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.

Fun Day 2013: Part 1

So, this post has been a long time coming but I've just haven't found the time to sit down and write in the past couple of weeks. Been a busy bumble bee I suppose. 

Fun Day is a big event put on by GDB for its puppy raisers, breeder custodians, graduates, etc. They hold one annually at both of their campuses. I have yet to make it to a Fun Day on their Boring, OR campus (in fact, today is the Oregon Fun Day) but I really hope to eventually. I hear the campus is absolutely stunning. Anyway, California Fun Day was a couple of weeks ago and of course Dulcie and I participated. 

Every year a committee puts together a Fun Day theme and this year was MVP. So, yes I wore my baseball jersey and yes I did put a hat on Dulcie for a picture. I only ever do it for Fun Day so there ya go.

Any good trip starts with a car journey. We don't live to far away from the San Rafael campus, but it's still a fun drive. And a drive is always better with company so I went with a friend and her 11 month old puppy KENO! Same friend I went with last year and again it was a lot of fun packing my little mini full of two dogs, two people, two crates, and all of our stuff. Especially since Keno is a little bigger than Hank. But we managed it just fine and were on the road. And luckily we didn't hit much traffic and made great timing. 

The trick for this year was finding a little something to eat. Normally on Friday we have pizza out by the pool with our puppy group and then we all go out to a club dinner on Saturday. This year there was a leader meeting that Friday evening so we all had to fend for ourselves. And thus we start on the funniest story of the weekend. 

We FINALLY decide to try and find this Thai restaurant so we load ourselves and the dogs into the car and put on the GPS since we aren't too sure of our surroundings in San Rafael. It turns out that it was in a little shopping center that was just at the bottom of the hill from our hotel that would have taken us about 10 minutes to walk to. Unfortunately we missed it on the first go around in the parking lot so decided drive out through the back and circle around. So, we get to the exit and there are no cars in the street and I think, Shoot, I can't actually remember which side of the road we drive on in the states. So I say out loud with the hopes that my friend will correct me if I'm wrong, "We drive on the left in America yes?" Getting no response I turn to drive on the left when all the cars start driving towards us and I quickly get over to the right. Apparently she thought I was joking. We both (and everyone else we told about it) had a good laugh about it. And we had our Thai and it was delicious! 

Then we went back to the hotel room, hung out by the pool, and relaxed for the big day ahead of us. Dulcie and Keno played very well with each other and didn't make too much noise or get too rough. Which is a good thing when you're in a hotel room. 

Dulcie in the hotel room with a silly expression.

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing.

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Part 2 tomorrow.

Fun Day (Part 3 - Ferry Ride)

Our club goes on the ferry into San Francisco after Fun Day as a special outing. Of course, the leaders decide whether or not the puppy is old enough or confident enough to take the ferry. This year all of our pups were old and confident enough to ride the ferry. It was really nice to have a big group on the ferry. I didn't take it with Freya way back in '09 because she was the only puppy old enough at the time to ride the ferry and last year there were only three puppies who went. So, it was really niec to have *almost* the whole group this year.

First off, the ferry ride was the first day we were trying Hilly on more food. Let's go into this lovely story about how Hilly got her food increased.

On Fun Day we went over to the CFR booth to get Hilly's body score (she was "ideal" with a 5, but the All-Knowing Jim said she could gain 5 pounds and be fine) and the CFRs noticed that she was drooling (like, icky drippy thick goop drool). One of the CFRs said that she was obviously stressed and when I tried to say that she wasn't stressed just expecting food for being very, very good around all these other dogs she wouldn't let up. Thankfully, the All Powerful Jim came to my rescue and said that Hilly wasn't a stressful dog and that I should try uping her food by a quarter cup every meal.

So! Hilly got more food that morning and had more food in her bait bag and her drooling wasn't *too* bad. It was more like a stream instead of a river. (And since then her drooling has gotten so much better)

We boarded the ferry and all the puppies did wonderfully. Here's a picture of Hilly of the ferry.

