A field trip for Nick

I had the day off from work today for President's Day, so I took Nick on a field trip to Lee's Feed in Shingle Springs with some friends.  It's a great place for training.  Here are a few pictures from our field trip....

Nick practicing an "under" in a tight space and not sniffing the bags of dog food...

Nick in the "bird room"....


Unfortunately, this time around there were no baby chicks at the store like the last time we were here. But we did go into the "bird room" and Nick got to see some bunnies, guinea pigs, and walked by some aquariums.  

After we got back, we did another "Dog Pyramid" picture at my house.  I'm getting my carpets cleaned tomorrow so had moved all my dog crates into the spare bedroom. Nick was so funny as he has no hesitation about jumping in the top crate, he learned that one in Oceanside I guess. That's Gerrit and Idelle in the bottom crate, this is a CalPERS puppy picture I guess since all three dogs are CalPERS "employees"... :-)

Another hike

Yesterday there was another break in between storms, so I decided to take the dogs to the Salmon Falls Recreation area for another hike.  Our destination was the "Magic Bridge", a HUGE stone bridge over the American River, its cool because during the summer it disappears under water when the water level is high (well, maybe not this year as we are in a drought).

I parked at the end of the "Sweetwater Trail" a great single-track trail that is a pretty hike through the trees and parallels the American River.  Since it has just rained, the trail was pretty muddy, but I knew it would be pretty and it didn't disappoint...everything was a flourescent green.  It was so funny as we had to cross a few "creeks" that covered the trail, the first one we came to (which I think is at the beginning of the video) Nick put his brakes on and wouldn't cross it and finally ended up hurdling over it to get across...by the end of the hike, he just was walking through all the water we had to cross.  At least he's turning into a good trail dog now.  

"Trail Dogs" on the Sweetwater Trail (Hope is on the left, Nick on the right):

I can't remember exactly, but it is probably about a 2-mile hike out to the bridge and the trail opens up into a huge meadow that leads to the bridge.  Nick and Hope at the meadow, you can see the bridge in the background:

When I was out here before, you actually had to hoist yourself up to get on the bridge, yesterday, there was a ramp (of dirt) that made it easier to get on it and there was even a ladder...funny.  You can see this in the video below. It's amazing to me that this bridge has been around so long especially when it is under water a good part of the year, the walls are so tall that the dogs can't even reach the top of the walls...in the pictures below where they are looking over the edge, they are actually standing on a mound of dirt that has built up near the sides, so I had them do an "up" there so they could at least reach the top and see over the edge.

Nick and Hope on the bridge:

Nick and Hope survey the area from the bridge:

The only sour note to the day was the ticks, I made sure Hope stayed on the trail and kept Nick on leash as he kept wanting to go off the trail.  I felt bad for Nick as a couple had attached to his belly and I couldn't get them off until I got home as I couldn't pick them off with my finger.  As soon as we got home, I used my tick remover tool to get them out of his belly, poor guy, its so disgusting! Ick! Both dogs got a bath and I did several more tick checks at night to make sure I didn't find any more.  The hard part is they are difficult to see on a black dog.  I even removed all the blankets from my SUV and washed those as well, so hopefully we don't find anymore. YUCK!  

And, finally, a little video of our hike...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nick says "Happy Valentine's Day"...

Holidays can be so exhausting!

The more things change, the more things stay the same...

All my life I have been a lousy test-taker, say the word "test" and my stomach immediately gets tied up in knots. On Sunday, Hope and I were scheduled to do our evaluation for Lend a Heart, a pet therapy organization based in Sacramento. I had found out about the organization from a gal who Hope and I do a couple of reading programs with. So last month after attending an Orientation, today was the day for us to test.

You would think that I would have nothing to be worried about, Hope is solid on her obedience and is an experienced therapy dog now. But I still worry, I still get stressed, I still have anxiety. I had the last appointment in the evening and had all day to get nervous! Well, we passed the test and after all was said and done, it wasn't so bad after all. The other cool thing is that Hope's mom, Toddy, is joining the organization, so I'm hoping we will get to do a few things together.

I was originally scheduled to take my Delta re-test next week as my registration expires in June, but they did everything last night. So not only did I pass the Lend A Heart evaluation, I also got my Delta test done too and don't have to go back next week. Now I have to fill out all the paperwork for both organizations.

Once I get the Health form filled out from my vet, I can begin my visits for LAH. I will be on "probation" for four months and must complete 6 visits to become a registered team with the organization. Each visit is evaluated by a Team Leader, so its possible that some teams have to repeat their probation if there are things to work on.

