Puppy Meeting at Ikea

I had a furry fun puppy meeting at Ikea recently, and everybody was quite surprised that it was not only my first time being there - but also fur my raiser!
We had a great time during the meeting, and we were even given a personal tour by some of Ikea's employees! (including going "behind the scenes" so we could see the cardboard eater, ride a different style elevator, see fork-lifts & much more!).
After working in Ikea & also doing some obedience, we shopped around fur a bit and then headed over to the Ikea restaurant fur lunch time.
Enjoy the wonderful pictures my raiser's sister took!

-Brandon


Look at my furry cute sit-stay!

Brandon doing a perfect sit-stay outside Ikea


My furry awesome puppy group!

Group shot outside Ikea! (6 dogs with their raisers & 3 Ikea employees that would be giving us a personal tour)

 Guess my raiser doesn't give the best of commands... cause we're going the WRONG way :)


Picture of Brandon walking through Ikea, you can see the arrow on the ground going the opposite way... oops!


 See, I can do a loose-leash walk with other pups around!

Picture of Brandon doing a loose-leash forward

Awesome elevator we got to ride :)

Picture of Brandon & his puppy group riding the work elevator (large see-through elevator used for taking large crates & boxes, but fits all the dogs quite well!)

My furry good down-stay beside other pups

Picture of Brandon & some other dogs doing a down-stay in Ikea

My awesome raiser & I at lunch!


Picture of Brandon in a down-under (sleeping under my chair) with me during lunch time at Ikea



The Girl Did it...

Yes the title of this post is furry important, but before I go into detail on what happened... let me start out with what I was going to do on Saturday:
This WAS my furry cool agenda for Saturday:
10:25am: Arrive at puppy meeting
10:30am: Obedience training during puppy meeting
10:45am: Play with other cute puppies
11:00am: Head into the assisted living with the puppy group and meet elderly people

But a little female puppy decided to ruin my wonderful plans. My raiser was allowing me to play (on leash) with another little guide dog puppy, it was a female Lab that was 10 days younger than me (and about half the size). I was being a very calm boy and making my raiser proud and then all of a sudden my raiser noticed blood all over both of us puppies. She soon found out that the other little puppy bit my ear, and gave me a 1/4 inch tear on the tip of my right ear.
So instead of heading in to meet elderly people, my raiser had to take me to a local vet, and I ended up having to get 4 stitches in my ear.

**Raiser's note: Please know that it wasn't a "serious" injury and there wasn't blood gushing everywhere, but the bleeding wouldn't stop completely, and our Area Coordinator said it would be best if we head to a vet and go ahead and get it stitched up. And please do know that the puppies were not playing rough, but the little female lab accidentally grabbed his ear, which then didn't turn out well!**

But I'm totally fine now, and though I didn't enjoy the "rest" I had to have on Saturday, I'm back and "bouncing" around now.
Just make sure you guys realize that it wasn't MY fault, the girl did it...

Brandon

Brandon doing a "loose leash" walk beside me, during our obedience training outside the assisted living place

Brandon doing a wonderful sit-stay with me in front of him

Close up picture of Brandon walking on a "loose leash"

Picture of Brandon sleeping in my sister's lap in the car, while we are on the way to the vet

Picture of Brandon sitting on the medical table at the vet office

Close up picture of the 4 stitches that were put in the tip of Brandon's ear

My First Puppy Meeting

I attended my very first puppy meeting last week, and though I didn't know many of the commands... I still enjoyed my first meeting!
My raiser was impressed with how well I did at the meeting, and she liked how I maintained myself when I was near other doggies (meaning - I didn't go crazy like some of the other doggies did).
I'm looking forward to my next meeting, and my raiser hopes that I will have a understanding of a few more doggy commands, I told her I that I'll learn them in my own time!
Furry kisses to you all and thanks fur stopping by!!

Oh, BTW - enjoy the furry awesome photos below!!

Brandon





One of the first pictures of my sweet (and awesome) Raiser with me!!




The End...

Traffic Walk

Hey furry friends!
One of my latest puppy meetings was a "traffic walk" & "grocery store" exposure.

With us guide dogs, we all have to "enjoy" walking along side heavy traffic, without getting distracted.

Not only do I enjoy walks, but heavy traffic has never bothered me - so it was a furry fun meeting fur sure!
We did do a quick puppy swap during the meeting, so I was with another raiser during some of our traffic walk, and while inside the grocery store.

I have ONE last puppy meeting before I head back to school for IFT, and I'll be sure to post lots of pictures of it :)

Enjoy the photos/movie below!

Rudy - The dog with a blog

Rudy with another raiser (all raiser's did a quick "swap")

(Movie of Rudy in a sit-stay beside the loud traffic - and then I tell him "Forward" and we start walking)

Bark in the Park

My raiser & I attended the "Bark in the Park" (a very fun dog festival) as our guide dog group had a booth - and wanted some puppy raisers to be there to hand out SEGDI information.

