Fun Day 2013: Part 2

Getting up bright and early Keno, Dulcie, and their two humans went down to the lobby for breakfast. It was just a continental breakfast so it wasn't fantastic but at least there was food right? We got out of the hotel a little later than we intended but got to the parking lot in time to try and catch a shuttle over to the campus. Unfortunately, they weren't using the shuttle buses like in previous years but the training vans they use to take students and their dogs out to routes. So only about 4 or 5 people could fit in one at a time and there was a crowd of people waiting and they were only running them every 10 minutes. So, we decided to walk. One of the people said it would take us 20 minutes because it was 4 blocks and I looked at him and said that I had done the walk plenty of times and it never took me more than 5. Low and behold, it took us 5 minutes to get to campus.

Things were a little different. They weren't giving out littermate books this year which I didn't like and I know a lot of people didn't like it either. They sent out a PDF a couple weeks before, so I printed it out instead. They also didn't have name tags. I always really liked the name tags for some reason so I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to write my name with Dulcie's. Don't ask me why. 

The opening ceremonies were like normal. After you've sat through one you don't really want to sit through another and another and another. So, every other year I'll sit through opening ceremonies but this year we got there a little late and instead we wandered around a little. In my wandering I met Amici's breeder custodian! She said she would have him later on if I wanted to meet him, but I could never find her again. That was a little disappointed, but I guess I should have asked where I could find her later. Ah well. 

Since Dulcie is young her littermate meeting was right there at the beginning of the morning. They changed where the meeting spots were located this year and I had a little trouble finding them. I even asked someone if they knew where they were and they said they weren't near the vendor booths. They were near the vendor booths. *le sigh* But I got there and everything was good! Three other siblings showed up at Fun Day, which isn't my best turn out but is definitely by far not my worst (Freya had one other, Rocco had none, and Hilly had all that were still puppies in training). Something that I think is really cool is that Dulcie's brother Davenport was only a starter puppy and he was being transferred on Fun Day and he was transferred to Belle's puppy raiser! I raised one of her grandpuppies and now we are raising siblings. Pretty cool I think.

Davenport and Danube were fairly light while Downton and Dulcie were both pretty dark. So I guess it might be easier to pick out puppies from the litter photos that GDB posts on flikr.  

Littermate meeting - from left to right: Davenport, Danube, Downton, and Dulcie

Littermate meeting - from left to right: Davenport, Danube, Downton, and Dulcie

Littermate meeting; puppy pile. All the "D" puppies playing together.

Puppy pile. The "D" siblings playing together

Dulcie (back) with her sister Danube (front). They were best friends!

After the littermate meeting I really didn't do much else. This was the first year that our club did a booth so I really helped out the rest of the time. It was weird. There wasn't really much I wanted to do. There were tours of the new dorm, but I had already seen them and I didn't really want to walk through the kennels because Dulcie had just recently started to not react to other dogs barking at her. There were little games, but nothing too interesting. I almost partook in the recall game, but Dulcie and I hadn't worked too hard on that yet so I decided not to. Plus, Dulcie is still so young that I didn't want to overstimulate her. So, I just sort of hung out at our booth in the shade most of the time and spent far more than I meant to at the other booths. Oops.

But overall, it was a good day and I think both Dulcie and I enjoyed ourselves. She was dead tired afterwards and handled all the stimulus beautifully for a puppy of her age.

Dulcie showing off her purple leash (that I made) and the yellow flower for her collar I bought for her

Dulcie making an oh so funny grin at the camera

Dulcie and me on the bench out in front of the gift shop

Dulcie and me on the bench in front of the gift shop with our baseball gear on

I'm so bummed that I forgot to get a picture of her and me in front of the sign out in front of Guide Dogs for the Blind! I hope that means that I will be back before her recall so that I can get a picture of us then.