Pascal

So Pascal was my second pup I raised. He was a male golden retriever. I received Pascal off the truck the same day I turned my first puppy Wilbur in. He wasn't a very fluffy pup when I received him, but he grew into a handsome fluffy golden. I had Pascal during my 8th grade year and beginning of my freshman year of High School. The first night I had him was rough he cried a lot and in the end I put one of my big stuffed goldens in the crate to give him something to snuggle with and he then fell asleep (note guide dog puppy raisers are not suppose to do this lol but I was desperate for sleep). The nights after that he did better and did not need the stuffed golden. Pascal was a very smart boy and loved to work. However, his only real issue was his strong dislike of being separated from us. If he was in the kitchen and we were in the family room eating dinner or watching tv he would bark nonstop. One of the neat things while I was raising him was one of my friend's was raising a half brother at that time they had the same mom. As Pascal got older his barking when left alone got worse and since I was in 8th grade I had lots of homework which made it difficult to work with him. It actually got to the point I was ready to ask to have him transferred, but my sister had fallen in love with him so we decided to coraise him. Just like Wilbur Pascal spent a lot of time at volleyball tournaments in LA. The one big thing I did with Pascal was to take him on my 8th grade graduation trip. At our school our graduation trip is about a week long. We took Amtrack from Bakersfield to Sacramento where we got to look around and tour some places. Our trip also took us to San Francisco where he got to go to China town and walk half way across the golden gate bridge and he even got to tour Alcatraz. Our final stop was non other than San Rafael where I got to show my classmates the Guide Dog campus. During this trip we stayed at a hotel. Well since we took Amtrak up I couldn't bring his crate so I figured he could sleep on a tie down well there was no where to put a tie down. To add to the frustration the original arrangement was my room was to be me and one other girl but once we got there things changed and 2 more girls were added to my room so that was 4 girls and 1 dog to a small room. Needless to say I did not get much sleep that week since Pascal was so excited. On the last day we were there I had fallen asleep in the hotel and he chewed through his gentle leader. Thankfully he behaved himself on a flat collar. On the day I graduated jr high Pascal got to walk across the stage with me to receive my diploma. In September of my Freshman year of High School he was recalled for breeder evals. He lasted only a week and was neutered. Once he started training he moved pretty quickly through the phases(at that time there were 10 phases today there are only 8 phases). We were pretty shocked he was going through the phases since he still had his issue of barking when left alone. However, Guide dogs said that his working behavior was so good that they decided to overlook the barking and placed him with a person who was ok that he barked. Pascal graduated as a guide in March the following year and has been working in Texas. A funny story I heard about Pascal while he was in formal training he got loose from the play yard one day and trotted around campus marking his territory as trainers tried to catch him. They caught him after a few min of chasing him. So needless to say he is now known as the one who escaped. He worked for a few years before being retired. However, a year after being retired the school decided to unretire him and issue him to the same person again. This has never been done before. Sadly a year after he graduated we lost contact with him and his partner. He was a good boy even if his barking did drive me crazy some. Sadly I do not have any pictures of him here in Fresno the very few I have of him are packed somewhere in Bakersfield.