Happy Thanksgiving!!

Though I am not the first dog blog to be saying "Happy Thanksgiving" I am still doing it on Thanksgiving day!!
Yes, I am still wearing a diaper, but I hear I will be getting it off soon!!!! Back to thanksgiving... of course I have a list of stuff I am thankful for (I am SOO not saying anything about that diaper though...), here goes:
I am thankful for...
1). My trainer
2). All of my doggy friends at school/training class
3). Dog bones
4). A nice warm home
5). LOTS of toys
6). Being able to use the computer
7). Getting lots of comments on my blog!!
8). All the cool animals on my trainers farm
9). But best of all...ME!!
(and whatever other stuff I didn't list!!)
Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving, and a good Thursday!!

I will be doing a post in a couple days of pictures and an update.

Frankie

Fundraising For Walk-a-thon!

Hey guys,

As I said in my last post about my trainer going to Walk-a-thon next year with me (unless I went IFT before then). She is now trying to raise money for it.
Her goal is $3,500 which is enough to name and sponsor 1 guide dog puppy.

She has finally gotten her fundraising page done and would love for you guys to take a look at it, pass it on to others(lots of others), and of course she wouldn't mind you helping with her fundraising...
Check it out at:http://www.firstgiving.com/allieandfrankie. Hope you like it:)


Frankie

In heat...

Me and my diaper.

Hey guys,


I just came into heat (nope not been spayed yet!). So now I get to wear this diaper that's for little dogs, I look really bad in it and I can't even go to town! I am told that I am going to be a pet for 2-4 weeks!

I also have some news about IFT(In For Training). I am told that I will be returning to the guide dog school in January or February. They haven't decided yet since they have to see when all the TX dogs go back. My trainer is really hoping for February so she can return me at the same time she goes to Walk-a-thon.

I am doing really well on my training and can't wait to get this diaper off.



Frankie

Crinkle Critters

My duck,hippo, and frog are finished!



You guys know how much you pay on stuffed dog toys that squeak or crinkle and most of the time they are stuffed to full (which is just a quicker way to tear them up...), and it is way too much money when you just can make your own! I know you might have seen the post on Rusty's blog(http://mydogrusty.blogspot.com/), when his owner made him some toys. But this is different. No squeakers, no flannel, and very little sewing. My trainer goes to yard sales on Saturday to find cheap toys for me, and almost every time we go she sees the hand puppet washcloths. prices from 10-25 cents! Well today she decided to buy three of them and turn them into dog toys. First she took the crinkle bags she has been saving, (the lettuce bags she used to get were really loud crinkley and are perfect for dog toys!) and she stuffed them in the puppets, (not to full as to make it easy for me to tear!...), then she took them to the table and let her sister sew them up at the bottom. Last but very not least she gave them to ME!!

Enjoy the photos and movie, hope you guys try this!



Frankie


Before stuffing or sewing, (you can't see
the hands holding them up!).



My trainer stuffing the duck with Crinkle.














My trainer's sister sewing up the hippo.

And boy are they fun!!

Puppy class

Sorry I haven't been posting in a while! My trainer has been very busy.

I had puppy class last Thursday and on Saturday my trainer took me to the blindfold luncheon,(That will be another post!).

Every week for six weeks I will be doing puppy class. It's kind of like a six week obedience training class, then the last week they give out papers and sometimes prizes... I still have a couple more weeks to go.

But at the last puppy class I found out something. I haven't decided if it's good news or not. My trainer is trading puppies for a week. It was going to be this week but the other family couldn't work it out, so next week I am doing a puppy swap!

My trainer will be getting the Aussie named Otto.

I also found out some really good news- I am NOT getting put out of the progam because of my hips! The school has decided to leave me in the progam and not spay me either, so I still might be a breeder...
Look for pictures at the bottom!

Frankie

Doing obedince training, (my trainer is in

the green shirt, and she is handling Otto)

My trainer is to the right, and I am to the left

(if you didn't realize it they did "puppy switch"

for a little while!).

And here is ME!

After they did some basic training the trainers

got their own dogs back and sat down to listen

to someone talk about the guide dog school's

changes.

I'm back!!!

Hey guys!
I finally came back! Though I really had fun at the other persons house I still missed my trainer. I wish J.J. could have stayed a day longer, then I could have had a dog to play with for a little while...

My trainer has already gotten some pictures of me, and also a movie of me walking on the treadmill! I heard from her that J.J. didn't like that, how could he not?? I LOVE it. I mean if my trainer lets me walk on it for hours I might, (well maybe not that long...) but anyways I love treadmills. J.J must not be a real dog on the outside, (or just is faking it so he get to sleep longer!).

The only thing I don't like about it is if you go on a walk down the road normally you would pass a couple dogs, right? Well if you are on a treadmill the only dog you would pass is you (if there is a mirror right beside you!). But it is still fun.

