1 year

Instead of listing 12 things I like about Pinnacle I am going to describe what we did for his birthday weekend. It started out with me leaving him home loose for 2 hrs while I went to take a test at school. He was a very good boy and didn't touch anything in my apartment. Once I got home we loaded my car up and headed to Bakersfield. After I got to Bakersfield I unloaded all my stuff then Pinnacle, my mom, and I went to the country club and met up with one of my mom's friends for drinks. Pinnacle was a good boy and just slept right next to my chair. After enjoying a drink my mom and I went home to decide what to have for dinner. My parents and I decided on Baja Fresh so my mom went to get the food while I let Agent and Pinnacle run in the back yard. Once we ate I let Pinnacle out of his crate and worked on him being loose. He has never been loose with all our dogs so that took lots of patience.

The next morning I got up and got ready to go with my dad to take Pinnacle to the mountains. We drove up to Ponderosa area and happened to find some snow. Pinnacle has never seen snow so he was very excited to play and try to eat it. He was like a kid on Christmas day all excited over this new experience. I wasn't sure how he would do about going potty in snow since it can be cold but he had no issue at all. After spending time in the snow we loaded back up into my dads truck and drove to Kernville to meet up with some of my dad's friends.My dad's friends were camping so Pinnacle got to chill and experience a campground for the first time. He was very well behaved and remained sitting by me. All my dad's friends couldn't get over how good he was being. While my dad talked to his friends I took Pinnacle down to the river near the camp ground. Pinnacle enjoyed walking near the river. Once I was done walking Pinnacle my dad and I took Pinnacle over to Kernville's Whiskey Flats day. It is a major event in that town. People were all dressed up in old fashion western clothes, there were tons of motorcycles, and tons of people with dogs. The event was packed so we only stayed a short bit. I enjoyed seeing some of the booths set up and Pinnacle was perfect while there. He ignored all distractions and remained walking on a loose leash. It was a great event and he was a great dog to take there. We left after about 20-30 min of being there since we had to drive home and my mom was cooking a yummy dinner.

Pinnacle by the river

Pinnacle and I in the snow

Pinnacle walking in the snow

Pinnacle laying down in the snow

Pinnacle giving the "do we have to leave" face

Sunday was a calmer day. Most of Sunday was spent on me doing homework. We worked more on Pinnacle being loose in the house. He started to realize that my sister's 4ib yorkie is the boss of all the dogs. It was quite funny to watch her take charge over him. After homework was done we had to get ready for an engagement party. The party was at a restaurant called Hungry Hunter's. I decided to take Pinnacle with me so he could learn how to be good in a restaurant even if the table is very crowded. When my parents and I walked in the hostess at the restaurant wasn't to thrilled about Pinnacle and gave us a hard time. After talking and explaining some stuff about him she finally let us in so we could join the rest of the party. I said my hellos and took my seat at the table in order to get Pinnacle out of the way. We were at the party for quite a while and Pinnacle remained under my seat perfectly behaved. When it was time to leave I stood up and called Pinnacle out. People who came into the party after I sat down were shocked as they had no idea I had him with me. Even the person sitting next to me had no idea. I was very proud of him. Sunday also happened to be Pinnacle's 1st birthday. We gave him 2 new bones which he loved.

Pinnacle and I ready for the engagement party

Monday was a holiday which meant no school so I stayed in Bakersfield that day as well. Pinnacle and I helped my mom run errands. Now that he is a year old I am starting to work Pinnacle more on his flat collar instead of his gentle leader. During the errands I worked him on his flat collar behavior and he did perfect. He has really come a long way and is great on outings. After running errands with my mom  we had to take Agent to the vet to have his ears rechecked because he has had an ear infection. I decided to take Pinnacle with us as he has a fear of being at the vet. He was nervous at first but relaxed once he saw how much Agent liked being there. After the vet I met up with one of my friends to eat dinner and walk Pinnacle along traffic. After all that I had her work with him on commands some. Then we both worked on him ignoring food from people's hands (he is only allowed to accept food reward from the person holding his leash). Once we finished that we met up with the puppy raising group in Bakersfield. Pinnacle was excellent during the meeting, and behaved while being worked on his flat collar and gentle leader. After the meeting was all done my friend and I enjoyed some cold stone ice cream and chatted some. Then it was time to head home.

Pinnacle had a busy birthday weekend but through it all showed what a good boy he is. It is hard to believe my time with him is quickly coming to an end.

8 months!

Happy 8 Month Birthday Pinnacle!

8 months!

Happy 8 Month Birthday Pinnacle!

