Royalty is Home

Royalty came home on the puppy truck on the 29. She was so very happy to be home and probably more happy to get off that bus! Haha! :D

Here's Royalty in her cage on the Truck.
Royalty says "Hello" to Mary and her raiser.
Still as prim and proper as always.

Look at that tail!

Our group is back down to no female puppies. It's sad to think about, but that's because I prefer the females. Not that I don't love Rocco to death, but I definitely prefer female puppies. Anyway, we're all glad she's home with her raisers. :)

Holiday Giveaway, New Year's Puppy Swap, Sad News, and a Not so Worldless Wednesday

Gosh! I was going to take a break from blogging for a while, but so many things came up at once. Where were you guys in November I ask you? Anyway, let's start off with...

Holiday Giveaway!!!! done by Mr. Rudy who is a Guide Dog in training, but not with GDB. He's with Southeastern Guide Dogs (correct me if I'm wrong Rudy). Rudy is a handsome guy who just a bit younger than my Rocco. So go check out his blog with instructions on how to win his Holiday Giveaway! And, why not become a follower as well? He is pretty darn cute. It closes on the 15th so you better hurry!

Next let's go with the New Year's Puppy Swap. This is a very cool and wonderful idea thought up by (well, I don't know if she's the first person ever to think of this but it's the first I've heard about it) Brittany on Through Labs' Eyes. Basically, you get paired up with another blogger and you two send each other gifts for the humans and the people. I think it's a wonderful idea to get to know a blogging friend better. So, if you're interesting in making a new friend (both human and dog wise) then head over to her blog to check it out. :)

And now, I have to get on with the bad news. So, my leader has this great way of telling us of the dog's progress once they are in formal training. If they're going strong she'll send us the phase report and nothing will be beside the name. But, if something has happened she'll put a sad face next to the names. So, when I got an email yesterday that said "Royalty Update :-(" I knew something was wrong. In my naivety I thought, aw, she's been cut from breeding so there won't be any Royalty puppies. So, I was already a little down. Then I read through the whole message and got not only a little down, but very sad. Royalty was a puppy who came ready to be a Guide...or a Breeder. She's the perfect puppy and always has been. I can't ever think of a more well mannered puppy. It only seems right that Royalty, the dog who never had any real issues, would be CC'd for hip dysplasia. That's right, Royalty was Career Changed. This is the second dog in a row for my group to be dropped for some sort of dysplasia. Now, you might be thinking, "Erin, you weren't this sad when Collie was CC'd." Not true. I was, but in a different way. Collie was a dog you had to work with as most goldens are. Royalty came ready to work. There's a bit of a difference. But I'm just as sad because both of them liked to work and liked to be around their people and won't have the chance to work because of a medical reason. It's all very sad. But she'll make someone a wonderful pet!

And now, a break from blogging I think.

November 18: Royalty News

I'm glad to see that I started a tradition in my puppy group that whenever a puppy leaves or is CC'd (I would have made some for Tomales and Colorado if I had been there) we have cookies. I generally make too much. But at least I have fun doing it. Mary sent me this picture of Royalty's cookies that she made for Tuesday for her last meeting.

Very pretty. :) Perhaps I won't make as many the next time I'm able to make cookies. Though I think the next puppies we have leaving will also leave while I'm here in Scotland. So, oh well. :) Anyway, Royalty unfortunately didn't get to enjoy her cookies. Why you ask? Because she went back into season again on Tuesday. That girl has been in season 3 times since being in the group from 4 months old on. I hope this means that she's meant to procreate. Mary said that it might put a snag in the cogs of our plans for me to start a Royalty puppy over the summer. But I don't think so. Not with the way that she keeps going into Season. :)

Anyway, Good Luck Royalty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 16: This is Getting Hard

This is getting a lot harder than I thought it would be. I mean, I knew doing a post a day on this blog would be difficult because I'm not raising a puppy at the moment, but I thought it would be a little easier than this. I wish I had more to post for today, but I still don't have much news about either of my pups.

Oh! I am starting to get my application together for a puppy this summer. I'm really excited. Props to anyone who can guess what I'm asking for. When the time comes closer there will of course be a contest with possible prizes. :) But for now, I'm just getting started.

In other news tonight is Royalty's last puppy meeting before heading off for college. It's getting so close.

November 13: Recall

Well guys it's official. Royalty is on the November 29th recall and the Puppy Truck is going through my town on the 19. :( Erin is sad that she doesn't get to see Royalty when she goes home for vacation.

You won't be seeing Royalty show up on the phase reports for a while as she is going in for Breeder Evaluation. I have high hopes for her as a Breeder. She's such a nice dog. Even the All Knowing Jim says that she's just a wonderful pup. I'm hoping this is a sign of good things to come. Because I have a plan!

