2009 In Review

2009 is coming to a close, and wow have I had a busy year!!! Never would I have dreamed of all the different things to come my way this year!!

Dog's Trained: 8 - Timothy, Veda, Ben, Gideon, Daniel, Ira, Hope, Dublin
Dogs Fostered: 1 - Victoria
Dog Puppy Sitting: 6 - Jordan, Eden, Lydia, Mensa, Bishop, Ben (before he became a SD)
Total Dogs this Year: 15 not counting Bubbles & Texas


Foster Pups in My Group: Yiska, Gideon, Hope Ira, Noah, Ophel, Phillip,Yoda, Zach, Bishop, Abby, Casey, Felix, Reuben, Willow.

January

A hard month with so many changes, I couldn't see straight. Signed up for two classes with our community college in WNC. Bubbles, Texas and I moved to TN on our own, and I started working with Wilderwood Service Dogs. My first trainee was a bouncy 1yo Retriever mix, named Timothy. He was defiantly a challenge, but I didn't feel overly intimidated by working with him.

February 

I was home all day with this job, and bored out of my mind. No internet in my home, so I was stuck going outside, trying to find my way around an unknown city, and going to restaurants for internet. My friends really baled me out during this month, so I frequently visited their home, or went out with them. Bubbles and Texas acclimated really well to our new place (well except for Bubbles throwing up every day for the first week we were here) and we learned more about working with Mr.Tim.

March

My first Wilderwood Graduation was like nothing I'd been in for sure! I'd seen autistic children, but had never experienced it first hand, how their emotions are so easily effected by new environments, sensory overloads etc.. It was also hard, since I didn't know much about autism spectrum, or how to help the parents help the dog help the child. It was most defiantly a learning experience. I was soo thankful we got three days off afterward, and pretty much just collapsed! Veda arrived A week later, I was promoted to Foster Program Manager, and began, working with our volunteer foster families, answering questions, Running puppy classes, working on different training problems as they arose, and anything else that was required. 

April

I was settling into my new position as FPM. This was just one of those months, that you really don't recall much of, since it wasn't too much going on. School was close to wrapping up, My sisters, Veda,Texas went back across the mountain, to Chimney Rock's Bark in the Park. That was fun! Well after we got Texas to stop trying to bite anyone close to him... 

May

Busy, busy month, Ben was given to Wilderwood as a service dog, and came to live with me. (Speaking of Ben, I just heard that he is doing great with his new family! *sniff* I miss that dude)My sister was graduated High school, Finals were due, Rei and Kacie came to visit, which was AMAZING; 

June

2nd Wilderwood Graduation, with Veda and his brother Xerxes; since I knew what was going to happen, it was a lot easier in some respects, than my last one. Still was great to get to see the dogs and kids bond with each other. After graduation was over, we headed to FL, for a church event, and then a trip to Universal Studios!! When I got back, I was offered a position with the University of Tennessee Police Department, and I accepted it. Gideon came to live with me as my 4th trainee.

 

July

Started work at UTPD, added Daniel to my gang. Gideon and Daniel were defiantly an interesting combination...they on such opposite ends of behavior levels, that it was driving me crazy, so Gideon moved on to another trainer. Texas turned a year old! 

 

August

Daniel moved on to another trainer, and Ben came back for a couple weeks, before moving on to ANOTHER trainer, and Ira came to live with me. She defiantly kept me busy, puppy proofing, and then re-puppy proofing, and go back and RE-puppy proofing my house. If there ever was a dog with ADHD...she would have been it. Decided school wasn't going to happen this semestor :((

September

Graduation No. 3, 3rd verse same as the first, this graduation went the smoothest. Said goodbye to my buddy Ben, attended my first Knoxville Campmeeting while living in Knoxville. Next year vowing to board the dogs.

October

Wilderwood changed our flow system, so I was traveling to our kennel facility three times a week and training pups out there. Victoria came home with me, and Gideon arrived back and left again. We baby sat Mensa for a week...then brought Hope in around the middle of the month. I'm so glad she looks so much better now!! Its hard to believe she was once so gaunt!!

{Ira and Victoria napping}

{Gideon & Victoria laying in the grass}

 {Hope surrounded by leaves}

November
Moved back into my position as Foster Program Manager, and working from home. Celebrated the Anniversary of the arrival of Bubbles & Texas. Went out of town for Thanksgiving, and boarded Bubbles & Texas for the first time. They got great reviews bit sigh of relief from me! Hope moved onto the last stage of her training, and we enjoyed our time with Victoria. 

