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.

Polaris

So back in February I said that Polaris had been career changed due to many issues he had, and that I sadly could not adopt him because the school was worried that his issues could have a negative impact on Andrew's training. So we decided to let the school place him which was a har choice to make since all my career changes live in Bakersfield where I can see them. Well it has been a month now and we finally got a letter saying Polaris has found a forever home. They wait a month to inform us of a placement to make sure that the placement works out. All we know is he will be living with a retired couple in Redwood city. We are sending the school our contact info in hopes of staying in contact with his new family. I hope they enjoy him as much as I did.

Andrew news

I am very excited to say that I received the news that my Bakersfield and fresno leaders as well as our cfr are in the final stages of making arrangements to allow Andrew to move up to Fresno with me. Originally we were going to have to wait till summer for him to move up, but after explaining that my schedule allowed me to work with Andrew a lot more than my mom can we were told that the issue needed to be discussed but saw no reason why he could not come to fresno. So far the deal is Andrew can move up towards the end of feb, but can not go to school yet. I agree Andrew would be to young to go to my classes, and that would be to much to expect him to adjust to a new location plus school. My plan is on the weekendswhen no one is there I will take him and walk the campus so he can see what the campus is like then as he gets older this semester allow him to walk a short bit on campus with kids there and start introducing him to classes by taking him once a week and work up from there. I am looking forward to having Andrew in fresno with me.

Also got news that Medford had a date today. That means more grandpups to come.

litter announcements

So since I dont have a puppy I thought I would update you on litters of pups that fresno far sighted dogs helped produce in October.

On October 8 Preston who was raised by my leader litter of pups were born. He produced 8 pups 2 males 6 females with female golden devine. The litter letter is N. My leader will be getting one of the male pups.

On October 22 Medford& Ralph with Pilar pups were born 4 males 4 females. Litter letter is A. I will be getting one of these pups.

On October 31 Heloise a female yellow lab bred with Jay had one pup a male black lab. Letter is Z. Far as I know Heloise family plans to get this pup.

Fresno breeder pups were busy this october.
Aslo Preston it was decided after that one litter would not be a breeder and is now phase 3 of 8 in training.

Medford will be a dad ....AGAIN

So when I had last talked to guide dogs breeding department Medford wasnt scheduled to be bred again any time soon. Well.... I got an email today saying that a female went into heat and they decided to use Medford as the daddy. He was bred to Damsel a female yellow lab. So now that there is another litter i have to decide do I get a pup from the first litter and hope it is a medford pup since two males were used, or i could wait few months and know for sure it is a medford pup. Its a hard choice. The thing is i prefer to have the more golden to it over the more lab. Ive always liked goldens more than labs, dont get me wrong i love labs but goldens have and always will be my favorite. If i take one from the first litter it would be 7/8 golden if it was a med but there is no promise it would be medfords. If i get one from second litter then it would be more lab but i would know its medfords. As of now im sticking to the first litter but who knows i still have some time to decide.

More info

So after much back and forth with the head of breeding department at guide dogs I finally got all the info I needed about the pups. As you know Medford and another male was bred with pilllar. Once I heard that news I began to panic about would i know if I had a medford pup, and if not would I be ok with the other males pup. With this being my last pup for at least a little while I was hoping to end with a grandpup and wasnt sure if I would be ok with the other males. So I sent an email expressing my concerns to the head of breeding department. She informed that a DNA test would be done on the pups once they were 6 weeks old but would not have results till they were 12-14 weeks old. That made me feel little better knowing I would at least know who the dad was even if it was after i had it for a month. However, I still worried would i be ok with the other males pup if I ended up with it. I thought about waiting for his second litter but was told it doesnt like hell be used anytime soon and with only a certain time frame I could get a puppy I have decided to go ahead and stick with the pillar litter. I was told that the other male used was ralph a male golden medium color, and that he had a good success rate. After hearing that my fears were put to ease. I would be happy with whatever I got, would I be little disapointed if the pup i got wasn't medfords yes but I'd be ok with it which is important. I also found out that I can schedule to see the pups once they are 6-7 weeks old I know i will be taking advantage of this opertunity. My thinking if something happens that i dont get a med pup at least i can say i saw them.

