Rio day 1

Well today I got Rio and he is quite the handsome fellow. Me and my family took him to the mall and he was super good the whole time with no problems. We came home and had a couple of dominance problems with my pet dog and him but those are pretty much now taken care of. He had a couple of problems with our cats at first but the cats didn't let him get away with anything. We let him run around in the backyard a couple of times and that pretty much wore him out. He is much calmer then Hazelle and almost as calm as Breeze. The only problem is when other dogs are around.
While I had Rio on tie down for dinner he was missing all the fun with my other animals  

Graham and the kitten watching Oreo.
Oreo is hissing at the new kitten and wanting outside.

Handsome Rio making a funny face at the camera

Rio with a dorky smile on

Happy Rio on a dog bed

What a handsome boy!

Hazelle News.

On Sunday November 13th my dog Graham bit Hazelle over food. We told our leader who then told our CFR, together we decided that we needed to transfer her just because Hazelle is already skittish and they were worried that she might get even worse than that but they were not quite as worried that she would be in danger.
 From the start Hazelle has not been an easy puppy to train and she has hated going out in public. We have told our leader multiple times that she just did not want to go out in public and that she hated wearing the head collar.On Saturday November 19, 2011 we had an evaluation with our CFR which also happened to be the day we transferred her. Our CFR then took her back home with her and has been evaluating her since then. I didn't end up having an actual evaluation with her but I knew that she was going to be evaluated when she got back to Colorado. So for the past couple weeks she has been evaluated. December 1st we got the news that she has officially been Career Changed we are not exactly sure why but our leader later told us that she had so many problems there was no way that they would all be fixed by the time she went to Formal Training due to the fact that we had to transfer her for the reason we did we are not allowed to keep her. I have never really bonded with Hazelle which is another reason why I probably shouldn't keep her but I also think that is because she never wanted to go out into public so I just felt she hated it. I think she is an awesome dog and has a really sweet attitude but just is not the right dog for me. She will be placed by GDB. Although right now I am not allowed to raise another Guide Dog they are allowing me to puppy sit. I will now be talking about my many adventures with guide dogs from my group! My first pup I get to watch is Rio over Christmas break. I am super excited!!

Hazelle almost 8 months old

Hazelle right before we left to evaluations.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
~Katherine

Pumpkins

Well on Saturday my family decided to go get some pumpkins. Here are a couple of pictures of Hazelle at the pumpkin patch! :)

Hazelle in front of a big pumpkin

Hazelle in front of some pumpkins and a scarecrow

On a side note: I got another stubborn dog who doesn't like taking pictures.. They are no fun...

~Katherine and Hazelle

Updates on Breeze and Hazelle (long post with lots of pictures)

Well as some of you might have noticed I am a terrible blogger but I decided to update you on Breeze and Hazelle since it is almost Hazelle's 6 month day and it was Breezes 19 month day (forgot to mention that she graduated as a Guide dog a day before she turned a year and a half.)  As most of you probably know Breeze is now a working guide dog. Her partner and her live in Idaho. He has 2 kids and a wife. As I met him and got to know I realized what a great thing I did for him and his family and what a great blessing Breeze will be to his life. He is the perfect partner for Breeze. Breeze was already so attached to him when I met him and I am sure they will have many adventures together in the future. About a week ago I got these cute messages from his kids saying how much they love her and that they are thankful for having Breeze in their family. Those messages made my day and I finally got over the feeling of wanting Breeze back because I knew that their family needed her more than me. Now onto Hazelle.
Hazelle is a trouble maker and I have failed to get you all "acquainted" with her. She is this adorable puppy that is a pretty awesome house dog and was a much faster dog to house break than Breeze. The biggest conflict we have with each other is that Hazelle hates the head collar and refuses to wear it. When I say refuse I literally mean refuse. She will not walk with it on and if you put it on her you will literally be pulling her everywhere which makes me look like the cruelest person alive and I would get many comments about it. We have worked and worked with her on it and have done food protocol with her but she does not want to walk anywhere with it on. We have decided to not mess with it and decided that maybe we will try it again in maybe a month or so. The problem with not having a head collar though is that she pulls sometimes and she sticks her head into anything and everything but I guess we will just have to work through that. She has gotten a lot better out in public but gets a little scared depending on the place you go. I have taken her to one class with me and have not tried taking her to my high school because it is so big and crowded that I am worried it will scare her right now but I might try it in a couple days/weeks. Here are 6 things I love about Hazelle or need to work on with her.

