Of Fires and Puppies

Our puppy raiser meeting was to be a scavenger hunt at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Sports Authority.  We were going to do some obedience outside and then inside for the fun. (although, true to my competitive nature, I was interested in completing my form first! 8-)

Little Ava, a black lab puppy, create quite a stir with her big belly. Here she is with raiser Nancy showing off her cute pink belly.

 We all fell in love with Ava, a dark beauty and I am always reminded of Ava Gardner when I hear her name, although Ava Gardner didn't have a pot belly that gently swayed to and fro when she walked.

Golden Gail made the meeting and was calm as she was being greeted by Steve.

 Golden Gail was at the meeting and she was fully recovered from her surgery.  She had a cyst removed from the top of her head and wasn't wearing the cone of shame anymore.  Coastie and Coach were with their raisers and Gail's raiser Roger were waiting in the parking lot for things to get started

Hershey, our group's first chocolate puppy, arrived.  Here she is greeting Katie.

 Our AC Carolyn was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Hershey, which her family sponsored.  Hershey is a chocolate lab puppy and is being raised by one of our new puppy raiser families.

Carolyn comes over to say hello to little Hershey.

 Poor Ava got knocked off her cute puppy pedestal in less than 30 minutes! But we all still love you Ava!

Hershey sits and gazes into the distance.

 Then it was off to the obedience races and we were lined up and doing sit stays and down stays with our pups.

The group is lined up against the wall in various stages of doing a stay and return to your dog.

The camera catches Gail in a rare moment of calm sitting by her raiser Roger. (Roger told me to say that!)

 Gail may have been near the edge of the circle of acceptance, but I think she was doing pretty well as the photo above shows (see Roger 8-).  Our obedience continued with some distractions and then we heard an alarm sound.

Carolyn walks by with some paper mache corona bottles for a distraction.

Coastie was interested, but he didn't break his sit!

 After the alarm sounded, we noticed that there were some people streaming out of the Bed, Bath and Beyond store.  Then, we heard what sounded like a siren.

As you can see from the video, the puppies were amazingly good natured about the noise and the sirens.

Carolyn holds Hershey in her arms.

Carolyn took the opportunity to pose with Hershey.  Turns out that there was some kind of fire on the roof and they sent out two fire trucks.

Photo of the ladder truck with firemen going up on the roof.

 It was a great distraction for the dogs: men in fire suits, alarms, sirens, flashing lights, huge fire trucks and ladder trucks.  The dogs were not impressed.

The puppies weren't impressed by the firetrucks.  They were more captivated by each other.

We ended the meeting by doing a short scavenger hunt through Sports Authority.  Coach teamed up with Ava (I think he has a little crush).  Ava had a little accident inside (Nancy, you do NOT need to return the Shamwow! Keep it with my compliments.  Ava may have future need of it. 8-), but we were very quick and efficient and cleaned it up before anyone even knew it was there.

We were going to take a cute photo of Ava in one of the tiny tents, but we didn't realize that they were all up on the shelves for display.  It made the photo a bit difficult.  So we passed on that.

All in all it was a successful evening.

Suzy Becomes a Guide Dog!!

 

by June Connell

“My family and I raised Suzy for all of 2011.  On Saturday, my husband John, my sons John and Chris, and I all got to meet Suzy’s new person, Dee Wilson, who has been blind since birth.  She was the only surviving triplet, born three months premature, and she lost her vision to retinopathy believed to be from too much oxygen in the incubator that saved her life.  Dee will be taking Suzy back to Pittsburgh this week so Suzy has a few months to acclimate to the cooler weather before Dee takes her to church, restaurants and outings with friends in the cold, snow and ice.

The agenda for Puppy Raiser Day was perfect.  We loved seeing Dee and Suzy walk together as we quietly looked on (we could swear Suzy spotted us in the crowd!).  They are a great team, and even though Suzy is new at this, Dee is a pro – she has had many guide dogs she since the 70s.  After their walk, we waited with great anticipation as Dee and Suzy walked toward us as we stood by the pavilion.  It was so wonderful to meet Dee, but it was hard to do much more than a brief introduction as Suzy started jumping on and licking our sons John (15) and Christopher (11)!  Dee gave us permission to say hello, and boy did we!  It was so heart-warming to hug Suzy again and give and get kisses from her.  The abundant joy she showed us was so pure and deep.  We basked in it for as long as Dee’s arm would withstand.  Suzy then quieted down beautifully, and laid by Dee’s feet, as if that spot had been marked for her a long time ago. 

The weather was perfect for us to sit and chat under the trees.  We had our photo taken with Dee, then feasted on a delicious brunch while having some more time to get to know Dee and one of the trainers.  Overall, it was a beautiful day filled with great blessings and love.  None of us cried until the end when we were saying good-bye.  Then we all hugged and let the tears flow.  I think for all of my family, they were tears of joy for Dee and her new companion, Suzy, who happily said good-bye to us then wagged her tail and followed Dee out of the dining room and into their new life together.  It was a precious moment and I thank God that we were able to raise Suzy for Dee.

