Death To Bugs!

Texas loves to play and rip apart bugs...but we finally found one that could withstand his attack! The Spiny Caterpillar!!

...or whatever its called.

Are those things poisonous?? 





I love that silly dog. :)

Meet The Hopesters

Hope began her visit with me yesterday; when I picked her up at the Kennels and dropped Mr.Gideon off at my bosses house.

She's a really sweet dog so far (hehehe), She seems to have ball obsession similar to her sisters, she chased my brother and his football around for a while. She's got the appetite of a lab, we have had a couple accidents...but whose fault is that???
Mine.

Yeah I know. Don't rub it in.

 Ok...she is dealing with some stress so that is factored into her accidents as welll...
But its all part of the deal.

Victoria is growing in leaps in bounds, and is starting to look and feel really good; I'm technically fostering her, except I'll most likely keep her until she is ready to graduate. We write things in pencil around here so I'm not getting my hopes up.

But she's been a really great puppy, I've actually called her Midnight several times, just because she's got that same laid back temperament. She already knows : Sit, Down, Wait, Come, Look, Leave it, Turn (spin), Reset (Come and sit facing handlers position), Kennel, Her name.

We're working on: Stand, Car (she doesn't realize her back legs work)... and some others which I can't think of off the top of my heads. We're working on four commands pretty much every other week.

She loves to drag the dog beds around the house, she loves playing with Texas. She LOVES rolling around in the grass, and does it at least once a day.

I Love Her <3

Goodbye Goofy Gideon!

Three weeks flew past, and now its (once again) time for Gideon to move on to another trainer. He got a bath this morning, got his ears, eyes and nails done; and his gear is on the kitchen table ready to go. He's going to have fun with his new trainer!

See ya later bud!

Wilderwood Presentation

Around 3:30PM, I received a phone call from a dear co-worker of mine, asking if I wouldn't mind bringing a puppy to a presentation she was giving for Wilderwood. Of course I said yes!!

We had to sit through a rather boring presentation about Genetics....but I was busy trying to keep Gideon from flopping all over the floor.

He has just been introduced to the Halti....(Chorus of "Aaaahs".)

After that was over, the pups visited while Deanna setup; I was a little nervous about standing up front of a group of people... cause I know they'd be puppies...I could make Gideon lay down, but Victoria hasn't been a situation where she'd need to stay still for long just yet, so I was under a little bit of pressure try and make everything look...good.

For the first 5 minutes they both  laid down, than Vikki smelled something interesting on the stage and tried to go investigate it.

Here's where the importance of body language comes into play...hehe, since I couldn't correct her verbally, and didn't want to do anything physically, well just because, so I gave her the signals to 'sit' and 'down' which she did....but flopped, and flipped, and stood.

I sat down and held her in my lap...which she let me....for about 10 minutes, and than she was ready to go again.

Thankfully Gideon was doing a great "down/stay" during this time, as Deanna was talking about the impact these kids have on the dogs. She got to a section of her presentation where she played a video......except it didn't work.

So I got up and tried to work on it, while Deanna talked on....Vikki was laying down, so I focused my attention on getting the videos up.

Suddenly I heard a growling sound behind me, of course I whipped around...Gideon was beside me so Vikki wasn't being bothered by him....the growling escalated to a whiny, barky, squealy, sound, that went on for about 15 seconds, before she was finished and laid back down.

The audience died laughing.. apparently she wanted a part in the presentation...as if being cute and cuddly wasn't enough!

We finally got the internet to work, and played the video from our website....and wrapped up the presentation.

Gideon did have some "I-don't-want-to-do-what-you-want-me-to-do" and we had a little battle of wills, but I won don't worry! :))

All in all, we got our information across and I think we may have gained some potential kennel volunteers!! 

5-Months-Old

Happy 5-month-day RSTUVWX Puppies! :) 

Reuben, Samuel, Titus,Ulla,Victoria,Willow and  Xena,

5 Things about Victoria 

• She hasn't figured out what exactly her back legs do just yet
  
• She loves to be cuddled, doesn't exactly know that she's not a lap dog
  
• Although she may look sweet, she's not shy about telling other dogs where to get off at.
  
• She's an extremely laid back little girl
• And loves to just hang out so long as she is with you. (Midnight the 2nd)

Mensa!

Mensa is a 5-month-old standard poodle, she's a guide dog puppy with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind. She's come to spend the week with me and my gang!

She was a little nervous at first, but quickely came out of her shell. She, Gideon and Victoria spent the day playing with other Wilderwood Pups out at the kennels while i worked.

One would think after a day of play they would sleep the evening away.....noooo they feel they must take every oppurutnity to play-play-play!!

