Meeting Michael Hingson

So this post is a little out of order sorry about that. Last Thursday night I was invited to a private event along with a few other puppy raisers to hear Michael Hingson speak. In case you don't know who Michael Hingson is he is the author of the book Thunder Dog (I highly recomend this book). He is also a 9/11 survivor who is blind and uses a guide dog from Guide Dogs for the blind. On 9/11 he was on the 78th floor of the twin towers. He and his guide dog Roselle walked down all the stairs and managed to safely get away from the buildings before they collapsed. In 2011 Roselle crossed over the rainbow bridge and Michael got a new guide dog a female yellow lab named Africa who is now 6.5 years old.

The event started out with a dinner. I'm sure it was quite a sight to see 6 raisers with pups in a buffet line trying to keep the dogs under control while holding our plates and getting food. I'm not sure how we did it but we managed to get our food to the table without spilling. Pinnacle was a little wiggly in the beginning since we had also been at school all day, but after a while he decided to settle down and be good.

Once dinner was over Michael Hingson gave his talk on 9/11, blindness, and team work. It was a motivating speech and a great reminder as to why I raise these pups. I highly recommend you going to hear him talk if he is ever in your area. He was not only a great speaker but also just a great down-to-earth guy who I enjoyed meeting. After his speech he came over to talk and take pictures with us raisers. He even took Africa's harness off so we could say hi to her. She was a sweet girl and I enjoyed getting to pet her. By time we got home it was 10pm we had been there for 4 hours. It was a great event and i'm so happy I got to go.

Pinnacle and I with Michael Hingson and his guide Africa

Clovis Night Out

Over the years the city of Clovis has put on an event to help build awareness in community safety. This year I decided to go and check it out. Pinnacle and I met up with one of my friends and her little boy. Once we where there we went and checked out all the booths. The had a firetruck, ambulance, first responder vehicle, garbage truck, military equipment, and different police vehicles that you could check out. Pinnacle did great going up and down stairs and ramps to get into and out of the vehicles. There was a good amount of people there and of course everyone kept wanting to say hi to Pinnacle. He was excellent about remaining calm while people pet him. A few little kids tried to hug him but he wasn't to thrilled about that so I had to make sure they understood they could pet not hug (I know for a dog who is mainly golden he really isn't into the whole lovey dovey thing it's weird). I did have to laugh at the fact that the different booths wanted to make sure Pinnacle got a gift (yes in the end he got more gifts than me lol). About 7:20Pm we left since they were about to do fireworks and we aren't suppose to expose our pups to fireworks. I was very proud of Pinnacle he did a great job and this was all after we had a guide dog meeting in the morning where we rode a bus and walked around Fresno State. Needless to say we were worn out by bed time.

Pinnacle in front of the garbage truck

Pinnacle in front of a volunteer patrol car

Hamilton and Pinnacle in front of a Clovis Police truck

Pinnacle in front of a Clovis Police truck

Pinnacle in front of the Pink Firetruck 

Pinnacle showing off his police sticker and frame that he got

Pinnacle vs food

Last year with Agent i did the food challenge and spelled his name out with food. Agent had to remain in a down stay while i spelled his name out. This year I did the challenge with Pinnacle we just did Pin for short since his name was taking to long to spell. We also worked on him leaving the food even though it was on him. Took a few tries since hed move little but in the end he did it.

Happy 1 year!

1 year ago today I took Agent to the mall for his evaluation with our CFR. Agent acted up most of the eval and threw a fit when our CFR tried to take him for a walk without me. It was decided that Agent would no longer be in the Guide Dog program and was career changed. I told my CFR that I planned to keep him for my pet. We have done some tun things now that he is a pet dog and I'm so glad he's mine forever. I can't imagine my life without him and his craziness. I look forward to many more years of him as my loyal boy.

Snip Snip/labor day weekend

So a week ago Pinnacle, Agent, and I went down to Bakersfield to see my parents since I had a 4 day weekend. We had received a letter from Guide Dogs a week before that saying Pinnacle is not going to be considered for breeding so we needed to get him neutered. I decided it would be best to get him neutered at our vet over labor day weekend so he would have time to be calm and I could keep an eye on him. So last Friday Pinnacle went in and got fixed. They kept him over night to make sure he was ok and I was told he did great. It felt weird but also kind of nice without a young pup always with me. Agent loved having Pinnacle gone since that meant the nonapproved guide dog toys came out.

Saturday morning I picked Pinnacle up from the vet. Boy was he happy to get out of there he ran for the door soon as they brought him out. Pinnacle spent the rest of the weekend in his crate or in our kitchen. Agent on the other hand got to enjoy some fun. I took him out to our pool and let him swim boy was he a happy pup. We noticed Pinnacles area was red so Monday it was decided that he needed to wear the cone of shame. He hasn't been to school this week so that he can recover still. I'm sure he will be happy once he can get out and burn energy again.

Pinnacle in the cone of shame

Agent enjoying the pool

Wilbur, Lobo, and Agent my 3 forever boys