June standing next to Dee with Suzy at Dee's side.

But nothing like some puppy love to soothe an aching heart!  Carolyn brought us down to the puppy kennel where we got to pet those soft little balls of fluff and get more kisses.  It was a perfect way to end our morning.

June and Johnny with a yellow lab puppy.

Many, many thanks to Leslie and all of the Southeastern team who made the morning as special as it was.  There were a LOT of details and nothing got overlooked.  A super special thank you to the trainers who fix our mistakes (!) and turn out puppies who become amazing guides for people like Dee.”

New Puppy: AVA!

The Simons' family didn't waste any time.  They dropped Orchid off at IFT and picked up glamour gal Ava, an 8-week old black lab puppy to take home the same morning.  Ava, is without a doubt, a super cutie, as seen in the following photos.

Ava sitting before Blair in Publix's produce aisle.

Ava and Blair made a big splash at Publix.  Well, she's so small, it was more a tiny splash, but to good effect! 8-)

Blair with Ava in his arms at puppy hugging.

Ava strutting her stuff on the lawn.

Welcome Ava! We look forward to watching you grow into a lovely young lady.

Pool Safety!

 Today we had a great pool safety meeting at second in command Stephanie's house.  AC Carolyn was on vacation so Stephanie hosted and ran the meeting, starting with a rundown of all the news that we needed to be updated on.

Stephanie and yellow lab Coastie. Stephanie is sitting in a chair and Coastie is lying on the ground next to her.

 We were a little concerned that the rain might be an unwelcome guest, but it only sprinkled a bit and actually provided for some nice overcast clouds and a cool breeze.

Puppy raisers from left to right Lois, Fred, Susan and Brian.  Lois has Babe on her left, Fred has Coach on his right, Susan is sitting next to Brian and puppy Liz is sitting on Brian's right.

 We all sat in a big circle on the deck out back and listened to the news.  Our next meeting will be broken into two spots: Up north in Palm Harbor with Sylvia and here in Clearwater at the white cane day with Cheryl on Oct. 6th.  Stephanie and Carolyn will be at the AC training day.

Sue and Katie and Bev and Tabina smile for the camera.  Katie is sitting between Sue's legs and Tabina is lying on the floor under Bev's chair.

Lois and Babe.  Babe is in the process of lying down on Lois's left. Lois is smiling and looking left.

Stephanie goes over the list of things we need to know.

Fred leans down to pat Coach's shoulders.

Susan is smiling as Brian gives Liz a hug.

We did have a visitor to our meeting, a guide dog user: Debbie and her guide dog Luke.  She got Luke, who is her first guide dog in May and will be speaking with us at our Nov. meeting.

Visitor Debbie and her guide dog Luke

Gail is staring at the pool waiting to jump in as Michele listens to the meeting.

We also heard some sad news from Bev about Tabina.  Seems Tabina has been diagnosed with bi-lateral hip dysplasia.  The final word and decision will come probably next week, but in all likelyhood she will be career-changed.

Bev gives Tabina a little kiss.

Bev places a kiss on top of Tabina's head.

 Tabina and Coach were the youngsters of the group, but starting today, Nancy will be picking up Ava.  Karen and Bob will be getting Liberty soon as well.  So Coach will just be one of the gang now!

Close-up of Coach looking back at the camera.

Stephanie announced that there was a closed Facebook users group for Southeastern puppy raisers that was run by Jen Gerrity, the trainer.  If you search on southeastern puppy raisers, you should be able to find it.  Just request access.  If you have any questions, let Stephanie know.

Michele and Gail.

 After the announcements, we did some obedience work and Stephanie showed us the turn command again.

The obedience circle.

 Then we did pool safety.  The object was to slowly introduce your dog to the pool, make sure they knew where the steps were and also that they didn't just jump into the pool. They need to only go in the pool when they are given permission to do so.  Jumping in on their own is not permitted.  So, if your puppy is currently doing that, you need to stop them and work on having them enter the pool on command.  It is a dangerous distraction if a guide dog jumps into bodies of water on their own.

Coach is on the edge of the pool steps, but won't get in on his own.

Brian and Liz show the group how swimming is really done.

Liz shakes off the water!

Finally, Gail gets to swim in the water and swims to Michele.

Everyone watches the experts in the pool.

Guide dog Luke wants to go in!

Gail and Luke, swimming and playing in the pool.

Stephanie helped Luke get his pool safety lessons.

Gail and Luke running loose after getting out of the pool.

Debbie and a very wet Luke!

Coastie and Tabina have a moment to play together.