What About Bob?

Advanced Training

2011-06-24T16:27:00.003-05:00

Quick update just because I'm excited!!! Bob is now in Advanced Training!!! Hoooorayyy for Bob! I'm so happy to have him "back" lol. He has matured a bit in our tiny absence but he's still the same old goof ball that I left him. I have a couple pictures I took this weekend and promise to have more up with him in a harness - maybe I can see if I can get some working pictures of him with the trainers!

No longer a Puppy Raiser

2011-04-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

Bye Bubba :)

Yes, it's true. Bob's last day with me was Friday. He is not going into formal training though. He is being placed with another raiser. Why you ask? Because Tuesday I started my new job - My work informed me that it might be too much to do puppy raising and my job so they advised me to place him elsewhere. What awful place could I be working at that thinks it would be too much for me to handle work and Bob do you say? Well.... I am the new Kennel Manager at Guide Dogs of Texas!!! Yay me!!

Can't wait to see his happy face on training days!

While yes, I am sad that Bob is no longer with me I will get to see him everyday once he comes into advanced training - which is currently set for January, so its more like a temporary absence other than me giving him up.

I am excited to be working more closely with GDTx, this job will hopefully transition into a GDMI apprenticeship some time down the road so that is my 'long term-ish' goal in taking it. My responsibilities will be taking care of the dogs that are in advanced training, basic grooming needs, getting ready to go out for training in the mornings and feedings at night, finding boarders for them on the weekends, lots of kennel maintenance and rehoming career changed and retired dogs. There are a lot more smaller details but those are the main aspects of the job. I spent all last week training and my first 'solo' day will be Monday when all the dogs in formal training come back from being boarded for the weekend.

My first "mini" project with GDTX, mulch the new Jasmine that lies on the sides of this lovely addition to our obstacle course, courtesy of the Eagle Scouts - the picture will be sent to them so they can show off their awesome work :) - Doesn't Buddy look cute?

Izzie alerting me of the obstacle on my right.

There was a full 24 hours job interview for the job which was very interesting. The reason for the full 24 hours is because they were looking for a good candidate who would be able to transition into the apprenticeship once the position opens up so they kind of combined the 2 interviews in one. The day consisted of getting assigned a dog, learning some handling skills and going out for a blindfolded walk all before lunch time. We then went over how to do sighted guide and went out and had lunch with a client. We got back, had a short break and learned more about obedience sessions and were watched by the Director of Training. We had Dinner with a volunteer client host (someone who comes and cooks for the clients while in class) and the next morning had a meeting with the CEO. About an hour later I sat on the porch in conversation with the Training Director and another GDMI where she "cruelly" informed me that while I had amazing attributes and had done so much for the organization they would, however, be dropping me from the Puppy Raising Program. It took me a few seconds to laugh at that lol. Thinking about giving up Bob stung a little but I just had to tell myself I would see him again and get to watch him advance in his formal training.

Us coming up to some broken side walk

Izzie alerting me of an overhead obstacle.

Poll

2011-04-02T20:10:00.003-05:00

Will post soon with Bob news - promise, but for right now I have a poll that I would like everyone to participate in. It's about dog treats - I'm not going to say much because I'm trying to keep it as unbiased as possible. Please post up a link to it so all your other dog peeps can give their opinions as well. I look forward to your responses, let me know if you have any questions. Thanks much!

** Just so everyone is clear, this is a question regarding a method of giving your dog a treat - it is not to be confused with a training method. Basically - if you were to give a treat to your dog, would you prefer giving individual treats for your dog to take or would you prefer to squeeze a tube and hold it down for your dog to lick?

What would you prefer to use as an aid to training your dog? A no-mess, paste based dog treat that you can squeeze out of a tube/dispenser - similar to tooth paste. Or traditional individual dog treats held in a pocket or treat pouch.

* If the box is not working please click the link to get to the poll. Dog Treat Poll

Bob and the Bus

2011-03-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

I had to go up to campus today to stop by an office so instead of driving Darrell and I took the shuttle bus that goes from out apartment to the school. This was Bob's first experience on a bus and I think he did pretty well. The first time we got on he had a tiny issue with wanting to meet/sniff everyone that was already sitting (we sit in the back where there is more room). but when we got back on to go home he did much better and only sniffed a foot that was out in the isle. His walk in between was pretty good, his pulling is much better but he has started walking a little wide so we gotta work on that. Well, thats about it, here is a picture of him sitting on the bus!

Bob, other dogs and new people

2011-03-21T14:01:00.000-05:00

So my last post I mentioned that Bob had a training walk with Larry Gelvin, the Puppy Program Manager. That walk went really well, we had gone to a nice, older neighborhood in San Antonio. Bob got the opportunity to work more on crosswalks and street noise. Once, when we were stopped at a curb a big delivery truck passed right by him and he didn't even flinch. We also learned a new left turn technique to work on with Bob. His pulling has improved dramatically, just a few tiny reminders at the beginning of the walk and he's golden!

Larry had invited along two of GDTX's newest employees to go with us and observe and try out a training walk themselves. Hillary, who is Gelvin's new assistant and puppy program supervisor got a chance to walk with Bob after about 10 minutes of him walking with me. I'm sorry to say it but he tested her like crazy. He didn't pull too much, which made me happy, but he didn't really obey any other commands given - at least not the first time it was given. Next was Rene, the new Breeding and puppy acquisition specialist. His walk went a bit better but Bob was completely unfocused on working and just focused on the treats that he knew were in Rene's pocket. Bob started to focus a bit after he figured out he wasn't going to get all of those treats immediately but still wasn't on his game anymore - a lot of that had to do with him starting to check out as he got tired. We need to work on Bob's stamina.

The issues Hillary and Rene had with Bob have all happened to me multiple times but I gotta say, it was very interesting to see him just 'switch' like that. It really reinforced the importance of having a connection with a dog and making sure that he/she knows that you are the one in charge. I love learning more about doggy brains and that was a really good learning experience for me. I suppose it was for them too so it all works out for the best.

We also had a training day at GDTX on Saturday with all but two puppies in the program. There were a few older dogs there for the boarders to learn some new info so all together there were at least 13 dogs there. It took Bob a few minutes to get over the fact that he couldn't go play with all of his friends (there were 2 dogs there that he had spent time with while we were moving) but once he settled down he did very well. We went over some basic stuff - the A-litter puppies are on their way to turning 6 months so we worked on the correct way for people to greet the puppies, and the four important things all puppies must be able to do when they get into formal training. Head up, tail wagging, straight line walking and straight sits. There were a few other little lessons but they were mainly for the younger puppies, such as 'going busy' on command and potty training stuff. GDTX is getting really close to breeder evaluation of the new litter so I'm excited to see who they choose.

Sorry there are no pictures from the training days, I forgot my camera both times. So instead here is a picture of Bob from this weekend. Just so you can see his happy face!

Here is Egypt because I know you love her too ;)

Bob is back - again

2011-03-09T21:51:00.000-06:00

Bob is back! Yay!!! He's adapting to the new apartment nicely - he and Egypt are learning how to live together in a tinier apartment. He has also advanced to being left alone - not in his crate but free roaming and he's done amazingly!!! Well thats really all the news for now - he has a training walk with Larry on Friday soooo let you know how it goes!

Dog Park and Moving

2011-02-24T23:13:00.000-06:00

So, its been a bit quiet lately - sorry about that. Bob is actually gone right now because we just moved apartments. I wanted him out of the apartment while I packed and unpacked so he's gone until the 1st or 2nd. In the mean time you'll have to be happy with pictures of Bob at the dog park :)

We've been a few times in the past few weeks - I have only taken my camera once though. He was very timid the first time we went - he spent the entire hour sniffing every tree in the area and not playing with any other dog. The next few times we went though he didn't need to sniff everything, he already had, so he spend the whole time playing and running and chasing other dogs. So, here are some pictures of his first visit.

Bob liked the water run - he had a lot of fun in there - he also needed a bath afterwards lol

running down the water way

Exploring the water bowl lol

Sniffing a tree with his friend

Chasing after another friend

I have no idea what he was doing here - probably stalking another dog..

Vacation is over - back to real life!

2011-01-23T13:19:00.001-06:00

Here are some last photos from our vacation - Bob and Egypt did great through the entire vacation, Bob kept his long lead on the whole time but we rarely touched it. It was a just an in-case kind of thing. He behaved very well up in Colorado, his manners were a bit off but towards the end of the week he got a bit better. I'm thinking it was a situational thing you know. He did pretty good on his walks - we just worked out along the streets and stuff, we focused mainly on his pulling. He did really well, he would pull for the first few minutes and then after being corrected and using the 'turn-around-and-go-the-opposite-way-when-he-pulls-technique' he would settle down and start walking nicely.

Darrell trying to make Bob go busy - I walked out and distracted him.

Playing in the front yard

Here are a few random pictures that I took up there - gives you a good feel of the atmosphere of that part of Colorado.

Coming closer to our last few days there the local deer started warming up to us more, the last two days they came into the yard to get some yummies from us. Bob seemed very interested in them. Not interested to the point where he wanted to run and chase after them, but would just sit there and watch them intently.

So serious!

We fed them cheerios and oranges

Cute baby!

We moved Bob inside when the deer came into the yard, we didn't want him to get too excited and startle them. He would stand and watch right inside the door. He never tried to get outside when they were there, he just wanted to see. Every time he would shift however the deer would tense up with fright so we moved Bob over to the window where he could see out. This was better because they couldn't see or hear him anymore and they were much more relaxed. Bob enjoyed his window time.

He was so interested in them - his ears would twitch every few seconds.

Anyway, we're back now and Bob seems to be not behaving as well as he usually does... almost like a regression kind of thing. So, the plan is extra obedience bouts throughout the day and while we work. He's not doing too bad on his working exactly, mainly just his manners and he's started picking up random objects off the ground. Like small pieces of trash and leaves and such. So, today we had a little food avoidance session, we just used his kibble as the temptation - something easy. Later on we'll start using harder things. Basically I just tossed some around him, told him to leave it and reward him when he left it. I did the same thing a long time ago with him and he did just as well as he did today. I also left the room for a while (got that idea courtesy of Lisa!) and he did really well with that too - I'll start upping the amount of time he is left alone - today the most I did was 20 seconds.

My reward was much better than his stinky old kibble!

Bob had a walk this past Thursday. I think we had intended to walk some streets and sidewalks but a cold front had blown through just that morning and the wind was insane! So, we decided to hit up a mall that is fairly close to GDTX. He did really well, needed the first few minutes to calm down and stop pulling, found the things he was asked to find and that was about it. Its funny how routine these things feel now when way back when it was like a big crazy day if he had his little 30 minute walk with a staff member... Well thats about it for now. Just busy busy busy with my last semester of school being started!

P.S. did I tell mention we attempted to make an igloo? We worked until about 11:00 PM the first day and got too cold to continue. We had plans of finishing the next day but it never happened.... if anyone is driving over by South Fork Colorado anytime soon, let me know if its still there or has been melted away!

My brother ran into the corner on the last day - thats why it looks like its going to fall over.

Can you guess what we used to make our bricks?

Vacation so far

2010-12-30T02:00:00.001-06:00

So, we're on vacation!! Yay!! We left on the 26th for our 15 hour car drive. We're here in Colorado staying at a little cabin that my Oma and Opa (grandparents) own and rent out throughout the year. We drove 8 hours the first day, and the remaining the next. The dogs were pretty good, no real problems except for bed hogs - mainly Egypt because Bob gets up too often, giving her the option to move into the middle. He was laying on the suitcases at one point lol. Overall though the trip was good. We all got here in at least two pieces or less.

Hi backseat buddy!

Bob's reaction to the snow wasn't easily judge-able... He was really excited to get out of the car so he was just hopping around and jumping up and down. Now, seeing him go out into the snow for a few days now he just does that, he'll hop a bit or bring his paws way up when he first gets onto the snow. He gets used to it quickly though and acts just like a big, playful, goofball. Egypt's reaction is a bit different, I don't know if she's ever been in snow before but she tends to avoid it when she first gets into it. She'll walk all the way around or pace a few times before going in... then she's fine, maybe its like jumping into a pool you know is going to be cold. You want to jump in but know its going to be uncomfortable so you put it off... just a thought lol.

Bob playing with Egypt in the backyard.

Anyway, the first day we got in around 5:00 P.M. so we didn't do too much, it gets dark pretty early here because the sun sets behind the mountains. It drops like 2-5 degrees a minute as soon as the sun starts to disappear so it gets pretty cold - the high being around 25-30 degrees. I know that that isn't very cold for a lot of other people, especially peeps up in the northern states, but dropping below that with no sun is enough to get us Texans inside!

Catch me if you can!!

These are a few pictures of the dogs playing in the back yard the first day we got here (Monday). Bob stays on the long lead due to all the yummy smelling deer poo that surrounds the houses. The deer here are so used to people, most of them come down regularly to say hi to the folks that throw corn in their yards. Some of the deer will come right up to you if you have something good enough in your hands. -Another blog post on that though.

What? Sniffing snow up your nose isn't normal?

I only have a few pictures of Tuesday, my brothers and dad went skiing but came back early due to the mass of people that were there. Erin, Darrell and I were thinking about going but I would rather stay home and sled or ice skate if the place is going to be too crowded. Anyway, when my brothers came back into town they convinced Darrell to get onto one of my Opa's bikes that he has up here. They got him on it in the middle of the road and he followed my younger brother's clapping for a good 30 yards or more. Doesn't sound like too much but he had fun and it was funny to watch. After the bikes we all decided to walk around the neighborhood and play in the giant snow piles in the ditches along the side of the road. I know there are a few of you out there laughing at us either out loud or in your head but we never see snow so we're more than happy playing in the ditch piles haha. Bob was funny to watch because he would come leaping after us and sink just the same - I don't think he cared lol.

Darrell following my brother as he walks backwards clapping for him.

Bob sitting waiting to be released so he can go play again.

Well, once again the sun started going down and it was about time to head back inside to warm up when the deer came down for their dinner lol. There is a guy a street away that throws corn out for them so my mom took the camera and got a few pictures.