Well Gideons' tired anyways :-) 

She's been a good girl for the most part, loves to exercise her lungs while crated, but really great in the house. Granted she's too busy playing/antagoizing my dogs to think about chewing or etc.
She's very obedient and a really great house guest :)

{Besties :)}

#wetWednesday - Kennel Day

Hmph. And I thought we were past these for a while, but no. Once again I wake up to pouring rain. Allll Dayyyy.Our Facilities aren't very big right now, so we don't exactly have a nice covered room to work in (though there is a lot of land) sooo that meant we were outside.

Not that the pups cared, they didn't even notice!

My Week with 4

Hey Guys,

Wow when we say "Busy" we mean "BUSY". With my new schedule, I have been running all day everyday...or at least it seems that way. Typically though the service pups come with me at least 3 times a week, while I'm at the kennels, so they aren't lacking much exposure oppurtunities.

Monday - Wednesday - Friday are office days for me, those are the days I'm working at the University of Tennessee. I haven't convinced the to allow the SD pups just yet, so while I'm there they are crated with a stuffed Kong to keep them busy during the morning hours.

(KONG's are the BEST toys ever...we are up to 8 now)

Here's where having 4 dogs becomes a pain. I was sitting here trying to figure out how it was that I used to be able to just jump and run in 5 minutes, and how now it takes 20-30 minutes to get out of the house.
Here's what I came up with:

1. Midnight/Rei both went to work with me, so I could feed them on the way to work/ when I got to work, and could leave Bubbles food on the floor for whenever she decided to get up. (She's lazy) 
2. I had dogs then who would go potty as soon as I let them outside. 
3. If they didn't go at home they had another opportunity to go when we got to our destination...etc etcc

Now I'm having to pry ALL dogs out of MY bed, hook them on their long lines, go back and fish Bubbles out of bed, convince Texas to go outside (where he'll stand on the porch and whine) get their food ready, have everyone sit/wait (stay); and while they are eating run around getting dressed, and doing my hair.

By this time I normally have about 5 minutes left, send Texas BACK outside and convince him to potty...possible chase him around the neighborhood, if I send him out off leash... send Victoria back outside so she can potty, and than crate them.

Does anyone else see why I sometimes feel like a single mother??

Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday are a little easier; I set my own schedule with Wilderwood, and gave myself plenty of time to feed/potty and exercise Texas and Bubbles at the very least; and then make the 45-50 minute trip out to our kennels.

Its a good thing these pups like car rides! During my time there, Gideon and Victoria are in the play yard, pretty much  by themselves, as the others pups are up for their nap by the time we arrive.

They seem to keep themselves pretty busy in there.

{Hi sister! Let me bite your face}

Once home again, THEY are worn out,and its time to wear Bubbles & Texas out...which isn't very hard at all. But after that trip its defiantly an effort for me to pry myself out of the vehicle and go back outside for another 20-30 minutes.

And to make this long post a little longer...

Victoria is feeling TONS better, and is pretty much almost to the bouncing of the wall stage, she's still very good in the house, and only has carried around some "no-no" dog toys. She is on her way to loosing a couple teeth and is bleeding on everything. I took her on her first outing (with me) to Kroger's and she behaved beutifully. The parking lot and going through the double doors where a little intense for her, but once she realized nothing had attacked her she was great.

She sat beautifully while I shopped, and stood quietly while checked out. The parking lot was still scary for her, but we have time to work with that. :))


I wound up taking both her and Gideon into Petsmart and was astonished at how well behaved they were....this is not to say there wasn't pulling, or times I had to slam on the brakes....for the most part they did very well.

Even as I check outed they sat and let the cashier give them treats.They both got hugs in the car for jobs well done!!

---Texas says:
Fall is Officially Here

P.S.( We are very active on Twitter, Texas now has his own account at @TexasTheDoxie and whatever SD I have in the house will be tweeting @ServicePups ...and of course I'm on @Fidography  follow us if you tweet!)

Hi Guys {Victoria}

Hi Guys!

Thanks to those who inquired about me! I'm feeling a lot better since I've started to live with Erin. Its been a lot of fun! She's got a GAZILLION toys to play with, and I like to try and keep all of them to me! But sometimes Texas and Gideon want them back.

Oh Gideon! You guys don't know but he's BAAACKK!!! On Tuesday Erin took us on a car ride, and we wound up back at the kennel place. Than I had to go into a crate while she and some other people did a lot of talking, and talking and more talking.

