New shoes and a brush

So I got the last of all my Christmas presents in today. I ordered some Tom's Shoes about a week ago. I was kind of worried about them when I was looking online because they kind of look like old lady shoes lol. But I decided to go for it because all the reviews were awesome. Well I love them, they are very comfortable and even have arch supports in them. Now I'm not gonna go walk a marathon in them but everywhere else is good. I just wish they were a little taller lol. I'm only 4'11" so most of my jeans just barely make the cut lol. Maybe I'll just roll them up haha.

Ok, enough about my shoes. My last Christmas present came in today. It was a giant box from Guide Dogs for the Blind. Darrell had ordered me some goodies right before Christmas but there were complications with the address so it took a while to get in. Anyways, he ordered me a treat bag, a fleece rug for the puppy to sleep on, a dog comb for course/long hair (because GDTx is planning on me having a Golden) and an extra leash. When I asked him why the leash (because Megan is making me one and I'll get one from GDTX) he told me you can never have too many leashes lol. He keeps one by the back door for relieving and lost it once.. I think he felt the pain there lol.

So, I chose to break in the new comb on Sammy, he needed it lol. The poor dog has had allergies and an ear issue so he hasn't been able to have a bath lately. Well anyways, he needed a brushing, I avoided his ear and his tummy (where his allergy rash thing is). He loved getting brushed, as soon as I grabbed it he sat down right in front of me and kept nudging my hands. As soon as I started to brush him he sprawled out on the floor and was on his way to falling asleep, until I made him switch sides lol. So now he's all brushed and ready to be taken back to the kennels tonight.

So tomorrow morning will bring me vacuuming and carpet cleaning. I don't know who lived here before but I don't want a puppy coming in and being tempted by any smells left behind. So yup, we borrowed mom's carpet cleaner and will get after it tomorrow. Hopefully before Darrell gets back from out of town so I don't have to worry about him bumping into all the moved furniture.. Maybe I should take down the Christmas tree too because I know once school starts it will never happen lol. Ok lot of stuff on the list now.

Here is one last picture of Sammy :) I'll post up a picture of my shoes as soon as I can, because I know ya'll are all so anxious to see my shoes right? haha.

Oh, I also need a haircut tomorrow, or the next day.. ahhh too much.

Christmas Blanket Song

This weekend I attempted to make a blanket for Darrell.. here is how it went. Sing it in your head to the 12 days of Christmas lol.

12 broken/bent pins.

11 yards of fabric.

10 hours of online T.V.

9 meals while working.

8 breaks to relax.

7 puncture wounds.

6 bobbin refills.

5 different fabrics.

4 squares for design.

3 days to complete.

2 spools of thread.

1 broken machine needle.

All this to make one fabulous blanket for Darrell. He doesn't like the couch throw because he gets fuzzy stuff up his nose lol. The design of this fabric is somewhat quilt like, I cut out 120 6 by 6 inch squares  and made into a pattern with four colors on top and one solid on bottom. So, for his blanket I wanted it to be very tactile so I got 5 different types of fabric, all in darker boyish colors. I like the idea of Darrell being able to feel which color is which. So there is a deep red that is a soft wool fabric, a blue denim, khaki colored cotton fabric and a dark forest green that is a burlap type fabric.. should have gotten something else but I liked the way it looks... not too harsh on the skin but hard to work with. The bottom of the blanket is a very soft navy blue flannel - it feels like a baby blanket so he'll like it. I tacked little X's into places so the blanket doesn't get all tangled. I also stitched in a border.. nothing fancy just to make the edge more secure. It was just a zig-zag pattern about an inch in from the edge. So, here is the picture of all my time spent to keep off boredom.

For you screen readers out there, let me know if you need more of a description or if you have any questions.

Reading Material...

Ok, so as you all know, when I got the puppy manual I was supposed to leave it alone and focus on my finals right? Well, if any of you know me at all, you know that didn't happen, haha. I didn't even last 2 minutes before I cracked it open. Well, I finished it in a day or two, it wasn't that long. I also had plenty of time to study for finals so no worries there. Also, over the course of finals season I received a book to read on how to raise a good puppy from the puppy guy Larry. This book was/is very informative and I have actually learned some pretty interesting stuff about puppies and how their little brains work lol.

Anyways, my main thing I wanted to discuss was the lack of stuff in the puppy manual. Now, don't get me wrong, its an awesome manual, I was just hoping to see more specific things. Not that there wasn't a bunch of stuff, because there was, I was just expecting to see a lot more you know. For example, there is a section that has some of the commands we will teach the puppy, however it doesn't say how to teach them. This is some of the stuff I really wanted to know lol. I assume they will teach me all of this in time but I'm just one of those people that has to read up as much as I can on stuff before I actually do it. Also, I noticed that some of the commands they teach, such as the 'finds' aren't in the manual. This might just be due to the manual being old because I have seen some discrepancies in the program vs. the manual. Such as sitting the puppy at all up curbs, they do this now, however it has different instructions in the manual. So anyways, thats my beef lol. I want to know everything and its all just not happening fast enough for me haha. Especially now that I only have one final left, and no plans until a day or two before Christmas... I'm going to go crazy with boredom. Maybe I can just go and intrude at GDTx and bother everyone there until someone snatches a dog off the street to give me just to make me shut up. Well, we'll see haha. I'm hosting for them Wednesday for lunch so that will get me in there to bother some folks lol.

Anyways, let me know what you think... For all you other raisers, were your manuals like mine or did they have a bunch of stuff in them? Not trying to spy or anything haha, I swear.

The above image is a clip art of a dog laying on its stomach reading a book.

Puppy Training and Big News!!

So, yesterday I had my very first puppy training meeting. It was very interesting.. I wasn't the only one there without a dog, one other lady there had applied a few months ago so we stuck together the whole time. It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed meeting everyone, they were all very nice. The raisers learned how to get the dog to tuck in and sit in between your legs (so if you're on a bus or something they aren't out there in the open so can't get stepped on). They also worked on dog distractions and then everyone played and ate. I look forward to next time and here's the big news! The main puppy lady told me and the other girl (puppy-less people) that she is trying to get us each a golden retriever male by Christmas!!!! I'm so excited and I hope she can pull everything through. The facility doesn't have a breeding program yet so they go through other breeders and sometimes we get some from the program up in New York. So, wish me luck in getting it soon (hopefully not during finals week tho!)

Here are some pictures from the training.

Here the raisers had to get the dogs in the hoola-hoops and get their dogs to sit nicely. Then they would all switch hoops which helped work on passing dogs and getting your dog back and focused on you.

This is where they learned to get the dogs to sit in-between their legs. I like this picture because it shows just about every dog we use. The labs, shepherds and mixes (the labradoodle and the golden mix)

These are our two prison pups, they are so good but need extra help with socialization (for obvious reasons) the guys get to go places to work with the puppies tho so thats good.

Sorry about the bad pictures.. I brought my old small camera because I didn't know exactly what we would be doing so I didn't want to risk the big one..