Hilly on the ferry. She was a little concerned because I had left her momentarily, but nothing like she used to do.

Hilly and Lance cuddle up on the ferry. Hilly is resting her head on Lance's rear end.

Then we got off the ferry and the puppies did great crossing the street in busy traffic and then waiting for the bus we were going to take to Pier 39. We ended up waiting through two busses before we decided just to walk to the Pier. We thought it was a great idea until we remembered that Snyder always walks at a turtle's pace and then we remembered that Schroeder and Snyder and Lance have pano. Haha! So, it was slow going to the Pier. Hilly did great considering all the dogs and noise distractions. She didn't get too excited and over zealous. I was proud of her. Hilly also was nervous, distracted, or scared when R2D2 came around for a visit. Hilly standing next to R2D2. She is not impressed.

We didn't have a lot of time at Pier 39, but we had a good lunch and walked around a little and Erin got fudge! I love fudge! We also discovered that Tippin would love to come live with Erin in Scotland. :D She's such a fun, adorable, cute puppy. I'm thinking about seeing if we can't to a puppy swap for a day before Hilly goes back just so I can see how Hilly does with another person...and so I can spend some quality time with Tip.

We then walked back to the ferry terminal and right across the street there is a really cool water display. Hilly loved it and thought it was so cool to walk around and under the water. Not all the pups had the same joy as Hilly though. I must admit, it's some pretty intimadating stuff. But Hilly, as always, took joy in her work.

Hilly is front of the this amazing water display.

Then we got back on the ferry, back in the car, and went home. I really wish I had gotten a picture in the car on the way home because Hilly rode the whole way asleep in my lap. Since she's not a cuddler, I was very happy with this new turn of events. :)

Up next...Hilly late 16 month post.

Fun Day 2011 (Part 2 - Fun Day!)

Fun Day for us started with getting up early and heading to the Northgate Mall in San Rafael. We took the GDB transport from the mall into the campus. All the pups did great on the transport which is great. They'll be doing lot of transport on busses like that in their futures as Guide Dogs. I love taking my picture with the pups next to the fountain.

(Hilly and me in front of the fountain on the San Rafael campus)

We listened to the opening ceremony which was...well, not my favourite part of the day, but definitely fun to listen to. Then Hilly and I went to the Doggie Massage class. I took this class with Freya, but I thought it would be good to do a refresher course as Hilly is the same high energy puppy that Freya was. I wanted to stick around to see the training department's demo just in case they used Rocco in it, but it was right at the same time as the Massage class. Lucky for me, Rocco wasn't used (I would have died if they used Rocco for the demo and I wasn't there). Hilly loved the class. She fell asleep right away and just let me touch and pet her. This is a big step for her as she wasn't the cuddliest puppy when she came to me, but she's warming up.

(Hilly getting ready for her massage; I did take off the jacket once we were settled)

After our class I booked it out of the kennels so that I wouldn't catch a glimpse of Rocco. Then we walked around the vendor booths. I usually buy a toy or two, but since I knew I wouldn't have Hilly for much longer and still haven't made my final decision on raising in Scotland I decided not to buy anything at the vendor booths (I don't need anymore GDB t-shirts! HAHA!). But we did go to the gift shop to buy a calender for me and a calender for my mom (Remember; Rocco is Mr. May!) and two black lab stuffed puppies in training (I lost the one I bought in honour of Freya at the London Heathrow airport).

Then with nothing to do, we went to our littermate meeting spot. We were the first ones by, but we did get to meet up with Snickers and Tartan.

(Hilly greeting Mr. Snickers)

Then her littermates started showing up. When I went to Fun Day with Freya I met one littermate (Freeway) and with Rocco none of his littermates showed up. All of Hilly's sisters (who were still in the program) showed up. And Hermes was there, but he had just been put into the kennels for his recall before the meeting. That was a bummer, but at least I got to meet her other siblings. The two I didn't get to meet were Hibachi (who was donated) and Havasu (who was CC'd). This was also my calmest littermate meeting.

