8 Months!!!

It is hard to believe Andrew is 8 months old today where has time gone. To celebrate his 8 months I will tell you 4 things I love about him and 4 of my favorite things I have done with him.

1. I love his cute face. He always looks sweet even when hes in trouble.
2. I love that he is photogenic. He loves to pose for the camera
3. I love that he is loyal to me. He will listen to others but is happiest when he is with me.
4. I love that he is a goofy boy. He is almost always doing something funny whether its while hes playing or while he walks funny (he walks like a duck just like Medford did)

5. I have enjoyed taking him to the mountains where he swam in the lake
6. I enjoyed taking him to the beach.
7. I enjoyed taking him to San Fransisco
8. I enjoyed taking him to the Angels baseball game


So now that hes 8 months old I need to start thinking of interesting places to take him so any ideas would be helpfull.

take me out to the ball game

On Wednesday night my dad, Andrew, and I attended a major league baseball game. This was Andrews second time to a baseball game but his first to a major league game. This was also my first time taking a puppy in training to a major league baseball game, so I had no clue what to expect. The game was at Angels stadium the Angels vs giants. A guide dog group in Orange county was having a fundraiser at that game where if we bought tickets from them they got $5 for each ticket sold. I figured this would be a great Fathers day gift for my dad as well as a great outing for Andrew. So that Wednesday we drove down and had dinner at a resturaunt across the street from the stadium. The food was good, and we had a good laugh at the amount of people looking at us trying to figure out why I had a dog with me. Andrew was a good boy he went under my chair and went to sleep while I ate. After we ate we headed over to the stadium I decided to walk Andrew some before heading into the stadium. Once inside we had to navigate the crowd to get to our seats Andrew did great he kept his focuss on me. Once at our seats we talked with other raisers there. After the third ending I took andrew to walk around some so he could stretch his legs, and since there were tons of people a good time to see how he would do in a very large crowd again he impressed me by being calm and focussed on me. After that we headed back to our seats. We did have an issue where people would get up and walk our way and ask to get through which made it difficult for andrew to totally settle like he should. Now i know people need to get through but I find it annoying when they know there is a service dog or service dog in training laying there and instead of going the opposite direction which would have been easier to get out of they still came our way. Over all I would say it was a great trip.

Andrew in front of Angels stadium

Andrews eval

Yep it its that time again when our cfr comes to fresno to see how the dogs are doing. So today andrew got to see our cfr for the third time. Andrew did better then the last eval so that was good. We started by walking traffic an going into REI to work stairs and have our cfr handle him. We were joined by anoter raiser and her puppy cider. Andrew did great on traffic and stairs but when my cfr went to handle him andrew got to acting up little more than normal not sure if its cause our cfr is a man and andrew isnt really use to being handled by males. When my cfr went to do puppy handeling with him andrew tried to get mouthy with him which my cfr said is a concern but since hes never done it to someone else not a major convern or worth dropping him for yet. After that me my leader and cfr went into starbucks to discuss Andrew. My cfr described andrew in the best way andrew is an "interesting" puppy he can be good but also very very goofy at times. We did discuss some issues andrew has such as seperation anxiety and getting to excited over people ecspecially little kids or babies. So those are things ill be working hard to fix this summer. Also ill be working on andrews issue of settling on outings he can settle sometimes but not always so i was told to get a mat i can take places so andrew can learn to lay down in one spot. Good news is my cfr os going to ask breeding department to give me the ok to neuter him so that maybe will help with some of the energy. My cfr did say despite these issues he was proud of my hard work and said he can see amdrew has made improvement and still has a shot of one day becoming a guide. That made me feel good to know my hard work was being noticed.

Lots of catching up to do

So its been a while since I posted. I have been real busy I finished up my third year of college and my sister graduated high school so I havent been able to post. So to start about midmay school semester ended for me and two days later my Fresno group took a very fun trip. It started with me driving to madera to meet up with some other raisers to drive to pleasington to get on BART and ride into san fransisco. When we got to the raisers house i was early so we let andrew and one of their guide dog puppies Tomba play in their yard, and before we loaded into the car andrew got to play with my leaders puppy nikon. The hope was to wear andrew out so he would sleep in the car. It took him a while to settle but he finally did. Once we got onto BART we sat down andrew was good and stayed down though I think he got a little motion sick from riding backwards since there was lots of drool where he was. Once we got off BART we walkes around for a while and even caught the trolly to take us up a hill to a park where we had lunch. Then we worked on commands and even switched dogs to see how they handled being worked by other people. In true andrew form he decided to be silly and grab on his leash and not listen at first but he soon realized he better listen to my leader and behaved. We then headed into union square where we had some free time. I walked andrew around some and got some photos of him. It was then time to head back to BART station. This time i sat forward and andrew did much better he even went to sleep!! Once we got back to Pleasington we all headed over to in n out for dinner. Our leader who some of us rode with was staying in san fransisco so we had to pile 7 people and 5 dogs in one car. Andrew got a little restless on the way back but he was kind of crammed so i couldnt blame him. Once we got back to Madera everyone left and andrew and i stayed to let andrew play with tomba again as well as the familys other puppy in training graham who happens to be andrews half brother. They played for another hour. The next day we headed back to Bakersfield to see my family. After spending a few days there andrew and i as well as one of my friends came back to fresno. After getting to fresno we relaxed and let andrew play some. The next morning we got up early and drove to morro bay where Andrew got to see the ocean for the first time. It was cold and windy so we only stayed short bit but andrew seemed to love the beach. After that we headed to the little town area at morro bay where we walked through the shops ate lunch and went into the really small aquarium. The aquarium has seals and andrew wanted to see them real bad so i was about to lift his paws onto the cement rail so he could see when he tried to jump into the seal tank luckly i caught him and pulled him down before he could jump in lol i guess he thought they were playmates. After walking around we decided to head over to san louis obispo since my friends boyfriend goes to school over there. We walked around the downtown area abit. I worked on stairs,elevators,traffic, and some other stuff while there. We did see a bear statue while we were there and he was little unsure of it but after me showing him it was harmless he was ok with it. After walking around we met up with my friends boyfriend and a friend of his so we could have pizza for dinner. We then headed back to fresno where we then got up and drove back to bakersfield. The day after we got back to bakersfield my sister had her bacculeriate for school and andrew got to attend that. He was really good and went to sleep. After the bacculeriate we all went to the country club my family is members of for lunch. This was the first time andrew had been there they normally dont allow dogs but have made an exception for Andrew. He did great going under my seat and going to sleep. It was funny seeing the shocked faces of people when they realized there was a dog under the table. The next day i met up with my bakersfield puppy group for one of their meetings. It was at the firestation training center. The dogs got to hear the firetruck and go up and down the stairs in one of the training buildings. After that meeting I gave andrew to another raiser who watched him for a week so i could focuss on my sister graduating high school. Told he did good but they agreed he has lots of energy. Im also told he got to go to a river one day and did pretty good guess he tried to eat couple things guess thats the little bit of lab in him. Now that im on summer vacation i plan to do a lot of fun outings with andrew.