SEE MY NEW PUPPY!!

Want to??

The school my new puppy is coming from has a website. On that website they have a puppy cam, and on that puppy cam... they have MY PUPPY!

Every couple days the school posts new videos of different puppy litters, today's movie... has 8 black Goldadors (one of which is MINE!).

Please make sure to check out this site and watch the short video!

Also... Want to see a picture of my puppy? (better than the ones I got when I was down in FL).
The school posts pictures of the litters born their.

Go to their puppy photo page - and the first litter picture (all black pups - parents are Ginger & Jake) and see the cute puppies... one of them will be in my arms next month!
Or... just look below, as I put the picture in this post too :)

Don't forget to look at the Wordless Wednesday post I did earlier today.

(I normally only do a post a day - but since they change the puppy movies on the site every couple days, I didn't want you to miss seeing "my" puppy!)

Toby's Raiser

The human without a dog that has a blog

Which one is mine... ??

Doggy Fun!!

I was quite surprised when my raiser woke up this morning and told me we were going to PUPPY CLASS!!
It may not be a big surprise to you guys, but this is my THIRD puppy class in the last 3 weeks - that's 1 puppy class a week!

Our Area Coordinator is trying new & different places to do obedience with, so this time all of us dogs met in a tennis court! (after puppy class our raisers took off our coats/collars/leads and let us all play with each other; we sure had a blast!)

We worked on so many different commands.
For 5 minutes of the class we did a short "puppy trade" where all the raisers traded dogs.
My raiser got a cute little black male Lab (Sparky), and I went to Sparky's raiser.
This didn't go over well with me, I went crazy trying to get back to my raiser. (I have some "issues" with leaving my raiser, but our area coordinator is working with us on that.)
The Area Coordinator is now talking about doing puppy swaps for me every other week (between puppy classes) , which means I would be going to someone else's house for a WHOLE WEEK, and it would be more than once!


We had extra long leashes (lunge lines for horses) for us doggies to work on "come" from afar.


Some other dogs got "side tracked" when they were called, but me? NO. My raiser called me and I went STRAIGHT to her!
(it may sound like I'm so obedient, but my raiser says she is going to let me try the same thing with a different person next time; she some how thinks I will come to her, no matter the distance, but bets that if another raiser tried it I would still go straight over to her (my raiser).


At today's puppy class we also started a "new" command. (though my trainer has already taught me this).


"Place" is a command the raiser's don't have to teach us dogs, but it would be nice for us to learn. "Place" means our raiser's give us a blanket/bed, and when the place command is said we are to stay on that blanket/bed, it is to be our "place".
We can take 3 feet off of our "place" and we still won't be disobeying, as long as some part of us is on our "place".
My raiser has already taught me this command, but I know it as "bed". She did get permission to keep using the same command, so she doesn't have to confuse me with a different one.


I got to do puppy class in harness, and was very proud of it. We weren't going to be bringing the harness back home with us, but since another raiser had already left, my raiser was given the harness for another week (til' next puppy class).
Enjoy the pictures of my puppy class, and don't forget I LOVE hearing from my readers!



Toby
The dog with a blog






(Close up of only Toby - he is "smiling" and has 1 front foot in the air)

(Picture of Toby & I; Toby is in a stand-stay beside me)

(Picture of Toby & 3 of his siblings playing together, left to right- Toby, Duchess (in red collar), Rocky (you can see 1 foot & a tail), and Spike.

(Picture of Toby finishing up his "come" command, with a "heel", he is on my left side, and I am petting him)

(Picture of Toby (left) & Spike (right) doing down stay beside each other, with both raisers holding them)

(Toby & Spike doing a "sit-stay" beside each other, with us raisers holding them)

(Toby & I in the corner of the Tennis court, Toby is in a down-stay)

(Toby inside a restaurant in a "down-stay", looking at the camera)

Mall Walk + Harness= FUN!!

My raiser took me to a "Mall walk" last Saturday for my puppy meeting. We met up with our group once inside the mall.
Our area coordinator had made up a "mall bingo" for us to play.
We all broke up into groups of 2 (1 puppy with 1 older dog), the puppy I was with just so happened to be named Bingo!
She is a female black lab born in September, and is very cute!