I'm looking forward to figuring out the best places for Hope and I to visit. I will probably sign up for a reading program and am going to do a couple of "shadow" (ie, without Hope) visits over the next few weeks to check out the various facilities. Tomorrow I am going to Sacramento County Mental Health for a shadow visit, one of the ladies who was testing thought it might be a good fit for Hope because she is so interactive and attentive to the person she is visiting with. Last week I did a shadow visit at a Rehab Center in Roseville, it was mostly older people, I think Hope will do well in that facility too.

Hope is going to have one busy calendar this week. We have the reading program tomorrow, a visit at Sutter Rehab on Thursday, and maybe a hospital visit as well. I'm just glad that we passed. Busy girl that Hope, but she loves it...and I'm so proud of her.

Between Storms

Yesterday, I took Hope for another hike at Cronan Ranch. I ended up going a little later as I was waiting to see how the weather was panning out for the day as we were between storms. When it looked like it was going to be clear, I packed up my rain gear (just in case), and we headed out.

We took a trail that had great views of the river, right where we were going.  I also explored trails I hadn't been on before thinking they might end up at a different place where we could access the river for Hope to swim.  But, we came up empty.  The one trail I found had a great swimming hole where the water was really calm, but I could see some green stuff (like algae) in some spots. Hope just got done with puke-fest a few weeks ago, the last thing I needed was for her to get sick again. When I looked at my GPS, we had already hiked about 5 miles by the time we hiked back up the looong hill and she hadn't even had a chance to go swimming yet.

We ended up finding another trail that connected to the same swimming spot I've been taking her (and Nick) to.  But, boy, what a difference a week makes.  I don't know if its because we just had rain or if it was because we went a little later in the day or what...but the river was raging compared to last week.  The huge calm eddy that she had been swimming in last week only had a small area of calm water near the edge, the rest of the water was moving pretty fast.  I was surprised that even the area where it didn't look so fast was actually really moving as Hope got into that area for a bit when she lost the stick she was chasing and and it started taking her downstream.  I still let her swim but mostly kept her near the edge of the water.  I didn't really want to find out the hard way whether she was a strong enough swimmer to handle the fast moving water...

It was so nice and sunny that we ended up sitting next to the river for another 20 minutes or so while I ate a snack and Hope just chilled next to me for a rest.  By the time we got back to the car, I was surprised that we had hiked about 7.5 miles.  Another good hike...and so nice to be outside.

The parking lot below Hope is where we started our hike...

American River below is where we are headed...

A close-up shot of the river down below...

Almost there...

And, finally a little video of our fun day!...

Another hike at Cronan Ranch

Well, I guess one of the benefits of the nice weather we've been having is the opportunity to go hiking.  Last week seemed to go on FOREVER, we moved into a new building into dinky little cubicles (which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have Nick (and also Hope on one day) to share it with.  The building is a warehouse/service center and has NO windows, so all week I barely even knew if it was night or day.  So where am I going with all this?...

I neeed SUNSHINE! After making sure I got my chores done (well, the essential ones anyway), today was all about taking the dogs to do something fun - OUTSIDE!  I took them to Cronan Ranch again, my new favorite place to hike as it has wide trails (which means less chance of the dogs getting ticks if we stay on the trails and also means, no geocaching!), is relatively uncrowded, and is close to the S.Fork of the American River which gives the dogs a chance to swim.

This also happened to be the first time I took Nick on a long hike, and to be honest, I wasn't sure how he was going to do because when I walk him after work during the week, he is just dragging by the end of an hour and its a flat walk. To my surprise, he did great and seemed to enjoy himself.  We hiked a little over 5 miles, up and down hills, and stopped at the river to swim.  Well, Hope swam, he just stayed at the edge of the water waiting for Hope.  He had no interest in going in the water at all.  Oh well...

Here are a couple of videos...Nick is wearing a blue collar, Hope has a red/orange collar.  We passed several horses a couple of times and for safety, I put both dogs on leash and Nick just stared at them, I wish I knew what was going through his head.  He was also very interested in the horse poop which was everywhere, so we worked on that too. Yuck!

Posing by the S.Fork of the American river about halfway through the hike...

Nick had no interest in getting in the water despite the fact that Hope got in and swam...oh well. That's Nick at the edge of the water near the end of the video, waiting for Hope to get the stick :-)

Here is Hope and Nick near the end of one of the trails, it was funny as I had them both do a jump to get on the rock and this is how they ended up! Nick is standing, Hope is laying down...

All in all, a great hike and a great day! Two tired doggies at the end of a 5 mile hike! Poor Hope, her right leg is still bald from last weekend's ordeal...

On the mend...