I want to go get some corn now so I can get better pictures lol.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We went to a few big hills to go sledding and to a little town to go shopping. I didn't take my camera to the town (wish I had - the scenery on the drive is so pretty) but I did take my camera to sledding - and handed it straight over to my mom lol. She managed to get quite a few really funny shots and when I have all of them uploaded to Facebook I'll post up the link. In the meantime here are a few of Darrell, the dogs and I.

Top of the sled hill!

Darrell had made a snow angel - face down.. this was the product on the human side.

Me sitting with Bob.

Egypt licking the only skin she can reach lol.

Sledding pictures / embarrassing wipe out pics lol

It took Darrell a few tries to get the balance act down right.

He figured it out quickly though :)

Me not so much haha - in my defense there was a ramp my brothers made and that was my landing.

Darrell's was worse haha.

Oh and for some reason in the middle of all this Darrell felt to the need to pick Bob up and hold him for the camera lol. Bob is used to being handled and wasn't bothered by it at all but this face cracked me up.

He's begging my mom to talk sense into Darrell...

I guess Darrell felt like Egypt was being left out...

Egypt just doesn't care like always lol. She probably liked the break from the cold snow haha.

Ok, well thats all for now, I have a few more pictures from last night but no time to upload them - internet is slow here. Here is one last image to leave you with - it is the view from where we were when we were sledding but it gives you a feel for where we are. the place is pretty much surrounded by the mountains and most of the homes are tiny cabins like the ones here.

Its so cloudy here because its snowing up on those mountains - its slowly making its way down to us!

Oh and on training talk, Bob has been doing very well, I had him walking nicely around the neighborhood with me the past few days. Deer smell is everywhere here and he's just getting better :)

Back to being a good blogger :)

2010-12-23T17:16:00.000-06:00

So - there hasn't been much going on since finals stopped but there has been enough so here goes!

First off - Bob has been progressing very nicely these past couple weeks with his work and his pulling. Its strange how you can see that semi-big kind of tiny change in him that comes with obvious maturity. He's still a little crazy but only really at home. He's starting to behave himself without being told to on walks and he's getting really good at notpulling all the time. He still gets a little over excited when asked to find things so there is a lot of re-working with his finds - not because he doesn't know what he's looking for but because he's just way too excited to get there lol. We had a walk with Larry the other day and it went really well compared to our last walk, which was just a month ago. I thought this one would go kind of terribly considering it was about 3 days after my last final. That means Bob hadn't had as much work as he usually gets but I was pleased with the results. He even got to meet one of the several horses that pull the cart things around in downtown San Antonio.

Well hello very big puppy.

This was actually the second horse that Bob passed, there were four in a row, the first one he was cautious of but passed with little problem. This one however, the second one, had its head turned around and was looking at him - that spooked him a bit so he tried to turn around and get away from him. So after getting Bob a little more under control we were allowed to introduce him to it. He was ok, cautious but also curious. Overall it was good because next time we passed them he wasn't as crazy as he was the first time. Anyway, it was a pretty good walk. Now that its colder he is getting more work outside so it will be good with his distractions.

Oh, and also, Bob has kind of made up a new game for himself. He had a bath the other day and when the tub was filling up I had him step into it - he's getting big and I'm not into lifting him unless I have to ;). Anyway, after the bath I had him hop out of it and I dried him off - all normal. Well then he had those crazy funny hyper moments after bath time that most dogs do. During his crazy time he decided he would start throwing his bone into the bathtub - watch it flail around helplessly and once it stopped moving would hop in, grab it, hop out and run around the apartment with it. He did this at least 3 times and finally wore himself out enough to go crash on his bed. Well apparently he thinks its a lot of fun to hop in and out of bath tubs... He's done it multiple times since then and even has gone to my sister's bathroom and played in her tub.... he's gone a bit crazy I guess. I even found a bone on edge of the tub against the wall the other night... that one must not have been as much fun as the others...

Can you see his bone at his feet?

Another scrap of news, Egypt had surgery yesterday - she had to have a broken tooth extracted. Apparently she got a slab fracture at some point. We noticed it because her breath was smelly and I checked and you could see the crack in her tooth. I snapped a picture with my phone but its not very good. Please ignore my fat looking fingers - the camera adds ten pounds remember. Anyway, she had her surgery and was really groggy yesterday but is much more herself today - hope she feels better by the time we go on vacation! She and Bob get to play in the snow in Colorado!!

The fracture was in her upper right dog molar, can you see the crack?

Monday

2010-12-11T23:54:00.000-06:00

I have my last 2 finals (hopefully ever!) on Monday and after that I promise to turn back into a good puppy raiser / blogger / person who isn't glued to a text book. In the meantime - guess what Darrell did a weekend or two ago.

He went skydiving!!

Finals - just saying ;)

2010-12-04T21:49:00.001-06:00

So, obviously I haven't posted in about a year - sorry. My last day of class was Friday (yesterday) and I have 3 finals coming up but only 1 in the coming week so yay for free time - yay for blog time. Lots of stuff has been happening lately - but this post will be about the A-litter Puppies. Last I left off they were three weeks old, since then I have visited them at 5 weeks, 7 weeks and today at 8 and half weeks old. These visits weren't just for fun though - much like the last one I had a job to do - guess what it was. I got to run the puppies through their 5 and 7 week temperament tests!! Sounds cool huh? Well it was, I learned so much about puppy brains I could write a book - it would only be half a page long but a book none the less, meaning I will print and bind it and sell it to people.. maybe.

So, bet you want to know what exactly I had to do in these puppy tests and what are they were for right. Well, the purpose of the puppy temperament tests it to rank the puppies sociability, soundness and biddability. Translated meaning we were testing how well the adapted to a new-ish environment, how the handled being startled and a crazy dancing penguin, as well as how much support they needed from the 'handler' (me) or if they needed any support at all. By support I mean if they would come to me when they were uncomfortable and if they were 'coax-able' when I was trying to get them to do what I wanted (with verbal efforts first and food if needed). Well anyway, I didn't do any of the actual evaluation - my job was to actually walk to the puppies through the test / obstacle course. We had stations set up to have them go through.

pshhh no problem walking over this thing!

This is a big part of the test, we did this same test both times (5 weeks and 7 weeks) but during the 7 week one we moved them out to the driveway because they were way too big by then. It was my job to get them to walk on top of all of them and then their reactions would be evaluated by Michelle and Tracy. There is also an orange cone there in the background, that is to test their reaction to a brand new object in their environment. Another thing you can't see is a crazy maniac singing and dancing penguin (who sang a very annoying version of the cupid shuffle). This was to judge their recovery time as well as their auditory sensitivity.

The flexi squirrel and penny can!

So, whats going on in the picture above is there is the pink bunny and it is attached to a flexi leash, what happened with this is the puppy would see the bunny sitting for them nicely on the floor, and then when they go up to investigate it, it would be retracted in fast short bursts and then they would do it all over again in one long fast burst. This was to test their pray drive and (if they grabbed it) how willing they were to give it up. Also, see the can with the green tape on it - its full of pennies, this was also to judge their sensitivity but to a different type of noise/distraction.

The reasons we conducted the exact same tests at 5 and 7 weeks was to judge how they differed from the first one and if they did how much. So, after the tests were all complete we did get to play a bit - we had ourselves a little play session and photo-shoot (duh) so here are a few pictures from that.

Ummmm I think this should be the new header for the website - just my opinion lol

Miss Aspen peeking over the big log.

We put Alice in the log - can't lie and tell you that she did it herself.

These last ones were all from 5 weeks old. Then they grew up lol - these next ones are from after the 7 week test.

Big Aspen chewing on a branch

Big Austin chewing on dirt... :?

Alamo finding a nice place to rest.

And here are the pictures from today: today was Puppy Hand Off Day - so today all the puppies went to their raisers. There was a news crew there for a bit and lots of picture taking with people and puppies and people and puppies.. and some people. Here are just a few of the pictures from today.

Poppy gets her fifteen minutes of fame.

And a peanut butter stuffed dog bone.

And the puppies with their raisers!!! From the Left going right we have Alamo, Alice, Aspen, Ava, Atlas, Allie, Austin and Poppy in the front :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!!!!!!!!

2010-11-21T22:16:00.000-06:00

Today is Bob's birthday! He is 1 year old!!!!!! He (and Egypt) got a yummy dessert tonight of peanut butter and bananas - they enjoyed muchness.

And sorry -thats all for now because I'm too tired to blog - I have had a half written one sitting in the edit box for a week now and just need to finish it already!!! Promise it will be up soon though!

Celeb Status - oh yeah!

2010-11-11T09:03:00.000-06:00

Had to share a Facebook message with the world - it made me smile :)

"I would looove to meet Bob! For me, meeting him would be like meeting a celebrity, only better."

Oh yeah - Bob's pretty much a big deal around here lol.

Thanks Abbey - we can't wait to see you and Baily!!

Bob's cough is much better by the way - Haven't heard him cough since he started his meds :)

Cold and Flu season....

2010-11-07T23:34:00.000-06:00

That includes doggies too apparently... Bob has a cough...

Can you see his birth mark lol?

The Vet unofficially diagnosed Bob with Kennel cough over the phone today. He has had a funny cough for a couple of days now and I called the Vet's office earlier to get him an appointment. At first I thought he was just getting fuzzy stuff stuck in his throat as there is a small hole in his dog bed but we went out of town and the cough followed so call to the vet it was. It doesn't seem to be affecting him or his over all well being. He's eating and drinking and pooping all normal... Basically he when he gets excited he has a short (no more than a minute or two) episode of coughing, it sounds really dry and wheezy and then he'll hack a bit like he's trying to clear his throat.. All this was told to the vet over the phone and he's pretty convinced its just Kennel Cough. He doesn't want Bob to actually go into the office though because its highly contagious and would like to avoid any exposure to other's pets... I'm fine with it though because I'm pretty sure it was transferred to me at another Vet's office anyways. Apparently it can travel on clothes! Hopefully I didn't pass it onto any other pups when I went and visited GDTX to give them pictures the other day :/

If he gets worse over the next week (after taking antibiotics that I'll pick up from the parking lot of the Vet tomorrow lol) then I'll take him to the Vet. The Dr. said if anything worries me enough to go ahead and bring him in. He just wants to take precautions for now since he's pretty sure its just a cough.

Good thing is Egypt isn't showing any signs - maybe she has been able to fight it, she's older and I imagine her immune system is a bit better than his... He had Giardia and Coccidia at the same time once and she only picked up Coccidia so lets hope she doesn't pick this up from him.

Anyway, Bob probably won't be going too many places with me this week - we'll just let him rest and get over it.

Keep ya posted - send chicken soup and teddy bears!

Massive doses of cuteness here!!!!

2010-11-04T23:24:00.000-05:00

Guess what I did on Monday?!?! Well, Darrell and I - we went up to Austin to visit the puppies again and take them to the Vet to get wormed or something.. yellow stuff went in the mouth thats all I know. We got to have ourselves a little play session to get them good and tired out for the Vet visit and then we brought them back to do a (shhhhh) Christmas card photo shoot. Yup - we put them in little christmas sweaters and made them sit all in a line and smile at the same time... just kidding lol. It was actually a lot harder than it seems - trying to get a good shot of 8 puppies that now can walk and semi run - that means they're fast, fast and squirmy - but we handled it. You won't get to see those pictures though for obvious reasons lol.

Back to the cuteness I promised - Here are some pictures of the play session and Vet visit.

The puppies got some fish oil and Alamo got a little too excited - he obviously thought there wasn't enough on his side lol.

I think this one is little Atlas - please ignore mom's behind in the background :)

Darrell getting some luvin from Alamo.

I'm pretty sure the smiling one is Ava but not sure which one is next to her.

nom nom nom

This picture is from the Vet's visit - we threw all the puppies into 2 laundry baskets (to make them carry-able) and loaded up the Guide Dogs Van. Darrell's job was keeping the puppies from escaping on route. The puppies are just about too big to be hauled around in the baskets.

see his little teeth!!! and tiny ears!!!!! ah!

Ah! Ok thats all the photos for now - just know that Bob hasn't been living in a cave I just haven't gotten any good pictures of him lately. I did have a really cool experience with him the other day though. We went into a Petco that I have never been into before and our mission was to find the bathroom - the girl's room to be specific. Well we took an entire lap around the store with no luck - so we did it again and found the area at the back of the store. Now the mission was to find the right door. Bob first led me down a hallway to the employee's room - we quickly turned around lol. Then he found the area in between the boy's and the girl's bathroom - there he needed to 'work it out' and find the correct bathroom. He sniffed the bottom of the girl's door quite a lot and I thought he would stop and let me know he had found it but he just kept on sniffing and then he moved onto to the boy's door and seriously took the longest whiff I have ever seen/heard him take... I had no idea his lungs could expand to that much. After that one long whiff he went straight back to the girl's door - took another (shorter) whiff and stood there and looked at me like "Did I find what you were looking for?" We had a little party there in the hallway when he did this. I was so excited because I had never worked him with the boy's room and to see him actually work it out and find the correct one by comparison was exciting. They family he spent the month with in apparently did some good work with this find (thanks Ron!!).

Photoshoot

2010-10-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

We tried for a home-done engagement photo shoot this weekend - I haven't gotten done going through all of the photos but there are two shots I wanted to share - I read somewhere that engagement photos are supposed to capture the couple and how/who they are during the engagement period. I think these help to sum up a good chunk of it - what do you think?

I need to play with the color of the top one a bit more but what I would like to do at some point is get one of these printed on a canvas (Check out Color Inc) and hang it somewhere.. which one do you think would be better? I like the top one because both dogs are looking at the camera but I like the bottom because it looks more natural... your thoughts?

Funny Friday

2010-10-22T14:26:00.001-05:00

I think he's settling back in quite nicely don't you?

Shady

2010-10-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

Guess who's back, back again -

Bob is back, tell a friend -

Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back...

No? Not feeling it? I don't like Eminem either...

Either way Bob is back!!! Back again! Da nuh nuh nuh nuh... Sorry - its stuck in my head now... I picked Bob up today at the Guide Dog office around 1:00 and am very happy to have him back!

