Hope's Resume Grows Even More

This week we added another "title" for Hope...R.E.A.D. Dog (Reading Education Assistance Dog).  As part of the Roseville Library "Tales to Tails" program we are participating in, we registered with this program to learn more about library reading programs; it was an organization that the folks at the library wanted us to join.  

We just had to fill out an application, take a test, and send in our registration form and fees. Nothing too terribly difficult here. This week we received our registration card and dog tag.

Let's see...here are all her "titles":

1. Delta Society Pet Partner
2. AKC Canine Good Citizen
3. R.E.A.D. Dog
4. Certified HOPE Crisis Response Dog

Wow, she has more titles than I do!  Here's a picture of her showing off her new R.E.A.D tag...

Hope has certainly been building up her resume lately...

The Bootie Dance

One of the things that I am required to buy for Hope for her crisis response work are booties since we could potentially be taking the dogs in disaster situations where there may be stuff on the ground that could hurt our dogs' paws (glass, hot asphalt, rocks). I borrowed our buddy Mason's booties to see how Hope would do in them before we went to the workshop this weekend.

I took it slowly with her knowing how sensitive she is to new things, so the first few nights I just put them on her feet and cradled her, she didn't walk in them at all. This was a little video I took of her with the booties on her two front paws (she will eventually have to get used to wearing the booties on all four paws). I didn't catch it on camera, but it was hilarious to watch her doing the "Bootie Dance" the first time she walked in doing the high-stepping motions with her feet.

Poor Hope, she has to wear not only a cape, but maybe booties at some point...she's probably wondering what is up with all these ridiculous clothes! I guess at last year's workshop, they actually had a little "bootie" session, this year we didn't do that although I think it would have been fun to watch the dogs do the "Bootie Dance".

Our HOPE-ful weekend...

A good friend of mine got involved with an organization called, HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response (www.hopeaacr.org) about a year ago with her dog Mason. I thought this was something I would try with Hope after we met the requirements and had the opportunity to pass the screening and certification workshop this year. After all, how could I not try something with the name HOPE? ;-)

This organization provides comfort and support to people who have been affected by disasters using teams of dogs/handlers. The "people" might include not only victims, but also responders (relief workers, firefighers, etc.) who are impacted by disasters which might include natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, but also disasters such as acts of violence, school shootings etc.  The dog/handler teams are required to be registered with a pet therapy organization (which Hope and I have through Delta Society) and must have experience in therapy work (which we met this year by having a minimum of 12 therapy visits).

On Friday, Hope and I headed down to Costa Mesa in So. California with Mason's handler Mary, who was helping out this weekend as a Hope member at the screening and certification workshop. That evening, Hope and I were evaluated with another dog to see if we qualified to attend the certification workshop which was being held Saturday through Monday. We had a 30 minute interview with two HOPE members who were assigned to Hope and I as evaluators for the duration of the screening. Most of the interview was straightforward, although there were several situational type questions thrown in at the end to see how you would handle you and your dog in a crisis response call. I almost felt like I was interviewing for a job! After the interview, we were put through obedience tests similar to the Delta or Canine Good Citizen tests. Hope did great on all the obedience tests.  At the end of that I had to crate Hope and leave the room for 10 minutes. We were allowed to give our dog a toy/bone in the crate so I left Hope with a stuffed sterilized bone; the evaluators came into the room that I had disappeared to and were joking with me that she could have stayed in the crate all night because she was so happy with her bone.  The other dog started screaming within a few minutes so they let her out and did some sort of separation anxiety test. The last section was a "mock" Red Cross Shelter set-up where we were tested to see how we would handle a situation similar to what you would face on a real call-out. The HOPE people were all assigned to role play victims in various stages of distress as a result of a disaster. In addition to the people, there were lots of loud noises and distractions, people yelling, chaos, etc. Although it didn't last that long, maybe 15 minutes or so if I had to guess, it was a bit intense. Hope did awesome! She was not bothered by the chaotic environment, noises, and crazy people who were upset and crying or yelling. She interacted with the victims who we were asked to visit with by the mock Red Cross Shelter manager.

