It's not all work

I've been working a lot with Nick this week while I have him to take him to different places and work on distractions. Earlier in the week, I took him through the drive-thru car wash. He was fast asleep and then all of a sudden was wide awake wondering what the heck was going on with all the noise and the funny things rubbing against the car. His eyeballs were so big! He did great, not scared at all, just alert and curious. It was too funny.

Yesterday, we went a dog park in Roseville after work and boy was he ever distracted by all the dogs, he could barely do any of his commands.  We just worked on the outside of the park, we didn't go in as CCI does not like its dogs to go in dog parks.  

Today, I was on a mission to see how he would do again at the dog park determined to get him to pay attention to me and to execute his commands.  I even had his Gentle Leader ready if I needed it.  He was a totally different dog today, distracted a little at first, but then he was fine and totally paid attention to me and did his commands just fine.  Who knows why yesterday was such a disaster.

After we got home, I took Hope and Nick to the schoolyard to play.  I've been letting them play in the field in the back of the school rather than the small kindergarten yard when there aren't soccer games going on - I guess that season must be over.  Nick carried the dog toy all the way to the school, it was so cute.  I didn't even carry his leash either, just threw it over his back and let him walk, he stayed right next to me.   He and Hope got their yah-yahs out running all over the field, now they are snoring....

In need of swimming lessons...

Now that the days are longer, there's more time after work to take the dogs out. Hope needed a bath before her therapy visit this week anyway, so I decided to take her and Nick to Folsom Lake for a quick swim. Because it was a little cold and windy, there was nobody out there when we got there.

It's a good thing the ability to swim is not a requirement for Nick to be a service dog, because if it were, he would never make it. I thought he might just follow Hope out to the water to swim, but he would only run as far as where he could stand and stop and wait for Hope so he could steal her stick. Oh well, maybe one of these days...guess I'll have to start throwing him in the pool or something, haha...

Puppy class at Sacramento International Airport

Last night, we had puppy class at the Sacramento Airport.  Somehow the local news stations found out about class and the two TV stations did a story showing a local CCI graduate and filmed "Big Dog" class.  Luckily, they were finishing up as we arrived for our class so we didn't have any cameras following us around.  

Here is a video of the story from one Channel 10:

Nick did great at class and it was so cute to see Hope so excited when we got home when she realized Nick was home! :-)

Anybody home???

I took Hope to the lake for a walk/swim after I got home from work tonight. She still refuses to jump off the dock, its so funny.  I try to encourage her, but she is having no part of that.  She'd rather just run up and down the dock and back with the stick.  Maybe her buddies Mason or Maggie can teach her!

After she was done swimming, she kept going off into these bushes near the edge of the water and wouldn't come back to me when I called her.  I went over to see what she was so interested in and guess what? There was a turtle...and it was real. I don't think anybody was home though as when I touched it with a stick, nothing happened.  I have seen turtles out paddling over by the Aquatic Center, but never one this big.  Weird....

Hope says, "Is anybody home in there?" ... Guess not, Hope

We walked along the bike trail for a bit afterwards so she could dry off a little (I forgot to bring a towel!).  Here's a picture of her near the Rainbow Bridge.  

A great night for a walk...

A Tough Day

Today was a tough day at work, another round of layoffs, another day of valued colleagues losing their jobs.  This economy has been tough on our company resulting in a loss of a lot of jobs and its not over yet. Even though I found out last month that my job was safe (for now), its still hard to see others lose theirs.

I was exhausted when I got home today and at the spur of a moment decided it was too hot to take Hope for a walk, but not too hot to take her to Folsom Lake for a swim.  I love being 5 minutes from the lake. She got to enjoy a good swim and I used the time not to think about anything for a while. Thanks Hope...

Girls weekend...and rattlesnakes :-(

It's been a girls weekend around here...I've been puppysitting a friend's CCI pup named Idelle since Thursday night.   That's her on the left, Hope on the right, in the picture above at Folsom Lake today.

Yesterday, we spent all day helping out at UC Davis Picnic Day at the CCI booth.  It was looong day for us as we got there at about 7:30 and didn't get home til about 5:30pm.  Poor Idelle was exhausted and Hope was so energetic when we got home that I left Idelle at home to rest and took Hope on a walk, just the two of us. Here is a picture of Idelle and Gerrit with the granddaughter of one of our puppy raiser friends. We took her with us when we went to watch the parade.  The dogs did great and weren't bothered by all the activities and noises of the parade.

 

Today was a relaxing day and the weather was beautiful!  We went out to Folsom Point at Folsom Lake and parked on one side of the lake and walked to the other side towards El Dorado Hills. The girls had fun swimming. Well, Hope had fun swimming for a stick and Idelle had fun stealing it from her when she got close to shore (hmmm...just like Nick does...). 

Here's Idelle coming in for the "steal"....

Unfortunately, we saw two rattlesnakes today too.  Its definitely rattlesnake season now that the warm weather has arrived.  The first one we saw was actually pointed out to us by a guy on the trail just ahead of us...it was teeny baby one that was barely as thick as a pencil, but you could already make out the rattles.  He said it crossed the trail and he almost stepped on it.  We saw the 2nd one on the hike back to the car.  It was huge, probably about 3 feet long, it crossed the trail right right in front of us; there was no missing this one.  I tried to use heavy footsteps (ie, make noise) on the narrower parts of the trail just in case. Yikes....

