Two for One

Well, Thanksgiving is only 14 hours away and I had an unexpected guest join me for the holiday! Due to some logistical issues in our club, Barley has come to stay with Mark and I until Monday. Having two GDB pups in the house at the same time is always an adventure. These boys are wanting to play every chance that they get. Especially around the holidays, it seems that we are short on puppysitters. Everyone is traveling or already has a dog in their house. It is difficult to have two dogs so close in age at the same time. Barley is eight months old and Mark is 6 months old. With both of them being at a point in life where they are testing boundaries, they have me on my toes trying to keep up.

A typical morning with two puppies goes like this: I take one puppy outside to relieve while the other stays in the crate. After relieving, I feed the first dog. While that pup is eating, the other dog gets to go outside. We come inside and the boys wiggle and play for a couple minutes and then dog number one goes on a tie-down. Then dog number two gets to eat. After the breakfast craze, both boys are on tie-downs. Right now, we are really having to focus on them being able to be in the same room together without wrestling constantly.

Another exciting development for Boise raisers is the new snow fall. Mark is very much enjoying his first snow and getting to be outside in the cold makes him extra frisky. In some ways, the extra frisky puppy is a lot of fun. Watching him zip back and forth through the backyard is one of my favorite things. However, trying to get him to relieve properly is a bit of a challenge. The snow and ice proves to be a distraction! I think that we're working through it nicely and, hopefully, by Christmas I won't have to stand outside spinning in circles in the 4 degree weather for ten minutes.

My grand parents are coming into town today to celebrate the holiday with us, so it will definitely be a full, busy house for Thanksgiving. Luckily, no matter how crazy life can get, I have so much to be thankful for.

Missing My Doodle

I know that GDB isn't the biggest fan of nick names in the puppy raising home, but I just can't help it. Yes, I always make sure that my puppy knows their real name and I use GDB's name whenever I'm in public or training. I just have always had my pet names for the puppies that I have raised.

Yamaha was Yammer-head (he had a huge, square head and since it wasn't hammer shaped, he couldn't be a shark). Baskin was Baby Baskin(he was the first 8 week old puppy that we had in the house and he never really grew up in our eyes). Donna was Little Miss (she was the first female that I had and she was so cute and petite and feminine). Chantilly was Tilly (it was just too easy to shorten). Gene was Gene-o (he had an underbite and scissorbite and we all thought that he should have been a character in the Godfather). Faulkner was The Nerd (he always wanted to do everything exactly right, he was a little OCD and I started calling Faulk-a-nerd which was just shortened). Jerry was my Jerr-Bear (he's the biggest cuddler on the face of the planet). And Mark is my Doodle Bug.

An explanation: I do not enjoy puppies having one syllable names. They are harder to learn and recognize. Whenever I wanted to get my puppy excited and be lovey-dovey with him, I would call him my Mark-a-Doo. That evolved into my Mark-a-Doodle. Which then became my Doodle Bug. Now I can him either Doodle Bug, Doo, Doodle or just Bug. This puppy has more nicknames than any other dog that has come through my house and I just love it!

The reason that I am missing my little guy is because, once again, it is puppy trade. I have an older dog who is having enough issues that it made me miss Mark a bunch. I'm going to be getting him back tomorrow night and I couldn't be more excited to have my puppy home again!!

Puppy Trade Blues

I'm missing Faulkner quite a bit on this trade. It always surprises me how much more I miss a pup when I send them out on trade and know their recall date. It just makes it a little harder to let them spend time with someone else, no matter how many puppies you've raised. The emotional attachment you feel does not lessen as time goes on. As a matter of fact, it's actually strengthened my bond to the puppies I have at home.

Kayla, the lovely black lab that I have on trade, is keeping me on my toes. She's 9 months old and well into her "rebellious teenager" phase. She has good intentions and she is really a sweet girl, but it's hard to love on a puppy that you have to correct the minute you try to love on her. =] She's a smart girl, and very pretty too, but all I can do for her this week is show some tough love.