After that we had a break as they tallied our scores then Hope and I met with our two evaluators to go over our test results. We passed and got high scores from both evaluators. I didn't notice it while we were in the shelter simulation because I was concentrating so hard, but they said Hope was very relaxed and her tail was wagging as she interacted with anybody even when they were visibly upset. Since we passed the evaluation, we were invited to attend the certification workshop.

We were dubbed the "HOPEfuls" by the HOPE members at the workshop; there were a total of 9 dog/handler teams going through the workshop, plus one individual certifying as a Team Leader (without a dog). We had a variety of dogs, 5 labs (1 released Guide Dog, and Hope a released CCI dog), 1 golden, 2 small "pocket" dogs, 1 huge (140 lbs.) black Newfie (who Hope was scared of!). I think three of the nine dogs were rescue dogs. What an experience...3 days of lectures, lots of role playing, and field trips. I must admit I shed some tears throughout the weekend hearing some of the stories of the Hope members and what impact the Hope teams had during their call-outs. The lectures were great, we learned about dog theory, people skills, communication, stress, etc. and got to put the stuff we learned into practice doing a lot of role playing. I usually can't stand to do the role playing stuff, but in this case it was really helpful and we used actual scenarios of issues faced by some of the Hope members.  So the debriefs were amazing to discuss how we handled the situations during the role play and to hear how the Hope member dealt with the situation for real when it happened to them.

I have to say my bond with Hope is even stronger as a result of this weekend and I learned several things that I can do with her to help her succeed even more. Mostly that she has a natual ability for therapy work and doesn't need a lot of direction from me, she instinctively knows what she needs to do. In addition, we took a field trip to the airport, passed through security, and boarded a plane on one day. On the last day, we took another field trip to a fire station. 

The interesting thing is that we were being evaluated the whole time not just in class, but outside of class as well. A group of dogs was assigned to a Team Leader who was responsible for us (which is what would happen on a real call-out); they were watching us in class and even on "hurry" breaks to see how we were interacting with other people in the group and how our dogs were getting along with the other dogs. It wasn't until later that I realized we were even evaluated on how our dogs travelled with other dogs on the field trip. Hope and another lab named Lexie were the class clowns on the breaks wanting to play, so our Team Leader had us drive with her on the field trip with the two girls in the back of her vehicle, even though I had offered to drive myself. They used the excuse that they didn't want me to drive so I could concentrate on my dog, but I really think they wanted to see how the dogs travelled together as that is what would happen on an actual call-out. Hope and Lexie were PERFECT, they just laid down in the back of our Team Leader's SUV on both field trips, phew! I could be totally wrong about this, but it just seems like it was a set-up and when one of the HOPE members said they were happy the dogs all travelled well together it dawned on me it was probably a test as in a real situation the dogs will need to be able to travel together to a disaster. We were often asked by some of the Hope members to hand over our dogs to them during breaks and meals as I think they wanted to make sure our dogs were comfortable being left with other people.  The HOPE members made us feel really welcome and wanted everyone to succeed, I just felt like we were constantly being watched.

I really felt like this was a mini-version of what a CCI team training might be like. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone after the workshop was completed, we really bonded with our classmates and dogs and the HOPE staff we had spent the weekend with. On Monday, after lunch and individual feedback on how we did, all 9 teams were told that they passed the certification. Yipppie!

The ironic thing is that a big wildfire had broken out while we were there and the HOPE teams were put on standby for a possible call-out as people were being evacuated and relief might be needed. Mary, Hope and I got on the road right away to make the long drive home after the little graduation event, I got home after 11pm, totally exhausted but with a sense of renewal and exhilaration of what Hope and I have ahead of us. 

Here's a picture of Hope in the HOPE scarf they gave us to wear on our field trips. Cool thing is that her name is all over everything. Unfortunately for her, she will have to wear a cape when she is working; this is the dog who absolutely HATES wearing a cape. Sorry Hope, some things come with a price...

So I guess we are no longer "HOPE-fuls" but are a certified HOPE team, well, once we get registered, pay all our fees, buy our uniform/supplies.  Sometime during the next year we are also required to get certified in First Aid and CPR, and pet First Aid.

Several times during the year, we will also head down to L.A. for more training, workshops, and meetings with Mary & Mason, so hopefully we'll have the opportunity to be reunited with our classmates and the Hope members we met during the workshop.  

