puppies inside: FLD Ashley

Showing posts with label FLD Ashley. Show all posts

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sit, down, stay, play

September 25, 2014

Chippewa

RELAXATION PROTOCOL

In three positions...

A woman wearing blue jeans and a teal t-shirt is standing on the right side with an orange piece of paper in her hands. She is reading from the paper. Three men are standing on the left, each are wearing white t-shirts, the one on the far left and the one in the middle are wearing orange shorts, the third man is wearing blue prison pants and is standing with his arms folded at his chest. The middle man is looking down at a small yellow lab/golden retriever puppy that is lying on the tile floor looking up at him.

Tammy gets started on the relaxation protocol. She asks the teams to have their puppies in the "down" position to start.

A black lab (left) and a yellow lab (right) are lying on a tile floor, both are wearing the blue Future Leader Dog bandanas. The puppies are looking up to the left at their handlers, who are only visilbe from the waist down. The man on hte left is wearing maroon sweat pants and a white t-shirt, the other man is wearing orange shorts and a white t-shirt. Both puppies' leashes are lying on the floor.

FLDs Ashley and Adell keep an eye on their handlers.

A young chocolate lab is lying on a tile floor looking up at his handler that is standing on the left. The puppy is wearing the blue Future Leader Dog bandana and his leash is lying on the floor in front of him. Only the handler's lower legs and feet are in the frame. He is wearing maroon sweatpants and white shoes. The legs of another man are on the right, he is wearing orange shorts and white shoes.

FLD Bandit. Focused.

Three men are handling three puppies. The man on the left is wearing orange shorts and a white sleeveless t-shirt and he is holding the leash of a yellow lab puppy that is sitting on his left side looking up at him. The man is looking down at the puppy and reaching toward him with his left hand. The man in the middle is wearing orange shorts and the blue prison shirt; he is looking down at a yellow lab/golden retriever mix puppy that is lying on the tile floor facing the man, his leash draped on the floor. The man on the right is wearing the blue prison pants and a white t-shirt with his hand folded at his waist and looking down at a small black lab. The lab is sitting on the floor facing the man with its back to the camera. There is a fourth man in the background sitting on a lunchroom stool.

Now Tammy asks the handlers to have their puppies "sit." FLDs Adell (left) and GeeGee (right) jump right up, but FLD Henry (middle) has to think about it.

The picture is taken from a weird angle so everyone could get into the shot. There are four men standing in the lunchroom (tables line the walls behind them) and each has a puppy sitting at his left side.

FLDs Teysen and Bandit show how "sit" is done.

A man dressed in the prison blue pants and a maroon sweatshirt is standing facing the camera. He is looking down to his left at the young golden retriever puppy that is standing on his left side. The puppy is wearing the blue bandana and the man is holding his leash with his right hand, held up at his chest.

Abe with FLD Andie in the last position: "stand." Now that is a loose leash!

TESTING

With everyone relaxed, Tammy announced that she would do AKC S.T.A.R Puppy and CGC testing on those puppies that were eligible. The other puppies could practice. FLD Coda was ready to take her In-For-Training (IFT) assessment and Tammy asked me to do it away from the others. I was happy to oblidge. FLD Coda happened to be in heat and was a bit distracted. Her raiser, Jeremy, was patient with her and she did just fine away from all the boys.

YARD WORK

We went into the yard to practice a modified version of the distraction training that we did at the last furlough. Instead of tape on the ground, Tammy had the handlers stand on their puppies' leashes on the grass, just long enough so the puppies could move onto the sidewalk. No pictures here because Tammy put me (and others) to work offering distractions. Someone bounced a ball, one guy crawled up and down the sidewalk, I dragged the stuffed squirrel on a rope, wiggling it to simulate a real squirrel. Not one puppy budged. Either the pupies were great at ignoring distractions, or they were super-well trained to stay off the sidewalk. (The men did say they had trained the puppies not to go past the sidewlak into the gardens on the other side.)