Step 1 of my plan is for Royalty to become a breeder. Step 2 is for her to be bred almost immediately. Step 3 is for Royalty to have her puppies about 8 weeks before I come home for Summer Vacation. Step 4 is for me to start a Royalty puppy over the summer. I like this plan and I think it has potential. Now the only problem is for me to be able to get GDB to cooperate with me. But I think that's possible too. :)

Anyway, that's the news for today. Tuesday is Royalty's last puppy meeting and then she's heading to GDB on Friday the 19th. Time sure flies.

Black Lab Females

I've noticed that Freya and Royalty have some similar characteristics. I wonder if there is something to being black lab females.

1) She follows me into the bathroom all the time.
2) When I'm sitting on the floor with her and she wants to play with me she'll pick up a toy and start to circle me and every time she passes the front of me she tries to put the toy in my mouth.

She's such a good girl. The one difference with Royalty is that I don't have to use a head collar. She's so good and doesn't pull or get distracted or anything. It's really been a break on my arm.

Winston's Last Meeting

I picked Royalty up at River Park yesterday afternoon before the meeting. That meant that I had two puppies in training and a neurotic Golden Retriever in the house yesterday for a few hours.

When I walked in the house with Rocco and Royalty, Arwen took one look at Royalty and then gave me this horrified look that clearly said, "She's back!?" Freya wasn't Arwen's favourite dog and I don't blame her much. She just played a little too hard for Arwen's liking. Then when Arwen realized that the black dog I had brought to the house was in fact not Freya, she warmed up to Royalty quite quickly. I got this great picture of all three dogs.

The colours of the rainbow right?

I was also able to get a few pictures of Rocco and Royalty playing with each other. Rocco isn't the best sharer of his toys. Whenever another dog comes over and starts to play with his toys he grabs the toy out of his mouth and puts it aside. Then when they go off and get another toy he grabs that one too.

Both of them were going for the same toy. It's the femur bone and it's Royalty's favourite at my house.

Then it was time for the meeting. So I loaded up the car with Rocco's wire crate, his food, instructions/schedules, two dogs, and two trays of cookies. Who says mini coopers can't hold a lot of stuff in them? We were there about 20 minutes early so we just sat on a bench waiting for people. Rocco and Royalty were amazing. They just laid there until the both heard the jingling of Colorado and Lance coming in.

A picture of Lance and Royalty. They're so cute and Royalty was so sweet to little Lance. I hope she becomes a breeder.

Then everyone else arrived. Katlynn came with Winston and he was just as wiggly as ever. We all walked around the mall and watched Lance be his goofy golden self. He goes everywhere and is really happy. Everyone really enjoys him. I talked to Katlynn about Winston's recall and Livi about Rockford up at Guide Dogs. It was all over a good meeting. Jen even brought their little boy from the Ukraine who is on like a field trip. He was so sweet. Then it was time for cookies. I brought them out of my car and we all chowed down.

Katlynn and Winston with their cookies.Winston did such a great job with those cookies in front of him. He's totally ready.

Katlynn took the first cookie.

Winston really wants that cookie.

Another picture of Katlynn and Winston in front of the cookies.

Just in case you can't read the cookies Winston's are Red Velvet cookies that say "Good Luck Winston" and Katylnn's are Lemon cookies that say, "Congratulations Katlynn" Actually I made like 6 different kind of cookies.

Pictures of Katlynn and Winston.

What a good boy Winston is.

Some pictures of the party.

Little Lance.

He's so cute.

Last night at the party some one made the comment that I looked complete with a black lab female. Funny enough I feel complete. So I think no more males for me unless absolutely necessary. I don't think I feel complete because of the black lab thing, but because I have a female again. So, yes, I think Rocco will be my only male unless GDB really needs me to take a male.

When it was time to go I did have to say good bye to Rocco which was hard,but I told myself that it was good for him. The whole meeting as he was being walked by Hannah he kept looking at me. So, it's good that he's gone for a few days because he's going to have to learn to be away from me.

Well, Good Bye Sweet Boy Winston! Make us all proud!

Good Bye

At tonight's meeting I not only have to say good buy to Winston, but I also have to say goodbye to Rocco. No, it's not time to transfer yet, but since I was going to have Rockford this weekend I made plans for Rocco to go to a puppy sitters. Then Rockford went up to Guide Dogs for testing, but Rocco is still going to the sitters. But never fear! I shall not be puppy-less. Royalty's raisers also happen to be going out of town this weekend and there wasn't anyone to watch her until I became free! YAY! I have a black female in the house again! I absolutely LOVE Royalty. She's so sweet and so...just wonderful. I get her until Tuesday morning! There will definitely be pictures and stories throughout the week.

You know what also really cool about having Royalty? She's another Atrus puppy so she's Rocco's half-sister. Pretty cool. I had her once before for about a week when I was in between puppies. She's a doll.