Meet Tucker

I had my first ever "work date" this past Saturday with a local guide dog in training, and it was the most fun work I've ever done!
But let me rewind a little, so you guys can get caught up on how us doggies first met...
WAY back in December 2011 (okay, last month...) a story ran in 2 newspapers about my raiser & I (to help raise support fur my in-home care...), a local guide dog raiser who is currently raising her first guide dog puppy for "Leader Dogs for the Blind" (different guide dog school) happened to read the article and decided to contact my raiser (this past week) to see if we could meet. Since my raiser LOVES to give me lots of exposures, they soon set a date for us doggies to meet (so both of us dogs could work on "doggy distractions" WHILE working in a public environment).

Okay, so now you know how we found each other :) Back to me explaining how much fun I had...
The work date went really well; we meet at the mall to work; since it would be a great public place, and was big enough that us doggies would have the ability to ignore each other.
"Tucker" is a male yellow lab, who is 8 months old - since his raiser is something that their school likes to call "a independent puppy raiser" (doesn't have a puppy group/meeting to attend each month) he really lacks the training of working with other dogs in public.
So it was a win-win situation, I got to help Tucker learn to work around another doggy in public, while he got to be a furry great distraction fur me... so I would learn to ignore him! (Tucker handles doggy distraction by whining/barking - so that was a GREAT exposure fur me to learn to ignore!).
After we worked in the mall for a few hours, our raisers decided they were hungry, so we headed over to Chick-fil-a so THEY could grab a bit to eat.
They were soo proud of us doggies for maintaining a down-under (laying under the chairs) and ignoring each other, for the entire lunch! (which took another few hours!).
Once they FINALLY finished eating, we headed outside to go our separate ways, but before they left... they took our jackets off and let us meet each other! (and my raiser was very surprised to see how calm we were while meeting each other!).

So all in all it was a great day, and we hope to be able to meet again soon (and if it's not raining... I'll bring Tucker back to my place, so he can see lots of furry cool farm animals!).
My raiser did happen to get a few pictures on her camera (okay, the first one is all thanks to the Chick-fil-a lady, though!), so you can "somewhat" see what Tucker looks like!

-Brandon


Us doggies maintaining a furry wonderful down-under! (oh yeah, and our raisers...)

Picture of Brandon & I with Tucker & his raiser at Chick-fil-a (both dogs are in a down-under)

Me doing what I'm best at... SLEEPING! (I mean... working)

Picture of Brandon sleeping at Chick-fil-a

 Me doing a furry wonderful job at totally ignoring Tucker (who is off in the background behind me)

Picture of Brandon in a down-stay inside the mall, you can see Tucker in the background (also doing a down-stay)

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)