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 

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for Pinnacle and I. It started out with me getting up at 5:30am to get ready and take care of Agent and Pinnacle. Once ready I left Agent home loose and took Pinnacle to school. My first class was at 8am and is on the 3rd floor so we decided to take the elevator up instead of the stairs. Once there we choose a seat in the front row to sit in. Pinnacle was a little wiggly as to be expected. It was his first time in a classroom and he is use to stretching out so the fact we had someone behind us which prevented him from stretching out was weird for him. We got done early with the class  and I had 2.5 hour break before my next class, so I went home to eat lunch and let Pinnacle and Agent play some. About 11:40 it was time to get back to school. Parking was really bad so I had to park far and walk really fast not to be late. At 12:30 class started. My teacher saw Pinnacle and commented on how cute and well behaved he was. He slept through that entire class like a good boy. Once done with that class I had 1.5 hours till my next class so I took Pinnacle out to potty. Once I knew he was empty we walked to the taco bell on campus for me to grab a bite to eat. Pinnacle did great staying in a down while I ate at one of the high tables. Once I ate it was time to go to my final class. This time I decided to sit at a seat on the side of the room so that Pinnacle could have more room. My teacher saw him and decided that he would be the new class mascot. He slept through that class too. After we were done with that class we headed to my car and went home. Agent, Pinnacle, and I all just crashed till dinner time. Pinnacle was a really good boy at school it will be fun to watch him grow while at school.

Pinnacle with one of his toys before class

6 months

Today Pinnacle is 6 months old. It's been amazing to watch him over come some of the issues he came with. He can now ride in the back of my car on a tie down without drooling or getting sick. He does great on outings and is very confident. He still has issues to work on but I'm proud of where he is right now.  So now that he's 6 months old here is 6 things I like about him.

1. His confidence. Pinnacle is a very confident pup. Not much can phase him and even when he's unsure of something he is able to work through the fear. 

2. His goofy personality when he's playing. Whenever he plays with his toys he gets really goofy. My favorite thing is when I throw his rope toy and he runs the pounces on it.

3. His white paw. It can be hard to see sometimes in pictures but Pinnacle has white fur on his back left foot. I think it's cute and unique.

4. His cute face. There is something about his face that makes it hard to ever stay mad at him.

5. How smart he is. Sometimes it takes him a little while to learn something new but once he learns something he does great at it from that time on.

6. How great he is at being pet by other people. I try not let many people pet him while he's in jacket but when I do he's great at remaining calm and will sit while being pet.

Fun Day part 3

So this post is pretty late but you will have to forgive me as I was on a few trips so I didn't have my computer which meant no blog posting. Part 3 about Fun Day is actually not about Fun Day but rather the trip my Fresno group takes to pier 39 the day after Fun Day. Saturday July 13 we had a long day at Fun Day and were up late with some friends. At this point it was only my friend K, her pup Warren, Pinnacle, and I staying in the hotel room. Sunday we had to be up bright an early and eat quick in order to drive over to the ferry terminal. 

Once at the ferry terminal we bought our tickets to pier 39 and met up with raisers in my Fresno puppy raising group. I was a bit nervous about how Pinnacle would do. The reason I was nervous was because he hated walking on anything metal and we had to go up a metal ramp and metal stairs on the ferry. However, Pinnacle decided to shock me and went up the ramp and stairs with no issue. I was also nervous about him possibly drooling or throwing up since he had never been on a moving object without being in his crate. Again he shocked me by not drooling or getting sick but rather laying down and going to sleep. After what seemed like forever we reached the dock and got off the ferry. Again Pinnacle did great. Once off we took the pups to a parking lot and let them go potty before making the long walk to Pier 39. Pinnacle was a bit distracted and pulled quite a bit. It was a bit difficult to regain his focus since he decided not to want his food that day. However, after many corrections he finally got the hint and pulled a lot less and got himself focussed. We worked with him going over metal objects and he concurred his fear by the end he loved going over metal flooring.

