Dulcie in the Big City

*Warning: Contains a ton of images*

I suppose the title is a little misleading as Dulcie really never entered the "big city" as it were. Hilly, Dulcie, and I went to visit my mother and step-dad in the LA area about a week ago and since Dulcie was still not fully vaccinated and still very young she really couldn't go many places. But she did get to go to a few places.

As I said, Dulcie made her first trip to LA when she wasn't fully vaccinated and my parents' neighborhood is very dog friendly. This meant we had to get a little creative in exercising Dulcie. She couldn't stay cooped up in the apartment all week, but we wanted things to be safe and low key. For this, I choose Desconso Gardens. Minimal to no dog traffic and the dogs that do go through there are all service dogs as it isn't open to pets. It's also one of the less visited gardens in the LA area so there isn't a lot of foot traffic either which means it wouldn't be over stimulating for Dulcie. And to top it all of there are paved walkways so we could keep puppy paws off a grass. To be honest, it's probably safer than walking her in my neighborhood back home. Dulcie was a very good girl and got nice and tired. I carried her to the cafe area since she was so pooped (though my perfect, little girl didn't poop) and she had a nice nap before we got in the car to drive home. She slept the whole way back. 

Dulcie at Desconso in front of a flower bed

Dulcie at Desconso in front of a flower bed

Dulcie at Desconso in front of a flower bed

Dulcie on a bridge to the Japanese Garden

Another great outing was the Getty Villa. Again, minimal to no dog traffic with those dogs being service animals, paved walkways, and still low foot traffic though a little bit more than Desconso. The Getty Villa is a recreation of a Roman Villa with a museum. In accordance with her "classic schooling" she learned all about ancient Rome and Greece. I think she even picked up a bit of Latin. She did not disappoint at all. She was such a wonderful puppy and handled it all like a pro. And, the best part, she slept very well that night.

Dulcie at the entrance, it's in Malibu so you can kind of see the ocean behind her

Dulcie in front of the atrium pond

Dulcie ext to a column in the museum

Dulcie in the main garden, behind her is a long 'pool' with statues of maidens

Dulcie in front of a fountain with beautiful mosaic work

Dulcie and I hung out in the kinds room for a little for a rest and took this picture of us behind a screen. It made up into a silhouette which is suppose to look like something you might find on pottery from the time. 

The rest of her outings were pretty mundane. We went out to eat, went to the grocery store, visited a book shop, that sort of thing. She spent a lot of her time in the apartment playing and resting and having a grand old vacation. My parents absolutely fell in love with her and my mother almost didn't let her leave with me she was such a good puppy. Except for eating the cat's food. To be fair, he wouldn't come out from under the bed and he left his food there for a full two hours. I suppose it's a mistake that any puppy could make once...or thrice...

Hilly and Dulcie playing in the apartment

Hilly and Dulcie playing in the apartment

Hilly and Dulcie playing in the apartment

Hilly and Dulcie playing in the apartment

Now that Dulcie is all vaccinated her next trip to LA will be even more fun. We are looking forward to taking her to Huntington Gardens next time. 

Hilly also really liked her trip to LA, but I'll let her tell you all about it on her blog. 

Ashland, Oregon Trip

Our trip to Ashland was so much fun for both Hilly and myself. It was so great to get away for a vacation. I have to tell you, people in Ashland were much better about dealing with a service dog than people here are. I didn't have one person just come up to Hilly and start petting her. Everyone asked first! It was such a nice change of pace.

Now, Hilly did...marginally well in concerns to other dogs. I definitely see an improvement from when I first got her. At the same time, I can see how much work she still has yet to do and realise that she's running out of time to impress me. With that said, I think she can at least make it to a recall date. But we'll talk about that later...

We broke up our trip to Ashland into two legs. So our first stop was Old Town Sacramento where Hilly met a pony. This confirmed my belief that she trots like a horse. Here's a picture of Hilly sitting in front of the general store sign in Old Town Sacramento. She's actually sort of looking towards the camera which is strange for my camera shy girl.