Don't know why it happened, but for reasons unknown, Hope got sick last week with several days of vomiting.  I did take her to the vet where she had to spend a day on IV fluids today as she was getting dehydrated from all the vomiting.  We still have no idea why it happened as her blood work, fecal tests, and x-rays didn't pick up anything unusual or abnormal.  So for the next week, I'll be monitoring her closely and keeping her on a bland diet of rice, cottage cheese, and turkey (which she loves).  Hopefully, she's over whatever she had.  Unfortunately, due to this issue, we had to cancel our visit to the hospital last week - bummer.

Here's Hope sporting a neon pink bandage on her shaved leg that matches her collar...at least she has style...

Hiking with Hope

I couldn't pass up the great weather to enjoy a nice hike with Hope today.  I decided to go back to Cronan Ranch in Pilot Hill to check out some of the other trails I'd seen the last time I was with her here.  And, believe it or not, even though I took my GPS, I didn't do any geocaching. ;-)

My original intention was that I didn't want to get Hope too dirty because we have our reading program tomorrow and since she just had a bath on Thursday, I didn't want to have to give her another bath.  Well, that all went out the window, we did stay on the trails, but it was dusty and muddy and I let her swim in the river for a bit, so she ended up getting dirty anyways. 

We hiked for about 5.5 miles, the weather was beautiful, we hardly ran into anybody, and she didn't even try to eat any horse poop at all.  She was happy to be off leash and pretty much stayed by my side the whole time.  Not too shabby for a dog that had terrible recall as a pup.

About halfway through the hike, we made it to the South Fork of the American River, so I let her swim and chase sticks.  My heart did skip a few beats one time as my aim was not too good and I threw the stick out a little further than intended and she got caught in some of the swift moving water a bit, but I was able to call her over and she made it back safely.  After that, I made sure I only threw the stick in the eddy (calm part of the water).  Phew....

It was a great day even though I had to give Hope another bath!

HOPE Meeting/Training

This past weekend, Hope and I went to our first HOPE AACR meeting in Costa Mesa with our friend Mary and her Hope dog, Mason (also a CCI released dog).  It was a long weekend with lots of driving.  We drove to Oceanside on Saturday and spent the night at my friend's house.  On Sunday morning, we drove about an hour to Costa Mesa for our meeting/training session. Then home from there.  All that way for a 4 hour meeting!

It was nice to see many of our classmates from the certification workshop at the meeting.  A handful of them got to put the training we went through into practice during the fires that were raging in Southern CA shortly after the workshop ended.  Many of them visited the shelters and fire camps and said the training was extremely helpful when it came to going on an actual call-out, so that was good to hear.  It was also fun to get to meet the dogs of many of the people I met at the workshop who were helping out as they didn't have their dogs during the training.  

While most of the dogs are labs and goldens, there were also some other breeds: a pharoh hound, australian shepherd, a couple of standard poodles, a pug, and a greyhound.  In all, there were maybe about 20 dog/handler teams in attendance.  We had a general meeting first, then that was followed by a few hours of training.  A professional trainer was brought in and lectured on topics I've heard before, but even so, it was a good refresher.  After that we went through some training exercises with the dogs which was fun.  That was followed by a potluck where we stuffed ourselves before leaving for home.

In our workshop, we had a huge Newfoundland named Oz in our class that Hope was deathly afraid of.  He was the most gentle creature, but at probably 150lbs, he was huge and hairy and Hope would always hide behind me if he approached.  We finally got her to go up to him from behind by the end of the workshop.  This past weekend, I finally was able to let her get up a little closer to him from the front.  It was too cute....one of these days, I'll have to get a picture of them together!

All in all, a good weekend...an added benefit was that it was 85 degrees!  It was soooo nice to have warm weather and sun for a bit!

Hope's goes to Rehab...

Before you jump to any conclusions...NO,  that does not mean that Hope is an alcoholic, nor is she addicted to drugs!  She is going to rehab, but not THAT kind.  She is going to Sutter Rehabilitation Institute as a therapy dog.  

The facility is part of Sutter Roseville Medical Center and has two in-patient units:  brain-injured patients and spinal-injured patients.  The patients here have stabilized enough to start a rehabilitation program after their medical issues have been treated at a hospital. Patients may have suffered strokes, been in a car accident, or have neurological disorders (Parkinson's, MS, etc.).  The Recreation Therapist requested pet therapy visits through the WAGS program (the Sutter program I volunteer with through the hospital) to help the patients as they recover.

On Wednesday, we met with the Recreation Therapist to see what our dogs can do for the patients, decide on a schedule, etc.  She loved that Hope could do the retrieve, tug, etc. and she thinks we can utilize her skills in our visits; this is perfect as I have really been wanting to find a program where I could do this with Hope as she loves doing the commands.  We will be visiting twice a month with 3 dog/handler teams initially; the nice thing is that the visits will take place after work, so I won't have to miss work.  