Pinnacle and his friend Warren on the ferry

Pinnacle with the ferry in the background

Once at Pier 39 we all walked around for a bit before deciding to go eat some clam chowder. Pinnacle was worn out from the walk and fell asleep right away under my chair. After eating we walked around some more and even found some stairs that played music when you walked on them. Pinnacle could have cared less that the stairs were making noise which made me proud of him. The one thing about Pinnacle is he is a very confident puppy which can be a good thing. We checked to see if any sea lions were out but there were none. Then it was time to head back to the ferry. We managed to get a bus to take us all back to the ferry dock. We still had some time to kill once we were at the ferry dock so we all went across the street to where they had a fountain you can walk under. Now if you remember my post about the Jelly Belly factory you will know Pinnacle hates water so I wasn't sure if he would go near the fountain. At first I got him to walk up to the fountain water but he refused to walk under it. We decided to have another Guide Dog puppy go in front of him to see if he would follow. He did follow but his face said he wasn't thrilled about it. We got about half way and there was a sharp corner poor Pinnacle missed that stepping stone so his backend fell into the water. We all had to laugh at him cause he had the look of horror on his face that he was all wet. After letting the dogs dry off some we walked to a hotel that has a glass elevator and had the dogs ride up to the top and back down. Pinnacle enjoyed looking out at the view. After we rode the elevator it was time to head over to the ferry and head back to our cars. 

Pinnacle and I on pier 39

Pinnacle and I in front of some flowers on pier 39

Pinnacle and Wilton taking a break to get a drink

Pinnacle was disappointed there were no sea lions

Pinnacle in front of the fountain we walked under

Once back at my car K and I decided to go to dinner at BJ's. Both boys did great and slept while we ate our dinner. After that we went back to the hotel to watch movies and go to sleep. 

Fun Day part 2

This post is late due to me being very busy right now. So to catch up if you did not read my last post two other raisers, their puppies in training, Pinnacle, and I drove to San Rafael for Guide Dogs annual Fun Day. We arrived July 12 and the event was July 13.

So on Saturday July 13 all of us got up bright and early to get ready for Fun Day. Once we were all ready and the dogs were taken care of we headed down to eat breakfast at the hotel. It was so much fun seeing all these dogs walking around with their raisers and being very well behaved. Pinnacle and I grabbed a table for me and the other raisers I was with to sit at while they got food first then I got mine. After eating we loaded up into the car and drove the 2-3 minutes to the mall where we were to park the car. Once there we unloaded everything and gave the dogs a chance to go potty. Pinnacle was a good boy and went when I told him too. This year our theme was sports so I had a little steeler jersey for Pinnacle to wear. Needless to say he wasn't to thrilled but didn't throw a fit. Once we were ready we got into the Guide Dog van that took us to the campus where the event is held. After getting there I realized I had forgotten my phone in the car so I gave my stuff to my one friend K to watch while I made the long walk back to the car. By time I made it back the opening ceramonies was already done which was fine with me. Pinnacle and I met up again with K and we headed over to where the littermate meeting area was so we could see some of our pups littermates. We also both have raised breeder dogs so we enjoyed seeing some of their pups as well. After the littermate meeting we went and looked at some of the club booths that were selling things. We enjoyed catching up with all our puppy raising friends.

Pinnacle with brothers Presley(left) and Paul(right)

Some of Medford's L litter with the their mom Tessie

Medford was 1 of 6 dogs that were chosen to have a special sign up about them :)

Medford's B litter 

2 of Medford's S litter pups Shimmer and Siesta

After all the excitement K and I decided to sit down for a bit. Thats when I got a text from Medford's breeder family saying they were at Fun Day and wanted to meet up. So I took Pinnacle and went to go find them. K ended up spotting them and called me to come back. Soon as I walked up and called Medford's name he came running at me. Of corse I got all choked up seeing him again. He looked great and was still a very happy boy. I enjoyed getting to chat with his family for a while and show them around Fun Day. They enjoyed getting to love on Pinnacle while I loved on Medford. By this time Pinnacle was all worn out and falling asleep when we would stop walking. After a while it was time to say goodbye to Medford and his family. I hated saying goodbye but I know I will see him again.

Medford

Medford with his nephew Pinnacle

After goodbyes K and I met up with other raisers by the new dorms Guide Dog's has. We found a spot in the shade and waited for the guide dog graduation and puppy handout to begin. One of the dogs from Bakersfield was graduating that day so it was fun to see him be presented to his partner. Then came everyone's favorite part. The part where baby pups are presented to their raisers. It is so fun to see the excitement as raisers meet their new puppies. There were some good and some interesting names given to the pups.

Chase who was raised in Bakersfield being presented to his partner

all the baby pups being held as they wait to be presented to their raisers 

Poor Pinnacle all worn out

After all the puppies were handed out Fun Day was over and it was time to head back to the hotel. Once at the hotel we sat down and relaxed for a bit. Then we got up and got ready to meet my Fresno guide dog group for dinner. We ate at a place called Mary's. There were about 30 of us raisers (from my Fresno group and a few other groups too)and 15-20 pups all in a private room. The pups were worn out and behaved themselves. After dinner we all went out for Ice Cream. The other raiser who had been staying with K and I decided to go stay with another raiser since that raiser wasn't sharing a room with anyone else, so K and I went back to the room to relax. While relaxing in our room two other raisers we know from Facebook came over with there dogs and one of the new pups they were taking back to Utah for someone else. We enjoyed loving on the baby puppy Gabby and even took turns volunteering to take her down to go potty. About 1AM they went back to their room and K and I went to bed.