We have had a walk since he's been back, we walked around the campus for about 30 minutes working on his pulling, which I'm happy to report has improved a bit, finding trashcans, staircases, doorways and his favorite - an elevator! That was actually the first elevator I've taken since he left lol. After our walk I had a meeting about my internship for next semester. I got one of those comments when I walked out - you know the ones where someone says "OMG I didn't even know there was a dog in the room! Where was he?" I like those comments :)

Thats the news so far - hasn't been a very eventful day honestly. Hopefully this weekend will bring more fun :)

Say hi to the now 11 month old Bobzilla!!! and his bone.... I think he was more excited to see it then he was to see me...

"Hello lover" - this would be him talking to the bone of course....

Poppy's Puppies - 1 week old

2010-10-17T11:56:00.003-05:00

Soooooo as you might have guessed a certain someone was allowed to go visit Poppy's puppies the other ay (Wednesday actually). I had to scrub, gown, glove, and foot booty up before I was allowed to even look at them. Well I was allowed to look at them I just wasn't allowed to touch or breathe on them.. well I could breathe I guess, if I really wanted to...

Its not very much fun petting a dog through a glove but oh well :)

You may be wondering why I was required to do all this - I mean, puppies are born everyday and their people don't put themselves in a plastic bubble so they can hold them, and sniff their breath.. and rub their tummies to make them potty. Yes I did that, I considered it a privilege thank you very much.

I can't even begin to tell you how cute I felt in these lol. I think I might steal a pair and wear them to the mall.

Well the reason for all this is prevention - see Poppy tested negative for the Doggy Herpes Titer immune thingy... basically she doesn't have the antibodies to fight it so she had not antibodies to pass onto her puppies. So what does all this mean? This means that anyone with a dog or who has come in contact with a dog has/had the possibilities of picking up the Doggy Herpes virus and if they then come into contact with Poppy or her puppies the whole litter could possibly die within 24 hours... not a good thing to happen. This is the process that anyone wanting to meet the puppies or Poppy has to go through for at least the first three weeks of puppy life. Once they are about 3 weeks they will be able to fight off the virus themselves but in the meantime - we get saran wrapped. We also had to make sure we were sterile for the 3 weeks preceding labor if we wanted to interact with Poppy, that is just the window.

Well hello mr. blue buffalo, this boy is the biggest one of the bunch... regardless though point of this picture was to show you the puppies sealed ears and to point out that their eyes are still sealed. I like his tiny ear.

Some might disagree with all of this but these are the precautions GDTX is taking in order to ensure their pups get the best care possible - I'm fine with it though because if that is what I have to do to hold them and help out its worth it ;)

Now on to our actual visit...

The pee party:

Come on Poppy, we gotta work together doing this!

Above is where I had the privilege of helping each puppy expel all their urine, I had Poppy help me too of course. See, when puppies are new they don't know how to do this, usually the mom will help to stimulate this by licking their "special spots" which will make them expel their urine. Poppy however needs a bit of help (new mom and all) so we went through each puppy and she happily assisted me in the process, or is it the other way around? Who knows.. point is Teamwork! Well, Safety first then teamwork - wear shoes around the house! (Anybody can tell me the movie that quote is from I'll give you a star sticker - **Darrell can't play cause I know he knows)

Trying to do a photo shoot:

Puppy Pile!

Look at his little nails!!

We did an individual puppy photo shoot with all of them but I haven't gotten all those in order just yet so maybe I'll show those in a different post...

The Collar Changing Party:

Well, I don't know if you can tell from the other pictures but their paper collars were getting torn up and too tight, so we got to replace them!

All their first little puppy collars

New collars - we made one for me too :)

Sorry no pictures of the actual process.. don't know what I was doing... ? But here is the finished product :)

All their new little collars - they look so official now :)

Yay puppies!

Also, there is a naming contest going on if you would like to take part in naming of the puppies - they have to be A letter names and if you're my friend then they have to be Texas related lol...

Here are the ones I like if you don't have any suggestions but just want to help my names win :)

Alice - city in Texas where Darrell went to high school :)
Alamo - Please tell me I don't need to explain that one...
Abilene and Amarillo - other cities in Texas
Aggie - for Texas A & M University (even if you like UT better vote for it because B litter we can add Bevo! (all non Texaners that is the Longhorn's mascot name))
Austin - for the UT fans who are just really upset about Aggie :)
Andi - this one isn't a Texas name but its for Dr. Anderson who made a generous donation at the GDTx luncheon the other day (a blog post about that will come soon).

Here is the link if you would like to participate - Click Me!!!

Preview

2010-10-14T00:31:00.002-05:00

More will come... probably on Friday night or sometime Saturday. I have two tests so yup - you will just have to be patient for a bit :)

P.s. this picture was stolen from my own camera!!

They're here! *edited with my goof...

2010-10-06T07:36:00.002-05:00

That one is going to be super dark- the Dad's name was fire and according to genetics I don't think two yellows can make a black lol. Maybe its just dirty.

Soo many puppies

Hi momma!

Coreena won with 5 Boys and 3 Girls!!! Congrats Coreena! I'll figure out what you win later tonight cause I gotta go to class :)

*So Coreena, you didn't rally win because I got the sexes mixed up lol - it was 5 Girls and 3 Boys but you will still get a prize because you were the only person to guess that ratio :) Yay you! lol

So another winner had to be picked and there were three people that guessed the closest: Erica, Ro, and Lauren - I did a drawing to see who would win out of those 3 and guess who it is! RO!!! Yay Ro!

So, yall gotta tell me what you would like - some handmade stuff like jewelry perhaps? A leash? A Bag/purse? or if you're not into handmade stuff - Dog Toys? Dog Treats or Bones? Let me know and I'll do it - I like projects :)

Oh and I have no idea who I stole the pics from - thanks person :)

Puppies!

2010-10-05T21:12:00.001-05:00

Poppy is having her puppies right now so hurry and get your votes in now before its too late!!!

Its coming up quickly peeps!

2010-10-04T20:52:00.001-05:00

Get to guessing! The competition is almost over - due date was moved to Friday!!! Visit the original post and make your guess!

Can you see their spines?! P.S. do not use this picture as an indicator for your guess... you never know what could be in there hiding!

Photo stollen from Michelle - der!

How do you B.B.Q?

2010-09-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

Want to know what we have been up to lately? Besides school that is.. This past weekend Darrell and I volunteered at a public outreach event on Saturday. We set up a kissing booth at a scrapbook store named 'Scrapbook 911' here in San Antonio. It was the last day of a silent auction that has been going on for 3 weeks. Since we didn't have Bob, Egypt tagged along with us cause she likes giving kisses. Surprisingly not a lot of people passed through, most people stayed inside the entire time we were outside. Scrapbook 911 was also having a 'garage sale' type thing where they were getting rid of a lot of old stuff to make room for new stuff.

Do you like our sign?!

Of course its the dogs that get the heavy petting and give the kisses.. no one would pay for these guys lol.

Our piggy, well doggy, bank.

I won two things that night - one a double sided wall hanging that I will one day fill up with pictures... the other a CD case made into a little book that says me and my bff on the front and room for a picture inside. I was pretty happy with the stuff I went home with.

My wall hanging - side one!

Side two!

BFF book :)

The inside space for a picture.

That pretty much made up our Saturday - we went and saw that movie "Easy A" it was pretty funny - I'll recommend it lol. However on Sunday, we had plans to go over to Ernie's house. He is the volunteer coordinator at GDTx, he and his wife invited us over to hand out and so Ernie could help Darrell learn how to barbecue! Darrell is always talking about how he wants to get a barbecue pit but neither of us really know how to barbecue so it was pretty exciting for Darrell to get a chance to learn. Ernie is visually impaired as well so Darrell was good and ready to get a lot of tips from him.

We first started out with temperature - which Ernie said was pretty much as hot as you can get it. He had Darrell use the tongs to scope out the space on the grill. See how big it was and what not. He then had Darrell check out the raw meat, letting him figure out how it felt when he grabbed it with the tongs. After Darrell got a good feel for his surroundings and what he was working with Ernie had Darrell put the steaks on the pit. They then shut the lid and we sat around and hung out for awhile lol. We were sitting outside and chatting when Ernie drew our attention to the pit. You could hear the pit start to sizzle as juices fell onto it from the steaks. That meant it was time to flip them over.

He pretty much made Darrell do all the first steps by himself.

Ernie helping Darrell work the steaks away from the grill.

Darrell had a few issues with this part because the first steak stuck to the pit and he ripped it a bit. With the second one though Ernie taught him how get the tongs under it and move it back and forth to unstick it before he took it away from the pit. He assisted him with flipping the rest and then we hung around and waited some more. They checked the steaks after a bit and were able to tell if they were done by touch, which I believe is what most people do anyways so no big differences there.

Helping :)

We had a great dinner with steaks, baked potatoes, salad and an amazing dessert of strawberries with a chocolate brandy sauce (I think) and whipped cream.

We're planning on fajitas next because Ernie hasn't learned that one yet lol.

So, how do you B.B.Q?

Its about that time folks!

2010-09-27T15:26:00.002-05:00

Poppy is going in for an ultrasound today! She is supposed to be due on the 9th so, I decided its time to start that competition to guess whats in the belly!!!!

What do you think?!

So here is how its going to work:

Everyone is allowed 1 guess only!!!
You're guessing for number of boys and number of girls.
I'll hide all the comments until the competition is over and the first to guess the correct numbers wins!
If no one guesses the correct numbers then the closest will win!

Lots of room in that whelping box for lots of puppies!!!!

I still don't know what I will give away yet - maybe a leash, or a collar, or a bag with your dog (or whatever you want if you don't have a dog) on it... Suggestions are open and I will publish those.

Competition will close on the 8th! If Poppy happens to give birth before that I'll close it then - happy guessing!!

Getting comfy!

All pictures are courtesy of Tracy (Poppy's Midwoof!) or Michelle (Poppy's other Midwoof!)

Summer Camp

2010-09-25T18:45:00.000-05:00

I miss Bob and am currently pretending he's away at summer camp. I write him letters daily and like to think he's having too much fun swimming, riding horses and making smores to respond...

I forgot I had this picture - one day Darrell was playing with Bob and I don't know if Bob just got tired of it or what but he pretty much gave up and just hung there all floppy and limp. He's so funny - he never fights back no matter what you do to him - its not like we provoke him or anything but he puts up with a lot of random stuff.. such as Darrell holding him like this...

Bob was funny - he would go from this to looking up at me - figure out I wasn't going to help him and then flop back over again - I think he was trying to play the "pathetic" card..

A new look

2010-09-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

So - some of you who know me on Facebook have probably already seen the pictures but for those of you who haven't I wanted to share some big news!

I would like to pre-apologize because there is nothing in this post about Bob - this post is all about Darrell and his eyes. Or new eyes is more like it because Darrell got prosthetics!

So, for those of you who don't know, Darrell has had multiple surgeries since he was very young and due to this he has suffered some trauma to them. They have become flat and shrunken over the years and it causes him some discomfort from time to time. Also, due to the loss of volume his lids are now too big for what he has left. So they often don't close correctly and they don't lubricate his eyes completely when he blinks. He also will not go out without his sunglasses on because he knows his eyes are misshapen as well as his right eye cocking off to the right.

Because of his uncomfortableness with his eyes physically and the visual aesthetic we decided to start looking for some solutions. We came across Scleral Shells and decided those were the way to go. Scleral Shells are a type of prosthetic that allows the eye to remain where it is (other prosthetics require the eye to be removed) and it will sit on top of it under his eye lids. It is a large acrylic cover for the front of his eye. Almost like a giant, solid, hard contact lens.

So, you may be wondering what lead to the initial decision to look into prosthetics. Well, it all started when Mother's day came about and Darrell decided to give his mom some photos of himself. So, we went out to a pretty church and decided to use their huge stone wall as our background. All was going well until I told Darrell that his pictures would be much better if he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. I wanted them to be more personal and sunglasses just don't give you that. Well, he resisted at first because he was embarrassed but I told him they were for his mom and she loves him just like he is so he took them off and we had a great time with Darrell making funny faces and having fun with it. We gave her the pics and she loved them of course! However the fact that he was reluctant to take off his sunglasses really bothered me because if you can't be yourself in front of your family then who can you be yourself in front of? That got us looking into the prosthetics - Darrell was ready to run with the idea from the start.

Before: These are pictures from the Mother's Day Photoshoot - you can see how Darrell's eyes aren't rounded anymore and more flat on the front. He also has no irises - his right one was removed when he was 13 and the other was removed in 2007.

Click to play the slideshow!

So, after a consultation and demo fitting with Dr. Wenske, and Ocularist that works here Darrell was all set to get them the very next day - however complications ensued like they always do. First he needed the go-ahead from his cornea specialist as well as a way to pay for them because custom made prosthetics that fit into your eyeballs perfectly are not cheap! When insurance turned down the request we turned to D.A.R.S. or the Texas Department of Assistive Rehabilitative Services - they did agree to pay due to the discomfort it was causing Darrell. However they wouldn't be able to do so until September - well its September and we got em!

So, he had his first appointment on Tuesday where the doctor took a mold of his eyes by using the same process that dentists use to take molds of your teeth. So yes, he pretty much squirted this goopey stuff into Darrell's eyes and let it set there for a minute or two until it was hard, took it out and had an impression of Darrell's eye. After that he was able to make the body of the prosthetic and he spent the next 2 hours running back and forth adjusting them and making sure the pupils would line up correctly when Darrell looked straight forward. There is a bit of more coolness in this part because Darrell's right eye looks off to the far right when he's looking straight forward so instead of lining the artificial pupil and iris up with Darrell's natural one he made him one that lined up with the other one when he looked forward. So after those few hours he had another patient to attend to so told us to come back later and we could watch him paint the irises. So we did. We went back and watched how he used powdered acrylic paints (the same that nail salons use to give you acrylic nails) and map pencils. Then we were told to come back on Thursday and he would have them ready.

