know the rules mommy no getting on furniture.


Saturday morning my mom and I woke up got dressed and got things loaded into the car to make the drive up to San Rafael. Before we left we went through the Mcdonald's drive-thru to get breakfast. Then we hit the road. That was one of the hardest drives to make. I wanted to cry my eyes out but tried to keep myself together so that I wouldn't stress Malcolm out. After 3 hours in the car we made it to San Rafael. It was about lunch time so we went to the mall across the street from Guide Dogs and ate lunch there. After eating we got back in the car and drove across the street. Once at Guide Dogs we took some pictures of Malcolm and I.

Malcolm and I on the Guide Dog campus. I was giving him kisses

Malcolm got a little distracted by the construction going on (new dorms are being built)

I hate this part 

Malcolm and I on recall day

After pictures it was time to walk over to the kennels and check Malcolm in. That was a difficult walk to make. After handing in his paperwork we had the option to take him to his kennel which we chose to do. We closed the door and sat there with him giving him kisses and hugs. I told him I was proud of him and to do good in training. He even managed to take the bone in his kennel and drop it on my leg one last time for good memories. After that we got up and went to the outside part of his kennel to see him one last time. Unfortunately he saw us and started to bark and throw a fit which broke my heart so we walked away quickly. I'm told he has since settled in nicely which makes me happy. We then went back to the kennel office to pick up my new puppy (see previous post for details on my new puppy Pinnacle).

giving Malcolm a hug goodbye in his kennel

saying goodbye

I didn't want to leave

I love this boy

Every Thursday is phase report day where we get to see which phase of training our dog is in. Malcolm is in phase 0 this week. In this phase he will have his medical exams and is enjoying some fun time right now. After he passes his physicals he will be assigned a trainer. I can't wait to watch him go through the phases.

Fire station

Well today was one of my favorite meetings, the one where we go to the fire station. Malcolm and I arrived early so we waited for everyone to arrive. Once everyone arrived we worked the dogs on commands. We had to wait a few minutes for the firefighters to get back from a call. Once they got back we went into the station. The first thing we did was have a firefighter put their full gear on, and have the dogs approach them. Malcolm was nervous about this strange person, but was willing to go up and sniff him so thats pretty good I believe the ventilator part is what made him nervous. Once the gear was off he was happier and was happy to go up to the firefighter and the gear on the floor. I was a little shocked since hes seen people in different outfits and has had no issue at all. After that we went and toured the firehouse. After a quick tour we had them pull the truck out and turn the fire engine on as well as the lights. Malcolm had no problems with this part. We were able to get some pictures of the dogs on the truck. At the very end they took the hose and turned the water on. This of course got Malcolm's attention and he really wanted to go play in it lol.

The fire fighter who put on the gear

in full gear

Malcolm in the fire engine

fire fighter malcolm. guess if guide dog thing doesn't work out he could be their new poster boy

Malcolm in front of the fire engine

Graham(one of Medford's pups) and Malcolm on the fire engine

Malcolms first week

On December 16 I went to another puppy raiser's home to pick up Malcolm puppy #10 he is a male golden retriever and is 14 months old. He has a very sweet personality. Well when I picked him up in Bakersfield I was actually on my way to Fresno to take my school finals and since I have Agent I thought it would be too much to have both at the same time while getting ready for finals so he went to stay for a few days with a raiser in Fresno. Dec 19th after my last final I picked him up from the sitter. I then took him to eat at Cheesecake factory. He did great went under the table and went to sleep while I ate. After eating we ran into the mall so I could pick up the last of my Christmas gifts for family. Then it was time to head back to my appartment where he and Agent got to meet. I have been keeping interactions between the two short while they adjust to each other so far so good. The next day Malcolm helped run errands with me. Then I loaded Agent and Malcolm into my car to drive 2 hours to Bakersfield. Both boys feel asleep while I drove so they both are great travelers.

Malcolm playing in the yard

Malcolm posing in his puppy jacket by flowers

Malcolm showing off his silly golden grin

Malcolm with some Christmas decorations in the background

Guess Rudolph retired and Santa decided to let Malcolm be his guide

Malcolm making friends with Frosty

Saturday December 22 was my Fresno Guide Dog groups Christmas party. The party was alot of fun. First we rented a couple lanes to go bowling. We take turns holding the dogs while someone is bowling. All dogs did great Malcolm was interested at first but decided getting belly rubs was better. After we bowled we went into one of the party rooms they have where we do a big potluck. All the food was yummy. Malcolm decided to take a nap while I ate which was fine with me. After we all ate it was time to do the white elephant gift exchange, but we do it doggy themed. I ended up with a cute blanket with two golden pups on it. After that we sat around a little bit visiting. My leader had her 1 yr old grandson there he is very cute. He was in love with Malcolm and thought it was fun to sit on Malcolm and play with Malcolms face. Malcolm was a good boy and didnt care at all. After the party me, Malcolm, my friend, and her guide dog puppy Warren ran some quick errands. It was raining real hard and was getting dark so we decided to spend the night and drive back to Bakersfiled today. Since we stayed in Fresno we took the boys to see Santa and have their picture taken. Malcolm was swweet just walked up to Santa put his head on his lap and looked at him like ok you can rub my head now. We got a great picture of Malcolm with Santa. Warren was very excited to see Santa but was good and sat still for his picture. After pictures we went to Cheesecake factory to eat dinner both boys went under the table and fell asleep. Then we went to my appartment where they ate and we all went to bed early. Today we got up and went to breakfast at a place called Batter up they have the best breakfast both boys did great while we ate. We are looking forward to Christmas I'm sure all five dogs will be spoiled.