Scary Movie

Yesterday Petco was one of our training locations. Alfie's been there before, and has always done pretty well. But yesterday we must've come around feeding time or something: all the little caged critters were actively running around! Spooky! Here's a little video of what ensued.
WARNING: The following video is rated GP for GUINEA PIGS. Parents of young puppies are STRONGLY CAUTIONED!

[Video shows Alfie acting all scared around the guinea pig cage at Petco...at first he wants to hide behind me...finally summons up the nerve to creep up and investigate...]
...Don't worry, he recovered from his fright pretty quickly. Funny puppy!

Happy Homecoming

Hey, Alf, we missed you!

Alfie's back home now after 3 1/2 days at the Greenwood School with Tracy.  It was a great experience for him.  When I came to pick him up, he was out romping around the playground with a bunch of little kids, and everyone was just having a great time.  I really enjoyed seeing him interact with them.  Besides the kids, he also got the opportunity to practice being in a different household with new people...go to different places on his walks...Tracy even worked him around her chickens!  (No chickens were harmed in the making of this guide dog...so I'm told!) So thanks to Tracy for a little puppy boot camp.  Hopefully Celia's experience with us has helped broaden her horizons as well!

We're off to church with Alfie...looking at him right now, I'd say we have pretty good odds of him actually sleeping through it for once.  He's exhausted!  And as all you puppy raisers out there know, a tired puppy is a good puppy.  Hooray!

Sweet & Silly...Celia

Meet Celia!  We swapped puppies with fellow raiser Tracy this weekend and so we've had this little for the past couple of days.  Here we're going for a walk...you can tell she's very eager to please (not to mention food-motivated -- she knows I've got kibble in my pocket!)

She did well, although smells were a distraction. 

OK, we're walking, not sniffing!

...NOT sniffing...

At home, she's very mellow and easy.  I've never seen a puppy sleep this much!  She'll play with a toy for a couple of minutes, then you look over and she's out cold.  She doesn't get into any puppy mischief...she's too busy snoozing.  I think she must be in a growth spurt or something!

Sometimes her reactions to new things take us by surprise.  Her first night here, she was sitting in the living room when Tim walked into the kitchen.  From her puppy's-eye-view, Celia looked up and all she could see behind the bar separating the rooms was his head.  All of a sudden she let loose with the deepest, most ferocious barking.  "Attack of the floating head!  Red alert!!"  Tim walked out from behind the bar and she was all surprised like, "Wait -- was that you all the time?!"  Funny !  We had a good laugh over that one...

Then when I didn't feed her on time one evening, she came and sat in front of me and let out this high-pitched, shrill BARK -- I know it doesn't sound like much but I'm telling you, this has sonic warfare down pat!  One bark was all it took!  My ears started ringing...I couldn't even hear out of the right one for a minute...I just looked at her in shock and said NO BARK!!  Well, that devastated her.  She melted into this adorable little apologetic heap, as if to say she was so very very very sorry and could I please just find it in my heart to forgive her?  (lick, lick, wag)...pleaaase?  How could I stay mad?  (Although I did NOT feed her right away...didn't want her repeating the performance!)

Sweet dreams, Celia!

 Puppy paws...they'll go far one day!

Puppy Playday & Switcheroo

Saturday, Alfie was invited to a guide dog puppy playday at puppy raiser Tracy Schagan's.  Natalie, Darrell, and Bob came too, so there were three puppies:  black lab Celia, yellow lab Bob and chocolate doodle Alfie...so cute together!

Getting good pictures of these three live wires was pretty tough -- although Bob seemed to enjoy posing for the camera!

Bob's so adorable with his wrinkly puppy face!

We thought it'd be nice to get a group shot of the raisers and their puppies, but none of us had our leashes outside and the puppies didn't feel like cooperating.  That's Tracy on the left with Celia, who's in the middle of making an escape attempt; I'm in the middle with Alfie; he and Natalie are the only ones actually looking at the camera!  Bob's on the right there with Natalie, looking like maybe he'd rather go play with Darrell.  Oh well, we tried!

