First Week

  Well we have already has Roland for a week!  He is a great puppy and such a smart boy too.  We have been making progress on his house training, he has been accident free for several days now!  He is learning what he is allowed to pick up & chew on and what the isn't allowed to have.  He still likes to steal blankets or towels to chew on, but in general he is really good at not chewing.  He sleeps most of the time, with plenty of play times mixed in through out the day.

  He is very confident and is already great at walking up and down our outside porch steps.  I remember plenty of pups that take longer to tackle the stairs, so it is nice he has no problem with them.

Here are some pictures from his first week.

First Meeting

I had my first meeting today & it went pretty good.  Lots of new stuff introduced for the training of these new puppies.  We worked on a new thing called tethering.  Roland seemed to pick it up really quick & works very quick.  The other thing we worked on was loose leash walking.  Roland picked it up ok, but I am still struggling with the proper way to hold the leash and everything, just not the way that I am used to, but I will get it.

My leader thought he was doing good, very smart boy.

Roland

Well it has been a few days since we got Roland.  He is a great pup & I am totally in love with him.  In general he is a laid back puppy and sleeps alot.  He is a bit spoiled though and tries to do anything to get a "soft place to lay his head".  He loves to sleep on the dog bed.  If he can't reach it, he tries to climb on my bed or someone's lap.  We are still working on his jumping, he is slow in learning this one.  If a bed is not available, he has decided one toy is the perfect pillow.

He is a very confident boy & already climbs up and down the stairs.  Our short little outside steps are just three high, but they are open which can be scary for a pup.  Roland just goes right up and down with no problems. 

Potty training is going very nicely.  He has already learned to relieve on command.  He has only had one accident & that was my fault for not taking him out when he woke up.  Such a good puppy.

We had some snow over the weekend.  Roland LOVED the snow.  Most of it has melted, but part of it is still on the ground & he always try to go play in it when we are outside.

Roland's First Day

  Well, Roland's first day was very exciting.  After riding the puppy truck from CA over several days time & dropping off other puppies along the way, the truck finally made it to CO.  14 puppies were delivered, one of which is my wonderful little pup Roland!  I have to say, it is a pretty good "R" name.

  Roland is an adorable 9 week old male yellow Lab/Golden cross.  His sire is Mack & his dam is Toffee.  One other littermate was dropped off in CO, Reagan.  He also has brothers Rembrandt & Rookie, along with sister Remmy.  Not sure if there are more in the litter or not.

Roland on the left, Reagan on the right

  After all the excitement of the puppy truck, we had a short meeting with the CFR about puppy handling & what training to start our puppies with.

  Then we headed up to visit a friend of mine, who also happens to have my 3rd pup I raised.  Fletcher is a retired guide dog, but still living life with his partner. Roland barked the first 20 minutes up, which was interesting.  It was nice to get puppy #3 & puppy #5 together.  Fletcher wasn't real impressed with him, but that's ok.  Fletcher is 10 1/2 & would rather be left alone, then bothered by a little puppy.

 

Provo wasn't to sure what to think of the new puppy & has kind of been avoiding him so far.  I'm sure in time they will make friends though.

Roland was amazing his first night!  He went to bed around 10:30pm & slept all the way till 6am!  When he woke up this morning he didn't even ask to go out, just started chewing on his toy.  He is a really good pup & I can't wait to see him grow.

Introducing................

New Puppy Assingment!!

I have finally heard what puppy #5 will be!  In just 6 days I will welcome a little male yellow Lab/Golden cross & his name will start with "R".  Any one want to guess the name?

Quiet House

Well Kaplan moved on to another sitter last night.  So our house is quite with just Provo.  Kaplan was a good boy & I enjoyed working with him.

Only 8 more days till we welcome our new little boy into our family!!!  I found out today it will be a Lab/Golden cross.  I have wanted to raise either a Golden or Cross since I first got started with GDB, so finally onto a cross with puppy #5!!

Kaplan

  I am enjoying Kaplan's stay with us so far.  He is doing very good on his house manners.  I can see the maturity starting to set in with him, but he still has plenty of things to work on.  He is the only dog at home, so we are still working on the idea he doesn't have bug Provo constantly.  I have noticed though that it is harder for the pups to ignore Provo after they are allowed to play with him outside.  Which is also the case for poor Kaplan, but he is slowly learning, we only play outside.

