A Little Loud Noise Never Hurt Anyone!

We had our last Saturday meeting at the Wyoming Antelope Club courtesy of owner/puppy raisers Lois and Bill Gagne.  It was a bit like being in the middle of a popcorn machine while the popcorn is popping. Very noisy, but an excellent exposure for the dogs.

Pinellas puppy raisers waiting for our AC to start the meeting

 After AC Carolyn gave us a brief update on things, we got down to the obedience class.  In addition to the constant report of guns in the background, our pups needed to do sits, stays, and downs.

AC Carolyn is leading the raisers in a circle of obedience having us all put our pups in a sit.

Here the pups are sitting waiting for one of the pups to walk by.

 Then, one by one, each pup would walk around the circle trying to get as close as possible to the other dogs without lunging.

Jam is looking behind Fred as if there is something large and freaky back there.  There isn't.

AC Carolyn demonstrates the proper way to down a dog.

This is puppy Katy.  It is not possible to convey how cute this goldadore is. She is a fuzzy ball of adorability.

Larry, Gabrielle, Trapper, Sylvia and Sylvia's perfect pooch watch the obedience class.

After obedience, we climbed an open staircase, went to look at several stuffed animal heads on the wall (the pups seemed not to notice the mounted, wild animals on the walls, which may have been a good thing) and wandered around for a bit.

All in all, it was a fun, loud and busy meeting!

Feb. 11, 2012 Meeting Information and Details about Past Meeting

January 30, 2012

We had a great BIG meeting last Thursday at the Courthouse.  A special thanks to Karen Hamilton for setting the meeting up and also to Jen Gerrity for coming up to host the body language class.  Our combined group sure is large.  I learned quite a bit about dog posturing and while looking through photos over the weekend noticed that most of them have my dogs with their tongues covering their noses.  I always thought it was cute, but now I know it’s a sign of stress.

Also thank you to the puppy raisers who attended both the Pass-a-Grill yard sale and the St. Pete Farmer’s Market on Saturday.  Thanks for taking a little extra time out of your life to represent Southeastern Guide Dogs.  I got a nice thank you email from the host of the yard sale.

Frances Lucas and I attended puppy raiser day with our families on Saturday.  Jimbo and Kenny did great.  Jimbo is such a mellow dog, and was placed with a first time guide dog user.  I think they will make a great team.  Frances’s 90 year old mom recorded most of the day on her Ipad.  I can tell you I spent as much time watching her as I did the dogs.  Frances, your mom is a piece of work.  Kenny was matched with a fellow who was blinded last April in Afghanistan.  Kenny’s forever home includes 5 children and a 6^th on the way.  He will be moving to the capital region where I’m sure his partner will keep him very busy with children everywhere.  I’ve been asked not to post his name or his photo due to his job, so I’ve distorted him.  Frances and I both agree that puppy raiser day brings everything full circle for what we do.

Carolyn and Steve with Kenny and his person in the middle.

Jimbo looking up into the camera.

Jimbo with his new people and Francis, his puppy raiser.

Michele and Gail Reese have started their blog as well to follow:  http://puppygail.blogspot.com/                           

Upcoming meetings: 

February 11^th at the Wyoming Antelope Club, 3700 126^th Ave N, Clearwater (Pinellas Park, sort of).  Their phone # is:  727-573-3006.  Thanks to Bill & Lois Gagne for setting this one up.

February 23^rd, heavy traffic walking, Clearwater Mall (Gulf to Bay)  Will let you know where we will meet later in February.

March 3^rd: Southeastern Guide Dogs Walk a Thon.  Hopefully everyone is fund raising for that, or will at least sign up to walk!!! 

Carolyn and Sunny

Message from Carolyn

Lots of big news around the North Pinellas group since last week.  We’ve placed two new pups in our group.  Gail is being raised by Michele and Roger Reese as first time raisers.  Gail is a Golden Retriever female pup from the Birmingham area.  I hope the Reese’s are using their southern drawl during this transition so that there’s not a language barrier.  Hope you are enjoying the sleepless night, Reese family.  Eventually the dogs do sleep through the night. 

The second new pup we have in the group is Katy.  Katy is being raised by Sue Urbach who recently migrated to the North group from the Tampa group.  She’s an experienced raiser with two Guide Dog schools under her belt.  Katy is also a female Golden Retriever pup, but is not a litter mate of Gail’s. 

Also, we’ve received word that we have two of our dogs in class right now.  Kenny, the oversized train wreck, that my family had the pleasure of raising has been matched (after a record breaking 11 months IFT), as has Jimbo, the pup that Frances Lucas raised.  Jimbo is also in class right now.  I’m looking forward to puppy raiser day, and promise to accentuate the good in Kenny!  We will take lots of pictures.