We all enjoyed the time to relax and the pups had fun wearing themselves out.  Meanwhile though, Tracy and I decided to try a mini-puppy swap, giving our pups a chance to expand their experiences with a new handler and new set of situations.  Alfie will go on an official (and longer!) swap later, but I thought staying with Tracy for a couple of days would be a great addition to his education.  She runs the Greenwood School, a learning center for children, and on any given day she's got about a couple dozen little preschool kids running around the place enjoying all kinds of activities.  What a great experience for Alfie, don't you think? 

Tracy's already raised several guide dog puppies, so don't worry, he's in good hands!  Meanwhile, we've got Celia for a couple of days. 

...Think anyone will notice the difference?!

This & That

Off to the vet today!  Nope, nothing's wrong with Alfie...it was just time for his last puppy vaccination.  As usual, he was a trooper and although excited, behaved pretty well for us.  At 4 1/2 months old, Alfie's between 18 and 19 inches at the shoulder, and weighs in at just over 26 pounds.   I wonder how much of that is fur?

I recently had to give him a haircut around the face, as his shaggy locks hung over his eyes, blocking peripheral vision.  I learned with our last doodle puppy that  this can really hinder their work on overhead obstacles!  Now his face fur is trimmed to about an inch and a half, and the rest of his coat is still around three and a half inches.  Sooo...he looks...FAT!  Dr. Boggs even thought so, until she felt under all the fur and said, nope, she could feel all the ribs and he was just the right weight.  When the weather warms up a bit, I'll see about trimming the rest of him so he seems a little more proportional.  Until then, we'll just enjoy all that soft cuddly fur!

We're still working on those long down/stays I mentioned a couple of posts back.  I think right now, that's his biggest "working" challenge.  We've been practicing a lot, and I think we'll just have to be patient.  There is some progress though...I've been taking him to church with me and last week, one of my young students observed, "Wow, Alfie's so much better this week!  Last week he was terrible, but this week he's way better!" Kids always tell it to you straight, don't they?  I love it! 

Alfie's in that period of puppyhood that our book calls cryptically, "the juvenile period."  According to these experts of understatement, at this time "Chewing is a priority." That is their gentle way of expressing that chewing is almost the ONLY thing the puppy does!   When Alfie notices something new, you can tell his brain is assessing:  #1--Can I fit it in my mouth?  #2--How good is it to chew?  (everything is good to chew -- only some things are better than others, e.g. erasers, pencils, dolls...) and of course there's #3--Can I chew it without being noticed?  In Alfie's defense, I'll note that there's excellent reason for his chewing...he's teething like crazy.  And also, whenever I notice him chewing something inappropriate, all I really have to do is ask him to "fetch" it for me, then substitute it with something actually meant for puppies.  He's got a lot of growing up to do, that's all!

Snow Day

What's that white stuff?!  The rest of the country may be getting a lot of it, but in Austin, snow is still relatively unheard-of.  I remember we had a teeny bit of sleet last year (our puppy Dakota nearly made himself sick trying to eat it all!), but the last time we had enough snow to make a snowball was somewhere around six years ago.

Alfie loves it!  It's invigorating, edible, and best of all the snow got us all outdoors to play with him.  Hooray!

...faster than a speeding snowball...

Let's play fetch with this...um...chunk of snow and ice!

That snowflake's gonna land right in my eye!

IWYPRS Day

Well, you probably won't find cards celebrating IWYPRS day at your local Hallmark shop...and I doubt you got it off work!

But Alfie and I, undeterred by such minor technicalities, wish you a happy International Wear Your Puppy Raising Shirt Day!  We're always happy to participate in events that raise awareness for service dogs and of course it's fun when we puppy raisers get a nod too!

I like my GDTx shirt...I've had it since our first puppy so it's pretty well worn by now!  What do you think of the back?

Caption on back:  It's more than just walking the dog!

Yeah, walking the dog (although complex in its own right) sometimes seems like the easy part of puppy raising!  There's also the potty training...the "oh no what has he chewed now" moments...and hopefully not too many panicky trips to the vet when your puppy develops mysterious symptoms!  It's cooking him special food when he's sick...sometimes for months!...long conversations with your supervisor (THANKS Michelle!!)...middle-of-the night outings...teaching him that he must respect children as well as adults...and the inevitable goodbyes.

We wouldn't trade it for anything!

No, really, I'm no trouble at all!