Bling Bling and a Baby

Bob got some new jewelry about a week ago. Jewelry you might ask.. how and why would a guide dog puppy want or need jewelry? Well this jewelry came in the form of a brand new collar! Not any collar however, this is a very special one lol. This one has a plate on it stamped with Guide Dogs of Texas' information. Now, GDTx didn't give me this collar, I ordered it all on my own.. You might ask your self why though.. why Natalie when GDTx gave you 2 perfectly good collars to use did you order one just because it has a plate on it? Well the answer is simple... well not really but with my logic it is. Well I'll get to the answer as soon as I give a little back ground info on our little Mr. Bob. I'll do it with a little story shall I?

I like stories :) 

So there we were sitting in class one day when Bob decides he wants to stand up and shake his head all about - apparently he had had enough of laying down.. Well, in the process of shaking his head his tags went jingle jangle jingle and made such a commotion I knew something must be done to stop this.. You see Bob has 3 tags, one plastic, 2 metal and they are just so noisy! So after getting him back in a down stay I turned google on and began researching tag silencers.. Well I found some that looked somewhat promising but after seeing that shipping and handling would bring this crafty little piece of Velcro-ed cloth to about 15-16 dollars.. I can make one for much less. So I got to looking to see if they had any at Petco or Petsmart, no luck. I wasn't too bummed however because I didn't like the idea silencing his noise completely, I just wanted to turn the volume down a bit. So I looked into those rubber tag silencers that just go around the perimeter of the tag and wouldn't you know it.. they don't make them in Oval or Texas shaped.. dang! So with some more research I happened upon a website www.gundogsupply.com. They make custom collars for not a bad price.. at least not a bad price compared to what I was almost willing to pay for a wrap around tag silencer.

Shiny

So, through their website I ordered a K9 comfort collar - 1 inch black leather. Which looks almost like the one I was given, just a stronger leather and it has the plate on it. My final price was $20.30. A little steep for a collar in my opinion (I could have gone with a cheaper one but wasn't sure about the quality of the leather..) But I can always turn around and recycle it on my next dog if I like or I can give it to the new owner whenever he/she will get Bob. I ordered a pretty generous sized one (Bob is currently in the first hole) so he has plenty of room to grow. Ok, so basically now Bob has a collar with one of his tags turned into a plate (the one with GDTx's info on it) and two hanging down (the plastic and the oval one) which make a subtle noise so Darrell and I (when he's behind the couch/in the dining area) know where he is without his tags screaming at us (or my class mates) at all times. I think it was a pretty good purchase all in all.. Plus its extra safety incase he ever gets lost and the others fall or get broken off. Darrell wants to order a Mahogany colored one to match Egypt's harness, she could stand with losing a tag or two lol :)

And now about the baby.

Here's a pretty ladybug - good transition huh?

Bob met a baby the other day and was a perfect little gentleman. Not much of a story here however, the baby is Darrell's brother's godson and is 1 year old. He is 'growing up' with dogs so wasn't afraid of Bob or Egypt. They both behaved very well around him. Bob wanted to sniff him of course but wasn't allowed to get up and chase after him.. just get some air wafts with the baby's million passings. So, here are some pictures, sorry they are hard to see.. they were taken with my phone... 

Here Bob is laying down stretching his neck 

out for his first real sniff of 'baby'. 

Here the little guy went walking past 

and Bob didn't even flinch..

Bob was over playing with the mommy while baby

held on to his leash lol.. then started chewing on it.. yeah

Both dogs behaving very nicely around 

stomping baby feet. 

Also, Bob did an amazing job ignoring (after being told of course) all the fun, noise making baby toys that were laying around. Yay!