PLAYTIME

Before we leave, we let the puppies play. Brothers Henry and Harley are well-matched. They were moving too fast for me to get a clear focused shot. A little help from Photoshop and you can see the fun they had.

Two small yellow lab/golden retriever puppies run toward the camera, the one on the left, slightly behind the one on the right, has his mouth open and is going for the right ear of the other puppy.

FLD Harley (left) has FLD Henry on the run. Big ears are easy to grab.

Now the two puppies are facing each other. The pup on the left is wearing a red collar and is standing up with his left front paw in the air. The puppy on the right is lying on the cement. His tongue is sticking part way out of his closed mouth like he is taunting the other puppy.

Nah, nah, na nah, nah! FLD Henry might be down, but he's not out!

Friday, January 9, 2015

Attachment happens

September 25, 2014

Chippewa

While Tammy was answering questions, FLD Ashley lost her lunch. Men leapt into action faster than a dedicated group of volunteer firemen. Morrison scooped up what he could with a poop bag; Harlin ran over with some paper towels to wipe up the wet stuff; Abe ran out and returned with a bottle of spray bleach and more towels.

In a jiff the mess was gone.

Robert said, "Ashley had a terrible day yesterday." A bee sting caused her face to swell up. After a call to the vet some Benadryl helped with the swelling, but the antihistamine wasn't setting right in her belly.

"I stayed up all night with her," he said, and added, "Until this happened, I didn't realize how attached I've become to her."

A black lab is lying on a tile floor with her chin on the floor between her front paws. She is facing to the left and she is between the legs of a man sitting down, only his legs dressed in green pants and black shoes are visible and his tatooed forearms and hands, which are massaging the puppy's ears.

FLD Ashley enjoys the "ear slide," a Tellington TTouch massage technique that can help calm a stressed puppy.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The next day

July 18, 2014

Chippewa

The day after Puppy Days at the Chippewa Correctional Facility was a watershed moment. Scott's feelings of "impending loss" were about to become real. FLDs Drummond and Bravo, the first puppies in the Leader Dogs for the Blind prison puppy-raising program in Michigan, were returning to the Rochester Hills campus for their formal guide dog training. Joining the two golden retrievers was FLD Granite, a "finishing" puppy that came to Chippewa some months ago.

It was their time.

More than a dozen men and one woman are standing or sitting around a room. The men are wearing prison garb, blue or green pants with white t-shirts or blue shirts. The woman is wearing blue jeans and a yellow shirt. There are many puppies with the men, some golden retrievers, black and yellow labs, and one german shepherd. The woman is going to each team and greeting the handler and dog.

Practicing meet & greets.

But first. Tammy-the-taskmaster wanted the group to do a few exercises before she completed the separation paperwork with Scott, Morrison and Jeremy, the raisers of the three dogs. We applied Frontline on all the puppies, practiced meet & greets, handler's exams and "arounds."

Then we chatted about the Puppy Days celebration; we decided it all went very well. The men were thrilled with how receptive the guests were to them. Joe said when the presentations were over and the guests were invited to partake in pizzas and deserts prepared by inmates in the prison's culinary program, he thought everyone would rush over to the food tables.

"Instead, they all got in line to meet all of us," Joe said. "They shook our hands and told us we were doing a great job." None of the men expected this kind of reaction.

One woman and three men are standing in line, talking to the prisoners that are standing against the wall in the gym. The inmate on the right is wearing blue pants and a white t-shirt. He is holding a small black lab puppy and leaning toward another man and listening. The woman, wearing a yellow shirt, is on the far left, followed by a man wearing a yellow vest, then a man wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt, then a bearded man wearing khakis and a royal blue shirt.

Inmate raiser Joe (right) holds FLD Teysen while being greeted by Dave Bardsley and Lions Club members.

But there it was, a transcendence of circumstance. These were men after all, paying their dues, attempting to bring positive change to themselves by creating opportunities of independence to strangers they will never meet. Raising puppies!