Hope was the only dog that was able to attend the meeting and the therapist asked me if I would be willing to visit one of the patients even though this was not something we had planned in advance.  It was then that I got to witness the miracle of Hope that still has me beaming.  

The patient was a young man and was in a wheelchair that was high, so I had her jump on a chair and do a "lap" on him.  They said he hasn't spoken, was having trouble opening his eyes, and is learning to move his arms again.  Not only did he make deliberate movements to pet Hope, he tried to say her name.  Nothing came out, but you could tell he was trying.  We could also tell that he was trying to open his eyes to see her.  I was so proud of her because she just remained calm, laid her head on his lap on his arm and let him grab her foot.  He was actually squeezing it a bit hard (I don't think he had a lot of control), and normally she is not a dog who likes to be messed with like that, but she was not bothered by it one bit and remained calm and steady.  I guess I was concentrating so hard and didn't notice what was going on in the room when I heard some voices behind me. When I turned around I heard someone say that our audience was the patient's therapists who are working with him and were watching his interaction with Hope.  

It really was such a special moment for me to know how much Hope has to offer; I couldn't be more proud of her.  And she was so relaxed on his lap and her tail was wagging so I know she was enjoying herself too.  

In some ways, Hope was like a CCI Facility dog on that visit.  I spoke with the therapist about the possibility of them getting an actual Facility Dog as I think there could be so much they could do with a full-time dog there. So today, I dropped off some brochures as she seemed really interested in looking into it.  When I was there, she happened to see me and saw that I had Hope (as we had done our visit at the hospital right before) and asked if I would be willing to visit the patient we visited with on Wednesday.  Hope did another awesome job and this time, the patient's parents were there and were so grateful to Hope as they said how their son loves dogs. 

I can't wait until we start our visits later this month, I think this is a perfect fit for Hope.  Hope you ROCK!

All work and no play?

Last week I took Hope and Nick to the school to play and work on recalls.  I have been having fun playing with my new Flip Video camera I recently received. 

Here's a little video of Hope and Nick practicing recalls.  That's Hope coming towards me first, then Nick. I tried to work on him waiting to come until he heard his name.  What good dogs...

It was not all work and no play, here's a little video of Nick retrieving his Wubba toy (yes, that's what its called)....

Nick's Adventure in San Francisco

This past Saturday, Nick and I went to San Francisco with some friends. We drove to Concord and took BART into the city. It's been years since I've been on BART, but I sure don't remember the train being so shaky and noisy/squeaky. We got off of BART at the Embarcadero, walked through the Ferry Building, took a few pictures, and walked along the Embarcadero to Pier 39 (where we stopped for lunch), Fisherman's Wharf, and Ghiradelli Square and back. We got lucky and picked a beautiful day to go, it was sunny and warm (well, for San Francisco anyway). It was a great day.

Nick along the Embarcadero with the Bay Bridge in the background...

Skipper, Idelle, Gerrit and Nick say this is the biggest spider they've ever seen in their lives!

A day in the life...Hope at home

Well, I got yet another new gadget...a FlipShare video recorder, so I've been having a great time taking videos of the dogs. Here's a little glimpse of what Hope learned during her five months in Advanced Training, glad she listened to her trainers...

At mealtime, Hope picks up her food bowl (and Nick's too if he is home) for me to fill up. Nice that I don't even have to bend over to get the bowls now...

In the morning, Hope waits to close my bathroom drawers with the "push" command. Normally, I don't leave ALL my drawers/doors open like this, I just wanted to see if she could do it, she loves the "push" command.

Hope also likes to close my closet door with the "tug" command.

Hope knows how to open the refrigerator door too. Although in this video, she didn't get it quite right, after telling her to "tug" the door open, I told her to "hold" the rope in her mouth, but she let go which she wasn't supposed to do, oops....oh well, she's not perfect.

Hope also can open the patio door, something I never thought she would be able to do because that slider is so heavy. But, she does it. Good girl Hope!

And there you have it, a day in the life of Hope at home. I wouldn't make Hope "work" if she didn't enjoy it so much. But she really likes doing this stuff. Usually when I'm getting ready for work she will come over and wait by the closet or by the sink ready to close the closet door or close my drawers shut. If she is asleep in the bedroom and I call her she comes running. If I forget to have her do it, she sits there and stares at me with a look on her face like, "Hey, that's my job!"

Marley & Me

Yesterday, after a little play time for the dogs at the schoolyard, I went with a group of friends and pups to see the movie "Marley & Me" in El Dorado Hills.  Hope got to play a bit, but had to be dropped off at home since she can't go out in public anymore.  Oh well, she was happy to have her couch time anyways.