The Process: These are pictures of the procedure. There are pictures of the doctor injecting the goop in his eyes, the doctors paint/coloring work station and Darrell with the blank prosthetics in, those are just white and made him look kind of crazy haha.

So, its thursday so we went back and got them - when Darrell first put them in the right one was very off. Darrell looked like he was looking up and a bit to the center while his left eye looked straight ahead. So the doctor had to take it out and go and adjust it. He did this a few times until it was good so that left Darrell's left eye lids a bit swollen when we left. I still think that iris looks a bit off but it has gotten better since the swelling has gone down. The doctor said he wasn't going to worry too much yet about the aesthetics of it. He's focusing more on comfort at the moment. Once Darrell gets comfortable with them and his eye sockets adjust we'll go back and he'll make more adjustments to get them looking perfect. The whole process will take up to about 6 months because every time they get adjusted Darrell will have to get used to it and perhaps get adjusted again. But he should be done by 6 months.

The Prosthetics! Various pictures of Darrell with his brand new bright blue eyes! Theres one from the car, a few from home and a few from the sushi place we ate at for lunch!

Here are the prosthetics in Darrell's hand

His left one is much bigger than the right, you can't really tell but its much thicker.

If you would like to see more pictures and captions of the whole process feel free to visit my facebook album by following the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2304620&id=25418284&l=bef8818652

Bye Bob!!!

2010-09-22T12:17:00.000-05:00

Bob was dropped off this morning at GDTx - he'll be gone on his swap for about a month - meaning he'll come back at 11 months old. Wonder what changes will come!

Can I pack this?!

Applying his knowledge?

2010-09-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

So, I'm just sitting here, uploading pictures onto facebook and Bob comes over and decides to park himself under my chair - think he's trying to apply his knowledge?

So comfy under the chair!! lol

Then he shifted... I guess he liked this position too..

By the way - Bob will be leaving me for about a month to do his swap (I'm currently not getting a replacement though) I have saved some stories and will hopefully be able to give plenty of updates while he's gone - wish him luck!!!

Down Stay

2010-09-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

Bob at my favorite pizza place. He was put on a down stay while I went to refill my drink.

Bob not even worried about me leaving him under the table.. he was more interested in Darrell's jiggling foot.

Bob at academy while Erin and I looked at shoes.

He was more interested here but did very well.

Do you live in San Antonio or Austin? do you like music?

2010-09-20T18:56:00.002-05:00

If you answered "yes" or "kind of" to either of these questions then check this out! Haha sorry for the cheesy line. Anyways, in about a month there will be a concert in Austin and proceeds will go to benefit the Pawsitive Approach program at Guide Dogs of Texas!!! Yay!!!

Whats better than that? Dogs and music - hello thats all you need! Oh, the best thing about it - while they last there are "Pay what you want" tickets!

Here's a bit of information about it - more can be found at the website if it looks interesting!

http://www.planetrth.com

Join legendary producer and DJ PRINCE PAUL,
Freestyle Fellowship member and lyricist extraordinaire ACEYALONE,
king of the Yonkers underground OMEGA JACKSON,
and Seattle's regressive hip hop genius V1RUS
for some of the slickest intelligence you'll ever hear on any stage.

But wait, there's more! Austin's own SYLLABLE is hosting a midnight freestyle cypher on the inside stage with the crew from Sound of Syllables Hip Hop Open Mic Night! Enjoy the sights as well as the sounds - lovely ladies from The JIGGLEWATTS and BLACK WIDOW BURLESQUE add special sparkle to the celebration all night long.

Music starts early, doors at 8:30p.m.
General Admission tickets only $20 / $25 day of show.

Oh and I was going to post some pictures of Bob practicing his down stays in random places but blogger won't let me load anything.... is anyone else having this problem?

What the heck is in there!?

2010-09-15T22:40:00.000-05:00

I think I want to start a little competition... With Poppy's puppies lol. I think I am going to open the blogger floor to guesses about how many puppies Poppy is going to have. However since simply guessing a number will be waayyy to easy I think I will do the first person to guess the correct amount of each boy and girl puppies. Sound good? FLoor isn't open yet - I'll get back to you at a later date - along with the prize - whatever that will be. For now we'll all just sit back and watch the belly grow :)

Photo courtesy of Tracy from Facebook who is also Poppy's 'raiser' type person (what do you call the breeder peeps?)

Night!

Hermine...

2010-09-15T10:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have been trying to post this since last weekend but none of the pictures would load. So sorry - here you go :(

Sooooo... us here Texans have been experiencing a lot of tropical storm Hermine the past few days. Do you know what that means? That means Bob has discovered how much fun rain is... Well, not all rain really... just the big drops that come rolling off of the rooftop. Regular rain doesn't bother him - just those big big drops.

This is the only one that would load - so sorry..

For example, when they hit him in the head he looks up in order to retaliate. He retaliates by opening his mouth and trying to destroy the very next water drop that dares to hit him on the head... when his teeth are tired of biting nothing he gives up and tries to catch them on his tongue. Its funny because when he is working in the rain he looks really depressed and just kind of goes with it.. but when he's supposed to be potting he's not having it haha. Maybe he remembers the snow flakes from when he was a tiny puppy, before he even came to Texas. He doesn't think its as much fun here.

Blindfolds and Burritos

2010-09-07T23:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has taken soooo long to post this up but last Monday (the 30th) Guide Dogs of Texas hosted an event. They invited us all to a dinner where we can go and spend an hour behind a blindfold and try to eat like a visually impaired person would. This is a very typical situation for a client going to Guide Dogs of Texas. Its a very homey environment and volunteers come and cook lunch and dinner for the client everyday while they are in training. It was a very interesting experience with mixed reviews but we all got through it without too much damage.

One guest receiving sighted guide on her
way into the dining room.

So, we were pretty much blindfolded right when we got to the door, they didn't want to give anyone a hint at the setup of the dining area because a client wouldn't know when they first got there so why should we lol? My group sat at the normal dining table at the facilities. They had set up another table for the other guests where the sitting area is. There were 4 staff members there; Sandy, Sarah, Kim and Lawrence, they walked us in while at the same time giving us a little demonstration and instruction of sighted guide. We learned some tips on how to properly perform sighted guide and I actually learned a lot. I mean, I did it with Darrell for the first year and a half of us dating but it was different being on the other end of it, some of the techniques I just naturally did with him they told us about and we also learned a few others.

Anyways, while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive the staff got us our drinks and explained how the dinner would work out a bit more. It was odd to sit there and not really have anything to do - I kept checking my drink and making sure where it was. The conversations was a bit strained at times as well. It was very quiet there for a while. Some people wanted to talk but the conversations just never really took off. Some people wanted to be left alone completely. My friend Chris for example later told us that he started to feel very claustrophobic and didn't like the experience much at all. He was also in the chair that everyone walked behind so I'm sure that didn't help with his trapped feelings.

Sandy giving us tips on how to best handle the meal.

Chris already feeling awkward while people walk behind him.

Erin and Darrell waiting for their chips.

After more guests started to arrive we were able to get on with our meal. Chipotle donated chips, salsa and burritos so that was our meal - I was really happy when I found that out :)

Sarah serving me some salsa.

The salsa was honestly the hardest thing for me to eat. It was more like pico de gallo so it was very scoopable. I wound up using my plate as a barrier to stop the stuff from falling off. I would lift up the edge of it and fold it a bit (it was a paper plate) that way I could feel just how much pressure I was putting against the salsa with my chip. It worked out ok - others had more luck by using their fingers but I don't like using my fingers and wanted to try and not use them as much as possible. Obviously with a burrito it wasn't practical so hands were used there but everything else I tried to keep my fingers clean.

See me using my plate?

Here was another technique. One lady used one chip as a sort of utensil to help her scoop her salsa onto another one. We hadn't gotten utensils yet at this point so it was a very involving task lol.

After all the chips and burritos were eaten we were given dessert. I had brought mini cheesecakes in foil cupcake sleeves, Sarah had made these amazing orange chocolate cookies - which afterward I saw were white and dipped in chocolate and drizzled with the orange stuff... when I was eating them my mind told me the entire thing was chocolate and had chips in them - not the case haha. They also had a challenge dessert for us. Jello with bananas in it - this one was hard and I did unfortunately get my fingers messy haha. I was trying to not let it flop off my spoon - ah well... thats what napkins are for I guess.

Erin obviously has no problem using her fingers haha.

I didn't get a burrito :(

Oh, did you know Bob was there the whole time - I was actually really worried about bringing him.. I didn't know if I would get stressed and freak out but he did really well. He pretty much acted like he normally does when we go out to eat. He was really excited when we got there because there was a GDTx client there with her dog but he soon figured out he couldn't say hi and calmed down. Not until we were leaving did he go sniff crazy on the carpet - I was just waiting for it.. puppies can't resist the GDTx carpet haha!

Told you

2010-09-06T20:51:00.000-05:00

BFFs - seriously.

Euphoria

2010-09-01T21:34:00.003-05:00

There are a few different ways to induce Euphoria... Some people exercise, some people do yoga and meditate - some people use opium.. Yeah, I said it - opium - the drug. Do you know where opium comes from? Poppy seeds. That is why they tell you not to go and eat a poppy seed bagel right before a drug test because you're likely to test positive. Opium induces feelings of euphoria when used but I know of a much better (legal) way to induce euphoria. All you need to do is get yourself a puppy - specifically a puppy from Poppy's litter (one of Poppy's seeds *wink*wink* haha).

Poppy running in the GDTx grass -
I heart her face.

So you may be wondering who this Poppy is that I speak of huh? Poppy is Guide Dogs of Texas' very first and at the moment only brood bitch (excuse the technical term/bad word...) and she's pregnant! They just found out yesterday!!! She had an ultrasound yesterday and no one has told us how many she has yet (they might not be able to tell at the moment) but apparently they are the size of a pencil eraser!

I heart this face too :)

Anyways, GDTx is gearing up and ready for its very first litter. For all my out of town/state readers I hope you'll wish them luck and for all my in town readers or people who wish to help out - this is a big leap for GDTx and they're needing help more than ever now. As always, volunteers are always needed and now they are in need of puppy items if anyone wants to donate stuff.

Here is a (long) list of all the things GDTx is always looking for and would really appreciate - think of the puppies!!!! Grab a puppy and get those euphoric feelings revved up and help us out! I'll keep you updated on all of Poppy's news as it comes to me!

Well... I just searched for a good 20 minutes and I can't find my list... I'll get it up for you as soon as I get it emailed to me again haha. While you wait you can try to make out the inner workings of Poppy's uterus:

Does anyone really ever understand these things?

P.S. Poppy's uterus picture was stolen from Michelle's facebook page - just so she doesn't sue me for copyright or something ;)

Bob back at school and his 9 months.

2010-08-30T23:52:00.001-05:00

Ok so I had a nice little week and a half long break from school now that we're back its pretty obvious that Bob is just as not used to early morning class as I am. I took him last Friday to my 8:00 class, however I didn't really give him a chance to release any energy before hand so he was a bit energetic during my 50 minute class. Haha, he kept rolling over and getting tangled in his leash and making noises - which is normal for him but only if he's been laying there for quite a while - like longer than an hour.. his restlessness started after only 5 minutes. So, today before class I got up and fed Bob 30 minutes earlier than usual that way he would have a bit of time to just run around and get those wiggles out haha. Well anyways, needless to say that on Friday his pulling issue was a bit more than normal, however today he did great! He pulled a bit on the way to class but on the way back he was really good. Well - point of all that is that hopefully now with a routine back in place Bob's walks will only get better.

Also, I missed his 8 month mark - so sorry there is no 8 things but he's 9 months now so I'll give this one a try - hopefully I can think of enough stuff lol.

Just give us the kong lady!

1. Bob is now taller than Egypt and his head is much bigger lol.

2. He has become much more vocal lately - he used to not bark too much, only when he got really into playing with Egypt. Now he barks all the time - not so much when we're out working (the exception would be Macy's) now if he wants something he's gonna come up and bark in your face... He's good with his 'quiet' command though so just gotta work on it. :)

3. We moved his crate back into the room and he's getting lost again haha. Last time we moved his crate (out to the living room) he would automatically run to the bedroom - now he automatically runs to the old spot which is a bed so technically he's doing what he's told (going to his bed) however I do make sure he gets into that crate... Good thing is though he now knows all the dog beds in the place as beds so no problems there.

Ignore the mattress, I was washing sheets :)

4. Did you know crates taste good? Bob knows.

5. Bob's heel command is awesome!!! He's pretty much flawless with it - Pretty much because the only problem is I can't wear flip flops because when he gets too excited he steps on my feet and tries to scratch my toes off lol. He doesn't do it all the time - mainly during dinner and when he's sliding all over the tile.

6. Bob went to GDTx today and didn't freak out! You don't know how crazy he gets when we got there - seriously - all the smells and familiar people whom he knows all have treats in their pockets... Anyways, he didn't go crazy today which was awesome because I was uhh.. "compromised?" at the time - I'll have more on that story tomorrow (or Thursday) on that though :)

Ahhh, so comfy!

7. Do you remember when Bob was making funny faces at me - well I don't remember if I wrote it or not but it was because he was sleeping against the door of his crate - I thought he did this because the crate was small. Well turns out he just likes to do that... He's a weird kid....

8. Bob slobbers a lot.. have I ever mentioned that? I'll have him do puppy push ups and stuff before meals and even though they don't last that long, he's got all these little drool puddles underneath him by the time he's done with it.. not to mention the strings of goo coming down from his ever growing jowls lol. Yes they have gotten bigger... probably because Egypt tries to stretch them out on a daily basis.

You taste good BFF!

9. Bob and Egypt are pretty much BFFs now... really - she actually goes out of her way to play with him now. It's weird and kind of heart breaking... What is she going to do when he has to leave? What do your dogs do when they get attached?

Sorry to end on a semi-depressing note but I like ending with a good question! Answer away people!

Black out

2010-08-30T09:33:00.000-05:00

Well not really - it was just a short 3 minute power outage in one of my classes. Regardless Bob was unaffected by it :) He didn't even move - this really surprised me because he'll look up if he hears the tiniest sound but didn't flinch at all when all the lights went out. No picture right now but there should be a good new blog post up tonight or maybe tomorrow morning - we'll see how tired I am after my run.