Just a reminder that the next meeting is January 26^th at the 49^th St Courthouse in Largo.  This will be a joint meeting with the South Group.  Jen Gerrity will be coming up to do a session on body language.

Also, if you have an older pup the good news (or bad news depending on how you look at it) the March IFT dogs have been announced.  Our group does not have any being called back.

See you all then.

Carolyn and Sunny

Jan. 7, 2012 Meeting

 Yesterday, we had our first meeting as the combined North/Central group and it was a huge success!

Brian and Susan and their puppy Essie listening to AC Carolyn before we begin obedience.

We all gathered outside at the Edinborough Healthcare Center to first listen to our new AC Carolyn talk about what was going on with Pinellas Park Library.  The PPL recently denied access to Southeastern Guide Dog puppy raisers for a puppy raiser meeting.  Currently, there are talks between Southeastern Guide Dogs, the library and the Mayor's office about how troubling it is that the library would deny access to guide dogs and in the larger world view, visually impaired people and their guide dogs.  Our hope is that a resolution will be reached so that we can have our meeting in the library.  Generally, all it takes is proper education on the laws and a detailed calming of fears with facts and reasoning.

That being said, we are very thankful that the healthcare center was so welcoming, pleasant and accomodating.  As you may or may not know, elderly people have very delicate skin and when dealing with this population, you must be very careful to have your puppy be extremely calm during the greeting process.  One little nick of the tooth or a scratch can result in a very bad bleed for a elderly patient.  So compared to the Pinellas Park library, the Edinborough healthcare center was amazingly generous in their gracious invitation to us.

After the information session, Carolyn led us through some obedience and then through some distraction training, before we did a traffic walk to the front door of the facility.  Before going in we busied our dogs (just in case!!) and got a few takers. 8-)

Then we entered the center.

Essie is stretched out on the health care center's floor with her back legs out straight behind her, Brian on her right, Susan on her left.  Vince and Dianne and their pup Cherry are in front of them.  Essie and Cherry are black labs.

 A healthcare center is a fabulous experience because it provides a wealth of exposures all in one place: mechanized hospital beds, wheelchairs, walkers, loud noises, strange beeps, weird smells, and to be frank, some strange characters.

Cheryl and Justice beside a resident in a wheelchair.  Cheryl is kneeling and Justice is standing in the middle.

 One very sweet lady that we met was the lady in the wheelchair above.  She was stationed by the door and got to meet all the dogs as they came in.  She was very dog friendly.  This is one time where sitting to  be pet may not work as some residents can move their hands very far and if the dog sits, it throws their body too far away from the wheelchair.  The best bet is to stand the dog right next to the chair so they can pat the head.  Just knew right away that these people needed to be handled gently.  My little wiggler was very calm and gentle.  No wiggling.

Justice also did really well with one of the strange characters of the center.  This lady got up everyday happy.  She put on her sparkly clothes, combed out her frizzy hair and put on her tiara. Then she put on her red, red lipstick.  Not too well, but for the most part, she got it on her lips.  She added her long glittery beads.  Then she stepped out of her room, ready to greet the day.  And to everyone she met, she greeted them with laughter and joy, which is how she greeted Justice.  What Justice thought as she stared up and saw those red, red lips and was knocked in the muzzle with those glittery beads, I don't know, but she was happy right back to the lady.  A perfect pair of joyful sunshine they were.

A woman visiting her mother stops to greet Essie, who is sitting.  Brian is holding her leash.  Susan is in the background.

 Here is Essie with Brian as she greets one of the relatives of a resident.

Dianne is leading Cherry around the corner.

Cherry and Dianne worked the hallways looking for people to greet.

Our group is congregating in the hallway as we wait for an empty electronic hospital bed to be found: Sylvia, Cheryl, Michele, Keegan (pup Laurel), Nancy (pup Orchid) 

 After going up and down three hallways greeting residents, Carolyn arranged for us to go into a room two by two and see a mechanized bed go up and down.  None of our dogs were phased by this.

Keegan and pup Laurel. Laurel is in a down stay.

 By this time, most everyone is tired.

Nancy and her new puppy Orchid.  Orchid is a yellow goldadore.  Orchid is sitting on her left.

 Except Orchid, who is still in play mode!

Justice is lying down in the hallway.  She has a smile on her face and her tongue is hanging out a bit.  Her ears are perked up.

 Justice, the happiest dog in the world.

Fred and Jam.  Jam is sitting on Fred's left.

Fred and Jam went into rooms to say hello to residents and see if the bed bound wanted to pet a dog.  Jam was very calm and sweet.

All in all it was a fabulous exposure and a great experience for dogs and puppy raisers alike.

Message from Carolyn

Hi Puppy Raisers, 

Carolyn and Sunny. Carolyn is on Sunny's right side and Sunny is sitting. Sunny is a yellow lab.