I'm looking forward to the next part of this adventure with Hope...

A double-shift for Hope and an update on Nick

Hope had a busy day yesterday...she had to pull a double shift! A real "work" day for a dog who is used to living the pampered life as a pet dog now. Every Tuesday evening in October, we will be going to the "Tales to Tails" reading program at the Roseville Library. We began this program earlier this year and both of us have really enjoyed it. She spends most of the hour on her back getting a belly rub from the child that is reading a book to her. ;-)

Since I had to bathe her for the library anyways, I figured I might as well take her to Sutter Hospital for her therapy visit...must not let a good bath go to waste! So that was her double-shift: hospital in the morning, library in the evening. Plus she got to come to work with me and Nick. Here's a picture of the two of them on a bed in my cubicle.

Hope continues to amaze me on our hospital visits. A young girl who we often see was very interactive with her even to the point that she was nodding her head answering the questions I asked of her (something she hasn't really done before). After getting permission from the nurse to see if she could do a "lap" on her, I had Hope jump on a chair next to her wheelchair that the girl was in, then had her do a "lap" command from the chair as her wheelchair was so high. She totally reached for Hope, something she has been doing more and more each time we visit. Hope moved her head towards the girls hand, she just knew what to do so that she could easily reach her to pet her herself! The smile on the girl's face was just precious. All the while, Hope's tail was wagging back and forth.

Nick went to stay with our CCI contract trainer for the day at her house so he could get some exposure to little kids since he doesn't have that with either me or our co-raisers. What a good boy, word from our trainer was that he behaved himself and was good around her kids.

And speaking of Nick, he is going on 7 months old, is over 50lbs, and taller than Hope! Poor Hope, she is just always going to be a shrimp! He has been so well behaved at work that I don't even tether him at my desk, he just stays put, even when I leave my cube. From Day 1, he has stayed underneath my desk on his bed where he couldn't see much, but the past couple of weeks, I moved his bed out from underneath my desk to just inside the entrance to my cube to get him used to more distractions. He has adjusted really well even with all the people that walk by all day long. Today, a guy came by with a huge cart down our aisle to empty our recycle bins and rolled the cart right next to his head, didn't even phase him one bit, he barely opened his eyes.

I've been trying to do a better job of getting him out in public places as I realized I was getting lazy and not taking him to many places. So in the past week we've been to the dog park (outside of it), Petco, Orchard Supply, The Fountains Shopping Center, Home Depot Expo, REI (of course, my favorite store!), Galleria Mall. Last Sunday we went to a Broadway Series show in Sac with another friend and her CCI pup. I'm trying to cram it all in before he goes back to our co-raisers in a few days!

Prey-Drive or Fowl-Play?

One of the things that CCI dogs can get released for is prey drive - or the desire to chase animals, birds, etc. Not a good trait for a service dog to have when they are at the end of the leash of a disabled person.  Does a high drive for chasing a stuffed chicken toy count as prey drive or is is just fowl-play?

I got this toy as bribery material for teaching Nick the "speak" command, he has seen it, heard it squeak, but has yet to get it in his mouth to play with until he learns "speak". Since he has been gone this week, I took it out of the toy box and Hope has developed a liking for it now. She tosses it around in the air, does a play bow with it in her mouth, and loves to chase it and make it squeak.

It'll be going back to the toy box as Nick returns home this weekend (minues a few parts of his male anatomy - he got neutered today...) so I can continue trying to tease him with it to get him to speak. What a mean puppy raiser huh? ;-) At least Hope has enjoyed it...we'll see if it eventually works with Nick.

Waterlogged

Throw the stick, will 'ya?

I was going to take Hope to the new dog park for a romp after I got home from work today and we went on our walk, but then realized it was Tuesday and the park is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays "for maintenance", what's up with that? :-(

Since we had such a nice time at the lake yesterday, I decided to take her out to Willow Creek for a swim again.  We practically had the whole place to ourselves like yesterday.  She enjoyed swimming and chasing sticks...happy, happy, girl.