1. She loves to cuddle and will sit in your lap if you let her
2. She is super soft and super cute
3. She is a smart puppy which sometimes can be bad but it also means that she learns her commands fast
4. She has pretty good house manners except when it comes to slippers..
5. We are working on her loose leash walking without a head collar which she is pretty good at and only have to correct her once or twice.
6. She watches TV and is curious about everything. She will sit and watch you, see what you are doing, that sort of thing.

And since I have not put many photos on of her here are quite a few. Also some photos from Breeze's graduation.

Hazelle laying on the floor around the time I got her

Hazelle is naughty and took this pillow off the couch and put it on her bed.

Hazelle being a good girl

First time Hazelle wore a vest. She was around 3 3 1/2 months old

In the car on one of her first outings with a Halti on. 

As you can see it does not fit so we took it back and got a gentle leader. :)

Hazelle learning how to play tug

Hazelles first outing just happened to be at a shoe store.
Which also happened to be one of Breeze's first outing.

Hazelle almost six months old

Almost six months old and playing go to bed

Hazelle loves her dog bed

Cute little Hazelle

Now some photos of Breeze's graduation day:

Breeze laying down by her partners feet after she had gotten over the fact of seeing me again.

If you notice Breeze has gotten a lot more brown spots on her

Breeze in Harness isn't she just gorgeous!

Breeze guiding her partner down the hall

This is Kyle he happened to be the demo dog at Breezes graduation which
was a nice treat because I puppy sat Kyle a few times and I loved him.

The training board

Breeze's name under the In Class dogs :)

~Katherine and Hazelle

Phase 8

Breeze is in phase 8 as of Thursday August 18, 2011 around 3:00 PM (when I got the phase report info) on the Oregon campus.
 As of Thursday August 18, 2011 at around 11:00 PM Breeze is graduating on August 27, 2011. My family was on vacation when we got the phase report and the call telling us she was in class so my group leader had to email us the information of what happened.
    Breeze has been paired with someone who was originally with another dog but that dog didn't work out so the blind partner was paired with Breeze instead as a last minute placement. We knew that Breeze would be easy to pair and so we knew that when she reached phase 8 we would get a call soon after but we didn't know it was going to be the same day.
I was glad when I got the email saying that Breeze was going to graduate on the 27th because I had conflicts for every other graduation after that up until the last week of October (which we knew she was not going to wait that long to be paired.)
I am excited to go and meet her partner and figure out where she will be working. Right now my family is trying to figure out the best way to get out there since graduation is the Saturday after my school starts.
 More info to come later when I find out more.

Breeze around 11 weeks old with her cute messy face.

Breeze about a week before she went to formal training.
(Sorry for the shoe and leg.)

Off to Oregon and last couple days at home

Well yesterday morning I got up bright and early to take Breeze to the puppy truck. We decided that we wanted to leave little Hazelle home. We got there at about 8:00 AM so we just talked to the people at the truck who were giving away their dogs also. I saw two of Breeze's siblings there Becky and Batik. They are both heading to Oregon with her and I am excited to see how they all progress.
The two times I have been to the puppy truck they have been happy times but this time it totally stunk. When we got there one of the drivers of the truck asked me some info about Breeze mainly if she had had Heart worm and then what type of food she is on and how much she gets each day. It was all easy to do until I had to put Breeze on the truck. We put her up in her kennel and said our goodbyes and she just looked like she didn't really care why she was up there but then when we closed the kennel door she looked sad and wondering why we just did what we did. It was really hard for me to leave but then finally did. I hope she does well but there is also a part of me that wants her Career changed because I would love to keep her as a pet. Breeze totally reminded me of me and I think that is why it was also so hard for me to give her up. I am looking forward to the phase reports every week now and every time my leader calls me I will probably freak out.

Breeze in her kennel ready to go to Oregon

Breeze looking sad and wondering why we just put her in there

Breeze should be in Oregon now or soon and is stepping into the next part of her life.

A couple days before Breeze left and when we had just gotten Hazelle we had 4 dogs at our house. We had our own pet dog Graham and then we also had three PIT's in our home: Breeze, Hazelle and Lacole who is a dog in our group. 