I heard a rumor of me going to a place where my trainer shows her goats. I know Brax went to one last year.



Frankie





Don't you just love tread mills!?!?









I am back to my old self!
Sleeping






And chewing on my feet(it tastes good, my trainer always said I can't bring my toy with me into public unless I carry them...)!

Photos of me saying good bye...

Make a Smilebox photobook

Bye Bye :(

I am sorry to say that this will be my last post(besides the post with a slide show that I will be posting shortly). I will be leaving in just 1 day, and will miss this place a lot! I love it here. The animals are soo nice (besides the goose, and a goat named Kiddy); I have made lots of new friends. Maybe my puppy raiser (not Frankie's trainer) could go out of town in a couple months so I could come and stay with Frankie's trainer for a week !?!? I think it is a good idea, and Frankie would love another dog around the house!

I am only attaching 1 photo, since my trainer and her siblings took a whole bunch of pictures of me my trainer has decided to do a slide show! she will post that for me after this post.

Enjoy, and I hope to be posting again on this blog someday...

J.J

This is how I think you should use

a tread mill!

J.J. movies!

My trainer (for now) has been trying to get some movies of me doing commands. She has gotten three: one of me doing "down, stay, come" , one of "down, under" , and one of " stand, stay, heel".
Though I need work on my "stand" command I am doing really good! I don't look very happy in these movies since my trainer woke me from my nap to take them, but I got lots of praise afterwards so I am now happy!

J.J

"down, stay, come"


"down, under"

"stand, stay, heel"

"find the door, switch, find the stairs"

My trainer's birthday party!!

My trainer's birthday was a week or 2 ago and so was her party! She hadn't decided on her theme until 2 days before the party! But lucky for me she chose a guide dog theme party! The pictures will show what games and things they did for it, and I will put a caption on each one. Enjoy!!

J.J

First we ate dinner, but we wanted to do it

to go with the "guide dog" theme, so they did

a blind fold dinner.

After that we played "pin the harness on the dog", of course you remember the other game

"pin the tail on the donkey" well we

changed it some!

And this is what it should look like!

Next we played "kennel in", some may

know but that command is used for the crate.

When our trainer wants us to go into the crate,

they say "kennel in", well they went up to the

top of the stairs put there blind folds on and

tried to "kennel in" the toy dogs my trainer

had by dropping them down the stairs ( with

animal crate at the bottom), most people

missed but a couple got it!

Once we finished that, we did another game

that we called "alive maze" they put there blind folds on and tried to walk from the bath

After they did all of that they came back to

the table to do a word search, not just any

word search though. My trainer's mother

made this one all about guide dogs!

And of course there was presents to open!

One of my trainer's friends gave her a dog toy,

but it wasn't just any toy, her friend sewed it

for her!

And yes after presents came cake!
And of course this cake is a GUIDE DOG

cake!! Made by my trainer and her mother.
And she even put a guide dog coat on it.

Well they said it was really good, but how would

I know!?!?

For breakfast the next morning they had

omelets (made by her brother), and they

used a bone and a dog cookie cutter to shape them!

J.J update!!

Me doing "down under"

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, my trainer (even though it's just for a few weeks I like to call her that) has been VERY busy (getting ready for petting zoos, going to and having birthday party's), so I have not been allowed on the computer.

Right know she has some time though and gave me just a couple minutes on here.

I am doing fine, since my trainer is very busy with stuff she keeps me busy. I mean if she has a petting zoo I am very busy letting people pet me!!! I have been doing good with my training, so my trainer says. She is teaching me the "down under " command. I am good at it! I do the command "heel" very well, but still am learning "easy"! I think my trainer doesn't get the point that I like to pull, but I guess when it gets down to it I will end up learning the command. Next week I will be returning to my original puppy raiser. I can't wait to see her, though I miss her a lot I will end up missing my family here (yes, even including the pig). I will try to get my trainer to get some movies of me doing commands and such for you. And hopefully I will be able to post them soon!

J.J

Me wearing sunglasses (notice I am winking!)

I love my trainer's family!

Sometimes their house dog just isn't funny!

Me at the Chiropractor

My trainer said I could send a kiss to my puppy raiser..

J.J and Milo

Ever since I came to Frankie's house there has been this ANNOYING pig, and when I say it I mean it!! This pig can give your whole body a rub down in less than 1 minute!! Frankie's trainer got a movie of him giving me a rub down, I have had to put up with this for a whole week, I might not have any hair when I got back to my raiser!!

Anyway Frankie's trainer wanted to get some good pictures of me and the pig (ones where I am not biting the pig and the pig isn't rubbing me!), these are the 2 best ones she got, I think they turned out pretty good for a pig (well and me, but I AM the good looking one!!).