December

A mass of dogs,work, graduation, and trips. Well and you've all read about it here. Wow is it just me or are the years getting shorter??

Looking forward to next year, I've got a lot cooking just starting in January...STAY TUNED!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

End of Graduation

The last four day of graduation,were a continuation of the families exposure to new things with their families. Saturday we threw a Bar-B-Q, for our volunteers, food, fun, just a relaxing day for the dogs and families. We had a pool for the dogs, and Texas loved it!! I was shocked!

Sunday - We took them too the Mall, to practice their public access test. They are required to take this test, in order to be a team in public. My group could have passed their test right than and there, but they had to wait until Tuesday to do that. :(

Monday - We took them out for a night on the town, allowing them to work in a downtown setting.

Tuesday - the Big Test day, After the test Veda's "parents" were treated to massages (the other family turned it down)I dropped Ben off at his sitters, and Deanna and I got to watch "R" & Veda. They did so well, while we waited!

Later on that night, I held puppy class, raced home packed, said good-bye to my dogs, and then went to my friends house, and left for Florida!

......More on that later

Graduation 1 & 2

Graduation is going really well! Veda and Xerxes are starting the long process of bonding with their new families.

Veda is with a family, who child is has higher functioning autism, meaning he can talk, and do most things normal kids can do. He loves his new buddy very much!

Xerxes new friend, is on the other end of the autism spectrum, and can't speak or communicate much, but already his parents are seeing improvements in his behavior!

Day 1
We introduce everyone, get all paperwork taken care of, and go over the basic of how we introduce the dogs to everyone.

Then a staff member will bring the dogs in, and let them run around and interact with the kids. Chaos!!

We staff members are not allowed to interact much with the dogs, because (as I'm sure you can see) it would be very confusing for them.

Once we kind of get things settled back down, our President commences the lectures, and then its lunch time!! This graduation, we had lunch delivered, instead of taking the group out on the first day.

After lunch some trainers took the parents, and worked on their leash handling skills, while others of us, were in charge of helping the other parent monitor the kids.

It was around the high 80's and HUMID like you wouldn't believe. So we cut that days session short, and sent families and dogs back to their homes/hotel.

Today

I got to skip the lecture this morning, so when I arrived they were already heading out for lunch. One of the families hadn't been able to take their child out for several years, and were quite nervous about going to a sit down restaurant.

So this was going to be an adventure. And did have some success!!

But it was in Target where this family had the greatest success...only on the 2nd day we were able to go into the store, walk through it, and not have a major meltdown at all!

I was close to tears, watching Mom tell Xerxes how she didn't know how they'd gotten along without him.

After that we took the dogs and kids to the park, to let them run off some steam, barely leaving before a severe thunderstorm hit.

I am so proud of Veda, he has come a long way since arriving at my home in April, I'm sure he'll be a major benefit to this family.

That's my boy!!! :D

Erin

Friends

Need I say anymore?
I did see Veda yesterday, and he's doing just fine, jumped all over me to let me know he "missed" me....(heh).

Ben went on his first outings today, we went to the Library and PetSafe Dog Daycare, he did great in both places. If he could talk...I think he would be saying something like this:

"Oh wow are we going in here? Huh we are? WhOA what's this place, LOOK at this, OOMG a kid, canIgoseehercannaIplease?please?please? No? ok! What else is here?SIt?ok i'll sit, but check out this smell...."and on and on.

Which is just fine! We'd rather him be excited to be a place than freaked out! I believe he was born to be a service dog, just took a little bit longer to find that out.

Busy Monday

As I've stated on my personal blog, life has moved into the left lane, and we are cruising along around 75 MPH!

Yesterday, started the trend......our church has a Vacation Bible School every summer, so we are starting to get stuff ready for that. So the first three hours of my day cutting rectangles. I was going stir crazy after a while, so as soon as I could, I left and went to check on my dogs.

Veda has really matured since I got him a month ago, and I felt comfortable leaving him and the dachshunds loose in the house. The proved themselves good...despite the tissues roll in the floor...untouched though!!

I put the dogs on their lines, to go potty, and all of the sudden, my porch was swarming with kids... :D So I took that time to teach them the basics of grooming a dog.

::Veda gets a brush down by Autumn and Brooklyn::

Now as I've mention, Texas has a tendency to be very territorial, but with a few corrections, he didn't growl/bark at any of the kids...even going as far as letting them walk him!

::Texas climbing on my sisters lap....he knows her, so which is why he's willing to climb in her lap::

After that, the kids wanted to walk the dogs....so....I said why not, and hooked them up and sent them out.