When we did finally reach Ashland the next day we checked into the hostel. Now, the husband and wife team who runs this place was not at all comfortable with me bringing Hilly. When I called to make sure they were fine with me bringing a service dog in training they originally said no. Their reason for this was because they had previously allowed a service dog stay and it wasn't a good experience so they just decided no more dogs (including service dogs) ever. They said it was because they just weren't set up for service dogs. I did try to explain that that was very much illegal and the ADA Regulations really don't care whether or not you set up your business with service dogs in mind (I said it much kinder of course). The woman said that she didn't think it was illegal no deny a person with a service dog (uhhhh...yeah, it is!), but she would check with her husband. They did eventually let us stay as long as I didn't allow Hilly in the common areas (i.e. the kitchen, bathrooms, and common living room) and as long as I vacuumed every day and if I didn't they would charge me an extra $50 cleaning fee. (I almost pointed out that making someone pay for their service dog in any form is also illegal, but I let it slide). When we got there it was clear they didn't know what the point of a service dog was and how they should behave. I'm pretty sure that the woman thought I would just let Hilly run loose in the common areas which, as a respectful and responsible service dog trainer, I would never do. I could also tell they didn't know how to speak about service animals because some of the things she said were really, really offensive to me and I'm just a trainer. But I kept my cool and decided that I would email them some ADA websites and tell them to contact the ADA hot line if they had any questions in the future, but also tell them not to give someone with a fully trained service dog the same hassle they gave me.

Well, after biting my tongue for a good half an hour as the woman explained the rules we freshened up and went to the green show before going to the first of our four plays for the week. I've already told you that Hilly wasn't stellar around other dogs and this was great practice for her because a lot of people bring their dogs to the green show. There was an incident that ended up with me on the floor, but we won't go into that. However, Hilly did do stellar during all four plays and all the green shows we went to (except for that one time I ended up on the ground). Two of the plays involved loud noises and Hilly did fabulous. While I...well, I jumped in my seat once, but that was all. I obviously didn't take pictures while we were in the shows but here's a picture of my pretty Hilly laying down on the green.
While there we also decided to go to Crater Lake. For those of you who haven't seen it I highly recommend going. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Hilly posing by the Lake


Hilly looking majestic by the Lake


Hilly and me sitting at a vista point

Hilly, my grandfather, and I at the vista point


Hilly, my mother, grandfather, and me at the vista point

We also went to a winery where Hilly and I spent and hour taking pictures and wandering around. (For those of you who are curious you are not allowed to participate in tasting even if your mother is there. This is what my mother thought was true so she took me along...) At least I got this cute picture of Hilly. She's sitting in front of some willow trees around a small pond at the winery. Unfortunately, you can't really see the grape vines in the background.

The week was really very nice. I also got to meet retired GDB Breeder "Kimmy". It was pretty cool to meet her and her ex-breeder custodians now owners. She wasn't too thrilled about meeting Hilly. She was clearly done with puppies. Haha! Here are a few more pictures for you from the week.

Hilly and me standing with one of those people who pain themselves bronze to look like a moving statue. This one was dressed up as Shakespeare. He (or she, I really don't know) was very nice to Hilly and Hilly didn't seem to mind at all that this bronze person was petting her.

Hilly and me on the Shakespeare Stairs. They're just normal stairs, but some rich person paid to put them in so he named them.

Train Trip

Every year my group goes on a train trip to Hanford to get the puppies used to public transport. It's a fun outing for both people and puppies. I went with Freya but Rocco was too young to go last year so I haven't been for a few years. When I heard that the trip was delayed until after Hilly came off the truck I was really excited...and it wasn't just because we always go to Superior Dairy for ice cream.

Hilly did really while when on the train. Both to and from she slept trough the train trip. She did amazing in Superior Dairy and, get this, she was calm around the puppies. I mean...eerily calm. It's a little weird because that morning she lunged toward a dog walk in the opposite direction as us. I'm thinking it's because these puppies had on jackets like hers. It really was the weirdest thing. Both times she's been with the group she's been excited for about 5 minutes then calmed down...so I don't think people believe me when I say she's really dog distracted but I swear she is. HAHA! She's just so sneaky about it.

Anyway, pictures for you.

If you look over to us you'll realise that Hilly and I are looking at each other. I hate to compare her to Freya, but I've got so many pictures of Freya and me like this.

Everyone in front of the Hanford Courthouse

I got this picture of Hilly and I think she's so pretty.

Did You Miss Me?

Hey Everyone! I know I've been a really bad blogger as of late, but what with Rocco's transfer, all of my packing and saying good byes, and my trip I haven't had much time on the Internet. You all hear right! As of right now I am officially a student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. This is why Rocco was transferred. GDB doesn't allow their dogs over seas as puppies you see.

Anyway, I have pictures from his transfer date and pictures of my trip which I think you will all enjoy because there are a few special guest coming! Can any of you remember who they are? Well, you'll just have to wait and see until I have finished unpacking and getting set up here before I can download pictures and write a post, but that should be no problem for you guys seeing as it's only 7:30am for the guys back in California.

Updates and pictures real soon! I promise!