When I FINALLLLLY was let out..(NOTE FROM ERIN: She did get several potty breaks, don't listen too her) This big furry dog (that kind of looked like me, but not cause I'm cuter than that) came and pounced on me several times, till mom stopped him; we had to ride home together, Erin said his name was Gideon and he'd been with her before. Only she didn't know why he was back again.

From 0EDIT

{Ira and Myra got to go to Lunch with some of the Staff....but I didn't :((}

Texas and Bubbles seemed to recognize him, cause they didn't even bark or growl when he came onto the porch! Oh! More good news! I get to stay with Erin for a looong while!! How fun is that!?!

Well I got to go sleep, we went back out to the kennel place and I had to play all day. *sigh*Toodles!!

V

From October -31

hmm 76 followers yet no comments..how sad :((

Victoria

From October -31

Victoria is wanting to do some better but her body is not cooperating, in the meant time she's been hanging out with the toys, and barking at Texas and Ira as they play.

I was really about to congratulate myself about going two days accident free, when I looked over to see a puddle. *sigh*

But that's 1 in 2 days so I think I'm doing pretty good!!!

Weekend Visitor

From October -31

From 0EDIT

This is Victoria, 4-month-old Wilderwood puppy, her foster family had to go out of town suddenly so she was boarding at the kennels. Well until I brought her home.

She's not feeling well, don't know exactly why she's sick just yet, but I wanted to keep an eye on her.

Texas has tried his best to get her to play tonight but she's not really feeling up to it. It hurts me to see puppies sick, hopefully the vet can figure out whats going on, and get her back to a normal puppy bounce :)) 

First Day on the Job

A littl while back I made mention of some changes coming to Wilderwood....as of today ...Change Has Come! There are many different reason why we are changing things up, I think its for the good.

BUT FIRST.....Ira has some pics to share...did I mention a short Attention span?? I Ask for a "Sit"

From 0EDIT

Which Becomes.....????

From Collages

And Now for the rest of our story.

The way we were:
Wilderwood has done things a little different than other schools. Most of our pups come from breeders or shelters; around the typical 5-8weeks old time period, sometimes a little older.Their first stop would be the kennels, where our puppy trainers would work with them for 6 months, training about 30 commands. Once they had those nailed down, they would proceed to foster homes, who would keep and socialize the pups for about 4-6 months. Around 9 months old, the pups would come in to us trainers for advanced training where they would stay for about 3 months, moving once a month to a different trainer. Than came Graduation where the families came for 8 days and trained with their new dog. The End.

The way it will be: (come Oct.1)
We are taking out the major part of the foster program, and mainly going to work with older rescue pups around 6 months and a above. We will still use some puppies from breeders our President likes...such as Bouviers pups and Golden-doodles; they will go immediately to foster homes (yay) and stay there for about six months, than move out to the kennels, where we will train with them for 20 weeks.We will have volunteers who will come and take the dogs for specific outings during the week, while they are in the kennels. Once hit week 20, we Trainers start looking for foster homes for the dogs to go to for about 4 weeks until its time for them to graduate.


October 1st Arrives

Since everyone is out of town (except me), our actual orientation isn't until next Tuesday; butI went to the kennels, played with the pups.....ok more like let them play with each other......They had fun getting me all muddy regardless...(hence why me and my expensive camera are on this side of the fence) Don't even try to ask me whose who, cause ...they all look the same! :))

From 0EDIT

From 0EDIT

From 0EDIT

I took Miss Abby on an Outing. Abby is a 9+ month Labradoor Poodle mix with a bad hair cut.....she was extremely matted when we got her and....lets just say a pair of neat grooming shears weren't handy......It'll grow. She has a.. 'slight' dislike of cars so we worked through that for about an hour, but once we got in the car out of the driveway and onto the straight away, she decided she liked the feel of the breeze in her hair. And stood looking at everything out the window,

From 0EDIT 
(One day I'll be cute!)

From 0EDIT

We road around and than since she was doing so well, we decided to go into Hobby Lobby; she did great walking calmly by my side! We even met another service dog...a Guide Dog, and she stood quietly with me while I chatted with the handler and her friend.
After our success there we went to Tractor Supply (Hi Sarah) and picked up some more KONGS (I'm up to 8 now) and met some nice people there.I was riding high on the way home, when I heard a slight-not-so-not-noise.....whether she'd thrown up or had an accident I could not see, until I'd arrived back at the kennels. Basically every treat I'd given her came back up. Oh well. I'm sure she felt better after that. I visited with the pups for a little bit, made sure they had water and headed home.

From 0EDIT Yoda -German Shepherd/Rottie Pup

From 0EDIT

samuel -Golden Retriever (I think that's sam...its so hard to tell which is which)

From 0EDIT

Cutie Patootie.