A change in plans

The weather has been warm and sunny this past week, so I put the racks on my SUV, loaded up the kayak, and was looking forward to a leisurely paddle, the first this year, at Lake Natoma. There was a bit of a breeze as I was loading up my kayak, but when I got to Willow Creek at Lake Natoma, the wind was starting to pick up even more.

I debated for a few minutes as to whether I should even go out or not, but decided to go for it. I wanted to paddle to Negro Bar to check out the dock for a friend who needs a place to practice with her dog who took dock diving lessons and who will be competing in a few weeks. Well, I did go out, I did paddle, and I did turn around after 45 minutes or so...it was so windy out there that it was hard to paddle. Plus, I try to use some sort of judgment when I go out by myself to stay safe. Today was not a day to be paddling by myself.

So I paddled back to my starting point, packed up the kayak and drove home disappointed my paddle was cut short. Oh well. As I was unloading my kayak, I thought it would be fun to take Hope out for a quick swim before it was time for me to go pick up Nick at our co-raisers house.

I think the dock will be nice for Hope's buddy to practice his dock diving. And frankly, I'm hoping if I take Hope out there with me, she will learn how to dive off the dock! As you can see, even though I was throwing sticks a few feet off the end of the dock for her, she ran back down the dock to get the stick from the water's edge rather than just jumping in from the dock itself.

Oh well, maybe she'll get the idea someday...



Here's Hope at the dock...

A quiet day at Willow Creek

I took Hope out for a quick trip to Lake Natoma's Willow Creek area this morning in between storms for a short hike on the bike trail and to let her swim for a bit.  For some reason, she couldn't seem to figure out where I was throwing the sticks today, after losing 3 of them, I gave up and we went for a hike instead.  Some days you got it, some days you don't I guess....

Here's a little video of Hope...


This place will always have a special place in my heart as this is the exact spot where I took Molly for her last swim on our last day together right before I took her to the vet to send her to the Rainbow Bridge. This is also the spot where we put in our kayaks during the summer, almost kayak time now that the weather is warming up!

It's NOT about Hope

This post has absolutely nothing to do with Hope, Nick, or any of my dogs for that matter.  Rowina is a CCI breeder who Hope and I go to Sutter Hospital with for pet therapy visits.

But, I just had to post this video.  A few weeks ago, I went over to some friends' house to help them with the traditional litter picture that most of the CCI breeder caretakers try to do for each litter that they whelp and care for.  The final pictures always turn out so cute, but I don't think people realize how much work actually goes into getting that "perfect" picture of all the puppies sitting still like they are actually posing for a picture.  

I took a ton of videos that day and this movie gives you a glimpse of the "behind the scenes" for the perfect litter picture...hope you enjoy it...

This is the "village" that it took to get this picture taken...plus, there were two photographers behind the cameras trying to capture the special moment...

And, this is the final product, now you can see what it took to get here for this one shot!...

My worlds collided...

On Saturday, I went up to Auburn for a nice hike with Hope near the Confluence (where the North/Middle fork of the American River meet...).  How this hike came together was rather funny as certain aspects of my life came together through some common bonds.  What's that saying about six degrees of separation? Here goes...

• Hope and I joined an animal-assisted therapy organization called Lend A Heart last month...
• When I was at the CCI Crab Feed last week, I saw a Lend A Heart (LAH) volunteer who was part of the team evaluating Hope and I last month. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to talk to her at the Crab Feed as I was in line to buy a drink and didn't know where she was sitting. Before she walked off to her table, I saw her talking to a guy in a kilt...
• I thought to myself, I wonder if that guy in the kilt is a geocacher?  There's a group of geocachers in the area who dress in kilts (don't ask me why, but they do...)...
• I emailed her back asking if she had been at the Crab Feed, and if she happened to be a geocacher because I saw her talking to the guy in the kilt...  
• Well, it turns out that not only is she a geocacher, but I have found several of her caches. She hid a few of the caches on Lake Natoma that I got from my kayak.  I told her Hope is probably even in some of the pictures on my logs for her caches.  She told me that she recognized my geocaching name too...

And, that's how I ended up going hiking today...she invited me to join her on a hike she was doing with other geocachers from the area.  The hike itself was pretty short, only a few miles, over a bridge and down the Western States Trail that ended at a waterfall. It was a good thing it was short as it started raining when we made it to our lunch spot, but it didn't ruin the day.  It was kind of fun to meet the other geocachers whose names I recognized and we found one cache along the trail.

The best part of all this is that Hope has a new buddy named Maggie who is a therapy dog , loves to hike, and goes geocaching - just like her.  They got along great today, even when we let them hike off leash and let them play in the water by the waterfall.

Hopefully, we can arrange some time to go caching/hiking together...and we'll be doing some therapy visits together too.  Very cool how things came together....

A picture of Maggie and Hope on the trail:

There were probably about 6-7 dogs on the hike today, this is Maggie, Hope and Pharoh (a shelter dog who's owners just adopted in October).

Hope at the waterfall:

Even though it was a short hike, it was nice to get out for a few hours before the rain really started coming down. I'm also happy that Hope and I have new friends, both human and dog! :-)

More field trips for Nick

Last week, I took Hope and Nick to Newcastle to visit a good friend of mine.  She lives on 5 acres and has a fully-fenced yard and about 10 goats.  The dogs had a blast playing with her black lab, Rosie, who is about 4 years old now and came from Lab Rescue...what a sweet dog! Of course, I couldn't pass up a training opportunity to expose Nick and Hope to the goats. Jennifer put some of the goat's feed in a bucket and shook it, and boy did they come running up to the fence!

Playtime...a pile of black dogs: Hope, Nick in the front of the pack, Rosie in the rear:

Hope and Nick wonder if Jen will give them any feed if they are polite...