See those ducks out there in the distance behind her? (You might have to click on the picture to see them...) Well guess who was interested and made a beeline over to them to check 'em out? I called her back and she was a good girl and turned around and came back. For the dog who had no recall whatsoever as a puppy, I was very proud of her for listening to me.

And speaking of Molly...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the new CCI pup, Molly VII, who was named after my Molly. Unfortunately, Molly's breeder caretaker has been unable to find out where Molly is headed when the puppies go out to their puppy raisers this week; she thinks she may be headed to the North Central region, but isn't sure. This litter seemed really nice, no yappy puppies, they seemed very easy going, ok with laying on their backs and cradling. There's nothing cuter than golden retriever puppies and this group was no exception.

Lately, I've been feeling the "urge" for another golden since Molly's been gone. It's hard to believe, but in December it will have been a year since I had to say goodbye to her. It's cool to know that there will be a CCI pup out there with her name. Molly was a great puppy raiser assistant for most of my CCI pups, so it's a fitting honor for her to have a pup named in her honor.

Here's the latest picture of Molly that her breeder caretaker took recently, pretty cute. Duh, I took my camera yesterday but got so busy picking up puppies and talking to Patty that I didn't even take my camera out. Good luck Molly VII, have a save journey to your puppy raiser...

Now that things have calmed down a little at work, I'm trying to make a point to leave work at a decent hour since I've been starting work so early in the day.  Today, I took Hope out to Willow Creek at Lake Natoma as it was such a nice day.  We had the place to ourselves, it was great.  I brought a tennis ball to throw for Hope, but she wasn't really interested in it. So we went in search of a stick; it took me 10 minutes to find a stick for her, but at least we found one.  She had a great time swimming and chasing the stick.  It also made me a little (ok, a LOT) sad to be out here with Hope as this was Molly's favorite place to swim; we spent a lot of time out here together.  All I could think about was how she loved being here. Hope did a great job taking her place though and we had a great relaxing time together this afternoon...hopefully Molly was looking down on us and smiling....

Dog Park

Nick went back to our co-raisers this afternoon and Hope was giving me that "look"...the "I'm bored, there's nobody here to play with" look. So I took her to the new dog park in Folsom that's only about a 10-15 minute walk from home.  I'm usually not a big dog park fan, but of the several times I've taken her there, the other dogs have been very nice and the owners attentive to their dogs, so we'll probably continue to go as it gives her a chance to be off leash. 

The funny thing is that every time I have taken her there, she doesn't ever play with any of the other dogs, she's more interested in sniffing EVERYTHING, just walking around with her nose to the ground.  Sometimes she will fetch a ball, but mostly she is just interested in sniffing. Tonight was no exception....sniff, sniff, sniff.  We played fetch for a little but she wasn't really interested in any of the other dogs.  

Tonight these three HUGE great danes who had just entered the park came bounding towards her...she got totally scared, and screamed like I've never heard her scream before, her tail was tucked and she was low to the ground in a totally submissive position.  I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I calmly called her over to me and she immediately went in between my legs.  The owner of the Danes was totally nice and called his dogs when he saw what happened. I spoke to him for a little bit, he said the 3 dogs weighed about 130 lbs and that he goes through about 30-35 lbs of dog food a WEEK! Poor little Hope...to have 3 big dogs almost 3 times her size coming towards her must have been freaky...she must have thought it was a stampede! 

The other interesting thing about Hope is that every time we've been to the dog park and there have been golden retrievers there, she is very interested in them and goes up to sniff them, but just the old ones.  I keep wondering if she is looking for Molly because the ones she has been interested in are the ones who are older and gray in the face like Molly was.  She must still remember her pal and is looking to see if it's her....

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...

Distraction Training

Nick and I took a field trip to Lee's Feed in Shingle Springs this morning. Since he had his final set of shots last week, he's now fully vaccinated, so its time to start taking him out to more places now. This is a great place as this feed store has a room of noisy birds and cages of little animals.

Here's a picture of Nick checking out some "chicks" :-)



We also stopped by a busy shopping center on the way home and walked around a bit and he did well there. Poor little guy was exhausted when we got home, he slept for a couple of hours...