Of course, the dogs were a hit at the movie, especially since two of them are yellow labs, just like Marley.  The black dogs just faded into the background as black dogs do, especially since you could barely see them against the dark carpet.  There are advantages to raising a black dog sometimes. ;-)  We even saw another puppy raiser who had just seen the movie and was on his way out when we were standing in line waiting to get in.  When we asked him how the movie was, his reply was that it was as emotional as a CCI graduation.  Uh-oh, we're in trouble.  I won't spoil it just in case someone hasn't already read the book, but it was a tear-jerker alright, especially for those of us who have dogs.  We escaped out the back exit after the movie was over and went out for a bite to eat afterwards. Good times, good company, good movie, can't get any better than that!  

I got Nick back from our co-raisers too as they have a household of dogs this week, so he'll be spending the week with us here.  Hope was certainly happy to see him again when we arrived home.  

Here's a picture of the dogs in front of the Marley & Me sign at the theatre. Not a great picture, but Nick is the black blob on the far right.  Darn black dogs, they sure are hard to photograph!

Road Trip!

One of the good things that came out of my company's two week shutdown over the holidays was time to go on a road trip to visit my friend Laurie who lives in Oceanside who I met through puppy raising.  I took both Hope and Nick with me on the trip and my friend Jill and her CCI puppy, Skipper, joined us as well. Thankfully, it was uneventful driving down to Oceanside (aside from a little traffic in L.A.) and back home.  There's been a lot of stormy weather and our biggest concern was getting over the Grapevine as it had actually gotten closed due to snow a few days before we left.  

On one day, we met the family of my first CCI pup, Marisa, at SeaWorld in San Diego. We actually lucked out and it was a beautiful sunny day in the 60's. It is always so fun to see Marisa and her family. Marisa is 6 years old and her graduate Jason, and his sister Rachel, are so big compared to when I first met them four years ago when she graduated as a Skilled Companion for Jason. Marisa is getting gray but she still looks great and still has that same wiggle when she walks.

Here is a picture of Nick, Skipper and Marisa:

Brrrrr....guess Nick got a little cold in the Arctic exhibit visiting a polar bear, he's starting to grow his own icicles! Ok, ok, yes that's drool...if you know Nick, you know he's all about the drool. :-)

Here's Nick wondering if he is going to be Shamu's next meal...hmmm, do whales like dog meat?

Marisa doing an "up" by the dolphins before we were told not to not let the dogs go up on the wall.  Hmmm....do dolphins like dog meat?

Marisa's wonderful family, she is one lucky dog who has a busy life and gets to go to lots of different places.  I'm so glad she is there for Jason.

Nick is trying his best to pose for pictures, but there's a dog whispering in his ear...

One another day, we met up with Nick's brother Najee who is being raised in the SW region. Najee is huge compared to Nick at about 75 lbs (compared to about 57 for Nick), but other than the difference in size the boys are so similar in personality, even down to the drool.  It was fun to compare notes with Najee's puppy raiser and the boys got a chance to play together, after posing for a few pictures of course!

One night Laurie took her cockatoo, Captain, out of his cage.  I know my dogs were wondering what the heck this thing was!  But they were all good and stayed in a down.  Even the cowardly lion was watching the bird (look at the TV if you are wondering what I'm talking about):

On our last day there, Hope's brother Hefner visited, it was the first time Hope saw Hefner since they were being raised.  Hefner was released for pretty severe elbow dysplasia and after a complicated surgery and recovery period, you would never know he had any problems.  Here is the last fun shot of all the dogs at Laurie's house before we left. That's Hope on the top; Nick and Skipper in the top crate, and Sergi and Hefner in the bottom crate.  It was funny as both my dogs are related to Sergi -- Hope and Sergi are both Toddy pups (mom), and Nick and Sergi are both Weldin pups (dad).  And of course, Hope and Hefner are littermates from Toddy.  It was like a family reunion of sorts!

All in all it was a great trip! 

Reading and Holiday Lights?

How are these two things related? Hope, of course...

Hope and I went for our monthly visit to a local elementary school in Citrus Heights yesterday morning. She had nine 2nd and 3rd graders who each read to her for 20 minutes. A few of the kids had read to her last month, so it was nice for her to see them again. I just wish I were a little better about remembering their names. Hope seems to really enjoy the interaction and I enjoy the time doing this with her.

I had sent Nick off to a friend's house for a little change in his boring office work routine. After I picked him up and since I had Hope with me at work, I decided to do our walk at a local neighborhood near work where the houses are all decorated with holiday lights. It was a chilly evening, but nice to have something different to look at for our walk. Here are a few pics, not very good, but considering its two black dogs at night, what do you expect?

