Dulcie's First Eval

Fellow puppy raisers for GDB will understand the nerves that appear when you have and upcoming evaluation with your CFR. I'm sure other puppy raisers understand these feelings but I don't know how other schools conduct the evaluations of their puppies. But for us, CFRs are sort of the hang man when it comes to our puppies.

To be honest though, I don't really get nervous during eval time. Oh, I used to. I was a quivering ball of nerves at my very first eval all those years ago. I suppose it might have had something to do with the naughty puppy I had then who will remain Freya. But over the years I have come to realize that it's best to keep calm. We all know that our puppies will be perfect except for the one day when your CFR is in town and the CFR understands this too. So, why let your puppy pick up on you nerves? It would just make it worse I think.

I suppose my attitude towards evals may have something to do with the fact that we have a pretty awesome CFR. He doesn't jump to conclusions or make rash decisions about our puppies. He asks for our opinion and our outlook on our puppy. And he treats the puppies as individuals. This, I really like. I've met other CFRs who treat all puppies exactly the same and expect every rule to apply to each puppy. That's always frustrated me and always made me glad that our CFR here understands that one rule may not work for every single puppy.

Anyway, Dulcie had her very first eval last Tuesday. Now, like I said I don't really get nervous during eval time. In fact, I was a little excited by the fact that I was going to another eval.

We got there a teeny tiny bit late because Dulcie's bathroom schedule was a little thrown off because of the transition to my house just the day before. But it was ok because we were waiting on Nancy and Harlem as well. In the mean time we all just sat around talking. Then it was time to take a little walk. Instead of going on the walk, Dulcie and I went outside for a little potty break. Jim watched us walked away and laughed at Dulcie's walk. She definitely thinks she's hot stuff. Her tail goes straight up and she does a little golden prance. After we got back in from her bathroom break Jim worked with Dulcie. He gave her a little love, walked in and out of the head collar, kibbled her, and more. When he handed her back do you know what he said? "I really like her."

Jim rarely compliments a golden and I don't think I've ever heard him compliment a golden that young. He said that she was better than most of the lab puppies out there right now (and he's a lab person so this was the highest of compliments). He said that she had a good, little personality and that she was a good puppy.

I don't think I can tell you how long I have waited to hear Jim compliment one of my puppies. I've always had naughty puppies who need a lot of work. But not Dulcie. No. She is a good puppy. Not that I don't absolutely love my other puppies, but Dulcie is definitely one of the easiest I have had. She is eager to please, isn't too distracted, and isn't a little chicken like most golden are at this age. She's confident and bold and isn't any more or less unsure of certain things than I would expect of any puppy.

I was so happy to hear that she is a "good puppy."

Now, please enjoy some pictures of my "good puppy" at 14 weeks old with my CC girl Hilly.

Dulcie out in my back yard with her jacket on and a big grin on her face.

Dulcie outside in the back yard with her jacket on and a smile on her face.

Dulcie outside with her jacket on. She's giving us a goofy grin.

Dulcie with her jacket and Hilly with her Pet Ambassador scarf . Hilly is smiling, Dulcie is sticking her tongue out.

Dulcie and Hilly in their respective gear. Dulcie is smiling, Hilly is not.

Finally a picture where both are smiling even if it's not the best picture.

Hilly's Last Eval

I thought I would tell you guys what happened at Hilly's last eval.

Hilly's last eval was on August 11. That was almost two weeks ago, but I've been so busy with Rocco graduating that I haven't really had time to sit down and write this post. So excuse the lateness of this post.

We arrived at the designated meeting space of our evals just a few minutes ahead of schedule. I was hoping to get there fifteen minutes ahead of time to walk Hilly around a little so she wouldn't be super active during the eval, but it took me almost ten minutes to park. Needless to say I gave up that idea and just walked the long trek from my highly coveted parking space to meeting area. I suppose I should have expected a bit of a parking hassle as we were meeting at the major mall in town.

Well, we walk in, say hi to The All Knowing Jim and start our walk with other Puppy in Training, Luther. Jim has us do the normal things like go up and down stairs, ride in an elevator, tested the puppies' food protocol, walks them in and out of a head collar, and gets down on the floor with them.

After all of walking around Luther and his raiser leave (they did the talking before the walk) and if was time for Jim and I to talk about Hilly. I won't lie and say that I wasn't nervous about talking to Jim about Hilly and her progress because I was. I think I might have been more nervous at this eval than I was at any previous one. It turns out I really shouldn't have been all that nervous. At the end of the eval Jim was not only impressed with Hilly, but impressed with the work I had done.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

A picture of the GDB harness...

The harness is on my mind as of late with the hope that Rocco will graduate soon and Hilly's possible recall on the horizon...eval with Jim tomorrow. Don't know if I'm ready.

Hilly's Eval

Yesterday Hilly had her eval with the All Knowing Jim. I'm proud to announce that Jim's exact word was "excellent." That's right! Hilly got an "E" for excellent. He said she was such a nice girl and worked really well in her gentle leader and just on a flat collar. I'm so proud of her! However, he did say that if there wasn't a significant improvement in her dog distractions then...well...you know the rest. The good news on that is that I've already seen such a great improvement in her distraction. I really think she can get over this.

