Someone's been sleeping in my bed!

Silky came home today after a hiatus of nearly 4 weeks. She left home on Nov. 8 in a puppy swap with Stefano. She came into season on her swap-back day, so she went directly to the GDB campus instead of coming home.

While she was out, a lot of visitors came through "her" house -- some with two legs (Jeff, Leslie, Cyndi, Kitt, and 5-year-old Charles); some with four legs (Stefano, Griffen and Sinclair). The four-legged guys walked on Silky's floor, laid down on her carpet, hung out in her crate, chewed on her toys and one of them even slept on her bed. And I didn't even have to explain all this to Silky -- she figured it out all by herself. Sniff, sniff, sniff.

Hmmm. Charles? Yep. (sniff sniff) 

Griffen? Yep. (sniff sniff)

Stefano? Yep. (sniff sniff sniff - Hi, brother.)

And . . . (sniff sniff . . . sniff sniff . . . sniff . . . .) who else? A strange puppy? (sniff sniff sniff) SINCLAIR!

 

Yummmmm -- my old watering hole.

Back in my own bed, boss of my own toys.

All except the kong that escaped over the edge of the deck, into the bushes below.

Silky's coming home !!!!

I just heard -- Silky's first season has come to an end. Finally!
I'll pick her up tomorrow just after lunch. YAY!!

Welcome home, Silky. We're awfully excited you're coming home.

Mr. Sinclair and our puppy club

Sinclair is a 5 month old puppy, career-changed for medical reasons. He had 3 operations very early in his life and has grown up living on the Guide Dog campus. Since he needs experiences living with people in their homes and since we're puppy-less until Silky comes home, we fostered Sinclair for 4 days. He's a smart, engaged puppy and learned things very quickly.

And, as you can see, he's very handsome. We're hoping he gets adopted soon.

It turns out that Sinclair is Snickers's brother. Snickers is one of the chocolate puppies from the Forte/Arizona litter born on 6/08/10. You can see Snickers on Megan's blog: http://megansgdbpups.blogspot.com

Sinclair went with us to our puppy club meeting last Saturday and was able to accompany all the puppies to a retirement home. The puppies were a hit. Sinclair was quite a gentleman and licked people's hands very gently.

Nougat gets a double belly rub.

Quebec is on the left and Ava is in the middle of the photo.

Quebec sitting nicely while Carol talks with a resident.

Stefano's visit

We had a great time puppy sitting Stefano. It was surprising to discover how similar he and Silky are --both in personality and appearance. He's more grounded and less aloof than Silky, which we enjoyed for a change. When I took him back to his house, he and Silky played beautifully in the yard for awhile. 

Stefano's a beautiful boy. His expression here could almost be Silky's -- except he's a yellow lab and a boy.

Stefano was a hit at the local quilting guild's workshop. He has the same way of looking directly into your eyes that Silky has but was able to restrain himself from trying to jump up.

When Silky and I were driving home, she became very agitated in the car - highly unusual behavior for her - and I pulled off the road. She tried to relieve several times, each time just squeezing out little drops. On closer inspection, I discovered she had come into season so we drove to the Guide Dogs campus instead of coming home. She'll be there until the first of December.

Silky/Stefano swap

Silky was a bit "reluctant" to have our CFR play and handle her during her evaluation. It made me realize it would be good for Silky to participate in more frequent puppy swaps and puppy sitting adventures. That way, she could become accustomed to being handled by a variety of people and would be less likely to become stressed when our CFR takes her reins in her next eval. . . . or so the theory goes . . .

So I sent an email to Silky's brother's family and asked if they would like to swap puppies for a few days. They said yes, we worked out all the details, and voila! Stefano came to stay.

What a guy! He's Silky's brother. Their litter had 5 yellow labs and 3 black labs. One of their littermates, Spencer, was donated to the Samsung Guide Dog School in Korea. Stefano settled right in and made himself at home on the tie-down next to our kitchen. We went out for a relieve and walk -- he was totally distracted by a small dog (just like Silky would've been) and walked right next to me once we were away from the small dog's influence. Back at home, he crashed.

Stefano is quite a bit larger than Silky is -- he weighs 70+ pounds and she's about 55 these days.The most surprising thing for me was to see they have identical expressions. Silky has a way of looking right into our eyes and Stefano does the same. And his face looks just like Silky's -- only larger and blonde.

Getting ready for Silky's next evaluation

It's time for Silky's next evaluation. Our CFR will be in town next week and Silky will see him Tuesday afternoon in downtown San Rafael. She was about 6 months old at her last eval and never really settled down. Our CFR had to talk about her "potential". Oooo boy. 

 Now that she's a year old, she has her obedience commands down cold and will do them around different types of distractions (except other dogs and people).  So, to help make sure she can show off all that "potential", we spent some time in downtown San Rafael this morning to "study up" for the eval.

Silky does not like to get her feet wet. It's been raining lately and our drive is wet. She wants to sniff the puddles and steps around them. What about those webbed toes, little labbie? Aren't you a water dog?

The trees in San Rafael were beautiful. It was drizzling there and the sidewalks were wet. Sounds from the traffic on the wet pavement didn't phase Silky, though.

She looks lovely dressed up in her Puppy-in-Training gear.

Hallowe'en is this weekend and Silky was totally disinterested in the store displays. Good girl!

Silky did very well as we worked our way through all her drills - both with the Gentle Leader and with just the flat collar.

 No problem with the scary stairs . . . .

 Or the "public restroom" for civilian dogs . . . .

 Or the loud trucks and heavy traffic.
 

There were two exceptions to all the good work. The first was another dog. And not just another dog. It was a guide from Guide Dogs in formal training being taken through his paces. Silky was distracted by him; and he was distracted by her. I got to watch the trainer work him through his distraction and I had Silky "sit" while we watched. Then the trainer asked if she could bring the dog by again (Stanford) and they passed us without so much as a whiff from Stanford. Silky, of course, was wriggling and squirming and dying to go after them. We have a lot more work to do on her dog distractions.

The second blip happened on one of the downtown corners. I said "Silky, sit" and she didn't move. Wow -- that's just not like her. I tried to place her in a sit and she absolutely would not sit. The sidewalk was wet, but we had already done several "sits" in different places around downtown. Silky's ears were back a little and her tail was down. She seemed to be afraid of something. I couldn't see what it might be, and gave her the "let's go" command and we moved away from that corner. When we were down the street a ways, I gave her another "sit" command and she sat. Reluctantly, but she sat. 

Final stop -- Starbucks for a little relaxation.

 Silky crashed when we got home and slept for almost 2 hours. I think we'll go back for another practice session over the weekend.

Don's Going Away Party with Silky

 Silky and Don got together for a little good-bye romp in the GDB play yard a few days before he went in for formal training. Silky had it all planned . . .

 You chase me first, Don, then I'll chase you.

 

 

 Don, ever ready to oblige, chased Silky then took his turn in the lead as the puppies took to the air.

 So, Don, you're really going to do this, eh? Go off to school, join a team and become the leader you were born to be? Don't forget to tweet me!

  We'll all miss you, Don. You're a great dog and you're going to be a great guide!