P.S. Darrell and I are still running in the half marathon (13.1 miles) in November. We still need lots of help raising support for Guide Dogs of Texas - who we are running with/for. Neither of us have reached our fundraising goal yet so tell your friends! Click here to donate and sponsor one of us if you would like to help us raise funds for GDTX!

Here is the link to my first blog post if you would like to read more information about it. 13.1 Miles to November.

Quick funny story

2010-08-25T16:41:00.000-05:00

So, I don't really have time to write a whole blog post - even though I do have a lot to say. But here is a pretty funny / slightly terrible story about Bob. Today was the first day of school so I didn't bring Bob to school because like I learned last semester - its simply just better to give a heads up. Plus its insanely crowded on the first day! Regardless - when I let Bob out of his crate at 9:00 this morning after I got home from class #1 he was a little more hyper than usual but that isn't the funny part of the story. So, he grabbed the first toy he saw and started running around like a crazy kid with it. Well apparently he didn't want to play with me because he ran into Erin's room, who by the way was still sleeping, and stuck the toy on her bed and asked her to play. Well, she was still sleeping and didn't want to play at that particular hour of the morning so she just rolled over and ignored him. Evidently Bob had a problem with this because he started barking at her lol. So, I had to run in there and get him out before he disturbed the sleeping beast too much. Not saying Erin is a beast - I just wouldn't want to be the reason for her waking up if you know what I mean. Poor Bob - he didn't get to play with Erin. But after a while I started recording him running around and going crazy - well guess what he decides to do once the camera turns on - he did nothing but stare at me. Good thing was I finally got his funny yawn on camera!

Here is the link if you're unable to view it. Click Me.

Bob doesn't always yawn like this. He only yawns big in the morning but most of the time his noise is more high pitched and much shorter lol. Hope you enjoyed!

Bob at the mall equals tiny people overload.

2010-08-22T00:47:00.000-05:00

Bob in front of our little booth at Macy's -
he is next to the coin dog piggy bank that we
put out in order to help raise funds.
That one is the large one -
there is a small on table to the left.

Well Bob has been to the mall before but today was a special day. First Bob and I weren't there to shop - which is not normal. Second there were tons of people at the mall - which is only semi normal but there were more people than normal this time. Want to know why? Because Bob and I volunteered to be at a booth set up by GDTX at Macy's to spread the word about our organization - oh did you now its tax free weekend?

It was a pretty normal volunteer gig - you know stand there give out information on the program, tell people how they can volunteer.. and stop Bob from licking the faces off tiny child like people things... typical volunteer day haha. It was actually a really experience for Bob with him getting to meet so many children and babies and different people. He has met people before but never to that capacity. He did bark a few times - once was a mom was kind of dancing around Bob with her baby trying to get him to pet him or something... she wasn't really dancing but from Bob's perspective she was practically teasing him with that baby lol.

One of the board members and I pose for a
picture - isn't Bob's face priceless!?
I wonder what he was looking at..

The other times that he barked (ehem.. 3 barks actually lol) was when one of the employees from GDTx brought his dog to the store - Autumn, who is actually a retired guide dog who became a guide dog ambassador with Larry, the puppy raising supervisor. So, Autumn is technically a pet but since she is a GD ambassador she gets to go out and represent for GDTx since she is still able to go out and do stuff like that. Anyways it was a really good day and Bob was good and worn out on the way home from saying hi to so many people..

If you blow this picture up you can see
the drool on his nose,licking all those
little hands is hard work!

However as soon as we got home he must have gotten his second wind or something because that boy went a little crazy.. you know how puppies do those labby loops around everywhere sometimes.. they do 3 to 4 laps and they're good.. Well Bob did his 3 to 4 laps, and then did it again, and then did it again, and then did it again.. he had his little case of labby loops every 5 minutes for about 2 hours... he pretty much went crazy and I'm pretty sure we have to get the carpet stretched now that his running has pulled it all up haha. Well, after a while it became time for Bob to be put up before his dinner so he wouldn't continue to go crazy and try to tackle Egypt in between all of his craziness... anyways point of that is he wasn't in his crate for more than 30 seconds and he was dead to the world.. I like him like that haha.

Bob and I pose - please ignore the ridiculous hair - it was hot.. don't judge me!

Oh the temptation!!!

2010-08-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

So today I was sitting on the couch not really doing much of anything and I witnessed something so astonishing, so eye-popping, so sad yet glorious at the same time I had to share haha. So, today Erin was eating some Campbell's Chunky potato and beef soup - well it had some mushrooms in it. Erin doesn't eat mushrooms - she hates them. So, she used my plate which previously had a hot dog on it to put her mushrooms when they came up. Well - these gravy covered mushrooms were just a bit too much for Bob - he kept coming over and air sniffing and running away when told to leave it. Well after a while when we thought he was over it he came and rested his head on the couch - his knose about half a foot away from the mushroom plate, and just sat there and sat there and sat there..... maybe he thought if he stared at it long enough he could have it... It was pretty pathetic needless to say. Well after some time of sitting and staring I guess he lost interest and just gave up. Just walked away and never came back... I have to admit it made me happy - he could have easily gotten those mushrooms with the gravy that smelled so good but never did - just sat and watched. Safe to say someone is growing up ;)

"Man I really wish I could have tasted those mushrooms!"

Too much of a good thing maybe?

2010-08-16T02:48:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to post but ever since my final (on Thursday) I seem to be doing so much stuff and when I get home I'm just not into posting up a blog lol. I mean right now it is 2:40 in the morning.... I wasn't going to do this but felt like I at least needed to give you one picture haha... Just so you know - things to come - Poppy: a very special dog at GDTx, Bob of course, I might show you my table if I ever finish.... For right now though - you'll just have to settle with the cutest face you have ever seen :)

Egypt actually had that kong - that is her tail in the background lol. P.S. - isn't that face cutest face ever!!??

Bigger home ;)

2010-08-08T20:32:00.000-05:00

So remember how I was telling Bob didn't like his tiny crate and needed a bigger home? Remember the funny faces? Well, a few days ago we swapped Bob's old crate at GDTX and got a bigger one. So, guess what Mr. Bob did today - he went into his crate, completely all on his own will to take a nap.... that has never ever happened before. The only time he has ever gone into his crate without me asking him to is sometimes after dinner - and it's only because he knows I'm going to tell him anyways...

Well - here are a few pictures if you don't believe me - I know - it's that crazy!!

Here is his old crate just incase you can't remember how tiny and cramped it became.

Here is Bob in his new crate ready to nap away...

The proof!!! He fell asleep in his crate all on his own accord!

Here he is after sleeping for about 1.5 hours - he's asking if it is dinner time yet...

Just thought I would share that little happy story with you... :)

Bob and I had a "fun" experience at Wal-Mart today... First off, he did great in there, we have been working on his pulling lately and he didn't pull that much - well the only time he pulled was when he found a jalapeno popper underneath a shelf... but other than that he was pretty perfect. However - once we got outside he refused to step foot in the sunlight... I know it was because the pavement was hot and he didn't want to walk on it but he just down right would not move... I tried everything from treats to stupid noises and he just didn't want to walk in the sunlight... I finally had to leave him with my friend on one of the benches while I went and got my car.. they just sat there and he behaved very nicely for her :) and then hopped right into the car like nothing had even happened... Guess I have to find some good persuasion methods for next time.. Has this ever happened with anyone else? I'm going to call GDTX if he does it again to see what else I can do, other than offering him a medium rare sirloin with garlic butter...

Long Monday....

2010-08-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

So today started out like any other day.. wake up at 6:45. Make it to class by 7:30... take an exam.. You know how that goes. lol. Well after I had gotten home and fed Bob, Darrell and I started working on getting some school stuff done. He wasn't able to register for a class that he needed so we had to figure that out. Also, there is a course showing up that I had gotten out of at the beginning of summer.. it just showed up recently and I'm not supposed to have it.. So I don't know if I'm going to be charged for it or not. Well while we were both on hold FOREVER with a few different people we decided to just go up to the school and get it taken care of. The lines aren't long at the moment because everybody just calls - and gets put on hold lol.

So, we load up the dogs and take off for what we thought was going to be a short trip to the school. Well, technically the office we went to first was a short trip, however, they couldn't help us and sent us to another office. They semi-helped us and then sent us to another office - its hot by the way... Well we go to this other office and meet Darrell's advisor along the way.. we still need to go to this office but she told us that we never needed to go to any other office at all.. just have to click some buttons and then reregister him for the course. Well ok - that takes care of Darrell's problem. More office going for my problem though.

Bob was doing pretty good throughout our little hike of the school. He needs some more work on his most recently learned finds though. He did pretty well after a little refresher - he is still reluctant to sit at his finds though - he'll go to them stand there and look at me like "where's my treat"? He is supposed to sit at all of his finds and he does most of the time, but his down steps are the hardest... I can just hear him thinking "What's the point? We're just going to go down them anyways...." lol turd. Well, we'll work through them... His pulling is getting a bit better too.. he doesn't so much pull anymore but does put more tension on the leash than I would like.. just gotta keep working lol! Well, here are a few pictures of our day at school.

Bob finding a stair case at the school.

Bob at a down step - he was getting hot by this time lol.

Now, Bob getting tired on walks has its ups and downs - on one hand he walks slower and pulls less earning him more praise. On the other - his finds start to really go down hill.... After a while I would ask him to find me a seat and he took me to the trash can.... I asked for the trash can and he took me to a water fountain haha... Well, after we stopped by the office I needed to go too (Darrell had already gone to the car - no point in him following me around the school.... ) we stopped and Bob got some water - he was a bit better after this but kept trying to get the collapsible bowl that I had stuck in my purse - I don't think his thirst was completely quenched lol.

Bob's first bowl of water - he drank it all in about 2 seconds lol.

Bob's second bowl of water he didn't get up to drink - look at that long crazy neck haha.

So, after the school and after a short break Erin asked if we wanted to go to Chili's - so we went :) haha. Nothing special on that trip - just normal. But he did get to work on leave-it with a french fry lol.

Bob doesn't quite fit under the chairs - ever - he's a stretch out kinda dog...

See what I mean? I'm pretty sure he's incapable of curling into a ball..

This french fry threatened trouble.. we handled it though.

Bob got a bath a few hours after we got home - he stank... I think it's his feet.. Darrell says he just stinks lol.

Close the shower curtain!!! Dang!

Freckles

2010-07-28T20:45:00.000-05:00

Did you know Bob had freckles? Apparently when it rains, Bob's freckles show up.. :)

lol I like Bob's rain-drop freckles ;)

6 tests in 2 weeks - really?

2010-07-25T23:19:00.000-05:00

Soooo sorry its been slow lately; obviously from the title I have/had a lot of stuff going on.. basically that means a lot of uninteresting things going on in Bob's working.. We still take him to our normal places and everything so he's still getting work in, I just haven't been able to actually go anywhere special with him lately. The weather doesn't really help this issue but as soon as my last 3 tests (finals actually) are done with this week I plan on going crazy in the Bob-walking department.

We need to get Bob a new crate soon - he's just too big and can't stretch out like he likes too...

I want to take Bob to the zoo one day, it's a very distracting place though so he might need some extra work in before he goes there... or maybe we'll go spend a day at the botanical gardens - those places usually have plenty of shade and the temperature isn't really terrible when its shady. I have heard mixed things about service dogs in zoos but its allowed so I'll definitely do it. One day, lol. I also think another mall trip is in order along with a movie - I haven't been to the movies in forever and Bob wants to see "Despicable Me" so gotta take care of that lol.

Saturday morning I helped out at a tour at GDTX - Bob wasn't able to come because we have to wait for results on his tummy bugs so he doesn't pass something through the kennels but I got some good pictures of speakers and guests. If any of you readers live around the San Antonio area that would like to take a tour of the Guide Dogs of Texas Facility, the host them every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month. If you would like to attend one just make sure to RSVP with Annie at (210) 366-4081. There will also be one on Saturday Sept. 11th if you can't make a Thursday - Check them out, its pretty neat :)

There was a pretty good turn out - one person was a client of GDTX - goes to show that even if you have been there before you can still take the tour. That was technically my second time participating lol.

The tour members got to take the same "Walk of Independence" that the clients get to take when they train with their guide dog.

Kim tells a client story as we stand along the brick path at the end of the walk of independence.

A client's picture gets passed around as his amazing story is told.

It was enjoyed by all.

Sandy tells the guests her own story as well as a clients. She also talks about how there are only 2 GDMIs (Guide dog Mobility Instructors) in the state of Texas - with another hopefully graduating soon to become the 3rd.

We make our way into the client living area to hear one last story before the tour is over.

It was a fun and inspirational tour and I highly recommend going to anyone who can to try and make it to one of them.

Also, on a non-Bob related note Darrell and I attended a wedding that night I wanted to share a few pictures of him walking in Downtown San Antonio - Egypt did great with all the craziness of down town San Antonio - Hey there's another thing I can do with Bob - trip to the River Walk here we come! Maybe we'll go on a ferry ride too.. hmmm ;) Oh, here are the pics of Darrell and Egypt working.

I love this picture - one Darrell is cleaned up and there is not a baseball cap in sight lol. Two, look at the red wall!

Egypt was doing so great with the traffic (not much when this was taken but I promise it was there). Anyways, she stopped to get some treats.

Still munchin as they keep going.

As we leave the hotel where the reception was - pretty background colors.

Waiting to cross the street.

All those lights in the background are the place where the reception was. We were all the way up on the 22nd floor - the elevator went super fast and we didn't like it at all lol. Next time I'll take the stairs in hopes of losing 8 pounds on the way up haha!