On to business. The men shared stories about the three pups that were about to leave.

FLD BRAVO

Raisers Morrison and Cody revealed how nervous they were when young little Bravo arrived. "He's a sensitive puppy," they said, nicknaming him "Budbuddog." ("All one word," they said.) Morrison told a story about Bravo having an accident that elicited laughter around the room. "I had poop on my leg and in my new Nikes!" he said.

A man wearing blue prison pants and shirt with an orange vest is kneeling on his left knee next to a golden retriever, who is standing, looking toward the camera. The man is looking at the dog, with his left arm draped over the back of the dog, and holding up a certificate with his right hand. There are two men and a woman in the background.

Morrison and FLD Bravo show off the "thank you" certificate from Leader Dog.

FLD DRUMMOND

Everyone agreed that the big golden was a protector and guardian of the new puppies. "He let Ashley walk on his back in the snow," they said. The men shoveled pathways in the deep snow. Ashley was walking on top of the banks and couldn't make the jump over the chasm to the other side. Drummond positioned himself so the pup could use him as a bridge.

A floor level shot of a small yellow lab (left) lying next to a large golden retriever, who is also lying on the tile floor. The little puppy has her chin on the floor, looking at the camera. The golden's head is up and he is looking off to the right.

FLD Adell (left) lies safely next to FLD Drummond.

A man dressed in the priosn blue uniform and an orange vest is squatting down with a golden retriever on the left. The man's right arm is wrapped around the shoulders of the dog. The dog is standing and looking at the camera. The man is holding a certificate in his left hand. There is a woman and two men in the background.

Scott and FLD Drummond with the Leader Dog "thank you" certificate.

FLD GRANITE

The teams were afraid of this finishing puppy when he came to Pike Unit. "The first night he growled like a golden with a toy in his mouth," Jeremy said. And Granite wouldn't let them get close - he came a long way with Jeremy's help.

A man wearing the blue prison uniform and an orange vest is squatting next to a golden retriever. The golden is sitting down on the right side and is wearing the blue Future Leader Dog bandana. The man has his left arm draped over the dog's shoulders and is holding up a certificate in his right hand. The man has a very big smile on his face. There are three men in the background.

Jeremy and FLD Granite are proud of their Leader Dog "thank you" certificate.

Doug added a story about Tammy's FLD Harper, who had spent some time in Pike Unit with him. One morning when Harper woke him up because he needed to "park," Doug stopped to use the restroom on the way. Little Harper couldn't wait and Doug had a mess to clean up. "I learned you can't procrastinate with a puppy," he said.

Two men are sitting down behind a yellow lab, who is sitting on the tile floor in front of the man on the left. The man on the left is wearing green pants and a white t-shirt. The man on the right is wearing blue prison pants and a white tank shirt and a blue baseball cap. The men are holding up a certificate between them.

John (left) and Harlan (right) hold up FLD Ekco's AKC Canine Good Citizen certificate.

The guys encourage Ro to demonstrate his method of urging the laid-back FLD Sammy to "get a move on." Amongst cheers, Ro danced across the room with the lab singing a do-rop ditty. Too bad we couldn't get a recording!

An african american wearing prison blue pants and a white t-shirt is walking toward the camera with a leash in his hands, looking down to a young black lab at his side. There are men sitting all around three sides of the room behind the man and dog.

Ro and FLD Sammy kickin' it out.

DOGSPEED PUPPIES!

A man wearing an orange vest is on the right holding a golden retriever with his left arm and hand. The golden is sitting in front of him in a van with his head pressed against the man's chest. There is a dog crate in the background with a yellow lab looking out.

Morrison says good-bye to FLD Bravo...

The man wearing the blue prison uniform and an orange vest is turning away from the van. He is looking down facing the camera with a strained expression on his face.

...not an easy task.

A man wearing a blue shirt and an orange vest and glasses is leaning in toward a dog airline crate that is in the back of a white van. The crate door is open and there is a golden retriever sniffing the man's left hand.

