Texas Security Log

July 21, 2011

• Mom brought home ANOTHER dog today! But just for the weekend. SHe's real quiet and don't even do nothin! #
• Chased a bird up onto a telephone wire today! 
• Did you know my other brother Pompei is going to be a guide dog? Yep! He is all matched up with his new partner and they will graduate on July 24th according to mom. 
• Mom can't even go see him cause, she already committed to watching Muffin.  :(( Plus it was like $345 whole dollars for a plane ticket! #poormom
• Oh look! Someone left the garbage out! I wonder what yummies are in here?! 

...An Ordinary Day

Or so I thought.
Here it is, just an ordinary day, I got up with mom (much too early I might add), went outside and took care of buisness that may or may not have involved chasing the niegbhors dogs back into their yard, or checking out the other neighbors trash..came back inside and ate a sad excuse for a  breakfast with Bubbles, then settled on my couch for my after breakfast, early morning, nap. Mom was leaving and for some reason, it didn't occur to me that she doesn't even leave early on Thursday, but it didn't and off to la la land I went.

It was HOOOURRRRRRRRS later when I finally hear a knock on my door.
I let Bubbles get up first cause well, I was comfortable and didn't feel like greeting mom, I mean I saw her this morning after all. Big whoop.

Except...
It wasn't just mom. It was my Auntie and Mom, and.......THIS!?

Texas: What?WHo?WHEN?WHERE?WHY? Rob: Ya wanna play?

Rob: HIIIIII!!!! Bubbles: hi. 

Poor Bubbles attempts to "go potty" with a 10lbs. puppy on her back.

Alla of the sudden it came crashing back down on me, all mom's talk about puppies and sayin stuff like "you'll have a playmate soon" was about ANOTHER PUPPY!? Here I was thinkin maybe another dachshund or something. But nooo we got ourselves another lab!

I think he liked the vibration of the speaker

And BOY does he have some sharp teeth! O to the U to the C to the H. He put his little teethies into my mom's roommate when she wasn't expecting it and she shrieked like a girl!

Except she is a girl...
So yeah.
It was loud too.
Then it was time for him to go to bed. And I was happy cause I could finally sleep in peace..but noooo he had to scream, and scream and scream and scream..so much so that mom had to go make sure he wasn't stuck or anything.

He wasn't.
Then all of the sudden he was quiet again.
*phew*

The it came time for us to go to bed....we tried to sneak into the room without waking him up but no.such.luck. He started screaming as soon as he saw us come in, so mom had to take him back outside so he could go potty.

But he wasn't even finished screaming yet.

I wanted to go down and shush him up, but mom just pulled the covers over my head and turned on her "white noise app" on her phone. He did hush up FINALLY. But man is my head hurting!

I'm sure glad that Grandma and my aunties keep him during the day, so I can rest up!

Oh yeah.
He does have a name and its Rob.

Erin Here: Since Texas left out all the important informations.... Rob is not only my fifth guide dog puppy, but also my "grandpuppy". Those of you who have been following me a while, may remember that Midnight (who was the inspiration behind this blog) has gone on to become a breeder. Rob is one of the puppies from her first litter, not only that but a friend of mind sponsored him in memory of her father who passed away. He's only 7-weeks-old but quite feisty!  Let's just say.. I didn't get much sleep last night either.

Time Flies....

When you're having fun....

Only four days left. Four very very short days. 

Texas: OMD what an AWFUL PIC OFME! TAKE IT DOWN MOM! TAKE IT DOWN!!!

Erin: Awwwww

Erin: please ignore the dirty floor. *shudders*

Erin: One of our first outings together! omw how cute was he!

Erin: Pompei's first puppy meeting to the fire station!

Erin: Pompei @ six months!

Erin: What a faker. Still six months 

Erin: Pompei enjoying a bone while on our disastrous camping trip

Erin: OH! GREEN GRASS!!! I MISS THIS! Oh yeah and Pompei's cute as well. 

This was soo funny!

Erin & Co.

Bad News

Dear Diary,

Now dat I'm a whole 11 months old, mom keeps saying stuffs like "IFT" and "puppies" and "dissapointments" and all sorts of other stuff dat I normally understand but not like how she is saying them.

Like da other day, she was talking to our neighbor about getting another puppy!? I don't even know what she meant by that cause I mean HELLO I"M Sitting right here!
Then she said that she didn't know when I was leaving for IFT but it would probably be in a couple of months.

