Sunday, September 27, 2009

5 months!

Believe it or not Betsy is 5 months old! She weights 39lbs and is super tall! So without further ado...
5 things I love about Betsy!

1. She loves her kennel! She doesn't mind laying in there when I'm doing homework, or eating dinner, or while I'm at school. She is happy to lay back and chill. And she had never barked or whined in her kennel!

2. Betsy doesn't need a lot of exercise. She would rather lay on the floor and cuddle than go on a walk. Actually she doesn't like to go on walks but I'm working on getting her to love them.

3. Betsy responds much better to positive reinforcement than to corrections. I love this because I feel like a bully giving her corrections. She looks at me with these big eyes and I feel like she is says "I'm sorry mommy I won't do that ever ever again!"

4. She is nice and big! I have always like the big stocky dogs better than tiny ones. I don't know why. I think the tiny ones are super cute, but I just like big ones. Maybe because I have only ever had big dogs.

5. Betsy is a prancer. She loves to pick up a toy and prance around with it in her mouth. She gets so proud of herself. The only problem with this...she likes to do it with things that aren't toys too.

Sorry about the bad pictures. I'm hoping to get outside and take some nice ones in her vest soon!

[Sleeping on her favorite blanket]

[Practicing "Go to Bed"]

Recalls, Transfers, and New Puppies..Oh My!

A puppy truck came to Colorado on the 24th.

We didn't have any dogs from our club recalled, but Gilly (Gabrina's sister) went back for training.

Here is the rest of the recall dogs:

Recall to TR

Apex, Delroy, Gilly, Hans, Hansen, Henley, Hennessey, Higgins, Lindberg, Ludden, Montego, Parsons, Tommy.

Breeder evals:

Dallas, Danette, Filby, Laika.


Dupree was transferred to a raiser in Salt Lake City. I'm not sure if he is going into the school program or if he was just transferred. But either way, congrats to his raisers!

We had 3 new puppies join our club!
Mulan (like the Disney character) female yellow lab
Nectarine (the fruit) female black lab
Norahbelle (as mentioned in the previous post) female yellow lab

I have only seen Norahbelle, but man is she a cutie!

We are also getting a new puppy shipped in on Tuesday! It's for a girl who raised the puppy's mom. I can't wait to meet Miss A!


And in other news
Leola (who arrived and was recalled at the same time as Gabrina) is graduating as a breeder! Congrats to her raiser!
Ezra [male black lab] graduated (in home training)! Yay!
Dusty [female lab golden cross second generation] graduated! Woo!
Anna is still in phase 10! Woot! Woot!
Gardner is in phase 8! Way to go!
Gabrina should be entering training soon! AHHH! I can't wait for weekly updates..finally!

Maddie and Betsy

Sorry about the lame post, it was more for my records than for you guys to read.

Finally a sign! [and monthly outing]

Yes that's right! Betsy is finally giving me a sign when she needs to go outside and go potty! We have some jingle bells hanging on a piece of yarn on our door to the backyard. We taught our pet dog to hit them with his nose so they ring when he needs outside. Somehow our cat learned how to do this too. We didn't teach him, he's just smart. And finally we have successfully taught Betsy to do it! Yay! The only downside...she really likes to go outside so she rings them all the time. It doesn't matter if she really needs to go potty or not. But at least she finally has a sign. Now we can say she is officially house broken! It's about time!

[Sorry no pictures of her ringing the bells]


And onto what we did today. We had our monthly GDB outing. We went to a local fire station so the dogs could be exposed to all the firemen equipment. It is essential that guide dogs are exposed to emergency equipment so they react appropriately if there is ever an accident.

Here is Betsy walking around the firetruck. Unfortunately, she was kind of afraid of the running truck. It caused her to go potty in her vest :[. But after she saw the other dogs walking around it she got excited and wanted a turn.



Betsy also got to talk to and get a treat from a fireman in full gear [including the funny sounding mask]. She reacted very well after she got some kibble from him. (I know GDB puppies aren't supposed to get treats, but this was a very special case. We couldn't have Betsy being afraid of firemen.)


Then Betsy got to jump up in the truck! Woo. She wouldn't get in by herself, but the truck had very steep stairs. She climbed up on the first one and I boosted her the rest of the way.
nd she jumped out all by herself. Improvement!


Finally we listened to the siren from a distance and then went inside to answer questions.


All in all it was a very successful outing.