Some of the items on the bingo sheet were
"Meet a fish at Bass Pro Shop"
"Read a book at a Bookstore"
"Meet a Toddler"
"Smell the scents at Perfumania"
"Listen to music at FYE"
"Tell someone about Puppy Raising"
"Visit the Men's Room"
"Visit 2 areas in the Sun and Ski Store"
And LOTS more!!
We got bingo pretty quickly, but decided to keep walking through out the mall to visit more things.
My siblings & I were also being started with a guide dog harness on Saturday. Our group had 2 for using but since 3 of us older dogs showed up we had to take turns.
Rocky (my brother) was kind enough to share "his" harness at about half way.

After my raiser got me used to the harness (with out the handle), she added the handle on for me to try.
(none of our raisers are allowed to mess with and/or hold the harness handle - it is only used for getting us dogs used to it sitting on our backs as the trainers down at the guide dog school will work with the harness handle when we return back to school).

I got many compliments on how "handsome" I looked in harness, and I was really enjoying all the attention!
There were many stairs through out the mall, and my raiser had me "find" almost all of them! (Find is used as "Find the stairs" which means we need to wait at the stairs, then, when told, we have to sit before going down/up the stairs).
We visited many places in the mall, including; a ski store, a Disney store, a Perfume stand, a Lego store, a music store (where my raiser even let me listen to music!), and even Bass Pro Shop were my raiser held my 2 front feet up so I could see the fish swimming around!

Once we returned back to our meeting spot all of our raisers reported the dogs behaviors back to the area coordinator.
Before leaving my raiser was given the harness to bring home for the week. She can let me wear it out to town as long as I wear the puppy coat underneath it (letting everyone know I am a guide dog IN TRAINING).
She hopes to take me outside in the yard to get some good harness pictures.

Enjoy the mall walk pictures!

Toby
The dog with a blog





(Picture of mall security riding on a segway in front of the dogs - for an exposure)





(Black/white picture of my sister Duchess wearing guide dog harness)













(Picture of Toby "listening" to music from headphones provided by the music store)






(Black/white picture of my brother Rocky wearing guide dog harness)












(Picture of Bingo sitting, looking very adorable!)

(Picture of Toby doing a "sit stay" beside a large Lego statue)

(Picture of Toby sitting beside a large Mini mouse stuffed doll, trying to ignore it- notice he isn't doing a very good job at it...)

(Toby & I beside a train which gives rides to people in the mall)

(Bingo sitting in a fire truck for little kids)

(Toby doing "find the stairs" while wearing harness)

(Close up of Toby trotting through the mall - while wearing harness)

(Picture of Toby & I with a big "Elk" behind us at Bass Pro Shop)

(Me holding Toby's front legs up so he can see the fish at Bass Pro Shop)

(Toby & I both sitting down taking a break)

(Toby sprawled out on the ground with both back legs out and in harness)

An icy update, continued...

For this post, it may be more like an "icy adventure".

You may remember my last post (when I went ice skating), and when you read it you either thought it was a cool/interesting post, or you thought I was mean leaving a cliffhanger like I did...

"And I won't even start the story of what happened on our way home from the ice rink,

Lets just say the policeman & paramedics were quite nice..."

So right about now you guys are all probably wondering what happened, right??

Here is the story of my "ice adventure" (it wasn't icy outside, but the name sounds cool!).

On the way home from ice skating we hit a car- who had hit a car in front of him, another car in front of him, and a car hit us from behind. (speed limit was 55).

We were on the "side" of the road for more than an hour, as to police had to get information, and such.

No one was hurt in the accident, but there were some achy necks & sore backs...

All the cars were towed away, which means we were left without a way to get home.

The area coordinator for our guide dog group happened to be in the area, and she was kind enough to take us home!

Our car ended up being totaled, as the car behind us hit our trailer hitch- which drove that into the back of our car, (not to metion their was some front damage!).

I'm not really enjoying "car shopping", it's not near as fun as it may sound!

As you may tell in the pictures, the bumper of the car we hit is still attached to the front of our car!

Hope you guys all followed the story.

I heard that I will be going to a "mall walk" for guide dog training today, it sure sounds fun!