Quiet Week

2010-07-18T13:23:00.000-05:00

Its been a quiet week around here - Bob has a stomach bug we're trying to get rid of so not too much action while he readjusted his schedule (due to the meds and prescription diet). I didn't want to take him to class because thats just a long time to be hanging out and not knowing what his bathroom schedule looks like. However he did take a trip with me to J.C. Penney on Friday. I grabbed one of those funny cart things they have to work him around that, whenever I go grocery shopping I usually don't use one if it is just him and I; when my sister or Darrell are around though they use it so Bob hasn't really had good work behind one before. It was kind of interesting because he didn't want to walk behind it, he wanted to walk in front of it so I had the opportunity to work with him on his pulling and walking in the place where I want him to be. It was also good to work on his down-stays while I moved around all the racks of clothes that were nearby. Here are some pictures of our little shopping trip.

I told him where we were going beforehand - that was probably wasn't the smartest idea lol.

He didn't care for me walking around and leaving him - this isn't a bark face - promise lol.

He decided to help me look for some clothes - how nice.

"Found some good ones over here!"

Practicing his down stay - he did good until I started walking back and he got up to greet me lol. We'll have to work on that.

"Hey - there's already someone in here!"

So after our little trip we went home and hung out the rest of the day - actually a friend came over and made us all some chicken spaghetti - nice little Friday night lol. After Bob's dinner though he went into his crate for a bit and after a while the little turd wanted out (like always) Its not that he doesn't like his crate but right now its in the living room to help with just these issues - he doesn't like it when he's not in the action. We moved him out there during his cone-period because of the noise and thats when we noticed his 'problem'. He has gotten so much better since then, I'll probably move him back into the bedroom soon. Friday night however he just didn't like that we were up and moving around without him. So he started whining and making faces at us - how rude!

"Someone please let the poor puppy out.."

"I'm gonna slobber all over when I get out of here!"

Well after he stopped whining and making rude faces we let him out for a bit and he said thank you by sharing his bone with my leg ;)

Thanks for busting me out!

Bob's weekend with Mason

2010-07-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

I got an email last night from Bob's puppy sitters with pictures of him and Mason playing over the weekend. I got permission to post them here so I thought I would share them with you :)

Bob attempting to play tug with Mason.

Attempt was successful!

Tired after their long play session

Best buddies :)

They do the same funny arm thing!

"Hey! Why doesn't he have lie down!?"

They both seem like they had a lot of fun, Bob did go on a few outings and worked on walking nicely on his leash (no tugging).

Chillaxin

2010-07-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

I mean - does any one actually realize how mellow this dog can be? Does any one realize that this dog is pretty much in love with Darrell - I guess Bob can't read Darrell's mind because its not reciprocated lol.. Oh well - he's happier not knowing :)

What a nice tummy/chest rub ;)

Sweetness

2010-07-07T11:54:00.001-05:00

Isn't he sweet? Darrell went down to the front office to get my birthday present for me! It was on backorder and got here yesterday but was locked in the front office because I didn't get back from class till late :)

I snapped a few pictures to remember the moment haha!

He was walking very fast and I didn't have time to adjust the settings or anything so sorry if these look pretty bad..

Egypt saw me!!! This is where I ran back inside to open the box!

Darrell got me a Kelly Moore Camara bag it actually looks like a purse and doesn't shout "Hey, I have an expensive camera hanging off my shoulder - come and grab it! ". So far with the 2 seconds I spent putting my stuff in it I like it - I'm not really a big purse kind of girl but maybe this will convert me. I definitely don't have enough camera equipment to fill this up so there will be room for my wallet and some other stuff - bring on the next vacation!

P.S. Kelly Moore has two bag types for women and one for men, tons of colors! If there is actually a guy out there reading my blog who is into photography.. speak up if you're out there cause I have no idea!

Home

2010-07-06T23:00:00.001-05:00

So we're all home now! Bob got a very good report from his puppy sitter over the weekend. She said he was doing great and he did some of his "finds" really well - others not so well lol. I was really excited because she told me he found the elevator perfectly(He's only seen like 3 elevators), however was oblivious about the button - which is how he is with me so nothing new there haha. She said he had a lot of fun with Mason and didn't have one accident in the house (a problem he had with his last puppy sitter, which was only for a day). Bob is continuing to do good in class with me, we had off on Monday so haven't had to tackle the barking situation in the lab class yet but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I have been trying my hardest to be "blind" while I have him do his finds... meaning I am trying not to give him any cues as to what I want him to find - Michelle says everyone does it and can't help it but a blind person won't be able to do it so thats how I'm trying to be. He found a trash can great the other day when I attempted this first, today however he just looked at me like "what?". I'll just have to keep working on it.. No new pictures of him (sorry) since we were away from each other all weekend but I did try my hand at photographing fireworks - it wasn't terrible, wasn't great - lets just say I have a lot more ideas for next time :) So, here are a few firework pictures that actually turned out all right.

P.S. We have to go back out of town this weekend so Bob is heading off to a puppy sitter again :( hopefully Mason's raiser will be able to take him again because it sounds like he had a lot of fun there with them ;)

Bob's Summer Grades

2010-07-02T01:59:00.001-05:00

Well, Bob just had his first week in class and I'm gonna have to give him a C in Chem Lab and an A in both Chemistry and Physics - for now lol. He did great in my Tuesday/Thursday classes which I was pretty surprised by honestly. I'm in class those days from 2 to 8 with short breaks in between. I fully expected him to be up/down/up/down after only about an hour into the class but by utilizing the short breaks for his potty time and short bouts of work I think it really helped with his boredom. If only he acted like that when we went to movies :/ lol. Now, the lab class is a different story - He actually wasn't as terrible as I thought he would be but he did start barking at me both days. This half way surprised me because he's not a big barker to begin with and he has only barked in public once (before this week). Its just because he's chained up in a corner and no one is paying him any attention - apparently he doesn't like this. Anyways - plan is to ignore him till the barking stops and praise him when he's quiet and good... wonder if I'll have the strength lol. Well if you haven't checked out the pics from the mobile uploads here are a few from this week - mainly lab class because that is the interesting one lol...

Sorry they aren't the best quality - took them with my phone.

First day of lab class - he actually fell asleep for like 2 seconds! He never falls asleep in class :)

This is the next day with crazy people walking around in their crazy jackets and goggles - it doesn't even phase him. At least it didn't for another few minutes - every once in a while he'll pop up if someone gets too close but they could just be making eye contact or something without me knowing. Oh well - good practice for him either way.

This was on the car ride over today - its not even that long of a drive but the car is like a lullaby for Bob - he's out so quick!

This was today during a potty break - he didn't know what to make of the grates (they are the landings for the outside stair case) he didn't want to step on them at first but after a little coaxing he was fine - just really sniffy (?) It was hard to get his nose up and focused on me..

Bob is also leaving us for the weekend, we are headed over to Darrell's parents and there really isn't much to do for Bob over there so he's going to a puppy sitter for the weekend. He'll get to hang out with Mason, a CC'ed tall white labradoodle whom I have never met but I know of him so hopefully Bob will have fun! Plus this will be his first time away from for more than a few hours so we'll see how he does - 3 days is a long time! So - more stories once he gets back I guess ;)

7 months and some change...

2010-06-25T20:49:00.001-05:00

Sorry it took a while for a new posting.. my summer classes require a lot of homework plus I had a test, plus it was mine and twinny's birthday so yeah.. lots of stuff but here is Bob's 7 months and another post-op update.

So, first off it has been pretty un-eventful on Bob's frontier... he is stuck in his cone until he gets his stitches out, which will be on Sunday so yay. He'll be able to go to class with me on Monday and Wednesday and then my other two classes on Thursday because I have a test Tuesday. Yay me. Oh - on that note, Michelle worked her magic and Bob is now 'allowed' to go to all my classes! Ok, now you may be wondering why he has to be stuck in his cone for so long.. basically its a rule at GDTx that the dogs stay in cones until their stitches come out.. doesn't matter if they notice them or not its a precaution just in case they decide to rip them out. So yeah, stitches = cone.
Speaking of this cone - it has caused quite some mayhem in our apartment... First, I have confirmed my professional diagnosis that Bob has Pica... Why? Because he has slowly been eating away at his cone and even though that is probably normal I'm sticking with my diagnosis! So yeah - in order to stop him from continuing to chew/eat that yummy plastic we decided to put packing tape on his cone where it has been chewed and broken. Yes broken because Bob just hasn't realized that his head is now 5 times the size that he's used to, and this boy has a pretty big head so that can't be easy to adjust to... poor kid.

Bob has also been banished to the living room because his cone makes me cranky.. it does this because every time he moves around in his crate his cone scrapes against the bars and it sounds like he's trying to blow the thing up.. at least thats what flashes in my head at 3 in the morning when I'm woken up from it. So yes, he's in the living room and keeps forgetting that whenever he is told to go to his bed - he automatically runs for the bedroom when I have to remind him. Once he sees his crate though he remembers and charges in - most of the time hitting his cone on the top and being flung backwards but hey - a little whiplash is good for a growing puppy right?

On a much happier note, we have been using this down time to further set in Bob's obedience and to work on his heel - which is now great and would be better if he didn't slap me with that darned cone on his turn-around. Yay Bob! He has also started automatically waiting at doorways (to outside) without me asking everytime, now I can't test this out yet but hopefully it will transfer over easily to outside work too. Yay Bob!

Also, not that its really necessary to tell but since I want to - here ya go, I made cake balls for mine and Erin's birthday :) Darrell helped, he rolled out all the little balls. It took me a couple tries to get it right but once I changed from cake balls to cake pops it went much smoother lol. Basically I just stuck a lollipop stick to all the things and then dunked them. Had to let them dry in some foam but it was worth it :) I have a few pictures of the process on my facebook so if you follow that link up in the top corner (the picture of Bob laying down on brown tile) you should be able to access that album. Just incase you wanted to see ;)

Oh, and his 7 things: Hmmmmmmmm..... We'll change this up and add some future things in there too...

1. His down stay will hopefully improve greatly with the help of my lab class that I will be taking him to every Monday and Wednesday. He will be tied down in a corner for the entire class period, its chemistry lab so he can't be under my table - too dangerous. I hope to get him to the point where the tie down is not necessary, we'll see. lol.

2. I have no idea how he is going to handle being at school for such a long straight amount of time every Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully it won't wear him down too much - I know I feel like poo when I leave for home those days lol. Maybe its just mental strain... hmmm

3. His house manners have greatly improved since he has been stuck inside - yay Bob!

4. I still think he has Pica.... lol just kidding... kind of

5. He is settling down so much quicker lately.. he gets excited about things like normal but it doesn't take him as long to just chill you know?

6. He really likes fetch - with bones... I don't like fetch with bones.. I exchange for kongs and he finds another bone after a while.. we need a yard lol.

7. He really really really likes the smoked knuckle bone Michelle gave him for his... well nothing special really.. Michelle just hearts bob :) But seriously.. he's obsessed.

Ok so on to the real pictures that you were all waiting for - I wasn't going to post them because the wacky tape job on the cone is just embarrassing but you convinced me so ok.

Please try to ignore the damage and focus on the cuteness inside :)

Ok, now you can focus on the damage ;)

I heart that face :)

P.S. Did you know that the hair on the tip of his tail swirled? P.S. did you know he has 2 black spots all the way on the back of his tongue? P.S. Would you believe me if I told you the leg in the background is not mine?

He has the prettiest eyes ;) That blob of stuff covering the bottom of his face are his legs by the way.

P.S. Did you see that really cool picture of the bird taking off from a tree branch? I took it this morning :)

Mas Problemas

2010-06-17T20:23:00.001-05:00

So, now I'm trying to be stopped from coming to class due to a person who has allergies.... Michelle is working on the issue but in order to stop me from getting more upset I need to hear other people's access issue stories - bring em on people - get my mind of myself lol.

She sleeps funny and I like it :)

Recuperation is a plastic head cone

2010-06-16T17:56:00.001-05:00

So, as we all know, Bob had his 'manhood' surgery yesterday... you'll be happy to know that he is doing just fine especially considering his special circumstances... Oh you don't know? Yes, Bob had special circumstances, you see he was born a "monarch" which pretty much means only one of his testicles descended. Ok - puppy embryology lesson for you... When male puppies are in the womb their testes actually form up in the region around their intestines/kidney area, they must travel all the way down and chill out around the tail area until they mature. Well, one of Bob's testes didn't want to make that trip so it stayed up there... It's not usually a terrible thing in dogs but in Bob's case it attached to something and they had to make a second incision to retrieve it.. The doctor actually said it was his personal 3rd hardest retrieval he has ever had to perform... so now poor baby has two incisions and is being treated like he was spayed because of the one deeper incision. I have never had to do after care on a spay or neuter so I can't really tell you the difference in treatment, I just know he's a bit miserable....

Here are some pics so you can see how he's doing - this was last night - he was a bit loopy.

Ok, First thing he did when he got home was eat dinner (well only half..) then he went and picked up a bone (I actually had to hand it to him because he hadn't figured out the cone yet.. Well, he took his bone and stood there for about 2 minutes just standing and staring and holding his bone. Then he went over and dropped it in his food bowl...

I actually think he was looking for more food.... hmm

Then he changed his mind and wanted it back...

Well, Egypt wanted it too.. Bob didn't seem to care much...

He doesn't like his cone of shame :( He just stood around staring at nothing - I assume its upset due to the cone and groggy-ness due to the drugs - poor boy.

Well after about 5 minutes of him just standing around I had him go to his bed, I didn't lock him in just in case he wanted to come out and do something... he fell asleep in about 2 seconds.. I left him there :)

There was one instance where Bob came trotting out into the living room, he went straight to the patio door so I thought he had to pee.. I let him out, he stood there for a minute and then walked back to the patio. So, we came back inside and Bob began trotting around like he was looking for something, he went in and out of a couple of rooms and was just looking... but was looking with a purpose lol. He finally stopped and laid down and just flopped over and chilled for a bit - he was a bit loopy.

This was him this morning - I think he has become one with the cone lol...

Also - Tangent story :

The microwave thinks I am immature.... We had to put on new sticky buttons for Darrell and in the process of testing them out to make sure they were all in the right place the microwave started name calling - I didn't know how to respond... lol.

Can you see Darrell's sticky buttons? They are in all the important places..

Then I get message from Mr. Microwave - how rude! lol. I guess I pushed the buttons one too many times...

