Mute puppy

Well, after raising 5 CCI pups, I guess it was bound to happen...a "mute" puppy.  I have been able to successfully teach all of my CCI pups the "speak" command, which is used by graduates to have their dogs bark on command; its a useful command if a graduate gets in some sort of trouble and they need to have their dog bark to get attention.  

I was working on this command with Nick this weekend; he has no clue what he should be doing when I say "speak". Hope is good at the "speak" command and I even had her try to help, but that didn't work either.  

One of the ways we teach our pups to speak is to totally frustrate the pup by teasing him so that he lets out a bark in frustration.  Well, true to his nature, Nick just doesn't get frustrated, so the teasing leads to nowhere.  I had dog toy that I had gotten while he was gone that he hasn't seen yet and he was all excited when he saw it so I tethered him to the table leg and tried to tease him so that it was just out of reach...that didn't work, even after I let Hope tease him with it. I threw a floating dog toy in the pool just out of reach and he just sat there staring at it, really wanting to get it, but not enough to bark.  This morning, I had another bright idea, he loves peanut butter, so I put some on a spoon and held it right in front of his nose.  I kept it right out of reach, but nothing even after I told Hope to "speak" and gave her some of the peanut butter when she barked, he just put his head down on the floor and gave up.

I think he's just gonna to be one of those "mute" dogs who never barks...which is not a bad thing as CCI won't release a dog if they don't speak, but they will release a dog if it barks inappropriately (like Zucchini did).

Not even a spoonful of peanut butter dangling in front of his nose is tempting enough for Nick to "speak"...

Back to Work

Hope's summer vacation was over today...she had to "work" today. Boy, what a tough life...she came to work with me, we went to Sutter Hospital to visit "her" patients for an hour or so, visited a few of "her" peeps at work who gave her some belly rubs and ear scratches, and went back to Sutter Hospital after work to go to the Sutter Hospice Volunteer Meeting. Sure is a tough job being a working girl she says, but somedog has to do it.

She loves going to the hospital, she definitely perks up a bit more than normal when we get out of the car in the hospital parking lot. I can't tell you how many people called her a boy today. It's funny how many people assume she is a boy, probably because she is black, even though she is wearing a very girly PINK collar! Oh well, I guess there is discrimination even when it comes to dogs. That's ok with her, she likes the attention...

She was also excited as went to pick up Nick at a friend's house. She and Nick cuddled with each other on the pillow and fell asleep together when we got home. The "little" guy isn't so little anymore either, he's up to 46 lbs. and is about the same height as Hope. Where did our little lap dog go? This week I even made his appointment at CCI to have him "tutored" in October....he's growing up, that's for sure....

Kayak dog?

I've been wanting to take Hope out paddling with me at the lake, so last night I brought the kayak in the house to see if she would even go in the boat.  We'll see if I ever get the nerve to take her out with me sometime; even though she is fairly small, there's very little room in the boat for the two of us. 

The tricky part is trying to convince Hope that it is ok to get in the boat, it was tough enough on the carpet, I can just see us flipping over trying to get the two of us in there together on the water!

Once she got in, she was fine...but getting her in was the hard part...

Hope says, "I found my seat, now where are you gonna sit?"

A water-filled weekend

The weekend started a day early on Friday as I took the day off from work and went with a few friends to meet some other friends who were camping at Dillon Beach in Tomales.  We were invited to go on the camping trip too, but decided to go up only for the day.  Hope and I camped here with the same group of friends when she was a CCI pup in training.

Hope had a great time playing on the beach with her buddy Skipper and later playing in the sand dunes with her other doggie friends that day.  Here's a few pictures of her at the beach playing with Skipper...

Skipper grabbed a huge piece of seaweed and said, "Chase me, chase me" to Hope and she happily obliged...

And a trip to the beach wouldn't be the same if Hope didn't bury her face in the sand as she usually does...

And, here is a shot of the Dillon Beach Dune Doggies...(Hope is all the way on the right side on the end...)

Hope, the Dune Doggie...

On Saturday, I went to Folsom Lake in Granite Bay with a couple of friends to take the dogs swimming. Whew, the lake level is so low now, but we found a nice place to let the dogs run and swim and chase sticks.  Here are few shots of her with her buddies: Skipper, Carlo and Gerrit...easy to make her out as she was the only black dog that day.  

Here's a picture of the Happy Hopey!

Skipper and Gerrit the stick hogs (they are half-brothers too, they have the same dad...)

Poor Carlo, between Skipper, Gerrit and Hope, he was the odd-man out when it came to getting the stick....

Today, Sunday, I paddled at Lake Natoma for a few hours in the morning with a friend, then took Hope out for a walk in the afternoon.  It was so hot when we got back, I decided to go for a swim and Hope was happy to join me in the pool to chase her frisbee and fetch Molly's stick.

A perfect ending to our water-filled weekend...

Happy Birthday Zucchini

Today is Zuleika's (aka Zucchini) 2nd birthday!  She was the 4th pup I raised for CCI and she was turned in for Advanced Training this past May. A few weeks ago, she made her life decision, and that decision was that she didn't want to be a service dog.  

Although I was disappointed with her release, it was also no surprise.  Turning her in was extremely hard last May because I knew I wouldn't be keeping her and I knew when I said goodbye to her, it was likely going to be the last time I ever saw her again as I was going to have CCI place her.  CCI was interviewing prospective people for her and in the meantime a good friend of mine thought of some friends who would be the perfect match for her and they were made aware of her "issues". 