(Hilly and her sisters sitting around so calmly)

We took some family photos...

From left to right: Halette, Hestia, Hilly, Hanalei, and Hana

This is a closeup of Halette, Hestia, and Hilly. You'll have to excuse my hair, it was a humid morning.

Then I got some close up pictures...

Hestia

Hanalei
Hana

Halette

All these girls were little like Hilly, but Hana was the smallest. I was told she weighed in at 42 lbs! She was small!

After that was lunch which was donated by Panera bread. So, I was a happy girl! I loooovvvveeee Panera! Then we got to watch the training departments demo.

Hilly slept through the whole training demo. And while Rocco wasn't used for the training demo guess who was! Belle puppy EATON was used! It was sooooo cool to see Eaton working up there. The training demo was really cool. Being a part of the training department at Guide Dogs has always been a possible job for me. I mean, I really would love it and every time I see the trainers out there training the dogs in harness I'm reminded about how much I would love to do it. Who knows? I'm still a few years away from graduating form University...

Oh! I also snapped this picture of Hilly's dog mom, "Aqua", from the littermate books.

I also found out that Dylan has been retired from breeding. Yes, I'm sad that I don't get the chance to raise another Dylan pup as the two girls I've had have been wonderful, but he was getting up there in years. If Dylan's puppy raisers are miraculously reading my blog I would just like to say thank you for raising a great daddy. I've thoroughly enjoyed raised his babies.

Tomorrow I shall write about our ferry ride into San Francisco.

Fun Day 2011 (Part One - Hotel)

Believe it or not, I started this post a few times, but blogger has been in a poopy mood so whenever I tried to add more than one picture at a time it would close down. Oh well. The pictures are up now and I can tell you about our Fun Day. For thos of you who don't know this, the Fun Day theme for this year was "Rockin' Rovers". Basically, it was a 50's theme day. Lucky for me I had poodle skirts around. Unfortunately for Hilly (or possibly fortunately) the poodle skirt I had was originally for Freya for Halloween. To make it fit Freya we had to tear out the seam a little. To make it fit Hilly properly I would have had to sew the seam back together. Too much work for me, so I decided that we wouldn't be wearing out poodle skirts and bobby socks.

Our Fun Day weekend started on Friday when we loaded up the big car with Lance, Hilly, Snyder, and their respective raisers and met up with Schroeder and Stuart and Schroeder's raisers (who took Stuart for the weekend too) and drove to San Rafael early in the A.M. Lance's and Schroeder's raisers were doing Follow a Trainer. Meanwhile, Snyder's raiser and myself went for ice cream. (YAY! for ice cream!) Then we checked into our hotel. I have to tell you this story.

Hilly and I were rooming with Lance and his raisers. After we set up our room and settled in we decided to let the dogs play just a little. They were playing for all of 5 minutes when we got a phone call from the front desk. "The people below you have called twice to complain about the noise..." Alright, bear in mind that this was four in the afternoon, the had only been playing for five minutes, and they weren't jumping, running, or rolling on the floor. And yet, the people below us (who were on the second floor of a three floor hotel) had called TWICE to complain. We decided that we wouldn't try and settle things because we weren't going to make these dogs stand perfectly still all weekend. I went down to the front desk and sorted it. It did mean that we had to switch rooms (which meant moving both dogs, both crates, and all our bags) but it also meant a box of chocolates because we had been so understanding and pleasant about the whole thing (I like to think it was my negotiating skills).

(A picture of Hilly and Lance finally getting to play in our new room)

After that we didn't have any problems in the hotel. In fact they were quite pleasant to us because of how politely we handled the situation. It just goes to show you, you do catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Preview to Fun Day

Hilly and I got home from Fun Day early this evening. We are both absolutely exhausted! Haha! I'm going through pictures right now and figuring out what I want to write and when and all that stuff. I just thought I would let you know how fun Fun Day was this year! So much fun in fact, that we are going to bed right now. Hilly's already got a head start on me so I had better get to it. Before I do though let me just say how awesome Hilly is!