Fun Day part 1

Every year Guide Dogs for the Blind holds what is called Fun Day. It's a day where raisers gather on the campus and are able to meet each other in person, buy things from other clubs, and see what new is going on at Guide Dogs. This year the CA campus held theirs on July 13th. The trip there turns into a weekend of fun. We do so much while we are there that I'll divide this post into 3 parts. This one will describe our first day which consisted of mainly driving. 

So on July 12th my one friend (I'll call her K for this post since there are multiple people involved in this post) and her puppy in training Warren came over to my house and we loaded everything into my car. I had gotten up early that day to fill my car up with gas and went and got us bagels for breakfast. I managed to get all my stuff in the car as well before she arrived at 8AM. Once we loaded up it was time to hit the road. We drove to Fresno first because I realized I had forgotten some of my stuff at my apartment there. Plus we were picking up another raiser and her puppy Frank to go with us. Not sure how we managed but we were able to squish all of us into my car along with our stuff. The only one not squished was Pinnacle and thats because he still has to ride in his crate. Once in Fresno we took the time to stretch go to the bathroom and let the dogs potty too. Then it was back into the car. We drove about another 2 hours then decided to stop at a gas station for lunch (it had a McDonalds inside). It was quite funny seeing the faces of people as we walk in with three dogs. It felt good to be out of the car and to eat. After eating we went to the bathroom then headed back to the car. We let the dogs all go potty too before putting them into the car. Once I got Pinnacle into his crate I realized something was wrong. The door on it would not shut. Took us a while but finally we got the crate fixed and went over and refilled the car with gas. We then drove till we got to the hotel.

By time we made it to the hotel I was tired of being in the car and ready to get to our room. Well of course nothing is that simple when you want it to be. I went inside to check us in and pay for the room. My mom had called ahead to verify the price we would have to pay since my credit card has a limit on it. The price we had been told was in the range of my credit card use so I wasn't worried. Well when I get there the person checking us in tells us that oh there is also a $50 deposit per night that we will get back when we check out. Well that was going to be $150 more. I figured I still had enough on my credit card, but when they ran my credit card it came back declined. They ran it twice and still came back declined. By this time I was stressing out so I called my mom to figure out what was going on. Turned out that extra $150 put it over the limit on my car. In the end luckily I had cash on me from being paid back for the room by the one raiser so I used that and charged the rest to my card. After all that craziness we went to our room to unload our stuff. 

After unloading we met up with some of the raisers from my Bakersfield group as well as a raiser who is raising a brother to K's pup Warren. We all met up at Applebees since it was close to the hotels we were all staying at. They gave us a big table on the patio which was nice. The patio part actually is inside a mall so the dogs got to work on being good at dinner and ignoring people walking by. The food was good and we all enjoyed each others company. After we ate we all went outside to potty the dogs. I'm sure we all looked funny standing in a parking lot saying "do your business" and when they would go get all excited. We made it into a game to see whose dog would potty first. Of course Pinnacle being a pro at going potty whenever I tell him to won. After all that fun it was time to head back to the hotel and go to bed.

Jelly Belly

So Saturday was the day I was looking forward to and the whole reason for the trip we were headed to the Jelly Belly Factory for a guide dog event. Me and the two other raisers I was going with had planned to leave by 8 am since we had to drive 2 hours, but with the late night we had we didn't get on the road till 9:30am. We all loaded up into my car. Pinnacle was in his crate, Alba in front with her raiser, and Roberto and his raiser were in the seat next to Pinnacle.

After driving two hours we finally reached our destination. It was already really warm so we wanted to get inside quick. We took the pups to go potty on some grass and then checked in. After checking in we were directed to the side of the building where there was a course with different surfaces to walk over. Pinnacle did not want to do it at all. While rest of the dogs walked across with no issue Pinnacle dove for a shady area by the building, sat down and refused to go. I finally got him to go across by sitting down on each surface and hed run to me but he wasn't happy one bit (something for us to work on once weather cools down some). After the course it was time to go inside. We climbed a bunch of stairs and Pinnacle did fine with that. I had him sit outside the door for a bit and rewarded him for being calm. Once I knew he was calm enough to come inside we went in. We walked around some of the different booths they had. Their was one booth with vet students and they did a physical exam on him. He was a bit confused at first but once I started giving him food reward he relaxed and was ready for a belly rub at the end.

