Happy birthday!!!

Happy 4th birthday to my girl sweetie!!! She is a female yellow lab and the 6th pup i raised she was career changed and now living a spoiled life as a pet with my leader :)

Name change

One of the things I first said when I saw the list of names for medfords A litter was I hope I don't get the names Astor or Andrew if I do and they are Ccd I'm changing it. I hated the name Astor so I was happy I didn't get that. I was kinda disappointed when I heard his name was Andrew mainly cause I know so many Andrews that I knew it would be confusing. Now that Andrew is Ccd and my pet I can change his name. I knew I wanted to stay with an A name so not to confuse him to much. I liked the names Alvin and agent the best. After thinking it over I decided I wanted to change Andrews name to Agent. Reason is he loves to hide in crazy spots like an agent. He is protective like an agent. Plus I'm a criminology student. So I figured that name is what suited him best. I got him a new collar with a name tag that has his new name on it.

Life with a career change

As I said in my last post Andrew was career changed. There are lots of emotions you go through when you hear your dog was career changed especially when they are still young and haven't gone into formal training. I was really sad at first. Sad that I would no longer get to take Andrew in public. I was sad that just when he was getting good at settling in public it no longer matters. Sad that there were many places I wanted to take him no I can't. I was also mad. Mad at Andrew for being career changed at such bad timing. Yes I am keeping him but I had plans to go places and now that Andrew is Ccd his already small list of people who could watch him shrunk even more. I am happy i don't have to worry about him leaving me since me and him bonded so much I worried how he would deal with recall now I don't have to worry. I am happy I get to spoil him and do fun things we use to not be able to do. I already got Andrew two stuff animals and tennis balls which he use to not be allowed to have. He also gets treats every so often which is new for him. His favorite part is now he can get on my bed and couch.

Sad news

Well today I had an eval with our cfr so he could see how Andrew was doing. Im always nervous for these but today i was extra nervous something in me just knew this one would be different from all the others ive done. Andrew is a great dog but he has some issues such as not wanting to listen to others. I got there early and had lunch with my leader. Then it was time to meet up with the cfr. It started out with us sitting and talking about Andrew our cfr was worried about some of the issues but still didnt think Andrew should be ccd. Then the big test came where i had to handover Andrew to the cfr so he could walk Andrew. I was told to wait at the table while the cfr and my leader walked. Soon as i handed over that leash trouble started Andrew got excited and was jumping and biting his leash not wanting to listen. My leader and cfr came back bout 20 min later by the face on my leader i knew i was getting bad news. They sat down and told me Andrew refused to listen and would not settle for puppy handeling at all so it was decided Andrew would be career changed. He will be living as my spoiled pet. Our cfr said he would hold out on making it official till after this weekend so Andrew can take the train to sacramento fun day with me.

labor day weekend

So last weekend was a very fun weekend (no it wasn't just because of the long weekend). It started out on Friday. Friday I normally have class but last friday class was canceled so Andrew and I decided to meet up with his half brother graham and graham's raiser for a fun outing. We met at river park which is a big shopping center in Fresno. We started out walking, and after one lap we decided to switch dogs so they could get use to being handled by someone else. Graham is a lot like medford he really doesn't care who works him he'll listen to anyone. Andrew on the other hand is stubborn and does not like when I hand him off to someone else. He gets really goofy and starts grabbing the leash. So we switched pups, and of course in Andrew fashion he got goofy luckily it was for a short period and as soon as we started walking he was a perfect angel. We did a couple laps, and even went into REI where we worked stairs.
On Saturday Andrew and I met up with my sister and her boyfriend at the mall. My sister's boyfriend's sister and her two kids also joined us. Now Andrew hasn't spent much time around kids, and has shown that he's unsure of them when we have seen them on outings. I got to the mall after the rest of the group so I met them in the food court where we all grabbed lunch. The boys were a little confused as to why I had a dog with me, so I explained he was a special doggy which is why he goes places with me. After eating we all went and walked around the mall. The boys kept wanting to pet Andrew, and Andrew did great with them. First time they went to pet him he was unsure and tried to get little mouthy but after one correction he realized he just had to sit and be calm while they pet him. At one point the youngest got some food out and was right in front of Andrew, but andrew did not go for the food. After a while we were all done. Andrew and I went back to the apartment and crashed the rest of the day.
Sunday Andrew and I had to get up early to pick my sister up to head to Bakersfield. Andrew rode in the back in a crate since my sister was with us. Once we got to Bakersfield we unloaded and waited for one of my friends and her guide dog puppy warren to come get us. We then went over to the Kern County museum which is an outdoor museum of old buildings you can go into. This was Warren's first big outing he is only 3 months old so we had to limit where we went since he doesn't have all his shots. Both pups seemed to enjoy it though poor Warren was worn out after a bit from keeping up with Andrew. Andrew did good, but decided he really did not want to sit for pictures (he soon realized he had no choice we weren't moving on till I got good pictures of him). After the museum we headed to Rosemary's Ice cream where both pups slept while my friend and I enjoyed ice cream. After Ice Cream we went to my house where we let the pups play in my yard. Warren figured out he couldn't keep up with Andrew, so he would wait for Andrew to run by and then would grab the rope toy and play tug with Andrew.

Andrew and Warren in front of museum sign

Andrew and Warren in one of the buildings

Warren wanted to take a nap in front of the old jail

Andrew and Warren went to jail

Andrew with an old train

Warren found an old store he liked

Andrew in jail

Andrew and Warren burning energy. poor warren couldnt keep up

Warren was one thirsty pup. lol look at that big belly on him.

future bffs

Warren says see my tongue is just as big

yes warren actually tried to bite Andrew's tongue

Monday we had to drive back to Fresno. Andrew was a good boy he went into his crate in the car and slept. We had me, my sister, and one of her friends in my car so I was nervous he would be excited but he just slept in the crate the whole way back. We have now made it through week 3 of school and he is still doing good. Andrew has an eval on Tuesday so I will post how that goes.