Here's Nick in front of the dancing Santa's that are motion-activated. The funny thing is I have almost this same picture of Zucchini when she was about 4 months old in front of these very same Santa's...

Here's a picture of Nick and Hope in front of one of the displays (this house had used the entire 3rd bay of a 3-car garage set up with this display)...

Even though it was cold, it sure beat walking around the same old streets in my neighborhood since I had to take the dogs for a walk anyway; at least it gave us something different to look at.

Happy Holidays!

Houseful of dogs this weekend

Well our fur count has increased from one dog to three this weekend.  I have been watching one of my friend's CCI pups, Isaiah, since Thursday.  He's about 3 weeks older than Nick and we go to puppy class together. He's very sweet and affectionate.  I went and picked up Nick and took both him and Isaiah to class at Sac State this morning.  Hope was excited to not only have Isaiah come back home, but to see Nick too.

It's supposed to start raining tonight, so I took the 3 dogs for a hike at Folsom Lake in the afternoon after we got home from puppy class.  It was perfect weather for a hike.  I contemplated letting the dogs run loose near the water, but then decided against it as they would have gotten really muddy if we had gone down to the water (or what's left of it as the Lake is so low right now). I really didn't feel like spending the rest of the afternoon giving all three of them a bath, so instead we just hiked along the trail.  

Nick and Isaiah resting after arriving home from puppy class:

Isaiah, Hope, and Nick at Folsom Lake (or what's left of the lake, its so low right now, we really need some rain!):

A day of reflection

It was a melancholy day today, one year ago today I bid a tearful goodbye to my sweet Molly after her almost 2 year battle with cancer.  She was not the first dog I ever had in my life, but she was the only one who was really truly mine.  Molly was not the most well behaved dog in the world, but she was certainly all golden and sweet as sweet can be.  She taught me a lot about dogs during her time on earth - both good and bad, and I don't know who controlled who. She certainly taught important lessons to all the CCI dogs who passed through my house.  

I will never forget you Molly, I hope that where ever you are, you have a huge lake to swim in, fields to run in, and plenty of counters to steal food from. I still think of you often and it still seems like yesterday when I had to say goodbye; it's hard to believe it has been a year. I will always treasure our last day together, it was a day spent like you lived your life, swimming, hiking, and chasing sticks.  Your tail was wagging even as we ended our journey together. Though I was sad to say goodbye, I also felt a sense of relief as you took your last breath knowing you wouldn't have to struggle anymore. No regrets...

Rest in peace, my sweet girl...I will always remember this picture of our last day together, you were definitely ready to continue your journey to the Rainbow Bridge...

Hiking with Hope

Since Nick went home with our co-raisers after the holiday party, and poor Hope was home by herself yesterday for most of the day, today was her day. There was no rain in sight, so I thought I'd take advantage of the nice weather to take her out for a hike and some geocaching. 

Last night I was scoping out some new areas to hike that weren't too far away from home and that had some geocaches hidden along the trails. We ended up going to Cronan Ranch in Pilot Hill off of Highway 49. What a great place with a ton of great hiking trails. When I left Folsom in the morning, it was totally foggy and cold. By the time we got to the trailhead, it was sunny and I ended up peeling off my jacket and long-sleeved shirt and doing the entire hike in short sleeves. I guess we were above the fog line as when we left about 3pm and were coming back down into Folsom, it was all foggy and cold again.

Here's Hope on the trail with some other hikers in the distance....

I was able to let Hope off leash for a good part of the hike, the only bad thing was that there were a ton of horseback riders on the trails so I had to be careful and put her on leash when they went by just for safety's sake. She was so good and just stuck next to me for the most part, not like her younger days when she would just run off and not even come back. I did catch her eating some horse poop a few times (yuck!) and gave her a big correction and after that she totally went around it - good girl! Let's just hope she remembers that the next time she thinks about it again!

We hiked about 5 miles together and found 12 geocaches. Check out my geocaching blog at: http://pk-a-boo.blogspot.com/ for my favorite one of the day, its pretty funny. We hiked on this high ridge that gave us great views of the South Fork of the American River and I even recognized the "Lollipop Tree" that I've seen on rafting trips I've done on the South Fork. The Lollipop Tree marks the beginning of the Gorge run of the river - where all the fun Class III rapids are.

Hope sitting on a rock patiently waiting for me to find a geocache... (the Lollipop Tree way up on the ridge behind her - if you click on the picture it is way off in the distance at the top of the ridge)
Hope is wondering why I continually drag her off the trail and stick my hand in piles of rocks! This is why I don't go geocaching in the summer - this is rattlesnake haven, I just hope they are asleep...