Swimming lessons

We have to strike a balance with our CCI pups in teaching them to swim as we don't want them to get so obsessed with the water that they'd rather go for a swim than work (imagine the consequences if they were working for a person in a wheelchair and the dog was water-obsessed, not a good thing!). In my case, I have taught all my CCI dogs how to swim mainly for safety since I have a pool. I want them to be comfortable in the water so that IF they were to fall in, they know how to get out by going to the steps. You would be surprised, but that instinct does not come naturally for most dogs, lots of them will try to climb out the sides and are unable to get out.

So far, I'm 50/50 for my CCI dogs..Marisa & Rolie went in, but only because I made them, they never really had a desire to swim for fun. Hope loves to swim. Zuleika enjoyed swimming at the lake, but wasn't always interested in the pool. We'll see what happens with Nick...

I started off by getting in the pool with Nick and coaxing him to the top step. He wasn't too sure about it, but he didn't panic either. Once he got the idea, I sent him off towards the middle of the pool and he immediately went and swam around the edges and came back to me at the step. He reminded me of an alligator, with his head barely sticking up on the surface of the water.

True to his nature, he wasn't overly excited about going in, but the mellow fellow didn't panic either. Not bad for his first lesson...he doesn't seem to be the kind of dog that will obsess about the water.

Nick and his assistant swim instructor, Hope:


Nick practicing the "dog paddle" or is he really part alligator?

Escape to the Folsom Lake

I have a personal aversion to working on the weekend, but today I spent about 4-5 hours working to get caught up on some stuff that I need to have done for work. After I was done, my back was sore, my eyes hurt (because I was staring at my work computer, which is a laptop), so I decided to escape to the Folsom Lake with Hope for a few hours.

We drove to a nearby parking area at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area and had a nice 2-3 mile hike and I let Hope swim for a while, which she really enjoyed. This is a funny shot of her I got shaking the water off her body after bringing me a stick which I threw for her in the water.

It was a nice escape this afternoon.

It's all about perspective

Today, Hope taught me an important lesson about perspective. Things are just crazy at work right now, I was in the office by 5am and worked at a feverish pace non-stop all day. I was supposed to take Hope to Sutter Hospital at 10am, but got stuck on the phone and the time came and went.

Finally, at about 3:30, I gave up, I was brain-dead and couldn't think anymore. I felt bad that I missed taking Hope to the hospital as I had gotten her all ready last night (bath, brush teeth, dremel, ears cleaned, you name it) and she came into work with me. I decided I would take her to see one patient that I wanted to see as I had brought her a picture of a litter of puppies from the CCI breeder who we go to Sutter with.

Hope is always so happy to visit "her" patients. The patient got the biggest smile on her face when I gave her the picture of puppies. She asked if Hope could get on the bed with her, so Hope was happy to oblige...her tail was wagging back and forth the whole time. It was so cool to hear the patient say how much she likes when Hope comes to see her and that she must like coming here because her tail says it all because she was wagging so much. That really brightened my day and the craziness at work just didn't seem so important anymore. Seeing Hope on that bed doing what she loves made me change my mind and we actually went and visited a couple other patients.

Sometimes, it's all about perspective....

Happy "H" Sisters

I was downloading more pictures off my camera tonight and didn't realize I had missed these pictures of Hope and Hika from Saturday. They sure look alike, but its easy to tell them apart in these pictures (well...for me anyways!), it wasn't so easy when they were out there playing!

Hope is on the left, Hika on the right...


A profile shot...

Not just any old stick...

In honor of Molly's birthday yesterday, I bestowed upon Hope the honor of swimming with the special stick that belonged to Molly. I have been carrying this stick around since Molly was about 2 years old; which means its about 10 years old!  


Molly found this stick when I first started taking her out to Folsom Lake to swim and just made it hers for whatever reason. Its one of those sticks that wash up at the lake from the river flows. The great thing about it is it very buoyant and you can actually throw it out pretty far. I can't tell you how many tennis balls we lost at the lake, the stick makes a big enough splash that Molly was always able to see where it landed when I threw it in the water for her. The other great thing about it is that it is what I call a "two-dog stick"; meaning two dogs can easily grab it and bring it back in together. I used to take Molly's golden retriever friend, Luke, out to the lake to swim and they'd spend hours swimming back and forth with it!