::I have no clue what was going on here::

After that, I had to get ready for a training consultation, so they walked them back to the house.
Veda and I then loaded up, and went to pick up this guy.
Meet Eden...he's a 7 month old Goldendoodle, who is training as a Autism Service Dog.

It took Him and Veda a couple minutes to figure out the seating arrangement....but they looked quite comfy in the end.

We were evaluating some things with Mr.Eden that thankfully were'nt as bad as we were thinking. so it was a successful trip.

Eden and Veda made themselves very comfortable on the way home.

Shopping....

This is what you look like, when you are "drug" through 5 stores.....Its hard work keeping up with mom and the shopping cart!! Believe me!!

Bark in the Park

Since we are close to Asheville, we still like to hop over the mountain to visit our GDF group once in a while. This month's meeting was held in Chimney Rock, NC, which is a Rock that looks like a chimney, which you can hike up too :D, Each year, they hold a Bark in the Park event, dogs shops, and daycare's, rescues and boutiques come and set up booths, and market their wares. GDF also has a booth set up for potential puppy walkers.

We've gone the last two years, but never had a chance to hike up to the Chimney, due to other events we'd have to rush back for; not this year!!

My sisters bummed a ride and came with me; and since we were helping run the GDF Booth, we go to get into the park free!
Veda was as close to perfect as you can get in this setting! No pulling to see other dogs, walking nicely responding to all commands!! He had a great time! Texas on the other hand was a little putz for the most part, letting people know he didn't want his space invaded!! ::eye roll:: So most of the time, he wasn't allowed to be petted, etc.. Bubbles spent the day with the "grandparents" as I knew she wouldn't like the heat and all the walking.

After visiting the booths, watching agility trails, and talking to people...we headed up the mountain!

::GDF Pup - SAM::

::He's such a block headed golden....in shape, but not mind ::

::Texas need a short lesson in leash walking::

::Teaching my sister to walk a six pound dog...on a loose leash::

::Veda was awesome::

::THE Rock::

:: The climb up about 8-9 flights of stairs::

::Texas got carried up the mountain::

::We Arrived::

::We made it!!::

::Texas was glad to walk a little bit::

::All of us::

We had fun, and everyone is knocked out. *phew*

Good News!!

Hi Guys!
Veda here again,Mom got some really good news today! With our organization, when us guys in are in advanced training (like I am) we normally go to one, advanced trainer for a month,before switching to another trainer! But since I have such a hard time transitioning from house to house, I get to stay with Erin until I graduate!! Advanced training takes about three months, so I'll be with her until June!! I think I'll call her mom now :D I love her a lot!!

The other news is that Mom got a promotion!! She is now Advanced Trainer AND Foster Program Manager!! Which means she gets to boss around the puppies and their people.
....Ok she said its not like that, but that's what I think it means.
She's really excited about the position!!! I got to play with my brother while she and her boss talked, so that was fun at least.

Anyways to "celebrate" she took me to the mall to train....whopptiy do, and then we came home and did some MORE training!

{See How happy I am about training?}

{Rack Room Shoes!}

In other news, mom really likes to keep this house full of dogs! Cause the first week in May she gets to babysit my brother Xerxes, he's a lot tinier than I am, and I like to boss him around! But it should be fun!
And than the first week of June, we may get Jordan back for a week! I'm sure she'll be all big by then so that should be funner!! Wow, Just before I leave for my new family!

Things are picking up around here!!

Hope you guys had as good as day as we did!!

BAYL!! (Bark At Ya Later)

Veda

Working Guy

Veda here, to give you our Tuesday update, our week has started off, simple enough I suppose..Erin spent all day yesterday, cleaning...something about a mouse;
After that we drove a long ways, and I slept in a boring old restaurant place.

Today was pretty busy, ...well the first part, was pretty boring, I slept most of the day away, than Mom drove us to the Petstore and got a bunch of things like Natures Miracle..? (I don't know who THAT's for), and a couple things of treats, and one of those treat bags, and well as a super loong leash.
Then we went to a park, and we did a lot of training practice, and the more dogs came, that had orange vest on like I used to wear, and Erin told them too do lots of things, like "Sitting", "Down", "Ups" etc.. She sure is bossy!!
After that I got to play a little bit with my brother Winston....Erin didn't take any pictures, cause she said it was already enough to run the class, as well as handle me. As IF I'm hard to handle. psht. You should see Winston!!

But anyways, that was pretty tiring, so I've been sleep mostly since I got home....and (YaWnn) I think that's what I'll go back to doing. Maybe something interesting will happen this weekend.

TTYL

Veda
Autism Service Dog in Training