It's too quiet..

2010-06-15T12:16:00.002-05:00

I dropped Bob off this morning (at 7:30 AM!) my summer brain didn't like that but it will get over it... Oh - dropped him off at the vet's office for his operation - now its too quiet here lol. Everyone wish him luck!

This is us at the Vet's office.. the car was parked and he got all excited to get out of the car - its funny because when he's on the floor in the front (too much stuff there right now lol) he wouldn't get up until I opened that other door - in the back he gets up when the car turns off.. funny kid.

Also, wanna hear what happened with the whole school thing?! Well I got another e-mail asking me to contact another person because they wanted to verify that I was an actual volunteer associated with an actual organization..... Because bringing a big hyper 6 month old lab to school is just soooooooo much fun :/

Also, please note that I had shown each one of my professors my GDTx ID card, written down the laws and Michelle's contact info for 1 professor, sent an email with the laws and Michelle's contact info to another lady (the written information was supposed to be given to her btw). So, to get another email telling me that (my translation) no one read my information and no one believed that I actually do what I do - really irritated me. So, I tried to call lady #2, she didn't answer, I left a voicemail. Got mad a second later and decided to email her - so I did... basically I didn't want to have to be nice again so I said Hi, gave my name and then gave Michelle's information (this is the 3rd time - maybe it will work this time..) and sent it...

Well, I get an email back saying that she will have to verify with Michelle that I 'work' for them and then I should be good to bring my dog... Well thanks.. So, I started my reply email which pretty much said thanks, I appreciate that you want to check for that kind of thing (so 'illegal trainers' don't bring their random pets onto campus) however I was upset with the way that the entire process played out... I mentioned that I had shown my GDTx ID to each one of my professors and that I had given Michelle's information twice already and blah blah blah... Well right when I was about to press send guess who calls me back!?!? Dang it!!!! lol. So, I'm forced to tell her everything in my email but not as mean-ish because I just can't be like that over the phone / in person.... darn me! Actually my email wasn't even that mean, I just like to pretend it was.. Well, she tells me that she had no idea that I had an ID with GDTx and that all I need to do is come over and make a copy of it and I should be good....... Now I can't even be mad at her... whatever - *pouty face* lol.

So I run over to the lady's office before class and she makes a copy of my ID and says something about "We have never worked with GDTx before so we just weren't sure..." I want to say something along the lines of "it shouldn't matter who you're working with, just because you don't know who it is doesn't mean you can question it - do some research! (I gave the web address to everyone!) " But I never said that.. I just smiled and nodded.. told her they were here in San Antonio and around where and she got all excited that they were so close to her home (?) anyways - little rant is over I guess... just had to get it out..

Don't get me wrong - I do appreciate that they are trying to stay within the rules of their 'no pets' policy but that shouldn't have been that hard - which it wasn't.. mainly just a miscommunication I guess.. but still! lol.. maybe I just want to be mad at someone but now there isn't really anyone to be mad at lol.

Also - disclaimer about saying Bob isn't fun to take places - he is, I like going on training walks with him where focus is on him the whole time and learning and stuff - school however is not fun... mainly because I have to write down EVERYTHING or else I won't understand what is going on and he sometimes won't let me do that - but I know its good for him so I deal with it lol.. its not always bad... just if he doesn't get enough energy out before we go (which I know is my fault lol).. anyways.. yeah, thats my disclaimer - hope you enjoyed!

P.S. Does anyone want to make these for my birthday? If not I guess I will force Darrell to roll out all the little balls for me :)

Red Velvet Cake Balls - find the recipe here: Click Me!

College makes you smart

2010-06-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

Guess what! Bob now knows heel! For the past month (or two) Bob has started to become a puller, on Monday I stopped by GDTx to give them a CD of pictures and Michelle taught me a figure-8 trick to get Bob back into the correct position while walking.. Well, turns out that I haven't actually needed to use it the past couple of days because I haven't needed it (He confuses me...) Anyways, today he did need it and I did it a few times the first time we went somewhere and he was good until we got home. Well, the second time we went somewhere I had Bob sit at the door like I usually do, opened it, walked through and then turned around and instead of telling him 'lets go' I had him 'heel' again, and he did it!!!! He didn't do it perfectly but he still did it! He kind of walked out nicely, turned around and stood crooked to me and looked up :) I got him into the correct position and had him sit and he got his treat and then he walked nicely all the way to the car! Yay!!! I am however a little bit depressed because he gets neutered on Tuesday and Michelle told me he would probably forget a bit of stuff that he has learned recently... dang! lol. I guess its not that bad though, because he really is pretty much the smartest dog ever... haha. No really, show him something once and he has it down! His issue is listening.. which I guess is really my issue, I need to get him to pay attention thus need to find ways to engage him more - either way he's smart though - you can tell he was born to work. Plus the fact that he's (normally) really good when he's working but he's not so good at home (only recently actually) - He's actually started stealing things, he used to just sniff things and then get told to 'leave it' which he did and normally wouldn't go back to whatever it was, now he has started bypassing the sniff phase and goes right into snatching - ummm not good... At least he's constantly supervised though so he gets corrected right away..

Anyways, about college I started my summer semester at a community college here and am having another slight complication - not nearly as bad as this past semester but just people not listening I guess... I have a chemistry class, a chemistry lab, and a physics class... The lab professor (of all people) was the coolest with it - he was a bit depressed when I told him he couldn't pet him though lol. The only thing I'll have to do is tie him up in the back away from the traffic flow of dangerous chemicals. The physics teacher was pretty excited too - both teachers made announcements to the class to help me out :) The Chemistry class teacher is the complicated one though - not really him exactly, he seemed excited as well but when I went to class the next day (without Bob because I hadn't told the class yet) the teacher said he had mentioned it to his head of department (or something) and they wanted to check out some things first... ok - well here is my ID card (again) with the laws on it and if you want you can photo copy it and give to your person... well he asked me to write it down for him so he could just give it to her and it shouldn't be a problem - :) - not really.. I get an email the next day asking me to contact the head of student success because she had some questions and concerns... ok. So, I emailed her and told her exactly what I wrote down and told her to contact either me or Michelle with any questions... So, now I'm just waiting till Monday to hear a reply.. great - at least he's getting neutered on Tuesday so theres a little bit of time to get things settled... I'm taking him on Monday though! The lab professor is cool with it so bring it on! This situation doesn't really bother me but it just annoys me because I gave them the laws and they are still asking questions!!! Ah!

P.S. Have you ever had Oma's spaghetti? It's like the best stuff ever :) I need to make some.

Sorry no doggy pictures today - haven't taken any :/ lol.

Weekend on the River

2010-06-07T17:54:00.001-05:00

Ever seen a dog on a kayak?! Well, you're about too lol. We spent most of the weekend up at the Guadalupe River with my parents and little brother, while we were there Bob got to go on his first (and probably last because he's getting so big!) kayak ride with me. It was a very relaxing weekend, we didn't do much.. I started school today and that was my only summer week off so thats explains all of the traveling and stuff... So yeah, just a few pictures for you of our weekend ;)

Bob got excited at everything that floated by us - especially the ducks ;) He quickly learned that standing up wasn't much fun though (he fell out once lol) He stayed sitting the rest of the time and just watched things go by.

Bob looking at Darrell (I think) I know the picture makes his head look huge and his body all boney and skinny but he doesn't really look like that - its just a weird angle. I think Bob enjoyed our little kayak trip.. I mean, as much as you can enjoy sitting in a kayak on a very still and calm river, there are no rapids in the area we were in... :( I love going down rapids - I'm trying to convince Darrell to go white water rafting (like a 3 day trip) for our honeymoon lol.

This was the next day, Bob passed out after his few hours playing with Egypt in a shallow part of the river - we took our fold up chairs and just sat in the river and hung out - Bob tried to eat every stick that was out there...

Oh - I just had to throw him in here... gotta have some people pics to balance out the blog don't ya?

I have such a crush on him... I must be crazy..

Day at the Lake

2010-06-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

So right now, Darrell, Erin, the dogs and I are up visiting my grandparents. Yesterday we went out with some of my family to Lake Waco and Bob got his second experience with swimming :) I think he really enjoyed it, he still doesn't really care for swimming - at least not like Egypt does. Egypt would swim way far out, do some circles and them swim to someone or swim back to shore to catch her breath. Bob would swim out to me, rest in my arms (he learned that I would hold up - mainly to keep him from scratching me) and then swim straight back to shore - he wouldn't even swim out for stuff that we threw to fetch, but he's not really into that game anyways.. Lol Egypt doesn't do the "wait" thing (for modified fetch) so she always gets there first so he doesn't care for the game.

Anyways, here are some pictures of our day at the lake :)

Bob making a funny face :/ lol

He got all tangled up in his leash but didn't seem to mind...

They found a really big stick lol.

He still just likes to run around on the edge of the water lol.

Me holding him while he rests - little turd

Darrell and my cousin trying to find the hole in this floaty - see the corner is tied up too :)

We actually found a good use for this floaty - We plan on going kayaking here in about a week and I wanted to see how Bob would do hanging out on something like the floaty (to see if he would be cool going on the kayak with me). Well he actually loved the floaty, every time I was holding it he would come over and throw his front paws up on it and just hang there lol. He'll do great on the kayak!

Pretty Egypt :)

Best buds - yeah right!

Darrell blowing up a float - it took him forever haha ;)

We ate lunch and Bob got all tangled up!

We had a lot of fun out there at the lake and I can't wait to go kayaking with Bob now ;)

If you want to see more pictures from the day you can check out my facebook album by clicking the link below - there's like 166 so make sure you have some time if you want to look at all the pictures ;)

Click Me!

Bob's Training Walk

2010-05-29T00:20:00.011-05:00

Yesterday Bob and I had a training walk with our puppy raising manager Michelle, she needed to make sure Bob was confident enough to take away all his testosterone :) He did great so the appointment is in June - I can't wait!!!! lol. Man hormones = annoying puppy, no man hormones = good puppy :)

So, here is our walk told to you through pictures of course - Michelle was the amazing camera person ;)

The first thing we did was cross the street so Bob had to find the button.

Once we reached the other side, we walked all down the sidewalk making sure Bob wasn't phased by the traffic noise and stuff.. he didn't even notice.. Here Bob is leading me around the cardboard box":)

This was me trying to get Bob to look up at the overhead obstacle.. his face was too cute though so I had to zoom in and crop me out :)

Bob checking out that overhead obstacle - obviously he noticed it - after I shook it of course haha.

Bob and I got really distracted by something - here we are checking it out..

WARNING - IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH DO NOT PUT YOUR MOUSE OVER THE NEXT PICTURE - JUST MOVE ON...

Here is the distraction - sorry if it freaks you out.. If you would like to see the distraction just drag your mouse over the image.

Another overhead obstacle - I got Bob to pay attention to it even with that distraction so close!

About this point in the walk Bob started to get really bored... Michelle told me I need to engage him more and get him paying attention to me and constantly wondering what I'm going to do (not just walking) so here I'm doing puppy push-ups (the wrong way!)

You'll notice my posture - apparently Bob notices it too... and is a butt-head because of it and doesn't do what I tell him to do - Michelle told me I need to stand up straight and be more demanding, but still nice so I need to work on that lol.

Me working on my straight up standing - I keep catching myself now - I'll learn one day lol.

Also, Michelle told me that I need to let Bob have more fun (It's not always work!). I'm too serious on our walks and just need to let him be a happy dog - that way he actually likes to go out and work - this I can do no problem though ;)

Here is Bob finding the next Button - I had him put his nose right up close to it ;)

Me praising him and him working on chewing that treat lol.

Funny story - the lady that is in that white car behind us at the light pole was apparently watching Bob find the button, well her light had turned green and the guy behind her honked at her because she was still watching us lol.

Here is us heading to Petco - he was getting very hot and burned out but still did the step ok (the second time lol) He blows the steps sometimes and goes on before I tell him to so we have to work on that with him. Lucky for me he knows "wait" :)

Bob tired and panting in Petco.

I love this picture! lol.

And him getting a drink - note to self - don't use this water fountain anymore lol.

Oh the difference...

2010-05-26T13:48:00.001-05:00

There's a difference.. a difference between boys and girls, a difference between puppies and adult dogs, a difference between smart dogs and well... smart dogs lol.

Today Bob and Egypt were lolly-gagging around and I called Bob over to get some lovin lol. Well as I call Bob over of course Egypt wants some lovin too, thats normal for our little group. The funny thing was seeing which paths they chose to get to me.. See, the we have a couch that looks like an L, its like a couch connected to a chaise, it also came with an ottoman.. so picture me on the chaise part of the couch, and the ottoman is pressed up against the end of it leaving only about 5 inches of space in between.. in front of the couch part though there is at least 2 feet of space between the couch and the ottoman... ok got it nice and pictured? So, I call Bob and he was standing closer to the chaise part so he went and stood right in front of the 5 inches of space between the couch and ottoman, Egypt had gotten up and was right there with him. So I say "Come here guys" and guess which one charged through pushing the ottoman out of the way and which one simply walked around the ottoman.. lol. Now I can't really decide which one took the better path, Egypt of course, took the path of least resistance and wound up getting to me slower than Bob did, and Bob took the harder yet faster path.. There are sometimes when they will switch those roles (Egypt is really good at moving our furniture) well, I'm not really here to judge I guess I just thought it was funny to see the difference of the two while in the exact same situation...

Solution for next time - get some lovin from each other :)

Yeah - like that will happen...

Puppies are expensive

2010-05-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

I pulled this out of Bob's mouth... it was on the ottoman..

See what I mean - It's like they eat all our money... ehhh I guess its all worth it though right? haha.

This one just made me laugh - he's so tired he can't even stand to drink his water...

What a little multi-tasker...

6 Things for 6 Months...

2010-05-22T18:30:00.000-05:00

Can you believe Bob is already 6 months old!!! (Well he turned yesterday but still!) He's still doing great in his training but he's turning into a little turd also... I'm guessing that adolescence starting to set in (yay!) So, here are Bob's 6 things at 6 months.