So any ways i had ta get on the Doogle network (google for dogs..you hadn't heered about that?!)

And then I gots a lot of junk like Career centesr an annual meetings stuff, so I had to have mom help me. I did not even like what I found on there!! 

So apparently dis I.F.T. stands for : In Formal Training. And what dat means is dat I have ta go back to the school place that I came from ( a loooooooong time ago). And then I have to stay in a kennel place and have lots of doggie friends to play wit and then I gots to do like I do wit mom and go into stores and stuff butt this time i has to wear a harness thingy cause that means I'm trainin to be a guide dog.

I gotsta say that it does sound like a little bit of fun, cept for the leavin mom part, but if I stays wit her I won't get to have a joby thingy and if I don't stay with her then I gots to go away all by myself to a bunch of peoples I don't even know.

*sigh*

I thinks I'm going to sleep on dis.


G'Night.

Pompei Posts #2

Hi Guys!

Mom has been telling me allll week that today I had to go and get some medisine that is supposed to help me not get sick when I go outside. I was a little skared but my tweeter friends told me it was not too bad.

1. LittleRedDog 
     
   @GuidePupPompei Shots dont hurt as bad as everyone says they do so no worries. Plus you'll get TONS of treats afterwards. Totally worth it!2:48 PM Jan 25th from UberTwitter in reply to GuidePupPompei
   • Reply
   • Retweet
2. Persephoneie 
   @GuidePupPompei My shots are always followed with a treat!2:42 PM Jan 25th from UberTwitter in reply to GuidePupPompei
3. shelby05 
   @GuidePupPompei there's no good way to say it - shots suck. But they're normally followed by treats so that's cool!

So than I was excited about it!! ANd I waited and waited all day so I could go to the place and get my treats!    ..and my shots too.

But when we got there the people didn't want to send the money paper all the way to the Guide Dog Foundation, they wanted mom to pay for it right than. But mom says she gots me cause she didn't have to pay for that kinds of things, and cause she doesn't have that money.
So she called my aunt Libby, (Note From Erin: She's our Area Coordinator for the GDF) who talked to the vet lady and another lady for a while, but they still did not budge. So Mom and I left, cause there are lots of other places who would probably want our busyness.

So after that we went to Wal-Mart AGAIN. Mom let me walk for a little bit, and I was doing real reall good, cept I just had to taste everything we walked by, so she put me in the buggy thing.

I didn't really like that cause it was more fun to see things on the floor, but it was cool to fasst!!!!

Mom swiped her card thingy and we got in the car, and than we were home! (I went to sleep on the way back).

Uh mom? You forgot something!!

Anyway mom says I'll get my shot treats later on this week at a different place. Oh boy I can't wait!!!

Gotta go nap before dinner!

BAYL!

What Did the Dog Say?

Hi Guys!
I am so tired furum my day that mom is gonna write dis posts fur me. BAYL!


Ah weekends, the best time to get some fun socialization with the puppies in. My friends and I had made plans earlier in the week to go see "Aladdin" put on by a local theatre troupe, along with doing some shopping together afterwards.

I woke up this morning to a mess. Poop was everywhere, on the his pen, blankets, on the floor....but somehow he managed to stay completely clean. I wiped him down with a damp cloth and brushed some "doggie perfume" into his fur just in case.

After getting that cleaned up, I ran all the dogs outside, to get in what little exercise we could, before Pompei and I left.

Tired puppies are Good Puppies.

That plan backfired on me when Pompei slept the entire 30 minute trip to the Playhouse. Halfway there I woke him up and played with him a little, in an attempt to give him more 'sleep time' during the play.

We arrived, pottied and walked to get in line for tickets. (Just over the last couple of days his leash walking is coming along nicely.) He was doing really well sitting and watching the people behind us, until a little boy ran up and flopped down in front of us. I gently reminded him about asking before petting strange dogs, and he backed up, and than asked.

I didn't have the heart to tell him no, so I had Pompei sit, and let the boy pet him.

Once inside, I laid down my coat and let him check out his new surrounds, before asking him to "down" which he did.

For about 30 seconds anyway.

By the time the play started, he'd settled himself halfway under the seat in front of us, so I just let him be.

He periodically moved further and further under the seat, until I had no choice but to fish him out, before he started nibbling the person shoes in front of us.