My raiser & I stayed at the table for a little while, then she took me to walk around the festival. Most booths were selling either dog treats/dog toys (to raise money for dog rescues/such) - but I also found out, that almost every booth was giving away FREE samples too :)

My raiser said this event was one of the best exposures I can ever get (any other human at this event - had a dog... and I'm "somewhat" dog distracted). But my raiser said I did very well there, and (once I calmed down) I was even able to meet some other doggies.

My raiser & I also got to watch "Kyra Sundance" & her dog "Jadie" perform a live acrobatic show, which was very exciting!

I sure had lots of fun, enjoy the pictures below!

Rudy - The dog with a blog

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

I'm so sorry I've not been posting much... but fur now, these pictures below (of me attending an April puppy meeting) will have to do :)

My raiser has been soo busy recently, but I'm still trying to fit in some blogging time!

P.S. I just returned from the vet yesterday... I'm officially a "neutered" dog now.

Rudy - The dog with a blog

Saying Good Bye - For a Short Time

(Written By Rudy's Raiser)
We headed out to the puppy meeting this morning (a fun mall walk), and this is also where we'd be doing the "puppy swap".
Rudy did get to do some obedience training with me first, before I handed him off to the other puppy raiser.
Once we swapped, I didn't see Rudy until after the puppy meeting ended (we went off in small groups - and wandered the malls). The dog I have for the following 2 weeks (Al, Rudy's brother) is HUGE (maybe that's why he's called "Big Al"...), and the guide dog harness had to be loosened drastically, before I could even try and clip it around his belly!

Putting aside Al's hefty weight, he's a great dog, (well, he does have issues in some places - which we are working on, but he does enjoy working).

Al does look quite like Rudy, but they are totally different with training & such! (Rudy likes to do his commands, right on the spot, when told. Al has to "think about it" before following through with the command!), I'm eager to see what Al can do, and I'm looking forward to working him tomorrow, and introducing him to the farm animals!

I can't what to find out the odd habits he may have, it's quite interesting having the brother of the dog you're raising!

I will be sending out a reminder tomorrow, but (if you have time), furry please head over to Mango Minster - and vote fur Rudy (who made it into Best In Show... by winning first in his category!), Rudy would just love to win Best In Show. We thank you for your vote :)

And don't forget - Rudy's VALENTINE'S GIVEAWAY is coming up this Monday!

Enjoy the pictures below, and please note that the first THREE pictures are of Rudy (with me)... NOT "Big" Al (Rudy's brother).

Have a great weekend!

Rudy's Raiser

All pictures below, are now of "Big" Al, NOT Rudy

Thursday Night Fun - and upcoming giveaway!

Hey furry friends!
This will be my last post... before I head off to PUPPY SWAP TIME! (if you missed yesterday's post - make sure to check it out), I will be going to the other raiser's home tomorrow, after puppy class - and will be coming back here in 2 weeks.
BUT, enough about the puppy swap... I'm going to talk about last night's puppy training (an extra training class raiser's could attend - if they wanted).
I had a whole lot of furry fun, and my raiser said I did soo good! We did many different things, but mostly worked on commands & ignoring other pups.
We also did something furry fun... we played a card game, wanna know the rules??
We had 30 or so cards laying around on the ground; each with various commands & such you can do with your dog.
Each raiser & their dog had 2 minutes to do as many cards as they could (they couldn't move on to another card, till they did the command really well).
It was very interesting, but all of us had a whole lot of fun! I know my raiser wants us to do that game again, she really enjoyed it!
I did wear my harness during training class, and it didn't faze me a bit.
I hope you enjoy all the pictures (and movies) below, and make sure to be furry sweet to my brother Al, who will be blogging here for TWO weeks.

**I will be doing a Valentine's Giveaway (starting on Valentine's Day... and ending when I return from puppy camp, the following 2 weeks). Though I won't be here on Valentine's Day... I will have a pre written post that will be published that day, and hopefully Al will make sure you guys all enter... there are some furry cool gifts!

***Mango Minster will be doing the BEST IN SHOW voting tomorrow... I'll make sure to have my raiser do a quick post reminding all my furry cool friends to go vote fur me! (if you aren't already voting fur some other pup/cat...)

Furry Friday Kisses, and I hope you miss me! (I know I'll miss you guys!),

Rudy - The dog with a blog

Working Fun...

The Card Game... (the movies are just of 2 random cards - but we did a whole lot more!)

(Movie of Rudy & I doing the 2 minute "pick a card" game - this card tells us to go greet another person (without a dog), have our dog sit beside us - and greet the person with our dog ignoring her/him. Rudy was a little excited, but he did very well!)

(Movie of Rudy & I doing another card, which tells the dog handler to have your dog sit, then down. Sit beside your dog, and massage 1 front foot & 1 back foot. Rudy does it perfectly)

I'm leaving...

No, not for good!!

But it's "puppy swap" time at our puppy group... and I'll be gone for 2 whole weeks.

For those of you who don't know what a "puppy swap" is, I'll explain...

During the 1+ year our raisers have us, we have to participate in a "puppy swap". This swap could be at any time... and for as many weeks as the Area Coordinator wants.