Medford as a puppy

puppy news

Well I just talked to guide dogs and Pillar who Medford was bred with had 8 puppies on saturday. There are 4 males and 4 females, and the litter letter is A. Since Pillar was also bred with frozen sperm from another male we do not know yet how many are medfords. We have been told different things but we should know when they are 6-12 weeks old. Yes that means we might not find out until we have the puppy. So fingers crossed they find out at 6 weeks so we can know we are raising a medford pup and not some other males pup.

Puppies, puppies, puppies

So I got a very exciting email today from the breeding department for guide dogs for the blind. It said that at the time of the email she had deliverd 4 pups with 2-3 more still to go. Thats all I know right now and should no more info in few days. Also since Pillar was bred with Medford AND another male we arent sure what pups belong to what dad yet. There will be a DNA test when they are about 6 weeks old to find out. Once I know more ill post.

update

So now that my life has somewhat settled down again I figured I should update everyone on what is going on. First Medford's first litter is due oct 19. Unfortunally the female was bred with Medford and another male so until they are born and dna test are run I will not know how many of the pups are his. Secondly I have received the news that my appartment has changed their minds and will not allow me to have guide dogs stay with me luckly I had signed a month to month lease since I was nervous if they would keep their word to allow the dog. So now I will be moving again at the end of the semester, so I can continue to raise. This means three months without a dog. This will be weird since it has been a while since I went this long without a dog. So since I will not have much to update about my blog will be slow for a bit. I will however keep everyone updated about medford's pups.

Palau

Sorry lot of this is late. I was in the process of moving so i didn't have internet access for a bit. So as I mentioned I am watching Palau a female golden/lab cross for 6 weeks. I picked her up on my way back from an outing to old sacramento. She is a sweet girl. Since I am still getting use to her we have been keeping outings to small quick outings to avoid any accidents. She has been attending class with me and has been great to have in class. She just goes under my desk and sleeps. I have found that she loves to sleep near her food and water dish. She is pretty different from her brother polaris who I had started. She has more confidence then polaris did and she looks like a lab while polaris looked golden. One thing both have in common they both love to cuddle. I look forward to our adventures together.

Now for some exciting news. We have found out along with Medford 3 other dogs from our group will be graduating. Pups Hilton and Hobbs (aka the H brothers) will be graduating as guides and pups medford and Heloise will be breeders. This will be a special graduation having 4 dogs from one group graduate together. Only 1.5 weeks till graduation.

news....

Well I got a call today that ive been waiting for since polaris was transfered. They have found me another puppy to care for short term. What that means I will be watching the puppy till end of October so almost a long puppy sit. I will be picking up a female golden/lab cross tomorrow on my way back from sacramento. Her name is Palau. The best part is she is polaris' sister. I am excited to have a puppy again even if it is for short time. Hopefully once my time is up with her there will be a pup who can be officially transfered to me to finish up until a Medford pup is old enough to come to college with me.

update

sorry this update is a little late. As I posted before Medford is now a breeder. I was informed that last week Medford went to his breeder keeper family. After I got the call from Guide Dogs for the Blind I also got an email with the name of the family he will live with, where they live, and how to get in contact with them. I sent an email to his new family on Monday introducing myself. I haven't heard back but I hope to hear back soon. We also found out that Medford was being bred this past weekend. We are hoping to get a puppy from this litter for my parents to start for me. In the meantime I am hoping a transfer will come up that I can finish while I wait on a Medford pup. So far no news on a transfer. It has been weird not having a dog with me at school. This was the first time besides my first year of college that I started school without a dog with me since I started raising guide dogs.