Lots of Catching Up To Do

A lot has happened since I last posted, so this will be a longer post. To start of last week I got a call from my leader saying I needed to call her back right away. Once you have raised for a while you know that is never a good sign and usually means bad news. I called my leader back right away and braced myself for whatever she had to tell me. She broke the sad news Malcolm had been career changed from Dogs for Diabetics, and would need to decide what I wanted to do next. He had been dropped for alert barking and alert growling in the home so any other service dog option was out of the question. One of my friends knows a family who had 2 of her golden career change dogs but one had passed away from cancer few years ago and were hoping to get another career change. We explained to them that Malcolm was career changed for having a cataract, alert barking, and alert growling and if they were ok with these issues we would consider placing him with them. They were perfectly fine with these issues, so Friday Malcolm will get off the puppy truck and go home with them. They will do a week trial to make sure it is a perfect match before I give them the adoption papers. If they do adopt him he will be one spoiled boy.

A second thing that has occurred was poor Agent getting very sick. He spent pretty much all last week with severe diarrhea. He started having it Wednesday and by Friday he was so sick we had to take him to the vet and leave him there so he could be treated. The vet ran a bunch of tests and it showed no poison or parasites were in his system. Our guess is we bought a new bag of food on Tuesday and so there might have been something wrong with the food. The poor boy was so sick his butt is now raw and so is his muzzle from licking to try to clean himself. The vet says Agent is doing better his stools are back to normal and he will come home today. He definitely gave us a scare and we are glad it was nothing very serious.

Finally an update on Pinnacle. Pinnacle turned 4 months old yesterday, and has been going to some new places. To start he went to his second dinner. We took him to the country club we belong to. He did pretty good the place has carpet and there was different food smells all around so he took a while to settle, but once he settled he did great. Everyone there loved him and loved his name since there is a golfball brand called Pinnacle. Pinnacle also had his first long trip and first Fresno meeting this past weekend. Pinnacle and I drove to Fresno on Friday and he did excellent in the car. He just chewed his bone and slept in the crate. Once we got to Fresno he explored my apartment and kept me busy by wanting to chew on everything. After dinner time though he calmed down and fell asleep. Saturday we got up and went to my Fresno guide dog group's meeting. The meeting was at a bowling alley so this was another first for him. He really wanted to play with the other dogs and took a bit to focus. All the Fresno raisers loved him and his goofy personality. Once in the bowling alley he was confident and had no issue with the noise. He was a bit interested in the bowling ball so we will be working on that. Other than that he did great. After the meeting we drove home and he slept the entire 2 hr drive. Yesterday was father's day and my dad wanted to go to Mass. I agreed to go and take Pinnacle with us. When we got there it was packed and we had some difficulty finding a seat but finally did. Pinnacle did great he went under the bench like he was suppose to and pretty much slept. Only time he acted up was when someone put the foot part down and poor Pinnacle got squished once it was put back up he settled back down. He got tons of compliments on how good he did. The Father even came over to us and said how much he loved Pinnacle and did a blessing on Pinnacle so that was fun.


Besides all this craziness we have been taking it easy and working with Pinnacle on being in the car and on his commands. Sorry there are no pictures but with a lot of stress I haven't gotten any good ones to share. Pinnacle has his eval with our CFR today so hopefully that goes good.

16 week shots

Today Pinnacle got his 16 week shots which means that in 1 week once the shots have fully kicked in he will be legal to go more places and I wont have to carry him. He weighed 32.8ib so hes going to be a big boy he did pretty good at the vet but did show signs of hormones kicking in oh boy. Hes now at home resting which hes happy with.

Photo Shoot

It's been a while since I have posted so I thought I'd give an update on the boys. Agent is loving being back in Bakersfield where he can run in our yard every day. He does good with Pinnacle most of the time, but every once in a while he gets annoyed with him. I try to give him time with just me so that he doesn't get to jealous of Pinnacle. He continues to love to swim and chase squirrels when allowed. I got some pictures of him today just so he could show off how handsome he is.

Pinnacle is continuing to grow like a weed. We are continuing to work real hard with him on seeing the car as something fun and not getting car sick. He is improving. Right now he rides in a crate while in a car and we only do really short drives to keep it positive. So far he hasn't thrown up any and is drooling a lot less so its an improvement. He is learning his commands and how to walk on a head collar nicely right now. Hard to believe he is 14 weeks old now.

3 months

Last week Pinnacle turned 3 weeks old so in honor of that I will say 3 things I love about him.

1. His cute face. He has the sweetest puppy face ever, and is really good at the puppy eyes.

2. The white spots on him. He has some white marking on him. One on his head, a white stripe on his chest, and his right bac paw has white on it.

3. He really wants to please. He may not always get things quickly and can goof off sometimes while i'm working with him but he almost always tries to make me happy. When he was learning how to do stairs he was nervous at first, but with a lot of encouragement from me he quickly figured them out and now enjoys doing them.

Happy 3 month Birthday Pinnacle!!

Happy Birthday Polaris

Happy 2nd Birthday to Polaris my 8th guide dog puppy!!! He was ccd just a few days before his first birthday and GDB placed him with a couple. Choosing to have GDB place him instead of me placing him was the hardest choice i have made I miss him so much and hope hes having a special day today.

Happy 16 month Birthday Malcolm!!!