It was such a beautiful sunny day, hard to believe it is December and I'm hiking in short sleeves. I really treasured this day with Hope, it was so nice to spend it together with her, just the two of us.  Here's a shot of Hope with the South Fork of the American River in the background...

Dirty dog feet!...

And a little video of Hope with a shot of the Lollipop Tree in the background...

Thanks for a great day Hope!

Holidaze for Nick

I took Nick to the Christmas Faire on Sutter Street in Folsom yesterday morning, Folsom's "main drag" in the old part of the city.  I was hoping to get a few stocking stuffers at the craft faire.  We got there early, but the faire was already starting to get busy with lots of people and dogs. So it provided a good training excursion for Nick.

After that, we went to puppy class which was being held at the school due to our CCI chapter's holiday party.  After that it was party time.  Poor Nick had to stay up on stage in a down for practically the whole party as I was helping out with the photographs. At least he was up there with his buddies Idelle, Gerrit and Skipper.  I think they were most happy when everybody had left and we let them play in the kindergarten yard.  They deserved that for being such good pups!  

Here's Nick's official holiday photo.  I can't believe how big he looks now!

Another visit with Sierra

Hope and I drove up to Grass Valley today to deliver a scrapbook I made for Sierra's (aka Zucchini) new family.  The original plan was to have it done when we went to visit her the first time last month, but of course, I procrastinated and just recently finished it.  Oh well, it just gave us another excuse for a visit!

I think they really enjoyed seeing pictures of her as a puppy and some of the things she got to do as a CCI pup.  And, I have to admit, she was pretty darn cute since she was so little, only about 11 lbs when I first got her. I brought my laptop and showed them the videos I had taken of her as a puppy as I haven't had a chance to make them a slideshow yet.  It was a lot of fun to watch the videos again as I haven't seen them for awhile.  

Sierra was so cute when we first got there, I think she immediately recognized my SUV and when I opened up the back door, she immediately jumped in!  Of course, Hope was there waiting and they jumped out and ran around the property together.  It isn't until I see her in person that I forget how fast she is, she still leaves Hope in the dust!  And she still has that trademark wiggle!

She is still so sweet and cuddly and seems so settled and happy with her new life.  It really makes me feel good that things worked out for her, it was the one thing I worried about the most when I turned her in.  Well, no more worries there...

No pics today, I realized when I got there that I left my CF Card for my camera at home - duh.... :-(

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope says,

• "I'm thankful because I got to spend Thankgiving Day with my dog mom, Toddy and my friend Violet."
• "I'm thankful that us dogs were not forgotten while everyone else was pigging out on people food all day; we were given Frosty Paws for dessert."

Vi, Hope, and Toddy giving thanks...

Vi and Hope enjoying their Thanksgiving dessert:

It's been nice having Toddy and Vi stay with us for a few days, at least now Hope has some friends to play and hang out with for a few days.  It's especially fun having Toddy around, Hope is so much like her mom in so many ways...the snorting sounds they both make, similar facial expressions, sideways head tilts, "shark mouths" (grabbing treats roughly!), etc.  

The first night they all made themselves at home on the couch together.  Lucky for me, I put a blanket on the couch a few weeks ago after Hope declared the couch her own.  So much for the well-behaved dog who used to only jump on the couch when she was invited to lay on the couch...oh well...

Invisible Dog...

Hope and I were almost the innocent victims of a speeding car when I took her for a walk after work tonight. Geez, I can't believe how many people go speeding in the neighborhood. Since it was dark outside when we started our walk, I stayed off the trails (too dark and scary to be walking alone out there) and we were just minding our own business walking on the sidewalk. I'm always very careful at night as people are idiots, but as we were about to cross the street, a car came zipping around the corner and practically clipped us.  They came close enough that I hit their car with my hand to let them know they came a little too close...and let out a few choice words too.  

It was the same corner (which even has a crosswalk) that the same thing happened with Rolie and I a long time ago.  I guess I'm gonna have to dig up that blinking collar I bought after that incident and put it on my dogs at night.  

I hate Daylight Savings!  If only people wouldn't be in so much of a hurry. I think my heart has finally stopped pounding so hard...

Books & Barks

Hope and I joined another reading program called "Books & Barks" at Cambridge Heights Elementary School in Citrus Heights and today was our very first session. This program will work out well for us as it runs from 8am-3pm once a month. We can schedule our visit for a block of time that fits our schedule, so its perfect for us working stiffs who still have day jobs to do. Hope's buddy, Mason, and his handler were there at the same time that we were there.