He gave up and slept for the remainder of the play.

After that we headed back towards town and stopped for some lunch, and than went through a local used bookstore. Since my friends and I all are bookworms, we were in there for a while.

Pomp was still pretty sleeping from our last excursion and was plodded along for a while, until he just curled up into a ball and went to sleep. So I carried him and my books for a while.

Who knew a 10wo puppy could be sooo heavy!! I finally collapsed on the nearest stool, and waited for my friends to finish their perusal of the store. Pompei was laying at my feet, charming all that passed him; he got up and I called his name, and asked him to sit.

He did, but looking for some kind of edible reward; but unfortunately for him, all I had to offer was praise.

That was not good enough for his Highness. So he let out a bark to fill me in.

A couple of aisle over I heard a little voice pipe up:

"Mom?? What did the dog say?"

Erin & Pompeii

Snow Days!!!

Thursday afternoon, the skies dumped about an inch or two of snow on our lovely city, much to my dismay, but to the delight of the dogs. Since the temps have stayed in the teens, the snow is still very much around, (Amazingly enough) three days later.

So though I didn't get any snow pictures Thursday, I took a bunch today.  It was nice to finally get to spend and entire day with my pack! I think they were happy as well. :)

I put Pompei in one of Bubble's coats, as he was shivering badly during our potty breaks, he didn't really enjoy it at first, but soon realized it was keeping him warm! Bubbles on the other hand, shed hers before we even got outside.....and I think she regretted that decision!

Speaking of the Pompster's he's settling in really well, and as I predicted (mentally anyhow) Texas thinks he's an awesome playmate. It takes him a couple of day's to warm up to our new intruders, but once he does he's friends for life....sort of :)

Potty training is going ok...funny story though, he made a little mess in my room, & than went and dragged the Natures Miracle bottle over by it!!

He is not doing much complaining about being in the crate either, but is still pooping in it no matter if I'm getting up in the middle of the night. So obviously Texas's crate is too big for him, and we're going to have to down size. *sigh*

Other than our first week together, is going great!

Texas,Bubbles,Victoria and Pompei

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 :)}

Sad News

Jordan is a puppy I've watched several times for puppy raiser, who volunteer with the Guide Dog Foundation. I don't know if I mentioned how she'd had a bad limp, because she'd fallen from her raisers deck.

Although she'd been checked twice, the vets proclaimed nothing wrong with her until now. Apparently one of the bones in her leg is healing wrong, thus causing the limp. She's in surgery now, and will be in a brace for 10-weeks.

I told her family, I don't know how they will be able to do that!! But she is being released from the guide dog program because of it. She won't ever be able to handle the rigors of guide work.In someways medical CC's are hard because its not like the dog got to make the decision that guide work wasn't the right path for them. Oh well.
She's going to make someone an awesome pet.

...If you can't tell I really get attached to these dogs!

3 years and counting

Wow can't believe I forgot!
Today marks three years, since I first entered the service dog world as a puppy walker. I will never forget the excitement of bringing home my very big 12-week-old, puppy. Mr. Jake.

Knowing all that I know now about dog training, I kind of feel sorry for Jake. We in no ways harmed him, but he was our gunia pig into the world of puppy training.

-Jake @12 weeks old-

-Jake @6 months old & Bubbles-

And all though he didn't make it as a guide dog, his owners rave about how good he is all the time. Our goal mainly is to raise a dog that would change someone's life as well as bring them happiness....and I would defiantly say.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

-Jake @1 year old-

Rei came next in that line up. I'm sure you all know by now that she was not the eaisest puppy in the world. But we did our best with her, and she has made us sooooo proud!

-Rei and Bubbles-

-Rei @8 weeks old-


-Rei @14 months old -

-Rei @2 years-

and last but not least my girl Midnight. I loved this dog so much, it still hurts to think about her.


-Midnight @8 weeks old-


-Midnight's first trip to daycare wore her out!-


-Midnight @13 months-

-Midnight's last day at daycare -

These guys taught me so much about puppies, and how each one can be SOOO different; they each took a piece of my heart with them when they left. I'm hoping my sister will carry on my "legacy" until I can raise again one day.

In the meantime we'll keep working our hardest with our Wilderwood Dogs, hoping that they too will get the chance to change someone's life.

But
Once a Puppy Raiser, always a puppy raiser.