Scott leaves a treat for FLD Drummond.

The man in the blue shirt and orange vest is turning away from the van and looking at the camera with a sad face. A woman wearing blue jeans and a blue t-shirt is closing the door of the airline crate.

Tammy latches the door of Drummond's crate as Scott turns away.

A man wearing a blue shirt and an orange vest is reaching his right hand toward a golden retriever that is sticking his head out of an airline crate. The man is facing away from the camera toward the dog.

Jeremy reaches toward FLD Granite for a last pet.

Two airline crates are in the back of a van with two golden retrievers in them. The dogs are both standing up looking out from the crates. There are two leashes on the floor of the van in front of the crates and a blue Future Leader Dog bandana.

FLDs Granite and Drummond.

Two airline crates hold a yellow lab (left) and a golden retriever. The dogs are lying down looking toward the camera. The crates are in a van and there is a leash on the floor in front of them.

FLD Grant, who was just visiting, and FLD Bravo.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

A full agenda, inside

April 11, 2014

Chippewa

RELAXATION PROTOCOL

Starting our training session with the relaxation protocol is a great way to set a calm and attentive atmosphere. Tammy reads instructions to the group and has them vary positions. First the dogs sit, then stand, then relax into a down.

Two men stand with black labs sitting at their left sides. Both men are looking down at the puppies. The first man, on the left, is wearing blue pants and a white t-shirt. The puppy is wearing a baby-blue working jacket and is facing him slightly. The other man on the right is african american and is wearing the blue pants and shirt prison uniform. His puppy is looking up at him. There are lunch tables in the background.

FLDs Baker and Sammy sit next to Cody and Ro.

A man dressed in the prison blue uniform is leaning over a yellow lab, placing a treat in her mouth. The lab is lying on the tile floor, her leash is draped across her front legs. She is wearing panties because she is in heat. A second man is leaning against a lunch table with his hands crossed at his waist. He is bald with tatoos on his foreamrs, he is wearing green prison pants and a white t-shirt.

Abe gives FLD Zella a treat while Doug looks on. (Zella is wearing panties because she is in heat. Every puppy is a potential breeder for Leader Dogs for the Blind, so they are not spayed or neutered until after they return for training.)

NAME RECOGNITION

With settled puppies, Tammy has the handlers practice "name recognition." She and I step to each team and lightly distract the puppies with a quiet "Well, hello puppy!" or a soft clap. The goal is that the puppy will look back at the handler when its name is called. One time. All the teams do well. Then Tammy and I approach with a bit more enthusiasm. This is more of a challenge!

A floor-level photo of a young black lab trying to approach the camera. Her right front paw is mid-air. A man, sitting down on a stool attached to a lunch table, is holding the pup's collar in his right hand and her leash in his left. He is wearing a white t-shirt and blue pants with an orange strip. His head and shoulders are out of view. There is another table to the right of the puppy.

FLD Ashley has a difficult time resisting me. Good catch Robert!

SIT / DOWN / STAND AROUND THE WORLD

One way to "proof" a puppy (checking to see if it knows its commands) is to ask for a behavior from a not-so-typical, not-in-heel position. Think your puppy knows "sit?" Try asking it to sit with your back turned, or from five feet away, or while sitting in a chair or kneeling on the floor. Tammy says this exercise demonstrates where work is needed.

A man is standing on the left side with his back to a black lab. The man is bald and is wearing blue prison pants and a white t-shirt. He has his hands clasped in front of him and is looking over his left shoulder. The puppy is sitting on the tile floor a foot or so behind the man and is looking up at him. The pup's leash is lying on the floor. The puppy is wearing a blue Future Leader Dog bandana. There are several men with their puppies in the background to the right.

Justin peaks over his shoulder at FLD Nell, who sits on cue.