Hope had 6 students from 2nd grade to 5th grade read to her today. Each student read to her for about 20 minutes. I believe there were about nine dog/handler teams coming in today and about 60 students participating. The teacher who started this program is so enthusiastic and excited about this program...she originally started it as a program for those students who were struggling, but now because there are so many dog/handler teams participating, she is opening it up to other students who just want to read to the dogs if there is space available. How cool is that?

Hope really seems to enjoy these reading programs, so I'm glad I was able to find another one for us to do since the Roseville Library program one will not have their next session until next year. She really nuzzled up to a few of the kids, especially the ones who were petting her as they read to her. She spent half the time rolled over on her back getting a belly rub and doing her trademark snort. So cute! What a good girl!  I also let each of the students give Hope a cookie after they were done, they seemed to like that.

The parents and teachers are very enthusiastic about this program. It was so nice, since the session goes on all day, they had a table of beverages/food set up for us so we could grab a bite to eat/drink in between students.

I could have stayed there all day and I'm sure Hope could have too. Too bad we had to go back to work! I wasn't sure how Hope would do for longer than an hour as that is the average time we visit at the hospital and did the other reading program, but I think I'm going to sign us up for a bigger block of time next month as she could have easily done another hour or so.

Til next month...

Scavenger Hunt

Today was my day to deliver Nick back to our co-raisers.  We met a couple of friends at Capitol Park to do a Scavenger Hunt that we used to do in puppy class way back when.  Well, we kinda did it, we didn't follow all the rules of the hunt as we mainly wanted to work on our CCI commands with the pups.  It was such a nice day today, more like a warm spring day than a fall day in November!

I was so bummed as my camera battery died or we could have gotten some cute pictures. :-(  I took these pictures with my phone's camera instead, so the quality is quite bad.  

I liked the one of the pups doing an "under" command under the bell below (from left to right: Idelle, Nick, Skipper).  You can't tell in the picture, but they actually had to jump up on a platform-thing to get underneath the bell. Idelle is the "under" queen and immediately jumped up and did an "under" on the first command!  The boys, well...they both needed a little extra encouragement...

And, here is a first...you can actually see the black dogs better than the yellow dog in the picture, usually its the other way around!

Skipper, Idelle, and Nick posing for pictures in the park...

Mental Health Day

Today was a "mental health day"... not so much for Hope or Nick, but me.  I survived another fiscal year-end at work, which always means more work and lots of analysis and reporting. Yesterday, I finished up the last of that stuff so I asked my boss if I could take the day off today. 

As usual, I woke up early and took the dogs for a walk.  We even went for another really long walk later in the morning.  I just put the iPod on and kinda zoned out and before I knew it we had walked almost two hours!  It was actually kind of nice not having to think about anything, my head hurts from having to think/analyze too much the past couple of weeks. 

It was such a nice fall day, I did take my camera to see if I could get any nice shot of the dogs, but they weren't cooperating!  So this is the best I could do...

Poor Nick, he's got no stamina at all, he was just dragging at the end of the walk.  I had to keep turning around and encouraging him to keep up with Hope and I.  Where's Zucchini when I need her? ;-)

In the afternoon, we met a friend and her dogs at the dog park to work with our CCI pups around all the distractions there. I got there a little early so I could let Hope go in the dog park for a bit.  As usual, she had no desire to play with any of the dogs, she just wanted to sniff everything.  After we worked the CCI pups outside the park, we took the dogs to the schoolyard to play. They had a great time running around.

Another day, another dog biscuit

Hope and I did our visit to Sutter Hospital this morning. As usual, she was happy when we drove up to the hospital and parked the car. One of my routines is to give her a treat when we are finished with our visit and back in the car. Only today I was bad and had run out of cookies, oops. She kept looking at me from the backseat wondering when she was going to get her treat. Sorry Hope! I did give her a treat when we got back to my office, but I don't know if that made it up to her.

Just when I was going to start looking for more work for Hope, one dropped into our laps yesterday. A friend of mine forwarded an email from someone who was looking for Delta teams to participate in a reading program at an elementary school in Citrus Heights once a month during the day. Its the perfect situation for us since I won't have to miss much work as its only once a month and the schedule is flexible based on our availability. We go to the first session in a few weeks. Can't wait!

Hope says...

"HOPEfully you voted today!"

Sierra in action

I was downloading pictures I took of Sierra last week off my camera this morning.  It was so much fun seeing her again and best of all, finally getting to meet Kay and Cathi for the first time. I was going to delete this picture as its so blurry, but I just couldn't do it.  This shot captures Sierra's soul and spirit and her zest for life.  I have taken so many pictures of her like this her whole life, lot of blurry action shots.  Boy, that dog is still a speed demon!

Here's to you Sierra and your new life! Cheers...