Life with a Guide Dog in Training in college: July 2012

This past weekend was guide dogs annual fun day. Fun day is an event where raisers, breeders,guide dog users and all the dogs get together for a fun day. There are booths set up for clubs to sell things and people are able to learn what goes on at the campus. There is also set times where raisers can meet their pups litter mates unfortunately none of andrews were there:( . However, I did get to see some of the other medford pups. The best part of my day was when Medfords breeder keepers stopped by with Medford. It was so great to see him again. We managed to get pictures of me with Medford and andrew as well as pictures of medford with Andrew(1st litter) graham(2nd litter) and tomales(3rd litter). After visiting with Medford and his family i did some shopping at the booths. After some shopping it was time to head over to the grass for the guide dog graduation as well as the puppy handout. Our fresno group had one of our dogs,pelham, graduate that day. This was the first time ever guide dogs did a graduation the same day as fun day, and it was nice. After the graduation it was time to hand out baby pups to their raisers. The Bakersfield group i use to belong to received one of the baby pups that dad it was a male golden named vaquero. After all that fun we went with my fresno group to dinner.Throughout the weekend Andrew and my friend's pup Tomales did great.

Medford's breeder photo

pilar andrew's mom

Medford's T litter

Medford with Andrew tomales and graham

our groups fun day booth

new puppy vaquero

pelham the fresno dog that graduated

The day after fun day was my fresno's group trip to pier 39. It started out with my friend and I getting up taking care of the dogs and going down to eat breakfast at our hotel. It was nice to practice going through a buffet with Andrew, and he did great. We then loaded up into my car and drove to meet my group at the ferry in Larkspur. Once there we did some commands with the pups before getting on the ferry. The dogs did great. Once the ferry got to san francisco we got off and let the dogs go potty. We then walked over to a hotel that has a glass elevator, and took the elevator up and then back down so the dogs could get use to a glass elevator. Andrew could care less. We then walked over to a fountain outside that has stepping stones you can walk on. Unfortunately this year there was no water in the fountain but we still walked across the stepping stones. Andrew did great and had no fear going across them. After that we walked a long way to pier 39. Once at pier 39 we had free time where we split up. Me and some of the other raisers went to bubba bumps to eat. Luckily one of my friends works there so she sat us right away (yay for no waiting). We had 6 big dogs all under one booth, so it was funny watching the reactions once people realized there were 6 dogs under the table. All the dogs did great and slept while we ate. After we ate we walked the pups over to see the ocean and seals/sea lions(can never remember what they are lol). Most of the pups were interested in the seals but not afraid one of the pups was little unsure but was ok when he could hear them but not see them. After that we met up with the rest of the group to take a trolly back to where the ferry was. The trolly was very full so we had to make sure the dogs didn't get stepped on. One time when the trolly stopped a guy pushed his way on everyone tried to tell him there was no room to sit and there were service dogs on here so there also was no room to stand. The guy would hear nothing of it he shoved people out of the way all the while he was yelling at people and yelling that these fing dogs should get off so he could have room. People told him he needed to shut up or get off. He actually made one of our raisers move over so he could sit (there wasn't much room to move over and she had a 5 month old pup who she had to try to move over also). Once he sat he kept going on how the dogs should not be on here, finally one guy turned around and yelled for him to quit it or he'd make sure he was kicked off at the next stop. Once we got off the trolly we had to rush over and get on the ferry to head back. After a long day my friend and i picked up pizza and just chilled in our hotel room. This coming weekend her and I will be taking tomales and andrew to the fun day at the oregon campus.