MEET & GREETS / HANDLER'S EXAMS

We practice meet and greets and everyone without a puppy gets in on the action. The room is filled with mayhem, but the puppies (for the most part) take everything in stride.

Next up - handler's exams. Tammy and I get the honors of putting our hands on each puppy. We check eyes, ears, teeth, lift each paw and run a slicker brush down their backs. FLD Ashely is very wiggly. "You can support her by her collar," I tell her raiser, Robert. "And try holding some treats in your hand right in front of her nose."

A man is kneeling on his right knee with a german shepherd puppy sitting between his knees. The man is holding something in his right hand above the puppy's snout. The man is looking at the camera, he has a goatee and is bald. He has tatoos on his forearm. He is wearing green pants and a white t-shirt. The puppy's leash is handing down in front of him. There are a few men in the background.

FLD Chewy looks like he is eager for more food!

We also check the puppies' weight using the Purina ® Body Condition Tool. We have the men rate their puppies on a scale from one (severely underweight) to nine (clinically obese). Numbers four and five (ribs can be felt, a waist is visible from above, and there is a "tummy tuck" visible from the side) are "ideal."

Tammy suggests that FLD Chewy's team raise his daily food allotment, as she thinks he feels a bit underweight.

GAMES

With the idea that training should be fun, Tammy comes up with all sorts of games which challenge the puppies' self-control. Stay tuned...

Thursday, March 13, 2014

There are reasons

Chippewa

January 30, 2014

Tammy sits in a corner with the lead raisers of the new pups; even inmate raisers have contracts to sign and paperwork to initial.

Meanwhile, everyone else visits and fawns over FLDs Ashely and Chewy and the other puppies.

Three men dressed in white t-shirts fawn over a small german shepherd puppy. The puppy is being held by the man on the right, who is just barely in the frame, you can only see his left shoulder and arm and his chin. The man in the middle is behind the puppy and looking down at it. The man on the left ihas his two hands near the puppy's snout like he is holding a treat in his fingers. He is bending toward the puppy.

Fawning over FLD Chewy.

An almost adult black lab wearing a baby blue leader dogs for the blind working jacket is standing and facing to the right, nosing a small black lab puppy that is being held by a young man who is squatting down. The man is wearing the pirson blue shirt and pants with the orange stripes on the shoulders and legs. The man is looking at the puppies. Another man is sitting on a table stool behind the larger puppy. He is wearing a white t-shirt and blue pants. He is bald with a short beard. His elbow are on his knees and he is looking at the littler pup. A lunch table is in the background with a bag on it.

FLD Nell meets FLD Ashely.

One of the men questions me about a scene in the Mutual of America video, "Inside to Outside Initiative - Prison Puppy Raising Program." ARUS Rob had shown them the video that premiered at a special luncheon in Rochester Hills earlier in January.

Leader Dogs for the Blind received Mutual of America's national 2013 Community Partnership Award. Part of the prize was a professionally produced video about the program. You can view the video HERE.

The scene in question shows an Iowa inmate tossing a ball for one of the puppies in the prison yard. We often tell our raisers that fetch is not the best game to play with our retriever breeds, as the game can get a puppy too "ball obsessed" and interfere with working.

"But in the puppy manual it states that fetch is okay if it is 'low key.' Just what is 'low key?'" the inmate asks.

We chat about how low key means no over-hand throwing, that if you play fetch it is important to use a variety of toys and not just a ball (in fact, we discourage balls altogether), how the puppy should not get so excited that it cannot be redirected to do something else.

"Teaching your puppy that bringing things to you is a game could be a good thing, especially if your puppy has something it shouldn't," I say. "But if your puppy gets too focused, I would stop playing fetch." A ball-obsessed dog who forgets it is working and lunges after a rolling ball dragging its handler will not be a safe guide dog.

I suggest other games, like putting the puppy on a sit/stay and hiding a favorite toy for it to find. "Use a word such as 'search' instead of 'find,'" I warn. "Find" is a cue the pup will learn later when it becomes a working guide dog. (Find the chair, find the door, find the counter...) Leader Dogs asks that puppy raisers avoid words that are used when the dog is actually working.