Lacole has been an awesome dog to watch and even though we had four dogs she made it easier because she is much calmer and kinda lazy like Breeze. It was pretty hectic having four dogs but I think I would rather have four dogs then have Breeze missing. Here are some pictures of the dogs the past few days.

All four dogs settled down and none of them are on tie down. They are all touching each other also.

This picture is of all the dogs lying down and touching

My two girls Breeze and Hazelle 

~Katherine, Breeze, Lacole, and Hazelle

What happened to my 10 week old pup?

Well today is Breeze's 15 month old day which means she can officially go back to the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus. I remember when I got Breeze at 10 weeks old and just barely starting her training now I have 13 days left with her and getting ready to start the adventure all over again with a new puppy. She was a quick learner and easier to teach because of it. I will miss my white little Breeze like crazy but I really hope she makes it as a guide. I don't think Breeze will be happy just staying home and being a pet dog because she loves going everywhere with me and hates it when I do not take her with me. Breeze has been a great first puppy to train even though she can be super stubborn at times and doesn't want to do what you want her to do at times. She also likes to do things that she know she is not supposed to do just to make sure that you will get mad at her for it such as picking up things in her mouth. She will pick things up in her mouth and then run to you to see if you notice she picked something up, she will drop it once you see what she has but she just does it to make sure that she is still not allowed to do it. I am looking forward to seeing her name on the phase reports every week and seeing her progress and I am excited to see how well she does.

Breeze 10 weeks old on my lawn

Breeze at 14 months sitting in my yard

~Katherine and Breeze

14 Months old

Here are just 14 random things I thought about Breeze.
1. She is very calm with her vest and people always ask if she is always that calm. The answer is no.
2. She is super sweet and I love how she likes to follow me everywhere.
3. Breeze always looks sad even though she is happy.
4. I honestly think she picks things up in her mouth just to see if she will get in trouble.
5. When we let the dogs out to play in our almost an acre yard they just sit at the back door wanting inside.
6. She is very stubborn at times and very easy going other times.
7. She is very good in band class but doesn't really like being in the same room when I play piano.
8. Breeze would rather play with a jug over a bone.
9. She is very stubborn with somethings but totally doesn't care about others.
10. She will not drink plain water from a bowl but loves having it in ice form. :) (we are working on that)
11. On all her Nylabones she chews the 2 sides but never really chews the middle.
12. She will lay on anything to use as a pillow.
13. Because she loves  to follow you everywhere when you are in a bathroom she will go and lay on the towel on the ground or when you are near like a door rug she will lay on that.

 Kyle laying on top of Breeze

Clyde laying on top of Breeze

Breeze looking all sad. Like normal.

Kyle and Breeze laying like if they were looking in a mirror.

Breeze in uniform in my yard.

Breeze sitting in the grass in my front yard.

and last of all
14. She is tentatively leaving on the June 9th truck.
~Katherine and Breeze

6 months and more

Well I have not posted in a while so here are a few things. Breeze now weighs about 48 pounds. She is also 6 months old but I never did a post for it so I will do it right now.

Things she does well:

1. She is very calm out in public and settles really well.
2. She is getting really good on Tie Down but still needs some work.
3. Her come is improving. She was going through the rebellious stage so she would stop coming but now she is getting better at it!
4. She is starting to walk on a loose leash with a flat collar but still needs the head collar.
5. Breeze is really good around kids and enjoys them.
6. She does most of her commands when you tell her to.

Things to work on:

1. Breeze is very dog distracted and pulls on the leash to get to them.
2. She is starting to have accidents again but I think that may be some of my fault.
3. Breeze is a very big garbage mouth and will pick up anything that is on the floor.
4. She plays keep away with toys she is not aloud to have.
5. Breeze is not able to "stay" in a room that I am not in. Instead she tries to follow me around.
6. She also knows when I don't have treats for come so she will not come.

Because Breeze is now 6 months old we got a letter telling us that she needs to get spayed! Also Breeze will be going to school with me tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday then will be getting spayed on Wednesday!

(Breeze sitting in my yard with her vest on)

~Katherine and Breeze

"Come"

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on the Come command.I think it is really important and is very useful. Breeze has picked up on it really well and is getting really good at it. Here are a few pictures of her coming! Sorry about the dead grass!

(Breeze running towards me after I tell her come)

(Breeze running with her lips all spread out)

(Breeze after coming a few times)

(Breeze relaxing after running out in the heat)

~Katherine and Breeze