No longer a Puppy Raiser

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. 

Massive doses of cuteness here!!!!

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!!).

From request of the mother

My mother that is... She has been reading my blog and, though she has left no comments ;) has requested that I post pictures of Darrell and Egypt actually working. So, I carried my camera around to a couple stores with us and to school and got some good action shots lol. So here you go, hope you enjoy.

P.S. thanks momma, it was a good idea :)

Here is Darrell just getting off of the cross walk - He just told Egypt to start turning to the right after she stopped him at the curb.

Here they are walking into the store, she is supposed to stop him at the doors and wait for him to give her direction.

Here, they are heading back to the car using the cross walk. Egypt will stop at the curb of the street and only go when she and Darrell think its ok to go. Darrell has to listen for traffic and then if he thinks its clear he will tell her forward, however, if she doesn't think its safe, she won't go. They call this intelligent disobedience.

This is at school where Egypt is showing Darrell that a stair case is starting, you can see Darrell's left leg probing out to find the edge of the steps.

Here is Darrell trying to find the door. The reason he is a little off is because he knows this door swings from his right to his left. He gets nervous because he doesn't want to hit Egypt so he stops working her when he hears the coke machine thats right next to him. If you look closely you can see a girl's hand coming into the picture there on the left. She rushed up to help him with the door.. she probably thought I was terrible for standing back and not helping, just snapping pics lol. Oh well.

Here is a better picture of Darrell probing for the top step of a different stair case.

And last but not least

Darrell and Egypt finding a seat so they can wait until they can get into class.

So yay, pictures. I feel bad because I don't have more to write but no real news so yeah. Hope everyone has a fun halloween. I will be studying all day so yeah. Wish me luck on my physics test.