It seems like too many rules sometimes, but keeping in mind how things might later impact a blind or visually impaired handler makes it easier to comply.

And now, just because FLDs Ashely and Chewy are so darn cute, here they are again!

A young inmate wearing the prison uniform is sitting down with the small black lab on his lap. His right hand is petting the head of the puppy while his left hand is supporting her body. Her brown leash is drapped over the knee of another inmate who is sitting on the right side in the photo - this man is african american and is wearing a white t-shirt and blue pants. His head is just out of the frame, his right elbow is resting on his thigh.

FLD Ashly with her new raisers.

A man is standing, facing hte camera and holding a small german shepherd puppy. The upper part of his face is out of the frame, but he is smiling, he has a light beard. He is holding the puppy with his arms and they are filled with tattoos. The puppy is wearing a blue bandana with a white triangle patch with red words that say Future Leader Dog and a black paw print. Embroidered on one side of the bandana is the word "Chewy" in white letters. Opposite is a picture embroidered of Chewbaca, from the movie Star Wars. There is another man in the background on the left against the far wall looking toward the right. Also in the background on the right side at the bottom of the photo is a golden retriever lying on the floor looking at the camera like it is bored.

FLD Chewy and his happy raiser.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Sometimes...a photo opp

Chippewa

January 30, 2014

ARUS Rob directs Tammy to park the Leader Dogs for the Blind van close to the Pike Unit gate so the inmate raisers can carry in the 50-pound dog food bags. We hand FLDs Harper, Tara and Copo's leashes off to the men, who are more than happy to take the pups. Harper leaps with joy to see his buddies.

Tammy wants to hand FLDs Ashley and Chewy over the shoulders of their new raisers while everyone else sees the pups first, so she carries them into the administration building with us to check in.

Check in is always a process. We sign our names and entry time into the logbook. We give our driver's licenses to Rob, who disappears and returns with our prison IDs. We declare anything that we are bringing in, like my camera and flash, or Tammy's training bag of distractions. The CO (corrections officer) on duty gives Tammy a key to one of the lockers lining the opposite wall so she can leave the van keys, and anything else we forgot to take out of our pockets that can't go inside the fence. The CO swipes the back of our right hands with some kind of invisible marker.

This time we are asked to walk through a metal detector that is off to the side. A female CO is apologetic as she pats us down and checks the inside of our mouths. Frankly, we are surprised that this doesn't happen every time.

The Pike Unit lunchroom is buzzing with anticipation when we finally get inside. Chewy and Ashley's raisers stand in the middle of the room with their backs to the door. The place is packed with puppies and inmates, prison employees, and a few outsiders. The Bardsleys are here, Paula is snuggling up FLD Copo. Kim, a puppy raiser from the Canadian Soo, is here; an inmate raiser is handling her puppy, FLD Kayla. Judy, a local U.P. resident, is here to learn and observe so she can take a puppy out on furlough.

Between smiles and greetings, I hustle through the crowd so I can position myself in front of the two new raisers.

Sometimes, I know a photo opportunity when I see one...

A close head shot of a young man dressed in a blue shirt with orange stripes on the shoulders facing the camera. He is looking toward his left shoulder, where a black lap puppy is being handed over to him. Another man is standing on the right side, half-way out of the picture, he is wearing a white tshirt.

Tammy hands FLD Ashley to his new raiser amidst a round of "awwwwws!" from the crowd.

A close shot of a man's head and shoulders facing the camera. He is wearing a white t-shrit and a woman with glasses is passing a small german shepherd puppy over his right shoulder. He is glancing at the puppy and smiling. He has a bald head and a short beard.

FLD Chewy meets his new raiser as Tammy passes him over the inmate's shoulder.