Nick watches the feeding frenzy...

Nick checks out the goats in action and wonders why they make such strange noises...

During the week, I took Nick to a lot of different places, grocery store, pet store, etc. At this point, we are trying to work with him on taking him out to different places. On Friday night, our puppy class was held at a bowling alley. Nick didn't seem to be bothered by all the noise, in fact, the only thing he seemed to be interested in was laying down and just chilling out rather than performing his commands.  We were joking that Nick is perfectly content just being a people-watcher, haha. :-)

Here is a picture of Nick (and Shera) at the bowling alley:

Happy Birthday Hope!

Hard to believe, but today Hope turned 4, where does the time go? She and Nick enjoyed Frosty Paws to celebrate the occasion. In the evening, I took her on a Lend A Heart visit to an assisted living center in Sacramento. She did very well and what a great way to spend her birthday, doing something she enjoys...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOPE!

CPR and Snow Day

Nick had a busy day today...

In the morning, I took him with me to an American Red Cross CPR class in Rocklin.  I'm required to take CPR, First Aid, and Pet First Aid as part of our HOPE aacr training.  We listened to a lecture for about an hour first, then went into another room to practice CPR on dummies. There were a ton of people and Nick did great! I wish I would have had a camera with me as it would have been funny to get a picture of him with one of the CPR dummies....

After the class was over, we met Nick's buddies Gerrit and Carlo and their puppy raiser and drove together to Truckee for Snow Day, an annual event hosted by one of the our GRC Chapter's puppy raisers.  We got there late, so it was actually kind of nice as most of the dogs were worn out already so there wasn't a lot of crazy dogs out there playing.  Nick did great and loved carrying a toy in his mouth waiting for another dog to chase him.  What a good boy...

Ok, so black dogs and snow don't exactly go together very well, unfortunately this was my best shot of Nick...


And, here's a little video...

Nick is the black dog in the yellow scarf. The 3 dogs on the toy rope are Nick, Carlo and Shera. And, that's Nick's buddy Gerrit playing with the stick at the end...

A busy schedule...

Hope has had a busy few weeks.  Last Thursday, we went to Sutter Hospital for our visit to the STAR unit and visited with the patients there in the morning.  Then after work, we went to the Sutter Rehabilitation Institute to visit with the patients there.  Then immediately after that, I took her to our first Lend A Heart general meeting to start meeting some of the members in that group.  Whew....busy day.

Here's a picture of Hope and Sheeba (a 4-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback) in the gym at Sutter Rehab where we do our visits.  It was nice to let Hope jump up on this table as some of the patients could reach her easier from their wheelchairs.  I realize how short she is as some of the patients could barely reach her from their wheelchairs so we tried something different that night.  The "lap" and "visit" commands sure come in handy for visits too...

This week, we have two reading programs to do after work in the evenings.  Then depending on what is going on at work, I may do a Lend a Heart visit with her on Friday afternoon.  But, we'll see...

Playtime in between storms

This week I have been watching a friend's dog, Cara, for the week while her owner is on vacation. Unfortunately, it has also been raining so we haven't been able to get out much for walks or playtime.  Earlier this week I had to get a little creative as I could tell Hope and Cara needed to get their "ya-ya's" out.  Who needs expensive dog toys when a cheap 89 cent empty plastic bottle will do?

Nick came back home after puppy class last night, so today we were a houseful of black dogs. It was perfect weather for a nice long walk and playtime at the school yard near my house. Nick was so cute carrying the dog toy I brought along almost all the way to the school. Hope used to do the same thing as a puppy too... :-) Since my yard is so small, I use the school yard a lot to let the dogs play; its great as its fully fenced, so its safe for the dogs to be off leash. Hope helped me close the gates with the "push" command she learned in Advanced Training...

We actually went out for a couple of walks today as it was such great weather to be out and about.  I was amazed to walk by the ponds nearby out on the trails that were nearly full, a month or so ago, the ponds were practically bone dry.  I think all the water run-off from the neighborhoods drain into the ponds in these wetlands.  (L to R: Hope, Nick, Cara)

A different angle...

A little reminder...

It's a good thing CCI graduations roll around every 3 months...

Just when I start to lose my motivation and feel some of the negative emotions that inevitably comes with the puppy raising journey (frustration, anger, disappointment, etc., you can fill in the blanks...), attending a CCI graduation always seems to renew my spirits about puppy raising and what it is all about...the graduates who are at the receiving end of what we are doing. It also makes me realize how many special people and dogs have entered my life since I began this journey. And yesterday was no exception...

Nick and I drove down to Santa Rosa with our co-raisers and some good friends who raised Nick's half-sister Orsa who was graduating. Our local CCI Chapter, the GRC (Gold Rush Champions), rocked...we had several dogs raised in our area that graduated yesterday and we will have several new graduates who live in the Sacramento area. As always, the graduations are so emotional and the speeches were wonderful...another tear-jerking ceremony.  

This is a picture of Nick and his half-sister Orsa before the ceremony. Orsa is from Niobe's (Nick's mom) second litter. She graduated as a Skilled Companion for a 7-year old autistic boy. Before he received his CCI dog, he had opened a lemonade stand to earn money for a dog. During the ceremony he gave the money (which he was carrying in a plastic bag) to CCI...it was such a special moment. He now says he is going to sell orange juice to help pay for Orsa's food...how sweet is that?

After the ceremony, we had another "Winnie Round-Up" at CCI. Our co-raisers have an RV that they park in the back parking lot at CCI, and we hang out (with adult beverages and snacks, of course) to support our friends who have the hard part of turning in their puppy that day. 

Nick poses for a picture at CCI, such a handsome boy - all 65 lbs of him!

I just needed another reminder of what it is all about and graduation reminded me of that...

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!