[Me and Betsy]


[We also get visited by one of the newest puppies in our club, Norahbelle (a mouthful!) She is so tiny and such a sweetie!]


[Here is our club! The dogs from left to right...Ashley, Mystery, Dickens, Tim, Eve, Anthony, Betsy, Dessa, Norahbelle!]

Maddie and Betsy

Monday, September 21, 2009

Puppysitter Report

Betsy got back from the puppysitter on Friday, I would have updated sooner but I have been very busy [but that comes later in the post]. She got an excellent report. They said she did great around the bikes at CSU and she even got to see her first squirrel. She also went up and down lots of stairs and in and out of the car by herself most of the time! Yay Betsy! I must say that having the break was nice. But I'm happy to have her home. As nice as the occasional breaks are, I don't think I'll ever be able to coraise a puppy, I get too lonely and bored.

On Saturaday Betsy went to my soccer game and a BBQ. She did great at both. That's about the extent of Betsy's weekend. She spend the rest of the time at home while I ran around and did things that she just isn't ready to handle.


Maddie and Betsy



[Betsy playing at the BBQ]

Friday, September 18, 2009

Puppyless

I've been puppyless since Wednesday. Another raiser wanted some puppy love while their puppy was with their coraisers so Betsy went to stay with them for a few days. She got to experience college life. Yay Betsy! She will be back tonight. I've kinda missed her, but the break has been nice. I've been able to sleep in an extra 20 minutes :]

I was going to post pictures but I'm on a laptop at school. I'l try to post some this weekend!


Maddie without Betsy

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Commands

I have listed all the commands I teach Betsy throughout the next year. I listed them by the ones she knows, the ones I need your help teaching her, and the ones we haven't started.

The ones she knows/ we are working on knowing:

Sit
Down
That's Enough
Come
Go to Bed
Let's Go
Wait

The ones I need help with:
These are the commands that I have tried to teach Betsy but she doesn't understand how to do it. Do you have any suggestions on ways I can teach them to her?

Stand
Kennel

These are the one's I haven't taught her yet:

Stay


I feel like I missed some. Did I miss any?

Maddie and Betsy

Puppy Meeting

On Wednesday we had our monthly puppy meeting. Our CFR, Barb, was at the meeting. She helped me a lot with Betsy. She quickly identified why I was having so much trouble getting Betsy in and out of the car, to go down stairs, and to relieve outside. Betsy is a very timid puppy who doesn't like going outside. I had noticed that she was more timid than my other dogs, but I didn't make the connection that she didn't like going outdoors. But now I notice it all the time.
She hates going on walks. When we are out walking if a car drives by, a plane flies over head, or a dog barks, she freezes and tucks her tail.
And the reason she stoped walking in Walmart is because she was so stressed out. But she doesn't show her stress until she can't handle it anymore.
So Barb's solution? To let Betsy do basically whatever she wants on outings. Let her sniff everything, greet people and other dogs, and just have fun. We need to build her confidence by over praising and hardly ever correcting. When Betsy has more confidence out in public we are going to go back and teach her how to really behave. But for now it's all fun :].

That's about all the news I have from the meeting. We worked with vest sensitive dogs and dog distracted dogs. Neither of those fit Betsy so she slept most of the meeting.

No news on Gabrina.

Maddie and Betsy.

sleeping, school, and go to bed

Betsy is such a good little puppy! She is already sleeping out of her kennel at night. She curls up on her bed on my floor and stays there all night. And then at exactly 6 am she get up, goes and gets her food dish, sits it on my bed, and waits for me to get up. Okay well maybe she doesn't wait super patiently, she wiggles and licks my hands until I get up. But it's cute none the less. Gabrina never slept through the night outside of her kennel. She was done sleeping at about 4 but Betsy just loves to sleep!

[The sleeping angel!]


Betsy has started going to school with me. Well not all day, but she has gone to a class at a time. She is amazing at school. She just curls up under my desk and sleeps away. The only thing that is keeping me from bringing her all day is the fact that she can't handle the hall ways. I tried to walk her through them once and she got super stressed out. We had to bail into a classroom until all the kids left. But other than that she does great.

[First day of school.]
Sorry about the bad quality. I forgot my camera and had to use my phone.

I have only practiced the "go to bed" command twice with Betsy. Ever. And she already has it nailed. She is such a food driven and smart puppy. I am really proud of how fast she figured out how to get that piece of kibble.


[Smart dog!]

Look for more posts today.
Maddie and Betsy