Also, a big shout out to Halette and Hanalei who both went back for Breeder evals today! Good luck girls! I hope when I get home I have Hilly's nieces (remember, no more males) to raise!

Fun Day Final Post: San Fransisco Trip

After Fun Day my puppy club generally takes the ferry into San Fransisco and then we spend the day there with our puppies. I didn't get to do it last year because Freya would have been the only puppy old enough to ride the ferry. It wasn't like we needed to make sure she was fine with the ferry or the crowds of the San Fransisco because that dog was fearless. But I was really glad that I got to go this year because I love San Fransisco and I love spending time with Rocco and the other puppies. All the puppies did really well! We went with the other Fresno Group, Cassie and Dagan (along with little Lulu), and a few people from the Bakersfield group. I took this opportunity to take a lot of pictures of Rocco on the ferry.

There's my boy acting all confident!
I think if his head didn't blend into the sky this would be one of my favourite pictures.
Oh, it's serious look time.

He's such a handsome boy.

This one though, I think takes the cake for favourite of the day.
There's Amici on the ferry. He crashed as soon as he was able to lie down.
Oh he's a cute boy.
This is my favourite of Amici for the day.

Miss Royalty on the ferry.
She did pretty well, but her raiser did walk her around a little because she wouldn't settle. I don't think she was nervous, but I'm not sure if she was all that comfortable. That's ok, I get sea sick too.

I met up with Fanta again. Do you guys remember Fanta?

She's such a sweet girl and so alert.
We also met up with Medford and Ashley.
There's Hilton of the other group. I found out that Hilton is related to Rockford and Royalty. He's a Samuel and Indiana puppy.

This was taken on the way back. Don't all the puppies look tired?This is Brenna, Rocco, and me after we got off the ferry in SF.

Here's a group photo.

Left to Right: Dagan, Hobbs, Rocco, Fanta, Heloise, Preston, Pescara, Medford, Tulani, Hilton, Raymond, and Amici

Not Pictured: Royalty and Lulu

But here's Lulu!

She's a cutie and apparently a piston! Which means I like her!

But she's REALLY small. None of us thought she was old enough to be on the ferry ride. But she's actually 18 weeks old.

After we all got off the ferry and took a group picture we all got on the bus and headed to Pier 39. There the two groups split up. I went with Mary and Brenna to see...HARVARD! We got to see Harvard again. Harvard was Mary and Brenna's puppy before Colorado and he partner and his wife and her guide live really near SF.

Spirit and D. coming off the ferry.

We also met up with Arthur and L. who live close to Harvard and his family.
And there's Harvard pulling his partner down the ramp.

There's the boy! He's so happy and he's actually walking faster than a amble.

He's always been so handsome.
Brenna hugging D. after he got off.

All three of the working dogs. Arthur, Harvard, and Spirit.

I sort of stayed in the background and took pictures.After we all said our "hellos" we went to go see the Sea Lions. There were so many of them! Rocco was a little distracted by it.

There we all are watching the Sea Lions.

After that I didn't take too many pictures. I let L. and Arthur hold on to my arm as we went through the heavy crowds. She and I hung back from the other 4 (or 6 I should say) as they talked and caught up. Rocco did great with the slower pace. And he also had to walk on the right so he wouldn't disturb Arthur too much.

She and I got to talk a lot and I found out that Arthur was her fourth Guide and that he was having a bit of digestive issues just like Rocco. We went all over, but we mostly hit the candy stores. I got fudge (which is now gone) and some Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate with Raspberry. Then it was time to say good bye and head back to the ferry. San Fransisco was a lot of fun and I figure next time I go I'll take a blind friend because the crowds seem to part like the Red Sea for Moses when they see a Guide Team walking by. Now I have another year to wait until the next Fun Day.