She knows her commands. If you tell her "down," she goes down. But then she gets back up a minute later. We've been working on a lot of calm behaviors to help re-enforce good house manners. She's pretty good in public, the head-collar helps that a lot, but she's having some trouble with being calm in the house. Long hours of being on her bed on a tie-down have seemed to help her understand that it's ok to rest every once-in-a-while.

While it's difficult to love on her and cuddle with her since she's so hyper, it's nice to have a little bit of a challenge. Those challenge dogs are the ones that I thrive with. It'll be nice to have my "perfect" Faulkner home tomorrow night though.

And yes, I know that there is no such thing as a perfect puppy. And I do not believe that there ever will be. But Faulkner is as close as you can get.

Included in this post are some baby picture of Faulkner as a look back before her goes back to school. He is between the ages of 5 and 9 weeks in all three. Wasn't he simply the most adorable puppy you have ever seen?!

In Regards to Training a Puppy While in a Neckbrace...

Well, as none of you on this blog know, I'm in a neckbrace for the time being. I had some surgery done on my neck a few weeks ago and I'm in the brace until the 30th of this month. With my lovely, 15 month old puppy who knows everything, this isn't a problem. I rarely (if ever) have to correct him, and he never pulls on the leash. Also, it's a rare occurrence that I ever have to even look down at him. Last night, however, brought puppy trade.

Our whole club has about a meeting a month downtown during the summer for an outdoor concert event that's free and happens every Wednesday. Last night, we all met there and went through our paces. Dodging in and out of the tightly packed crowd, walking by the large fountain with children playing in it, strolling past the speakers blaring the live music, and kicking cups and bottles that have been forgotten on the ground under our dogs' feet. At the end of the meeting, I acquired my new puppy for the week.

Her name is Kayla. And she really is a sweetheart. But, she's 9 months old. With that comes pushing limits and being stubborn. Having a pup in that stage when you are in a neck brace doesn't work very well. I think that we've established a good pattern though. This morning when I took her out, I only had to give one little tug on the leash and she was very nice! I'm hoping that this trend continues so that my neck brace won't continue to get in the way of our training. Lucky thing that I'll have it off by the time I get my new puppy!!

Faulkner!!

FAULKNER

Faulkner (AKA the Nerd) - 40S1
black lab, male
current puppy in training

Faulkner will be one year old on June 8th of this year. He is an absolute goofball! The older that he gets, the more he reminds me of my second puppy in training, Baskin. This boy is wonderful. He knows his commands and does pretty much everything that I ask of him. We're still working on staying when Honey (our pet dog) is in the same room, but that's a hard one to accomplish.

Faulkner is pretty much the top of his class. Not only is he great with his commands, he is an excellent house dog. I've always had issues with my pups in the house. They are wanting to run around crazily and get into trouble all the time. Not Faulkner. He has the best house manners of any dog that I've worked with.

Now, while I sing his praises, the Nerd is not without fault. He has been known to dig and have the occasional accident. Every day shows improvement and I am SO happy with him! Today is Wednesday which means the club will be meeting. It'll be a short meeting since all we're doing today is showing up at the mall and trading puppies.

Why do we trade puppies? Well, it's a training tool for both us and our pups. The trade allows our puppies to experience a different life style than they're used to which is great for Guides and also allows the raiser to learn from a new pup. We can see what the puppy is doing differently and if they have problems for someone else that they don't normally have in their raiser home.

This week I'll be working with a Genesis Service Dogs pup named Valentine. She's a 6 month old Great Dane. And she's already huge!! She's having some issues with listening and self confidence so that will be what I'm working on this week.

Genesis Service Dogs is a local organization in Boise, Idaho that raises dogs for a variety of disabilities. Those of us working with Guide Dogs for the Blind sometimes help them out by taking in a pup to give us an experience with a different breed of dog and impart some of our training techniques if they are needed.

Below are some more pictures of Faulkner. The two "puppy" pictures are from when he was about 4 months old and the one in the snow is from when he was about 7 months old.