The two men are now holding thier respective puppies. The man on the left has the blue shirt and is holding a small black lab puppy and looking down at it; the man on the right in a white t-shirt is holding a german shepherd puppy, his arms are covered in tatoos. A short woman with short white hair and glasses is standing with her hand son her hips behind the two men. She is wearing a maroon fleece jacket with a blue hooded sweatshirt under it. On the floor behind her you can just see a goldern retriever lying on the floor looking at the camers. On the far right side in the background is a man sitting down, he is wearing a white t-shirt and blue pants.

Gentlemen, meet your puppies!

An african american man wearing a white t-shirt is on the left side looking at a black lab puppy being held by another man on the right side. Both men are smiling and looking at the puppy. The man on the left is holding the puppy's front paw with his right hand.

FLD Ashely's lead raiser introduces her to her assistant raiser.

A different african american man wearing a blue shirt with an orange stripe is on the left side looking at a german shepherd puppy that is being held by a man in a white t-shirt. Another man's arms are reaching in from the right side. The man on the left's two forearrms are covered in tattoos and he is petting the puppy's ears.

FLD Chewy's assistant raiser introduces the pup to FLD Sammy's raiser. Everyone wants to meet the new puppies.

A black and white close up shot of a small black Lab being held in a man's arms.

FLD Ashley gets the first of many snuggles.

A close up shot of a grerman shepherd puppy being held in the arms of a tattooed man. The man is wearing a white t-shirt and you can only see the bottom half of his face. His neck has tattoos also.

FLD Chewy in the arms of his inmate raiser.


FLD Copo snoozes in the arms of an inmate.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A day in the life...

January 29-30, 2014

Transporting puppies north from Leader Dogs for the Blind to the U.P. prisons requires careful planning and some amount of juggling. At the end of January, puppy counselor Tammy was charged with picking up four puppies in Rochester Hills; three would be delivered to the Chippewa Correctional Facility and one to the Baraga Correctional Facility.

"This is my life," Tammy said, describing her saga. "I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Every day my whole client load showed up and then I had to do the paperwork." She works at a medical center doing diabetic nutrition counseling.

While Tammy had full intentions of leaving work at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday to get an early start, she was delayed until 3:00. She went home and picked up her son so she would have some help, then drove about one hour to Leader Dogs. Here she swapped out her car for a Leader Dog van. From 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. they organized and hauled crates, 50 pound bags of dog and puppy food, and finally, four puppies - a German Shepherd (Chewy), brother and sister black Labs (Copo and Ashley) and a class-ready black Lab (Tara) who needed some extra help with stairs.

After an hour drive back home, they had to get all the puppies inside for the night. "I brought each dog in individually," Tammy said. Her three large and excited dogs met them at the door: retired Leader Dog "dad" Midas (a Golden Retriever), career-changed black Lab Ivan, and Leader Dog "dad" Ruckus (a black Lab). Tammy's Future Leader Dog Harper was on loan at my house for the week, but I'm not sure that his absence was noticed amongst all the mayhem.

"By the time I got them all in it was time to park them all!" Tammy said. And then it was feeding time, followed shortly by more parking.

"I got to bed about 1:00 and got up about 6:00," Tammy said. "All puppies slept all night." That was great, but now she had to park them all again, feed them, park them again, and get everything back into the van, this time without her son's help. "My goal was to leave at 7:30," she said. By 7:45 she had the puppies in the van and headed north.

Tammy stopped three times to park puppies before picking me and FLD Harper up at a park-n-ride along I-75. We stopped twice more along the way. At one rest stop, we took turns trying to get FLD Chewy to park (hey, we have to park too). "He peed!" I exclaimed as Tammy returned to the van from the rest rooms.

Road conditions were not as bad as we have driven other times this snowy winter of 2013/2014, but not 70 miles per hour good.

"After all that, we were only a half hour late," Tammy said.


Tammy carries in FLDs Chewy and Ashley to present to their new raisers.

Coming up next...new puppies at Chippewa!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Friday, January 9, 2015

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Total Pageviews