Today Malcolm is 16 months old!!! I can't believe hes that old already. I have fallen in love with him and have great hopes that he'll make it as a guide dog. Malcolm should hopefully be recalled next month. He has been going to school with me every day and does great!!

Also a little side note on January 31 8 more Medford pups were born 3 girls 5 boys mom is Trumpet a female cross. That means medford is up to 53 pups now. I'm very proud of my boy!!

polaris update

Hey sorry I haven't posted in a while life has been crazy, and I haven't been doing to much with polaris. So far we've taken a trip to the jelly belly factory where a club was hosting an event there. Polaris did great. We were able to spend a lot of time working on his issue with children's toys.By the end he was doing great and would go up to them. Other then that we've taken him on small outings. Mainly I have been taking him to the mall to work with him on crowds, different noises, etc to help prepare him to go to college. This weekend Polaris got to go to a puppy sitter in Fresno while I was on a trip. He got a good report. I missed him a lot while gone. It is hard to believe he will be 5 months tomorrow. He is still pretty small ecspecially compared to the others i have raised, but i've always wanted to raise a small one so it's interesting. We are looking forward to Fun day (for those who aren't with GDB fun day is a huge event for puppy raisers that gdb has. Its a great time to meet other raisers and puppy sibs.).

Medford update he is still in breeder evals. Hope to hear some news soon on if they are going to pull him as a breeder and complete the last few test, neuter him and put him in phase training, or cc him. I am sure hes having tons of fun up at gdb.

update

sorry I havent written in a while life has been crazy. I dropped Medford off july 10th at guide dogs for the blind. It was a very sad day. My mom and I drove to san rafael but got there during the lunch break hours so we went to the mall across the street and had some lunch and walked medford around. It took everything I had not to cry in the mall. Around 1pm we went back to the campus and took some last pictures of him and I together. We then walked around some and got to talk to some of the people who work at guide dogs and of course medford worked his charm. The best part was when medford and I got to meet a guide named wil and his partner. I enjoyed watching medford and wil, both big golden boys, check each other out. After walking around we headed to the kennels to officially hand my boy over. Soon as I walked in I started crying. We were allowed to walk medford to his kennel and sit there and say good bye. Of course first thing he did when we put him in his kennel was go for the water dish (he sure loves to drink lots of water). After that my mom and I drove the long drive home empty handed. As of now hes completed his 2nd week of breeder evals.

Now to update on Polaris. Polaris is a sweet boy he is now little over 4 months old and weighs 33ib very small compared to my other pups ive raised. He loves water. His favorite thing to do is put his head in his water dish and blow bubbles and then try to attack the bubbles it is quite funny to watch. He is a very soft temperment puppy so we are taking things kind of slow with him to help build up his confidence. We laugh at him cause he usually is scared of things that you would think hed be fine with and fine with things you think hed be scared of. His one big fear is of talking toys ecspecally if they are smaller then him. guess I have lots of work to do with him.

spring break

Sorry this is a little late. Last week Medford and I headed home to Bakersfield for spring break. We both had lots of fun. To start on Sunday my dad and I took medford to the kern county museum to walk around. We got an extra bonus of a huge car show there that day. There was lots of people, loud music, and bunch of distractions. Medford handled everything perfectly. From there we went to go look at some trailers for camping. After that we went to the mall to have lunch at red robin medford was a very good boy and went to sleep under the table. He was a big hit and everyone kept saying he looked like a big bear cub lol. We then ran to petsmart and got things for the new puppy. Medford was a little confused why we bought all these bones and he couldnt have them. We then spent the rest of the day by the pool relaxing. On monday we met up with my bakersfield guide dog group. After the meeting me and one of the other raisers took our boys to cold stone. we then traded puppies to take home till wednesday. Her puppy is young so it was good practice for me to have a young pup, and it was good for the other dogs to get use to a puppy again.On Wednesday me and the raiser traded back dogs. boy was i happy to have Medford will go back in May or June.

Also tomorrow is the big day Mr.P arrives!!

14 months old and wilbur update

Well its a little bit late but Medford is now 14 months old! it is hard to believe. Now that he is 14 months old it is only a matter of time till we get notice of Medfords recall. Time has flown by with him and I know i will miss him a lot when the day comes to return him. He has come a long way since I got him.
Also this past weekend we got a call saying that there is a good chance that we will be able to get wilbur back this coming friday. Its taken a while because they were trying to find a flight that could fly him cargo from oregon to san fransisco and at a convenient time. well they kinda realized that the planes that could fly him cargo were really only leaving early in the morning. so the plan is that they are going to fly him cargo if they can find someone from the campus who is willing to drop him off early in the morning at the airport on wednesday. then on friday my mom and I will drive to the san rafael campus to pick him up. fingers crossed that we get the call saying everything is a go cause i don't want to wait any longer.

Medford now 9 months old

Can't believe my boy is now 9 months old seems like yesterday I was picking the boy up. He is a great puppy and I am enjoying raising him. Can't believe how much hes grown. Love you Medford.