I'm Carolyn and I’m excited about taking over the Area Coordinator position for North Pinellas.  I have some really, really big shoes to feel and hope that 2012 is filled with many positive puppy raising experiences.  I know most of you, but in case you don't know who I am, our family has been raising for a little over three years.  Our first pup, JC is a Collie and he’s working guide dog in Georgia.  We got our second pup, Tyler, when he was about 10 months old.  He was immediately career changed due to hips.  We only “raised” him for about 3 weeks, so I don’t really count him in the number of pups we’ve had (but we did adopt him).  

Our 3^rd dog is Kenny.  Kenny is in perpetual IFT.  He went back the first week of March and has decided that getting a PhD at Southeastern might be the way to go.  I guess there’s still hope for him because they haven't career changed him and he just recently was in the news.  Our 4^th pup, Stewart, we picked up at  11 months old.  He was career changed in November and Tampa Police Department picked him up: he’s now training as a drug sniffing dog.  Sunny is our 5^th dog. She’s the pup that the Suncoast Puppy Raisers sponsored this year.  You’ll be seeing a lot of her.  I can’t imagine NOT raising. 

I’ve put together a 2012 calendar.  I’d say it’s not likely to change.  The only changes I’d foresee would be for  exposures that come up as a once-a-year opportunity (a parade, a ball game, or something like that). 

We will take some of the meetings that we’ve done in the years past that are wonderful exposures, like Celebration Station, the Threshers baseball game, and a Jolly Trolly ride and build on those.  If you, your friends, or family could “expose” us to something we haven’t thought about before, I’d love to hear those suggestions.  We are also going to open this blog up for people to add their own cool exposures in case we are out and about.  For instance I was at the International Mall today and they have a two story stair steps with glass walls.  The glass walls were fascinating enough, but adding the stairs and people walking downstairs toward us, was awesome for Sunny to navigate.  I don’t typically go over there, and almost didn’t take Sunny with me, but if I’d have known that there was this neat exposure, I wouldn’t have hesitated taking her.

Let’s do this together.  We are all in this for the same end result.  To change a life.

Carolyn and Sunny

Read about New Legislation Rick Kriseman Is Proposing for Our Puppies!

Below is a link to a story in the Bradenton Herald about a bill one of our south Pinellas puppy raisers is involved in (Rep. Rick Kriseman) and Sen. Bennett.  The story includes photos of Kenny, raised by Carolyn in our North group!

Sounds like good legislation and an excellent article to me!

Legislation would provide more rights to guide dog trainers By PARADISE AFSHAR - pafshar@bradenton.com Bradenton Herald 

PALMETTO -- Jennifer Gerrity took Kenny out for a training session. She strapped the almost 2-year-old Goldador into his harness Thursday afternoon and he was immediately in work mode.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/12/23/3746122/florida-legislation-would-provide.html

Four of Our Puppies Go In For Training in December!

On December 10th, four of our group's puppies went to Guide Dog University to start their training to become guide dogs: Marge (raised by Bev), Commodore (raised by Lois and Bill), Phyllis (raised by Nancy and her family) and Wrangler (raised by Linda and Kerry).

Guide Dog U, as it is called, has become a cherished new tradition as it eases the heartbreak of bringing your puppy back to Southeastern Guide Dogs by focusing on not on what is actually happening (you bringing your puppy back), but by focusing instead on the greater purpose: the puppy's purpose and our work with the puppy.

It all starts with the welcome.

T

Bev and her puppy Marge in front of Marge's Guide Dog U sign.

 As you come into Southeastern Guide Dogs, the driveway is filled with signs that announce all the puppies that have been accepted into Guide Dog U.  The signs all have their name and the 6-week portrait of them in the harness.

Bill is on the right of Commodore and Lois is on his left in front of his Guide Dog U sign.

 As your puppy's name is called, a trainer will come up to take him or her back to the kennel.  You have an opportunity for one last goodbye before they trot off.  Some raisers cry, some don't, but usually you can count on your puppy walking off with his or her head held high, tail wagging and happy to be going off to their next new adventure.

Nancy and her sons with Phyllis. Phyllis is sitting in front of Nancy. 

And you can be proud that you have given them the confidence to go into another's hands and walk confidently into a new future.

Linda is standing with Wrangler sitting at her side in front of the Guide Dog U sign.

Because that is what we do: we raise confident, well-adjusted, happy puppies.

Of course, after handing off your puppy they send you to puppy hugging for some serious TLC!  Then you come back to listen to some recent graduates talk about how their guide dog has changed their life.  It's a well rounded program, but it all starts with the puppy raiser and the puppy.

So, excellent job Linda, Kerry, Nancy, Lois, Bill and Bev! And good luck to Wrangler, Commodore, Phyllis and Marge.  Study hard.