A Day in the Life of a Puppy Raiser

Fetch!

2009-10-15T22:29:00.001-07:00

So the camera is lost, but once I find it I will take some pictures! So for now, we're settling with Riley's old beach pictures from the late spring/early summer.

With his friend and fellow yellow lab(non GDB dog), Isabella.

what a nut, right?

Group Fetch!

L to R: Caitlin, Riley(notice who let go of their toy?...) and Isabella

Doug the dog

2009-09-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got puppy fever!!!! My leader and another puppyraiser from my club got a start pup on Thursday...and I stole him Saturday! His name is Doug and he, if I remember right, is a Bingham/Parkay puppy. He's super cute, a little noisy, but spunky!

Here's a picture Kim posted on her blog of him:

Puppy Fever, Anyone?

2009-08-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

Another raiser from my club showed me some pictures of Marina's litter, I thought I would share them with all of you!

These were taken at ten days old, I think it said.

Can you spot Marina?

I think she's the one in the middle?

That's all for now, Marina goes in for her rabies shot in a couple days. She was going to go in today but the vet clinic closed too early...so we'll try again on Friday!

Much Needed Update!

2009-08-11T15:55:00.001-07:00

Okay guys, Jill speaking, Riley apparently isn't very good at updating our puppy raising adventures so I'll be taking over from now on. So our last post, in November, said that we were getting a 10 month old male black lab, well, we did! His name is Finney and he was transferred to me because he was having relieving problems with his old raiser.

Here's Finney(we had a very snowy winter!!!)

We felt bad for the boys, so we put some clothes on them since it was so chilly:

Well, we worked very hard with Finney on his relieving issues, but they just didn't get any better. We tried and tried but when ya gotta go ya gotta go! So after four months, he was career changed, meaning he cannot become a guide dog. We were really tempted to keep Finney, he was very easy going, he walked right next to you in a perfect heel, he got along great with both Bubba and Riley and he was very sweet. But alas, since he was so nice our CFR(Community Field Representative) thought he would be a great K9 Buddy(a dog who goes to a visually impaired kid to help them get used to taking care of a dog). We searched and searched and eventually we found a different sort of home. A visually impaired special ed teacher in California applied for a dog and we thought Finney would be perfect! So little Finneyous(Phineous) is hanging loose in Cali!

Now onto more recent puppy raising news! A friend of mine really enjoyed Finney and so I got her involved with my guide dog club! We ended up getting a puppy in June, a female yellow lab(my first FYL!) named Marina. She's super sweet, we got her June 10th at 7 weeks and 6 days! Here she is on her first night, she spent the night with Kim and Bethany from our guide dog club:

If you can't tell, she has a pretty severe underbite :]

Here she is with her Aunt Claudi(Chenille, Claudi's sister is Marina's mom)

Marina's a pretty easy going puppy, she's had some health problems but(knock on wood!!!!) she seems to be getting better! I promise to keep updating this with more Marina news!

Puppy? What?

2008-11-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well my mom has made an awful decision! There is a ten month old black lab who is in need of a puppy raiser and guess what? She said yes! I can't believe it! She's never met a male black lab she didn't love and so she thinks that Finney will be a good match.

She's been wanting a black male ever since she went with her leader and another puppy raiser to get Kenny. I guess he was tiny when they picked him up.

Here's a picture of him, I'm not very happy about this :[

She and her friend are going down on Tuesday to get him. Until them I'm going to be a perfect dog so that she won't want another dog!

Wags and Wiggles,
Riley

Puppy Meetings

2008-11-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am sooo tired! I got to go to a puppy meeting tonight with my mom. I showed all those crazy puppies what to do! I'm learning two new commands: 'go to your bed' and 'shake'. My guide dog leader is helping my mom teach me them, I'm taking a little while. OH OH OH!!! My mom had the coolest thing today! It's this plastic thing and whenever it makes a noise I get food!!!!! It clicks and then food comes! I love it almost as much as my squeaky toys! Well I have to go, talk to ya later!

Lots of licks,

Riley

Niguel, Magee and Bears - Oh My!

2008-10-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I have been really busy. My mom watched two puppies since I talked to everyone last. She watched Niguel(over a weekend) a male yellow lab(I may be a bit biased but they are the best dogs!) and then Magee for a day, a male black lab. The puppies were pretty good, but not as good as I was as a puppy(my mom is rolling her eyes). Anyway, eveything's going great and I can't wait for Halloween tomorrow! Maybe I can have a caramel apple...or some Snickers... I'd even take those popcorn balls!

Boooooring!

2008-10-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well my day was sooo boring. My mom had to go to school ALL day long and so I didn't get enough attention during the day. Then she came home and did boring human stuff like homework and chores.

So to entertain myself I thought I would post some more pictures of me as a guide dog puppy!

Here I am with my puppysitter's sisters

Oh and here I am on my last day with my mom...we were very very sad!

I'll write more later...I'm thinking of sharing some really embarassing puppy raising stories!

Riley Ri

Livin' The Life of Riley

2008-09-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go. I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Riley. I'm a three year old yellow lab, really excitable and a guide dog drop out. Here's a picture of me!!

Here I'm a baby puppy, only nine weeks old!

Oh and here I am with my sister, Aspen. She's a guide dog now. Oh and there's my mom, too.

I know, I'm pretty handsome. Anyway, nowadays I mostly hang out at home with my brothers, Bubba(the pitbull mix) and Elvis( the shih tzu). A couple days a week I'll go with my mom to daycare and I really really like that! I make a lot of friends there!

Here's Bubba

So when I'm not wresting with Bubba or going to work with my mom I help her raise guide dog puppies(I show them what they can't do like get up on the bed and bark at the door). The last puppy we raised together was Marie, she was my half sister, we have the same Dad, Astro.

Here's Marie on the first day we got her, June 13th, 2008.

I'll write more later, for now my mom is going to feed me!!!

Riley Jack.