The AC will assign us dogs a different raiser for those weeks (she tries to place us in different environments... for a dog who doesn't go to work with it's raiser; they place it with a raiser who would take the dog to work) and for those weeks we follow the new raiser's schedule.

This is to get us dogs used to working in different environments - being handled by different raiser's - learning to obey with someone other than our normal handler - and much more.

My puppy swap date has been set for THIS Saturday, I will go to stay with another raiser for 2 weeks... and then return back to my current raiser.

While I'm away, my raiser will have my brother "Al" (also known as, and called "Big Al"...).

Sadly, I won't be able to update this blog while I'm gone - BUT I've given permission to my Raiser that (if Al wants) he may update my blog while I'm away.

I really hope he won't scare all my followers away... and you will continue to read my posts when I return. He's a great dog (like me!) and I just know you'll love him.

My raiser will most likely update once or twice about Al, before letting him on - but he's related to me, so he'll get the hang of it quite quickly!

On a different note - furry thanks to all who voted fur me at Mango Minster, and though I didn't win the "readers choice" award... the judge just so happened to pick me as the winner!

I'm furry excited to have won, and I'm looking forward to the Best In Show competition, that's coming up.

AND... I also want to thank The Teacher's Pets for picking me as one of their friends to highlight on their "Thankful For 3 Friends" blog hop, furry thanks!

Have a happy Thursday, and I do plan on posting before I leave,

Rudy - The Good Old Dog

CPR for DOGS?

That's furry right... at our guide dog meeting yesterday; we not only practiced our commands/obedience... we also learned about Health/First Aid, CPR & the Heimlich Maneuver for DOGS.
We started off with some obedience (normal sit/down/stand stay, forward, right/left, and such). Then we did a short puppy swap (5-10 min) and kept working with obedience. Seems as though I was a little more interested in paying attention to my raiser; then to the person that had me :) But that is the reason why we do these puppy swaps.
My raiser was very impressed when she was working me, and did notice that I did extremely well with the dog distraction issues I have. (she puts me in a sit-stay X feet away from the dog(s) and slowly moves closer - continuing the sit-stay, if I break it... then we move back. The goal is for the raiser's to be able to great each other... while the dogs ignore each other).
After they worked the wiggles out of us; we all sat down and our AC did a 45+ minute talk on Health/First Aid for dogs (which my raiser really did enjoy and learned a whole lot from!).
They learned things from caring for ear infections, taking a dog's pulse, doing CPR and much more!
My raiser did get to use the Heimlich Maneuver on ME (which I didn't care for...), but CPR & Mouth to "Snout" is something they weren't allowed to test on us (thank goodness!). But the AC did say they are getting a "CPR" dog for the next meeting.
My raiser said it was a great meeting - and to make things better... we were also given the guide dog harness to bring home! (pictures coming soon).
Enjoy the pictures below - I'm off to hope I NEVER start choking and need my raiser to give me the Heimlich Maneuver!

Rudy
The dog with a blog






Um... Mom... WHAT ARE YOU DOING??

New Year's Party... for our Guide Dog Group

Last Saturday was our furry awesome New Year's Party with the guide dog group.
It was AMAZING - all but 1 pup showed up, and we also had some "older" dogs come (some that graduated from the guide dog school - and are in the breeder program, or got Career changed due to allergies). So it was a very "dog" crowded place!
I also got to meet the newest pups to our group: "Hedy", "Happy", "Waffles" & "Judy", which are all so furry cute!
My last puppy sitter (who currently is raising Waffles) was there - and my raiser was so surprised that I cared more about the lady - then I did about her puppy "Waffles"!
Which isn't normal... because I'm really dog distracted! Guess I just really like my sitters!
We did obedience before sitting down to eat - and I did PERFECT with my commands, getting them all correct right on the dot. When we did the puppy swap (all raisers trade puppies) my raiser ended up with "Happy" one of the new pups. And after I calmed down, I did pretty good with the raiser who was working me.
We did the awards/gifts before we ate - and I was given this HUGE baggy with cool things in it. One of which was a awesome water bottle toy (pictured somewhere below) that I love.
My raiser handed out SEGDI puppy raiser bumper magnetics that she designed to all the current puppy raisers. (Thanks to Build a Sign - as they donated all those to me for free!). The puppy raisers LOVED them, and our AC thinks the school may be interested in them too :)
Once the people finished eating - all the dogs were given doggy cake, which was amazing - we took a group picture (and some pictures of my brother "Al" & I together), then it was time to leave.
I really hope you guys enjoy the pictures & movies below!
I'm off to go eat some snow :)

*Btw - if you didn't see the post my raiser did yesterday, it gives out ALL the info we have on her last dog Toby. And tells you what career he chose to take. So make sure to check it out - as he's got a fun filled life ahead of him!*

Rudy
The dog with a blog

(Movie of Rudy doing the command "down" during puppy class)

(Movie of Rudy doing the commands "down" & "stand" during puppy class - he was the first pup to stand and our AC told him great job - which you can "kind of" hear in the video)