After looking at all the different activities the two raisers I came with decided to do the tour of the Jelly Belly factory. I decided to stay back since Pinnacle is still young and that many people and dogs crammed together would've been to much for him. While they were gone Pinnacle and I looked at the silent auction items and put bids down on some items. We then went downstairs to the surface course again to see if he would do better. He went on two of the surfaces but the rest he still refused. An experienced golden handler tried to work with him but even he couldn't get him to go on all the surfaces. By that time it was really warm out so we decided to call it quits. I then let Pinnacle go potty again then headed back upstairs to see if the other raisers were done with their tour. They weren't so I headed to the gift shop to buy some candy. Once I bought the candy and put it in my car I went back in. By that time the tour was over and I actually got to see people I knew. I saw 3 Shawn pups. If you remember Shawn was raised in my Bakersfield group and I puppy sat him couple times. I also got to finally meet fellow Blogger Lisa. It was great to finally meet her in person. After all the happy meeting up and loving on all the dogs we decided to go eat some lunch in their cafeteria. Pinnacle was worn out and fell asleep right away.

After lunch it was time for another potty break. Then we headed back up to socialize with other raisers. When I got back up there I found out I had won two of the silent auction items. I ended up winning a blanket with a black lab puppy on it and a dog dish filled with different things. We even ran into our CFR who agreed with me he was impressed with Pinnacle and how well he did the little bit he saw him. Now that is a huge statement since he doesn't give to many compliments to the goldens or the crosses. I have to say I was proud of him to. He is normally very distracted and gets excited around tons of people. I was prepared to sit in a corner if he acted up but he did perfect. He ignored all the dogs even the ones who came up to him and remained calm with no mouthing or jumping when people would reach out to pet him.

After a long day we drove back to Oakdale dropped off the two other raisers and continued on to Fresno. We were both ready for bed by time we made it to my apartment.

Pinnacle relaxing by the silent auction table

Roberto having his physical done

Pinnacle inside the Jelly Belly Factory

Pinnacle taking a break

Pinnacle is sitting in front of the Guide Dog information board

Maxwell a working guide who is Medford's brother and Pinnacle and Agent's uncle

Relaxing at the end of the Jelly Belly event

Best Friends from Left to Right: Pinnacle Wilton Alba and Roberto

Puppy Sleepover

So this is part 2 of my fun adventure with Pinnacle last weekend. At this point I was in Fresno and enjoyed sleeping in. I woke up about 10AM and took care of Pinnacle. We then relaxed for a bit before running some errands. Our first errand was going to Target quickly he did great and remained focused on me. After Target I was ready for lunch since it was Friday that meant Panera Bread had their clam chowder bread bowl my favorite. I walked in and went up to order and I could tell by the cashiers face I was in for a problem. She told me she needed to check with her manager but she wasn't sure I would be allowed in with Pinnacle. I told her that was fine but explained that he was a guide dog in training and I had been coming here for years with my puppies I have trained and have never had an issue. Her response was I still need to ask my manager even if he was an actual working dog. I waited for what seemed like forever by this time a line had formed and people were beginning to stare at me which was very uncomfortable. She finally came back and said I was ok to be there but at that point I just wanted out of there so I got my food to go and left. At about 3:30pm I loaded my stuff in the car along with Pinnacle and his stuff and headed up to Oakdale to spend the night at another raisers house.

After driving for about 2 hours I reached the raiser's house and unloaded my stuff. Pinnacle was excited to see her puppy in training a 9 month old black lab named Roberto. Once I settled in we took the boys to play for a little bit in her yard. Pinnacle discovered the cat bed and thought it was a great place to hide. After they played me and the other raiser made some dinner and chatted some. I then put Pinnacle into one of their crates and we went to the gas station to get sodas. When I came back the raiser's mom told me Pinnacle had done excellent in the crate and did not bark at all even when their pet dogs would walk by it.

About 10:30 pm another raiser came over to spend the night as well. She brought her cc'd Newport a male black lab and puppy in training Alba a female golden (7months). We let all the pups out to play and they had a blast. Pinnacle thought Alba was cute so I had to remind him of his manners a couple times. It was funny to see Pinnacle at 4.5 months old was about the same size as Roberto and Alba who were older than him. About 3am we all crashed and went to sleep.