So about a week ago, she was adopted by them and its such a GREAT home for her.  She lives in Grass Valley, has her own pond to swim in, goes for 2-3 mile walks daily, and is loving life again.  I couldn't be more pleased with how things turned out for her, she will have a great life I'm sure.  As the old saying goes, "It's a match made in heaven..."  I also feel blessed as I will have the opportunity to see her sometime.  I hope she hasn't lost any of that wiggle of hers...

Here's a picture of her enjoying her new career...floating on the American River. It's a dog's life!

Happy Birthday Zucchini!

Pool Party!

This afternoon we were invited to a pool party at a friends house. Well, the "pool" part of the "party" was mostly for the dogs.  I took Hope with me (Nick is with our co-raisers now...) to the party and she had a great time playing and swimming all afternoon with her doggie friends.

This is an annual event that ends with us trying to get a picture of all the dogs in attendance.  Luckily, most of the dogs are CCI pups in training or released dogs, so its not too much of a hassle to get them to stay still for a group picture.

Here is the group shot...(Hope is the 3rd dog from the left)

And, here is what happens when you say, "release"...

Hope is a Good Citizen now

One of my friends who I used to work with told me about a "Woofstock" event being held in Rocklin this weekend showcasing booths about everything dog. She had a booth for her pet sitting business she had opened a few years ago, so we went to say hi to her as I haven't seen her for a while. I took Hope with me to the event as they were doing testing for AKC's "Canine Good Citizen" program which I signed her up for on a whim, not even knowing what it was about.

There were 10 tests, all of which must be passed in order to receive the CGC certificate. Hope passed all the tests with flying colors; in fact, it was pretty easy. Nice to have a well trained dog as I barely had time to read the requirements before we tested today. The test was very similar to the Delta Society test we took last year, basically walking on a loose leash with turns, stops, etc., performing "sit" and "down" commands, performing a "stay", walking through a crowd, not reacting to distractions or other dogs, coming when called, and staying with another person for 3 minutes with me out of sight.

So Hope has another title to add to her name, "Hope, CGC, Delta Society Pet Partner" :-)

Like mother, like daughter

(Left to Right: Toddy, Nick, Hope, Vi)

This weekend we are watching my friend's two dogs, Toddy and Violet (aka Vi). Both girls are retired breeders for CCI, meaning they produced puppies for CCI's program. Well, Ms. Toddy produced one very special pup...the second pup born from her first litter, a puppy named Hope. Yep, Toddy is Hope's mom!

I've only had the girls here for a few hours now, but I've already seen some personality traits and behaviors that I can tell Hope definitely got from her mom. It will be fun to have the girls here this weekend. More later...

Music Circus

I have been going to the Sacramento Music Circus every summer for the past 10 years or so. Every one of my CCI pups has attended at least one show with me. We usually buy the 3-Show Mini Series, this year we saw "Gypsy", "Swing" and last night it was "Evita". Here's a picture of Nick and his buddy Skipper a few weeks ago when we saw the show "Swing".


Season ticket holders have a special "lounge" where they get to hang out before the show in an area that is cooled by misters (great for a night like last night when it was 100+ degrees outside!) and they serve lemonade, water, etc. A little TLC treatment unlike us "common folk" who have to stand outside in the heat waiting for the doors to open. A couple of weeks ago, a local couple who are CCI supporters saw us leaving with the dogs after the show, so they invited us to the special subscriber's lounge last night before the show. As soon as we walked up, the host said, "Oh we were execting you..." and promptly pointed us to our hosts who had invited us and were already in the lounge area; you think the dogs gave us away? We were served water/lemonade and got to sit down and get this, one of the hostesses brought some glasses of cold water to the table and said, "This is for your dogs..." Talk about royal treatment, Nick says he can get used to that type of royal treatment; he's never gotten to drink water from a glass before! Is this what it's like to be a celebrity?

A Tribute to Molly

Last month I learned that Halor, one of the local CCI breeder girls in our area had a litter of Golden Retriever puppies and they were going to be an "M" litter. I asked Halor's breeder caretaker Patty if she would be willing to submit the name MOLLY for me in memory of my Molly. A good friend of mine had raised a pup named Molly a few years ago when I was raising Hope so I wasn't going to be surprised if the name was taken already as it had been a while since my friend's Molly was released and the name was available for use again. Patty let me know a few weeks ago that the name was chosen, yippie!

Introducing MOLLY VII....isn't she adorable? She the blue collar pup, meaning she was the 2nd one born in the litter. The cool thing is that this litter are goldens, just like my Molly.


Check out Halor's blog at: http://halorsccipups.blogspot.com/ where you can see more pictures...

Training and Playing in Pt. Reyes

On Saturday, Hope and I drove to Pt. Reyes with a couple of friends as we were having puppy class there in the morning and a picnic afterwards at the beach. It was also our day to get Nick back, yippie! It was cute to see Hope get excited when she first saw Nick, but she had to behave herself as we were in class. This was our last KPT class before we move on to Basic. Its always amazing to get Nick back because at this age he is still growing so much. He got even taller and when I checked out his mouth, I was amazed to see how many more "big boy" teeth had come in.

Afterwards, we walked around downtown Pt. Reyes for a bit. We practiced on the scary stairs with the pups, these stairs that are open, made of metal, kinda freaky for the pups. Nick and his puppy friends, Idelle and Gerrit, did really well! We then went to Millerton Point to eat our picnic lunch and let the dogs run and swim at the beach.

For some strange reason, whenever Hope goes to the beach, she loves to roll in the sand, not just on her back like most dogs, but her whole head! Silly goof!

Just call her "Sandy"

"Yuck, I forget, why do I like rolling around in the sand?"

The dogs were so tired afterwards, even today they are just snoozing...but today they get a bath as they are both stinky! Here's Nick, getting ready for his...