Hope was very proud to chase the stick in honor of Molly! :-)

Gone but not forgotten...

(NOTE: Hope says she doesn't mind if I hijack her blog today; in fact, she insisted....)

Twelve years ago today, a litter of Golden Retriever puppies was born.  

I was lucky enough to have one of those puppies add such joy to my life, a cute little fluffball who I named Molly.  

She was not perfect by any means with her alert barking, counter surfing, excitable greetings, etc. but she was my constant companion who always greeted me with her smiling face and typical golden personality.  She enjoyed doing what I loved to do: going on long walks during the week, hiking on the weekends, hanging out at the lake, etc. or she was just happy chasing a tennis ball, over, and over, and over again.

When she was about four years old, I began puppy raising for CCI. Little did I know what a good assistant puppy raiser she would make to all the puppies that passed through this house. She was so good about teaching the puppies when they crossed the line. Her bark was always worse than her bite, and she certainly got her point across to them, no doubt about that.

A couple of years ago, while brushing her teeth, I found a lump on one of her gums.  After surgery to remove the tooth where the lump was and to get the necessary tissue to do a biopsy, the results were inconclusive.  No cancer cells were found, but from all other indications, it appeared to be cancer.  Removing the tumor surgically would have involved removing a quarter of her jaw. I just couldn't do that to her as her quality of life was more important to me than extending her life.  Instead I took a holistic approach and put her on herbal treatment and other supplements. True to her spirit, it was the right choice, she lasted just short of two years after I first found the lump and enjoyed a great quality of life until shortly before I let her go when the tumor simply grew so large that it was impacting her ability to breathe.

We had a great last day together, something that is still so vivid in my mind that it seems like just yesterday, only I know that it isn't.  (http://pk-a-boo.blogspot.com/2007/12/bittersweet-day-with-molly.html)  I still think of her often when doing something or seeing something suddenly brings back some memory I have of her.

Happy Birthday Molly where ever you are, I miss you as much today as that day I had to say goodbye, rest in peace my sweet girl...

River Walk

Hope and I went for a nice 4-5 mile hike along the American River today with a friend and her dog Carlo. It was so nice to finally get outdoors after all the heat and smoke problems of the past several days.

There were a ton of people out on the bike trail today; in fact, we ran into a friend, who as he put it, was on "only" a 30-mile bike ride.  Well, I guess when you ride across the country on a fixed-gear bike (yes, one speed!), 30 miles is nothing.  We went off trail as much as possible to avoid the bikes, but boy there sure was a ton of poison oak out there.  

Here's a picture of Carlo and Hope by the river:

And, here's a picture of Hope after we got back (yes, she has couch privileges now...):

Family reunion

We had a nice get together with Hope's sister Hika today.  Hika graduated as a Skilled Companion dog last year and lives in the Bay Area with her new family.  Since her family went on vacation, her puppy raiser was lucky enough to get her back to dog sit her while they are gone, so we got the sisters together for a little playdate.  Hika's puppy raiser is also raising Siena, their half-sister, but she just went into heat this past week and is doing her time at CCI, so unfortunately she wasn't able to join us.

The two girls got pretty excited when they first saw each other, it seems like they remembered each other!  We took them to a fenced baseball field at a school in El Dorado Hills where Hika's puppy raiser works.  The girls had a blast playing together. Afterwards, we went and sat outside (since Hope is not a CCI dog anymore) at Bella Bru and had a nice visit while we had coffee and bagels.  The girls were so tired from playing and both immediately fell asleep under the table.

It's amazing how much they look alike, sometimes it was was hard to tell who was who when they were playing as we had taken their collars off to play.  Hika is still bigger than Hope, poor Hope, she is still a shrimp.  Both girls are turning gray under their chins, but Hika has way more gray than Hope has.  It's always amazing how fast these dogs grow up!

Hope and I arrived at the school first, here she is holding her toy in her mouth anticipating playtime.  Little does she know, she will get to see her sister who she hasn't seen in a year!

Hope says, "When can we play?"

Playtime, each with a tennis ball in her mouth! I think that's Hope in the front...

Hope says, "Chase me, chase me...."

Happy sisters! (Hope on the left, Hika on the right)