Other than the rattlesnake sightings, it was a fun Girls Weekend ...

Hiking at Lake Natoma

Working in a building without any windows really makes me realize how much I miss not being able to see what the weather is like outside.  The weather was so nice this weekend, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Hope on a hike.  

This morning we went for a hike at Lake Natoma, it was beautiful out there, probably in the mid-70's and very green with lots of wildflowers.  Today it was just Hope and I as Nick went back to our co-raisers.  We probably hiked about 4 miles or so and Hope got to swim a little.  It felt so good to be outside again!

I found some nice trails off the bike trails and Hope was happy to be off leash. I'm pleased that for the most part, she is happy to stay near me.  It's starting to be snake season and there are lots of ticks out there, so keeping her close to the trails is a good thing.  

Here is a picture of Hope near one of the trails we found...

At the edge of the lake with some outrigger canoes in the background that came zooming by; this was where we stopped to let Hope go for a swim...


A great day for a hike and swim!  In fact, it was so nice out there this morning, I decided to take a long paddle in the afternoon to this very same place so that I could drop off a geocaching Travel Bug that is hidden nearby. See my geocaching blog for a few pictures (click here)...

A week full of field trips

Since I had Nick for an extended period of time the last couple of weeks, we went on a bunch of field trips/outings with some puppy raising friends.  Last Saturday, we were joined by CCI pups Gerrit and Idelle at a dog event in Rancho Cordova to work on dog distractions.  Gerrit's puppy raiser and I actually traded dogs for most of the event, another good opportunity for our dogs to be handled by another person.  Nick did very well with all the activity going on!

The other interesting thing was we got to see some different types of competitions (actually, they were "fun matches") involving obedience, rally, etc. I never knew what rally was so it was fun to watch. I actually think this kind of thing is more of the type of thing that Hope would like, she was never meant to be an agility dog even though I always enjoyed doing it with her and she seemed to have fun doing it.

Here's a picture of Idelle, Gerrit, and Nick on Saturday.... (photo courtesy of Gerrit's PR):

During the week, I took Nick on various errands after work: to the grocery store, to get my oil changed, post office, etc.  One evening, we met Nick's buddy Gerrit and his puppy raiser at Petsmart in Folsom.  Luckily, we picked a good night as they were having a puppy class, so there were lots of distractions as the dogs were walking around the store with their owners practicing their obedience.  Here's a picture of Nick practicing the "kennel" command in a fancy log doghouse. 

 

Nick's behavior out in public is great; he doesn't seem bothered by much, what a good boy!   

Nick the Therapy Dog?

Nick says, "If Hope can do it, then I can too!"

First, a little background...In January, we moved into another building at work.  Last month, we were asked to introduce ourselves in a meeting to the other ~100 employees in the building so they would know who we were.  Of course, Nick was introduced to the crowd too and I told everyone that they were welcome to come pet Nick (with permission, of course!).

Well, today one of the Repair Techs in the building took me up on the offer I had made.  I was sitting at my desk and heard a faint "Excuse me, is Nick here?" behind me.  When I turned around, the guy said he could really use a dog-fix as he was having a bad day.  He just had a death in the family and he was missing his dog who he had just put down a month or so ago.  I released Nick and he cuddled with him on the floor.  He explained what was going on and I could tell he was rather sad.  It was just about the time to take Nick out for his mid-morning potty break anyways, so I asked the him if he wanted to go outside and play with Nick.  After Nick finished doing his business, I took off Nick's cape and leash and he probably played fetch with Nick for about 10 minutes or so in the parking lot.  

Yes, I broke a rule about taking off his leash in an unfenced area, but sometimes CCI rules are made to be broken.  Afterwards, he thanked me and said it really helped to relieve some of his stress. 

Good job Nick!... 

Hope's new teacher?

Well, this isn't really about Hope, but about some friends who can teach her to jump - maybe? Mason is a COC (change of career) CCI dog whose new career is being a beloved pet dog, companion, therapy dog, and now dock diving dog with his puppy raiser.  I became friends with Mason's puppy raiser when I had Rolie, my 2nd CCI puppy who is now a service dog.  It was because of Mason that I became involved with HOPE AACR with Hope.  

His newest job is that of dock diving competitor, he has taken some lessons and will be competing for the first time in a few weeks. I loaded up my kayak so we could get some pictures and videos of Mason diving off the dock from the water at Lake Natoma's Negro Bar area.  I tried to not drift off too far in the kayak and take videos and pictures at the same time, and not drop either camera or get it wet, not so easy (I did have a dry bag!).  Luckily, it wasn't too windy out there today so we picked a good day to go out (for my sake anyways!). 

It was so funny as we almost didn't get to do any jumping.  When we first got there, Mason dropped his toy and it rolled under the dock and got stuck in a gap beneath the dock, along with a bunch of other wayward tennis balls.  We tried to use my paddle to get it out but it wasn't working, then some guy comes over with his huge fishing net and asks if we wanted to use it. It worked! Phew...

Here are a few videos and a slideshow of the photos I took today...we had a great time watching Mason show us his stuff!  In the first video, you can kind of see the yellow stick dog toy that is being tossed in the water to get Mason to jump off the dock.

These are the videos I took from my kayak...

Maybe Mason can teach Hope a thing or two, huh? She also got an offer from her new friend Maggie, who has also competed in a dock diving competition too.