Life with a Guide Dog in Training in college: Lobo

So December 1 of my sophomore year in High School the same day I returned my third pup Fabrica for training I picked up Lobo. Lobo is a male yellow lab. His story as a puppy in training is pretty short since he was cc'd at a young age. When we picked up Lobo he was very wiggly and full of energy, and we thought we were in for a high energy dog. Well by day two we realized that wasn't true and he was actually very calm.

When he was four months old we were asked if he and another pup the same age would like to star in a commercial, so with permission we agreed. He was pretty cute. Once he was 4 months old I started to take him to school with me. In April he had his first eval with our CFR. Unfortunately, I had prior commitment so my mom took him to the eval. Apparently within a few minutes of getting there and walking around he had an accident. Our CFR wasn't pleased and said he'd look at him at the meeting. Well when my mom and I took him to the meeting our CFR had me walk him. That's when he noticed that Lobo was limping. The way he was limping had him concerned so he contacted Guide Dogs about having him sent up for a medical eval. A few days later we got the call we'd have to put him on the puppy truck to send him for medical tests. The following week we put him on the truck unsure of what the outcome would be. Every week we called Guide Dogs vet clinic to check in on him. Finally, end of June we got the call after many tests they couldn't say what was exactly wrong they just knew something was wrong with the LS region of his back. It was decided since it was painful for him to do lots of walking he'd be cc'd. It didn't take us a second to say we wanted him as our forever boy.

Lobo came back a few days later on the puppy truck. He was so excited to see us again. We still had his puppy in training jacket so we took him on one last outing out to eat before we said he was officially a pet. Soon as he got home he learned all the rules of being a pet. Being on the couch yes being on the bed yes doggy treats yes people food no. He has settled in to pet life and is my dad's best friend. He is on medicine to help with any pain. He goes to work with my dad too at least 2 times a week. Even as a pet he still gets to do fun things.

Some fun things he gets to do as a pet is go to the mountains and be off leash since hes to lazy to leave our side. The first Christmas we had him as a cc we were to go to Pittsburgh for Christmas, so we decided to take him with us. Big mistake since he was a pet he had to fly cargo. Needless to say he became stressed out and had an accident in the crate, so once we got there we had to rush him to petsmart and ask them to give him a bath. He also wasn't a fan of the snow he's a warm weather kind of guy. On the way back we bought him a comforter to put in the crate to help him feel safe for the flight back. Due to bad weather our flight was rerouted to Utah where we'd have to change planes. Well when we got onto the other plane we waited for them to bring us our ticket saying he made it on the plane. Well it was nearing take off and they still hadn't brought it so we asked a stuartist who made a call asking if he made it on. Their response there was no dog on the first flight they didn't know what we were talking about. Well we knew that wasn't true since we had the ticket saying he made it on to the first flight. We demanded that they held the plane and go find our dog (mind you its december in Utah). They got upset with us and said that they couldn't do that. Well at that point I broke into tears, and it was made worse by rude comments by passengers who didn't realize why we were holding up the plane. Well my dad said the magic words "you don't go find our dog now we will sue you". Amazingly few minutes after that they found him. They had set him aside with the luggage out in the snow and was to be put on a different plane with same destination just later flight. Soon as they found him they put him on, and luckily made it home all in one piece.

Sadly since his time as a puppy in training was so short I really don't have any pictures of him during that time.