Toby

The dog with a blog

(The front end of our Orange Element, you can see the other cars bumper on our car, and some damage to the front)

(close up on the side of the Element).

(2 pictures of the trailer hitch INSIDE the car, pushing up the spare tire!).

An Icy update...

Toby and his siblings siting on ice-

(left to right) Cassie, Rocky, Spike, and Toby
(Toby's other sister Duchess had already left)

Hey guys,

Saturday I was taken to an ice skating rink... for puppy class!!

We arrived about 30 minutes early, so we just wandered around watching the ice skaters, and meeting new people.

Once everybody arrived, we headed outside (yes it was COLD!!), and started obedience.

We did some "right rights", "left lefts", "sits", "stays", "stands" and lots more!

After all of our trainers/raisers were frozen we headed back inside.

We then worked on "down under" (going under the benches inside), my trainer told me I did very well.

When I thought we were done, my trainer took me into a room called "The Puddle", which I than found out pretty quickly was a small ice rink... and all of us dogs were taken on it.

For the first little bit I wasn't to sure about the ice, but soon I was comfortably on it, and so were all the other dogs:)

We had 10+ dogs & puppies on the ice, we had fun!

My trainer even got someone on ice skates to take me for a "ride", she could skate fast!

Before leaving we decided to get a group picture - but the only ones my trainer has are blurry :(

However; she did manage to get pictures of me & my 3 siblings (one had already left), without the trainers/raisers in the pictures!

And I won't even start the story of what happened on our way home from the ice rink,

Lets just say the policeman & paramedics were quite nice...

Enjoy the pictures,

Toby

The dog with a blog

(Toby sitting on ice, beside person on ice skates)

(Toby & his 2 siblings on ice,

Rocky laying down, Spike standing up licking Toby's face, & Toby sitting)

(Toby running after person on ice skates)

(Toby & me on ice, both standing)

(Picture of random dogs on ice, Toby's face in right bottom corner)

(Toby jumping onto ice)

(Close up of Toby running happily on ice)

(Close up of Toby's cute face, while he is doing a "down under")

(Toby sitting beside bench- getting ready to do "down under")

(Toby laying down under bench, staring off at a cute little puppy that's not in the picture!)

(Black & white picture of a little girl petting Toby, while he is in a sit stay)

Did you say PUPPY?!?

(Toby sitting in coat looking at camera)

We just had our annual guide dog Christmas party yesterday (Saturday), and I got to meet the 5 new members to our group!!

Our newest members are...

"Angel" A cute yellow female lab (the only yellow lab in the litter!!).

"Bingo" A adorable little female black lab

"Cindy Jae" A pretty little female black lab (being raised with a first time puppy raiser)

"Elsa" A wonderfully cute female black lab (being raised with a first time puppy raiser). And

"Sparkie" A handsome little male black lab.

With these 5 new puppies, we have 2 new raisers in our group!!

When we arrived at the party, the older dogs all got the meet the new "additions". After some greeting and talking, we started some basic obedience.

With 5 new little puppies our class was quite crowded, but the puppies were great distractions for us older dogs! I did great with all my commands, and pretty soon we sat down to eat.

We had door prizes to hand out, and my trainer gave our area coordinator a gift (see picture below), it is a bar of goat milk soap my trainer made, with a cute lab puppy laying down.

I was given some gifts, but my trainer tells me the toys will be put in my stocking for Christmas.

We "tried" to get a group picture, but I am in the far left corner- and you can barely see my head!

They even had a dog cake there- which my trainer took a chance and let me have piece! (becuase of my eye issues she doesn't let me have much new stuff!).

I had a lot of fun, and even got an award for having the most "adventurous outings"!

Enjoy all the photos, and I hope you like the post, (sorry the pictures aren't in order- and I bet the words will not be placed perfectly over them either!!).

Toby

The dog with a blog

A bar of goat milk soap my trainer made!

Group photo

Angel

Me sitting in coat

Me sitting in front of a big snowman (not real)

Me eating my cake!

Dog cake

Me kissing "Tillie"

Me & Tillie

My award & gift

Obedience





Enjoying myself!
(sprawled out on the floor)

Me & Sparkie

Bingo (I think!)