It's official

It is official my baby Medford is going to be graduating as a breeder for Guide Dogs for the Blind. We will present him to his breeder keepers October 8 at the Guide Dog graduation. It is a big honor for a dog to be selected as a breeder. We are sad that we wont be getting him back, but happy that he will be doing what he was born to do. We have decided that if a transfer dog does not come up in the next 2 months we will apply to get a Medford puppy to raise. We look forward to seeing our boy again in October, and seeing him become a daddy to some great puppies.

polaris/ funday

This past weekend was funday at guide dogs. It started out with me, polaris, my friend kim, and her puppy in training shawn all driving up to san fransisco area. Once we got there we checked into our hotel room at novato oaks. After checking in we rested and let the dogs play some then drove to Tiburon to meet my Bakersfield group for dinner. When we got there we realized that there was a street fair going on and that they were shooting guns off for sailboat races. Poor Polaris did not like all the noise so I ate quickly and then went and sat far away from the noise as I could till the others were done. The next day was guide dogs annual funday. We started out by going to polaris' littermate meeting where we met some of his siblings phillo padma and palero. After that we went to the fresno booth to help sale some stuff for an hour. After our shift we were able to do some shopping. Polaris started to show signs of stress so we left him in a crate at the booth and continued to shop. We then went into the kennels to look around. I managed to get a glimpse of medford. I was behind a wall so i saw him but he didnt see me. After that we went got the lunch they were serving and continued to look around. At 1 pm we went to a syminar they were holding on the new training they were doing with the dogs. 2 dogs I knew were demo dogs. The next day was my fresno group annual ferry ride into san fransisco. We rode the ferry into san fransisco then got off and walked to pier 39 where we were able to do whatever we wanted for about an hour. Some of us went to eat lunch during that time. after the free time we regrouped and went over to work the dogs near a fountain and then in a glass elevator in a hotel. Polaris had to miss this day since it would have been to stressfull.

Now for the news on polaris. As you might have noticed polaris is a very soft temperment puppy. It was decided on funday that polaris would be transfered from us to a new raiser. The reason he was transferred was because of being soft temperment there was worry he would notbe able to handle college with me. Our leader took him to his new raiser yesterday. However, the new raiser is only able to keep him for a month. our CFR has told us if he looks like he has made enough progress my Bakersfield leader could take over polaris for a few months then if he is ready for college I could get him back. He could also get ccd at any point too. We also have the option to say to transfer him again to someone else after the month is up and get a different puppy transfered to me. We havent made any decisions and are taking it day by day for now.

I will post funday pictures another day

medford update

I just got an email today about Medford and hes been....................




tentively pulled as a breeder!!!



They are waiting on the results of the last few tests. If he passes he will become an official breeder for guide dogs for the blind. He will go live with a family as a pet and go up to guide dogs when he is needed. Unfortunally we don't live in the required distance to keep a breeder so he will live with someone else. We are happy and sad about the news. We are sad that we wont be getting him back if he passes since him and I were so close, but happy that if he makes the final cut he could be having pups that will change many lives.

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.

some lasts

This week Medford and I will be doing a lot of last things together before he heads of to Guide Dogs. Yesterday he had his last meeting with my Fresno group. The meeting was at a bowling alley, and Medford did great. He was very interested in watching people bowl but not so interested that he was distracted. I was presented my pin and certificate for raising Medford that day also. Medford and I also had our last drive from Fresno to bakersfield together. I am going to miss driving with him. Tomorrow Medford will have his last meeting with the Bakersfield group.

A quick update on Polaris he is almost 4 months old now and weighs 22ib now. Small guy. He has stared loosing his fluff and getting more short strait golden hair look now.he is a sweet boy who still has lots to learn.

It's official!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but life has been crazy. Medford and I finished my 2nd year in college few weeks ago. It was bitter sweet. I was happy to be done with classes, but sad that it would be the last time I attended school with Medford. Well today we got a call(if your a puppy raiser you might know what call I mean). I was told Medford has been added to the recall list, and we will have to make arrangements about getting him to the puppy truck on its way back to the campus. I am very excited that he will be going off to doggy college, and look forward to seeing what path he chooses for his life. At the same time I am very sad to see my big boy go, because I love him so much. He will be on breeder eval so I won't hear anything about him for about a month. Good luck Medford

Hard to believe my boy looked like this one time

And then grew into this good looking boy.

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!!