 








 
We haven't had a very exciting week so not to many outings so far.  We did take him to church with us on Sunday morning.  I ended up teaching Sunday School at the last minute, so that was interesting having a pup with me for that, but he did ok.

   Then today I took the kids out to the library for story hour, so Kaplan got to go along too.

Another Visitor

  I once again have a puppy by my side.  Kaplan was dropped off today.  We will have him for atleast a week, possibly longer.  Then the next puppy that comes over will be my own.  Only 3 more weeks to go! 

  Kaplan is 8 months old now & doing pretty good so far.  Watch for updates over the next few days on Kaplan.

13 Years

  13 years ago today I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my first guide dog puppy.  After a year of begging my parents to let me raise a puppy, the day had finally arrived for my new little pup to arrive.  Unfortunately due to the weather, I was stuck waiting an extra day.  After spending the night at my cousin's house, anxiously awaiting news that the puppy truck had made it's way over the mountains, the next afternoon we finally got the call!  Due to the truck being late, we were also asked to deliver a couple extra pups (since their raisers couldn't wait around for the truck).  So I received a wiggly little 10 week old male Yellow Lab puppy named...............Kennedy!  His brother Kenmore also arrived on the truck and was being raised near by, so we brought him down to his raiser.  It was an amazing year with Kennedy.  Filled with lots of ups and downs, learning alot.  I was hooked on raising guide dogs from the minute I brought home my little pup.  Raising 3 other pups after Kennedy.  Then after along break from raising, we are preparing to welcome puppy #5 in just 4 weeks!!!

Our Visit With Kaplan

Last night I took Kaplan to the 4-H dog training I teach.  He did excellent & was not as dog distracted as I expected him to be.  He even did excellent on a tie-down watching all the dogs going past him.  He just laid down and watched everyone go by.

  Today we have just been hanging out around the house.  Working on our house manners.  He has really impressed me with how good he is with Aspen.  She really enjoys walking him through the house.  Only a few more hours till his family picks him back up.

Another Visit With Kaplan

Well Kaplan is back visiting for a couple days.  He is now 7 months old & really maturing nicely.  He is still very excitable, especially around the kids, but is showing some improvement.  He was evening calm enough to walk around the house with Aspen for a bit.  I am enjoying having him here, he is a really good boy.

He has even done great at hanging out with Provo and not trying to play constantly.  Provo is being a big momma's boy, so he is insisting on being right next to me, even though Kaplan is on tie-down right next to me.

Just Checking In

Nothing exciting has happened since we puppy sat Kerzi last month.  I'm getting excited to have our own puppy though.  We are planning to get one on the April puppy truck, which means in 2 months we should have a new puppy!   I can't wait to have a puppy all the time again.

Busy Weekend

  Well, Kerzi joined our family for the weekend again.  This time it was pretty exciting for his family, the first pup they raised (Stuart) was graduating as a guide dog!  So we got the pleasure of watching Kerzi again while they went to present Stuart to his new partner.

  Kerzi did great!  He has really grown up over the past few weeks.  The biggest accomplishment was that he could actually hang out in the living room with Provo with out trying to play with him constantly.  He is certainly still a 6 month old pup, but I can see him starting to mature.

  It was funny when his raiser dropped him off, Kerzi just made himself at home.  He sniffed around a bit, but then went straight for the toy box & settled on the dog bed with a bone.

Kerzi got to go visit the chickens this time again & was quite intrigued about them, but was still very responsive when asked to leave them alone.

Then on Monday we had our guide dog meeting at the riverwalk.  It is always nice to get out & walk with our group.  The pups are really growing up.  We currently have 5 pups in our group.  Here is most of our group, Novato is off to the side & Kaplan didn't make it to the meeting.  Can't wait till April when we add one more pup to the group, my own pup!

Our Day With Kaplan

We enjoyed having Kaplan for the day.  He is very different from his brother Kerzi.  Kaplan has a very laid back temperament.  He was very excited to play with Provo, he isn't around other dogs much.

I did take him out on a couple of quick outings, to the bank and the grocery store.  He handled it very nicely.

He is a very good pup & we enjoyed soending the day with him.