1. He knows how to find the counter!! He still needs help on it sometimes but this boy has got it :)

2. His doorway and down-step sits are getting really good.. I still have to tell him but he doesn't take forever to do it anymore :)

3. He's as tall as Egypt now.. she kind of hunches though so I'm sure if she just sat up straight she would still be a tiny bit taller lol.

4. He has started drinking A LOT of water.. I'm not really sure why.. started not too long ago, part of me feels like he drinks all the water so Egypt can't get any (he's starting to become the dominant one) but when we fill both bowls with water he still drinks all of it - he's getting really good at holding it though haha.

5. This is one he needs to work on - his walking nicely is getting a bit worse... he used to just walk pretty nicely not getting distracted by much but now he has to investigate anything. He has a walk scheduled for next Thursday though so I'll get some tips then.

6. Everyone loves him!!!!

I only have one new picture and its from a volunteer thing Bob and I did today for GDTx - well this is while we were walking toward the thing haha.. the whole room was dark so I didn't want my flash going off in the background.

It's so bright and so hot but I still gotta work :)

And look what I made - this is Mr. Walrus

I made this one day with some Sculpey - I also made an orange and white cat but it fell off the bookshelf and guess who decided to pick it up and chew on it haha. It only has a few bite marks :/

Also - I'm still working on my painting - don't want to post up any pictures until its done though :)

Random stuff

2010-05-17T18:25:00.000-05:00

So yesterday Bob spent his first day away from me. My sister, some friends and I went to Schlitterbahn waterpark, so Bob got to go to a puppy sitter. She said he did pretty good aside for going to the bathroom in her house (oops haha). He also cried randomly a bit but I don't know so much if that is separation anxiety or just him being him... maybe a bit of both because he cries when Egypt isn't around too. He's funny, he'll just sit down look off into space and start whimpering.. not a lot but maybe like 2 cries and then he's fine. He just wants a friend.

On a working dog note he is getting better and better everyday. I suspect half of it maturity and half of it is the Texas heat getting to him.. He's so much more mellow when he's tired and when walking from car to wherever(?) is hot for me so I know its gotta get to him too lol. Today he was actually perfect for the very first time - perfect as in didn't have to be told to sit at the doors and steps and he even settled immediately when we got to the counter (we went to the bank). Everyone at the bank loves him. I haven't made many trips that are too long - outside is getting too hot to do much but there are some days when its overcast and almost rainy where its good to go out. Trips to the store are limited too because right now I'm in the middle of a Maymester (3 weeks long 3 hours a day) Lots of homework! haha. Once that is over then there will me more classes but those (well at least 1) will actually help Bob. It will be a Chemistry lab and because of safety reasons Bob will not be allowed to stay under my work station - don't want to go spilling acid on him lol. So with the teacher's permission (he's a cool guy so wish luck) I will be able to tie him down to the guy's desk.. That will help teach him to stay where he is put and be good until told to do otherwise.. not so different then under the desk but in a way it is.. We'll see how he does. He has had one time to practice with it. He was tied up in a corner while I did a cardio kickboxing class with a friend - he did pretty well but he had a bone to chew on.. now he'll have to do it all on his own :)

Sorry no pictures today but there are a few more mobile uploads if you want to click on the picture up in the top right hand corner of the page :)

Sun and Bubbles

2010-05-13T22:55:00.000-05:00

This is just a picture post - hope you enjoy!

He's being very nice and pretty for the camera - his nose is getting pinker!

This one makes me laugh - can you tell me why?

Puppy Splash Day

2010-05-09T13:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was GDTX's annual Puppy Splash Day! Where we all go out to the K9 Country Club and let the dogs just be dogs, while we eat hot dogs and hamburgers :) There's not really much news there because all the dogs pretty much just ran around and acted like dogs so here are some pictures :)

Dakota and Ben were there! That dog has way too much fur,
apparently they were taking him to the groomers after this
though, lucky groomers ;)

This was the first time Bob has ever seen this much water..
he was kind of scared of it and didn't want to get in. He just
did laps around the doggy pool.

He got a little bit braver after a while and decided to
check it out.

Well, that was a steep slope and he slipped in - he didn't like
it too much.

He couldn't get out at that spot and he wouldn't move the 2 feet over
to the steps - he just wanted out. Thats Dakota in the corner -
he tried to help :/

Bob doing more laps after his traumatic experience.. I think
he was slipping here lol.

Ben helped him figure out that the water was actually
fun though.

So he slowly ventured out farther.

He finally started to play!

And play some more ;)

Then Alfie Showed up!

Oh and there were some really cute cookies!

I kept getting Bob and Piper mixed up - they are 'siblings'
some how.. maybe same Dad (?) Piper is on the left with the
blue collar.

Celia decided to get into the big tubs that had tons of ice and
drinks - how nice of her - guess the pool wasn't cold enough!

Alfie hid a ball under that ramp - little hoarder!

While all the other dogs were running around Bob went and
got back into the pool.

Alfie stole the foil from the barbecue and pranced around
with it - lol I love his little poodle prance :)

Then he tried to steal Bob's yummy stick - they actually
played tug together for a while - until all the other dogs
saw how much fun it was and then they all chased
each other for that stick - oh fun!

Last little group picture - can you spot the outsider?

If you would like to see more pictures (100 +) from Puppy Splash Day you can check out my Facebook Album (you don't need an account) Click here to get to it :)

More editing

2010-05-06T13:01:00.002-05:00

So, I have been trying to kick up my photography skills lately and was browsing some blogs when I came across Erin's photography Blog, she is Pompeii's raiser. I knew she was in a photography class and I don't know why I didn't realize she would have a blog about her photography, she has a blog for just about everything else ;) (How many do you have Erin? 4?) haha. Anyways, through my snooping I found another blog called Pixel Perfect and she has little photography competitions so I wanted to enter this one. It's a before and after competition where you edit a photo and give the SOOC (straight out of camera) and then the edited one. So, here is my shot! It's back from spring break at my parents house.

SOOC

Edited Version - using Lightroom 2

This is what I do when I should be studying....

2010-05-04T23:24:00.000-05:00

I make pretty pictures of Bob look prettier.... yay me! lol.

Ok, Before:

and After:

lol. My first time working with photo editing software (besides cropping and my blog titles) What do you think?! Is it too much or just right?

Smarty Pants

2010-05-01T00:28:00.001-05:00

So, I know I'm supposed to be studying and not writing blogs but something happened today that totally blew me away and guess who did it! Mr. Bob did! Haha. Today was the first time I have seen Bob actually "think" I guess haha. Not that he isn't smart, it's just everything he's been doing is commands; you know, sit, down, stay, find the seat/door/whatever. I haven't had much of a chance to do the other things because I have been so focused on finals and my last test (which was on the 2nd to last day of school - who does that?!) That we haven't really been to many stores and such.. where Bob would need to find bathrooms and counters and stuff..

Anyways, point of my excitement - Bob 'guided' me around an obstacle today and once we were past went back to his original 'line'. You must know that we haven't actually come to any obstacles that we have had to work around (except for people I guess) so I was really anxious to see what he would do.

Stopping on a 'curb' it slopes down straight into the street
so these have been a bit tricky for Bob - he got plenty of practice today though ;)

We were walking in Darrell's brother's neighborhood and first came up to a truck that was sticking out onto the side walk a bit. I stopped Bob at it, showed it to him and then I led us around it and that was it. I wanted to see what he would do when we got back to it but just so happened we didn't take that same route back. However there was another car that was completely covering the sidewalk (Ours haha! - I'll have to remember that next time and park on the street lol.) Well, I wasn't really planning on working past our car, the turn into Mike's house is before the car so yeah.. Well, I wanted to see what Bob would do so I kept going and guess what! When we got up to the car he went straight down the driveway onto the street (which was about a foot or two away from the back of the car) and once we had passed it he tried to find a way back onto the sidewalk. What was really interesting was not only did he try and find his original line (the sidewalk) but that he knew not to go back up the driveway to get there. You see there was only about half a foot of driveway in between the car and the grass so instead of trying to go right back up there Bob continued to the next driveway. (Which was only about 2 feet away because Mike lives on a cul-de-sac.) So, we got back on the sidewalk and I praised like crazy - I'm so proud of that smart boy!

Walking on loose leash! Probably because he was
getting tired but still good haha :)

Oh - P.S. he ignored all the fenced in dogs like a pro! The only thing he was getting distracted by was a fire hydrant, which even Egypt had to be corrected at so I'm guessing it smelled really good haha. Well, after I corrected at the first fire hydrant we walked past another, I decided to get a video of this just incase he was good and remembered to 'leave it' haha. So here it is, you can't see the fire hydrant but you can see how the sidewalk curves around it and Bob stuck to the sidewalk like a pro!

A link to the video incase you can't watch it here. Click Me!

You can see how he was getting tired by the end of it. The walk wasn't even that long I think it was just the humidity today - probably the sun too. Both dogs seemed much happier on the way back though while we were walking in the shade haha.

Sorry the video and pictures aren't the best - they were taken on my phone because my camera is out of battery lol.

Bob's a freak..*Sorry, now has an Alt Tag

2010-04-23T17:38:00.001-05:00

Lol. Here's a weird picture I took of him the other day - I walk in the room and this is what I find.. Does anyone else find it as freaky as I do?

Promise that leg isn't broken by the way..

Ok - back to studying!

5 Months, Training walk, and Finals!

2010-04-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

So Bob is 5 months old today!! Yay Bob!

Just so you know, this is going to be a somewhat long post because its going to be the last for a while. I have finals and won't be posting much for a week or three lol. Wish me luck!

Oh, I have started taking my smaller camera places with me so I can get pictures of Bob working, the pics aren't the greatest of quality but they work :)

Ok - First off will be the 5 things at 5 months!

1. He and Egypt are starting to get along very nicely - we can take them both out in public and not even have to worry about either of them messing with each other - well, him messing with her really. lol.

They heart each other :)

2. His training is coming along great - I can confidently say he knows seats, doorways, steps (up and down) and how to target the passenger front door on the 'bus'. By bus I mean any vehicle we plan on getting into. He also knows all the basic commands that any good puppy should know.

Umm.. I'm hungry - can we go home yet?

3. His canines still haven't fallen out! But his other front teeth have and they are growing in all white and shiny ;)

I'll eat your face!

4. He makes this really funny noise when he yawns - not every time but at least his first 5 yawns of the day. Sometimes its a huge full out yawn noise, other times its just a little "ou-ah" type noise.

Ok, having issues uploading the video - will get soon promise :)

5. He's very enthusiastic about his work - I actually have to work on him not pulling when I ask him to find something - But I'll talk more about his work in a minute ;)

Ok, I know he's not working here but that face just shows
you how attentive he can be ;)

Bob's Training Walk!

Friday, Michelle, one of my friends and I went over to one of our malls to have a training walk with Bob. Well, I had never really been to this mall so it took a bit of searching to find Michelle. We knew we had to meet her upstairs in the food court so when we saw a staircase and a big walkway going into the mall above us we used it..

We actually took this elevator first, then realized we hadn't
gone up far enough.

Bob, find the step!

Well turns out that staircase and walkway only feeds one area of the upstairs part so had to find our way back down... Here's where it turns fun. lol. We couldn't find an actual staircase to take us downstairs and didn't want to trudge back the way we came so we went ahead and took the escalator, however we did it a little different because Bob isn't allowed to use escalators. So guess who got to carry him and guess who ran down the stairs to take a picture haha.

Oh yeah - I can carry all 32 pounds of him!

Once we get to the bottom of the escalator we are approached by a security guard who wanted to make sure Bob was a service dog. Understandable question seeing as I was still holding him haha. The guy also told us that pictures weren't allowed to be taken in the mall (I guess because of merchandising and knockoffs and stuff but really? thats dumb) So we actually don't have that many more pictures to show.. Sorry :(

Anyways, after we met up with Michelle we sat and chatted for a bit, she had a funny story about how a customer of a PETSMART got mad at her because one of the puppies she had was barking... in a PETSMART. Haha. Ok, anyways, Michelle taught us how to find the 'girls' or ladies room (once Bob has that down he'll start learning the 'boys' or men's room).

He was sitting 2 seconds before the picture was taken - swear!

Once we found that we had to go inside and find the stall, specifically the handicapped stall so there is enough room for dog and person. Once I found that I was to find the toilet, sit on it and then flush it (its all about routine). Bob wasn't phased by the flushing which was really good, especially since it was one of those super sucker type flushing ones haha.

Ok Bob - now find me some toilet paper :)

Once I was done with my potty break I had to ask bob to find the 'counter' in the bathroom - or mainly the sink area. However, counter will be used for things like the sinks as well as check out counters in stores, and they must have people behind them! Once I washed my hands I had to take Bob over the hand drier and run it. This one he was a little bit afraid of but recovered nicely - it was one of those air jets where they just use high powered air instead of air plus heat... so it made a lot of noise lol.

We found the trashcan once we were out of the bathroom - I had a random piece of trash, can't remember from where haha. Oh, I almost forgot - we also got to find the elevator and the button (the button will be used for elevators as well as cross walks) so yeah, I think thats about it lol. Anyways, all of those finds are pretty much the basis of all the finds Bob will do. I think I got all of them in there haha. So yeah, once we were done all of us headed out to Michelle's 'bus' and got in so she could drive us over to ours haha. Bob then had one last little shot from the Vet's office and after a while attended my first ever Cardio Kickboxing class with me. That was interesting but fun lol. He was on tie-down over in a corner the whole time and did very well.. Hopefully thats because he's a good dog and not because of that shot haha.

Bob at the Disney store - working on distractions.
Stuffed animals = pretty big distractions - he kept trying to grab the purple
elephant that is sitting behind him.

Ok, on to finals!

Basically - I have finals coming up and a ton of stuff to do so don't expect a new update until May 7th - which is my last final. If I happen to take any cute pictures or anything I might be able to squeeze them in but I won't really be able to write any extensive posts.. just so you know and so you don't miss us :)

P.S. Here is a picture of Darrell heading out to the car all by himself - the power of forgetting your I.D. and wanting a drink to go with dinner huh? lol.

Yay Darrell!