In other news: we were kicked out of a subway last night after seeing a movie. Normally I calmly explain that she's a Guide Dog in Training, but you know that feeling you get when you just know that someone doesn't know about the ADA? Yeah, I got that last night when the employee said, "No dogs ever" even after I explained that she was a service dog in training and then asked if he wouldn't let her in if she were a real service animal. I ask that usually to make the point the service dogs wouldn't know how to behave in public without the exposure they get in the puppy raising home. It generally gets them to see that even though the puppy is in training, they should have the right to be in the store as well and if they misbehave I leave. This time though the response was, "No dogs ever." So...I might have gotten a little too passionate when explaining the ADA regulations about how, legally, service animals are allowed anywhere a person is allowed. I'll freely admit I got hyped up a little. It happens to the best of us I suppose. Still, the only reason I got so hyped up was because he kept looking at me with this blank expression and saying, "I dunno about that." I just wanted to shout at him, "I do! I keep up with the ADA regulations!" But I didn't. After realising that I wasn't making any progress I wouldn't I calmly said, "Check with your manager about it before you guys get stuck with a fine." and left. The thing that bothers me is that his manager didn't prepare his employees for service animals.

Beeper Egg Hunt

So, I surprised my group and came home for a week. I don't know how Mary and I were able to keep it a secret for as along as we did, but everyone was surprised to see me especially Rocco. He was so happy to see me. He jumped and almost knocked his new momma over. He's really matured a lot since I last saw him in January. We got to spend "Gotcha" day together (well really, the day before "Gotcha" day) because the Egg Hunt was on the 9th. He did such a good job with all the children who petted and loved him and then snuggled with me during the picnic afterward. He's got evals today with Jim and he will be 15 months really soon so this is sort of that eval where Jim decides if he's ready for formal training. I know he's gonna do great when he is ready! His new momma says that she thinks he needs another few months out to mature still, but he might go back in at the end of this month. But enough of that, here are some pictures for you.

Rocco and Me with a visually impaired child. My mom is the one in the background.

Of course there had to be a picture of him giving me a kiss.

Rocco wanted to love on his "grandma" more than he wanted to take a picture.

Rocco in the car on the way to the picnic.

Rocco cuddling with me at the picnic. You can see, if you look real closely, that he's licking my leg.

Right now I'm puppy sitting Snyder. He's one of our newest little guys. And he's so cute!

Weekend/First Eval

So, since I'm a picture fiend this is going to be a picture post of our weekend.

This is Rocco in the Car. He's such a good boy. After Desconso Gardens he was so tired so he slept the whole back to the apartment.
Rocco and my step-dad Jesse. I think those two really like each other.
Rocco loves playing with Jesse. Even first thing in the morning.

Jesse only ever had cats as a kid, so he likes playing with the puppies. I've decided that as soon as my mom and Jesse get a house I'll buy them a Golden Retriever puppy.

We were trying to get a good picture of them like this, but I didn't have much luck. Rocco wanted to play.

So we let Rocco play for a little.
I don't know what it is, but every puppy I have brought likes to chew on Jesse's arms. Freya was the worst, but she didn't mouth anyone else. Weird.
Is Rocco trying to smile like Jesse or is he trying to grab his arms?

Rocco unfortunately messed up Jesse's hair and got puppy slobber all over his ears and face. So we had to wait until everyone was washed up before we went to dinner.This is a little later after we gave my mom her presents.

Rocco is such a handsome boy.These pine cones were giant. Rocco tried to jump up and snag one of them.
Ok, Rocco really likes flowers. He was smelling a really pretty flower so I decided to get a picture, but as soon as I took the picture...CHOMP! He also likes to eat flowers. I have a picture of him at 12 weeks old in front of these same flowers. He's really grown.
This was one of many ponds at Desconso Gardens.

Silly Momma forgot my water dish. Good thing Grandma always brings water. ~Rocco
I love this picture of him!

Here we are in front of the Boddy House. Just so you guys know, this is where I'm going to have my wedding. I've decided...now all I need is a man...
Mr. Serious. We found this great place in the shade. He plopped right down.He's just so happy.

Another one of Rocco's favourite flowers. Here he's actually sniffing the flower. Though I'm pretty sure he did try to eat one of these too.
I think he's just so pretty.
Look at that tongue!

I love his intrigued face.

This is a really pretty gazebo. You can't really see the whole thing, but trust me. It's pretty.
Standing next to a pond in the shade. It was a hot day.
There was this really cool bridge so I decided to get a lot of pictures.
He was so interested by all of the things around him. It was hard to get a picture of him looking at the screen.
But we did it! And this is by far my favourite picture of the day.
His little intrigued face again. He's showing off his "stay" command.
I love seeing how he's grown. I have a great picture of him almost exactly like this, but he looks so much older here.

That was basically our weekend. We went to Portos twice and to a great Vegan restaurant. He stayed home with Jesse and Mom and I went salsa dancing. He was a gem the whole weekend. To wrap up our weekend of Salsa lessons and Desconso Garden and bra shopping we hurried home fore our first eval. We met up with Mary and Jim only 10 minutes late after a long 3 hour journey. Rocco did great during the eval. Jim said that his leash walking was great, but we need to work on his puppy handling more. Which means 3 a day now. Funny story. For those of you who have ever had a eval before you know that Jim asks what food he's on and how much he eats. Well, when he asked this I said 1 1/2 cups twice a day. At the same time Mary said 2 1/4 cups twice a day. Uh-Oh! When we were transitioning him off of lunch I apparently was supposed to be adding that back into his breakfast and dinner. I didn't get that memo. Jim smiled and laughed at us. We had been talking about how he seems more excited to eat when he's at Mary's house. I suppose we know why now. :) So I'm slowly adding 1/4 cup a day. Yesterday he got 1 3/4 cup so he's on 2 cups today and should be up to the proper amount of food by tomorrow.

Well, I'll have more for you later today.

Happy Tails!

Raiser Erin and Rocco