Hope was a good sport over Thanksgiving as I couldn't let her outside for two days at my mom's house as my brother has a mean dog that attacked her the last time I took her there. My niece and nephew have 6 month old pug/pitbull puppies she at least got to play with while we were there.
Here's a little video of her playing with Kumu and Lani, and Tito is in the background, he's not much for playing. Hope was actually a little scared of the puppies at first, but then started playing with them, then eventually just ignored them.
Because she was cooped up for a few days, this morning I took her on a long hike and we did some geocaching. I found a couple of nice swimming holes and let her swim a bunch.
You can see my geocaching blog post (click here) for more details, but here is Hope at one of the cache locations. Can you see her? and can you see the cache?
Hope and I took a long walk this morning and after we got back, I was cleaning up the kitchen and I saw this and just happened to have my camera handy as I thought it was funny. Normally, she just jumps up on "her" couch but I am usually in the other room or busy doing something else. I can only guess that she is waiting for permission since I was in the room? Who says dogs can't communicate?
She was standing there for a while and I finally said, "Hope, go on your couch." She promptly jumped up, rolled up into a ball, and fell asleep.
Yesterday, was another CCI graduation. I always come back from graduations with a renewed spirit about what dogs can do for people and why we raise puppies for this program. Puppy raising is certainly a roller coaster journey especially when the dog you have raised for a year and a half is in Advanced Training and at that point, everything is out of your control. That's where we are with Nick...if only we had a crystal ball....
This video has been going around the past few days...
In many ways, this video has many parallels to my life with Hope. There are still times when I am disappointed that she was released by CCI. She still has such a strong work ethic. When I am getting ready for work in the morning, she will jump up from a deep sleep to come close a drawer or close my closet door if I ask her. When I am puttering around the kitchen she will often stand around waiting for me to ask her to open the fridge, close a drawer shut, or pick up something that I may have dropped. But I also know in my heart of hearts that she deserved to be released as I still see traces of her surface issues on occasion or she hesitates in new situations or environments. These traits would be dangerous for a disabled person who needs her to work for them 100% of the time.
This video serves as a good reminder for me as to how Hope is doing what she is meant to do. As a puppy, she used to be independent and not as affectionate or cuddly as my first two CCI pups who graduated. It was not unusual for her to go into a different room to take a nap even when Molly and I were hanging out in another room. I sat with her for over an hour forcing her to cradle when she was 8 weeks old until she relaxed for even a second because as us puppy raisers say, "puppies don't win", cradling is something we teach the CCI pups from the very beginning. When she first came home from Advanced Training, I wasn't even sure I was going to keep her, she was aggressive and just seemed to be a little "off". It took a few months for me to decide that it was just stress and she needed to relax after being in Advanced Training for over 5 months and turn into the dog that she was going to be.
How far she has come since then...she is very attentive to me, a lot more cuddly and affectionate and fits nicely into my life going hiking, swimming, doing stuff outdoors, and even has a decent recall now. I started doing pet therapy with her knowing from the outset that if she didn't enjoy it OR if I didn't enjoy doing it with her, we would quit.
She has matured into a wonderful therapy dog, I have never seen her tail wag as much as when we are on our visits (she was never a very "waggy" dog). Her hesitation in new environments, especially on our crisis response callouts, has never been an issue. She has done well on a variety of different types of therapy visits.
Who would have known that a place that we visited when she was a CCI puppy in training would see her return a few years later as a therapy dog? I have a special place in my heart for visiting Assisted Living Centers as we were about to follow this path with my dad when he passed away and I know he enjoyed interacting with my dogs.
Then (as a CCI pup at around 11 months old):
Now (as a Therapy dog):
I have been especially proud of her during our therapy visits to Sutter Hospital. For the past few months, we have been visiting a patient who was deemed "non-responsive" when she first was admitted to the Rehab hospital. We have been visiting this patient almost every week and I see progress every time. The first time it was a young girl who was staring into space and managed one smile, on subsequent visits, the one smile has turned into several smiles, to moving a finger to touch Hope, and lately to reaching up to pet Hope. I'd like to think that Hope has played a part in helping her in her recovery. It is very rewarding to be a witness to this, I am just the person holding her leash, Hope is the one who knows what to do. We are also visiting a Hospice patient who lights up when Hope visits. I know our time will eventually come to an end with this patient, but I'd like to think we are making her last days a little brighter.
Even though it took us almost a year to go on our first HOPE AACR callout, it has been an amazing experience each and every time. I have learned a lot and watched her shine, she knows what she needs to do. She has reached out to a TON of people and I hope has provided them with some comfort and/or stress relief.
I am proud to be the person at the end of her leash and I cannot imagine not having her in my life...Like Richochet, although Hope's life started out on one path, she followed a different one and is doing what she is meant to do and she certainly has the perfect name that fits - HOPE.
I took a few days to enjoy the nice weather and company of my friend Laurie from Oceanside. We hiked 3 days in a row, went geocaching, ate, and just hung out. It makes me realize I need to do this more often!
On Sunday, we went hiking for a few miles at Rattlesnake Bar in Loomis and found 7 geocaches. On Monday, we went for a hike on the trails by the American River with our other friend, Pam, and dogs. There are family ties between every dog in this picture. (From L to R, Hope, Kane, Toddy (on the log), and Linar.)
Let's see here are the family ties: Toddy is Hope's mother, Linar is Kane's mother, Toddy is Kane's grandma, Hope is Kane's aunt (his dad Pryde is Hope's half brother from one of Toddy's litters); and Hope's dad Hanford is Linar's grandfather....those CCI lines cross everywhere!
On Tuesday, we went for a hike in Cronan Ranch and found a bunch of caches there too. I invited our friend Patti and her dog Maggie to join us as she also geocaches. We hiked over 5 miles and found 12 caches (Patti and Laurie found 14, as I already found a couple of ones they found that day). Patti hit her 1500th cache that day! I'm closing in on 1000! Woohoo. Maggie is also a Lend a Heart dog, so we have done several pet therapy visits with her over the past several months.
Patti aka, "Wetpaws" and Maggie...
Hope and I on the stoop...
Happy porch dogs!
The nice part of this hike is we hit the American River about halfway through the hike, so we stopped for a snack and let the dogs swim. Maggie is much faster and stronger swimmer than Hope!
It really felt good to get out there and be "active" again! Thanks Laurie for the excuse to take a few mental health days off from work!