A couple days ago Frankie's trainer put the pig outside in the baby goat pen, so it isn't always in the house. But when she went to go check on it she found it herding the baby goats around the pen!! Before puting the pig in the pen with the goats she was thinking about just puting him in his own pen, since her other pig (who is not 3-4 years old) was put in with the baby goats when it was young, but it turned out the pig liked "hurt"ing the baby goats not herding!! I think she did the right thing, Milo sure looks cute herding goats!!

J.J

I think this would look good framed!!



Sorry for the green and red eyes, but it is
a good picture!!

















The "rub down"!

J.J

Me and my bone

Hey,

My name is J.J, some of you guys might know me from pictures Frankie has posted of me. But for the others who don't I will introduce myself.

I am a yellow Male Labrador, around 9 months old. I love bones and treats. I live in the City but since we did the puppy swap I am living on a farm!! I have gotten to meet: Horses, goats, pigs, chickens, bunnies, cats, dogs, Llamas, Alpacas, and a Goose.

Today I went to a petting zoo, but we weren't going there to see it, we were going there to do it! Frankie's trainer has a petting zoo business and today she had a event that she took her petting zoo to. I was bored for almost half the time until they decided to put me in the fence with the animals!! I had a blast, the little goats were fun to play with. After a little while Frankie's trainer put my coat on and took me to see the big red Fire truck and a Police car. She even let me get a picture taken with them!!

We finally are back home so I can be on my bed chewing on a bone. Enjoy looking at the pictures! I will be doing some more posts later, and hopfully Brax will send some pictures so you can see what he looks like!!
And you may notice that I look a lot like Brax, some pictures more then others, even though I am not the same breed as him!! But I have had a lot of people say I look like him.

J.J

Me and the pig

At the YMCA working out, (more

like knocked out!!)

Me with the fire fighters.

Me with Frankie's trainer

Me alone on the fire truck!

Me with a police man

Pictures of me at the petting zoo:

No I am really not eating goat

feed, (well yes I would...) Frankie's

trainer was trying to get me to

put my head up, I look soo cute!


I think it was quite fun being with the animals

on the same side of the fence!

Notice the Alpaca right beside me!

**UPDATE BRAX**

Hello Everyone!!

Brax here, coming to you from St. Louis, Missouri. Here's some information about what's going on in my life.

My human is really nice. I have taken her lots of places. We walk to the grocery store, usually accompanied by her son, who helps her shop. It's a country road, so its really a pain to work because there are really no landmarks for my human to identify. I have to be on the ball and get her there safely. Her son pushes the cart home, and we follow behind. I take her to special meetings where there are other dogs and blind people. Some of these meetings have food, so I have to behave myself and just sniff from afar. In two weeks, my human is going to a state convention and staying in a hotel for four days with about 200 other blind folks, and quite a few dogs. That's going to be interesting. We may go down to Florida this November and December to work for the Salvation Army. My human rings the bells every year. That should be fun too. So, as you can see, I'm busy and happy. I try to play with the retired guide dog, but he's an old man, and just tolerates me. My human's son is neat too.

Well, gotta go to work. Today we take the bus and go to the doctor so my human can have some blood work done. I'll talk to everyone soon!

Brax

Guide dog meeting, AIRPORT!!

Our puppy group in front of the plane!

Hey guys,

This is my first meeting that we went to a airpor. Of course, I have been to the airport once before (to pick up my trainer) but I still wanted to do the guide dog meeting. It was last week that we went there! I had a lot of fun, we got to board a plane and visit the cock pit (as I call "the drivers place"), we even went in the airplane to sit down for a while (of course the dogs ON THE FLOOR, while the humans got the nice cushy seats). Then what made it worse was my trainer wanted to work with an Aussie, so I was left with her leader. Her leader gave me to this guy, and then he gave me back to the leader who gave me to another girl! I was switched around soo much I don't even remember the people. Other then that, I had a lot of fun. I love guide dog events because you get to see (and sometimes play with) them!!
But for all the pictures I am with somebody who isn't my trainer and my trainer is with the Aussie.

Enjoy all of the photos!



Frankie

Oh, I have puppy class tonight. Afterwards we have puppy swap! Which means I won't be posting on here for over 3 weeks! But I will let the new dog (J.J.) post on here! And for a side comment on some good news and for people who know Brax, my trainer called and talked to his owner yesterday!! He is doing really good and obeying fine, she hopes to send my trainer some pictures soon so we can then post them on the computer.

Yes this is a no-no but they let
the dogs do it real quick for
photos, (of course on command
so we know we aren't allowed to
do it without command)!




Me with a girl named Chelsea

Me with a guy I don't know.

This is a new dog in our group who I think looks a lot like me!!

My trainer and the Aussie going up
the steps .

My trainer and the leader at the steps.

Me boarding the plane!

Inside the plane.