Monday, March 31, 2008

Official Breeder O'Connor



I got O'Connor's official breeder photo's from the breeding department today. This means, these are the photos that go in the Fun Day breeder books as well as for GDB's records. :) I just love this dog!

Rocky Mountains...

This is a view of one of the "Rocky Mountains" from my house! Isn't it amazing??? It was such a pretty day with the sun and the snow and the picturesque clouds ;) I know many people have not seen mountains like this from their house and I just think they are so pretty! AND I'm SO lucky!

Snow Pictures

It has been quite warm here the past week or two...I was even thinking of pulling out my capri's and shorts...alas...not that lucky! Last night it snowed! It was okay that it snowed though, because I haven't gotten any real good pictures of my puppies in the snow...but here they are! The pictures that any good puppy raised in UT should have ;) SNOW pictures!!!

Does this not remind you of a certain black face that is pictured with Tulips???
And just HOW priceless is this face???
They were watching some ducks and seagulls...isn't it a wonderful photo though???
They have such adorable profiles!
Ontario looking a bit bewildered :) His normal look that I will always remember!
So anyway...the boys weren't the happiest with their photo shoot...but they decided to comply after a while :) I love them and they did great with all the distractions at the park and those distractions made for some wonderful photos! :)

Friday, March 28, 2008

Smarty Pants...

Ontario goes to the University of Utah almost every day...
he must be a "smarty pants"

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

All in about 10 minutes...

Ok, so this is the eating process at our house...

We wait for our food...
we eat our food...
we continue to eat our food...
we lick our lips and say "thanks mom"...
All this happens in less than 10 minutes...of course Frisco, being the lab ALWAYS finishes his 2 cups first! He comes to me when he's done and licks his lips and burps...then he longingly looks at Ontario who is still eating and seems to say "mom??? How come he is still eating?"

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Gradumatation :)

It's the post you've all been waiting for...O'Connor's official graduation post! So it starts out like this...
Wednesday 8:20ish pm...I called O'Connor's person at GDB. I was waiting for my flight to OR in the airport so it was the perfect time to call. So anyway, he was in his room and I introduced myself and first things first...he got ALL my contact info and promised to stay in touch...Then we talked about how wonderful and fabulous O'Connor is! He is living in Denver now and works in a big office building. I found out that his handler has had 2 previous dogs, Seth and Tompkins.
Thursday... O'Connor's handler emailed me some pictures of the day he got O'Connor (these are the pictures posted below)
Saturday (the big day!!!) 11:30am...My friend Whitney and I showed up at GDB. We went in the visitors center and they gave us the graduation program...Whit opens it up and yours truly is FIRST!!! Yikes... We visited with a few people from CO who also had dogs graduating and that was fun.
11:45am... They take us into the dorms and seat us in areas to meet our handlers and see our puppies again!!! O'Connor was THE FIRST puppy who got to come out with his handler...lucky me! So the class supervisor is doing sighted guide with O'Connor's handler and O was healing very nicely...and then he saw me and his nice heal became the little engine who could trying to get to me. It was the greatest thing ever! When they got to me, O'Connor tried to flatten me. NONE of my graduates has been THAT excited to see me (and I've had some pretty excited puppies at graduation...) So after jumping all over me for a few minutes, O'Connor was tired and layed down at my feet. Then he remembered he was with me and tried the whole thing again. Then we went and got formal pictures for GDB (I'll post those when I get them). I talked with his handler and life was great.
1:15ish...time to get ready for the actual graduation, so the instructors took O'Connor's handler and I got O'Connor all to myself. We went back over to the visitor's center and into the "little room" where we would stay through the graduation slide show. The lady from GDB who was coordinating everything reminded me that since I was first to speak...I set the tone...in other words, if I cried, EVERYBODY else would cry. So it was finally my turn to go out of the room and stand by the class supervisor...he was very nice and said that O'Connor is a truly amazing and fabulous dog (as if he needed to tell me that!) He really liked O'Connor a lot! Anyway, so I went up on stage and I don't really remember too much of what O'Connor's handler said, and then I said some things about O'Connor being the greatest dog ever, and told a story about O'Connor and the 2nd graders I worked with last year...I didn't cry! :) So then after graduation, we went and got Frisco out of the Kennels and took these pictures:


After the picture taking I went and watched one of the guide dog trainers work with her sheltie...teaching him to work some sheep. That was fun...
5:00pm...
went back to campus to pick up O'Connor and his handler. We went out to dinner with Emily and Ellis and several other people...and got some more talk time with O'Connor's handler and others who were in the class. It was awsome! Such a great graduation day! O'Connor's handler is SUPER nice and has promised to stay in touch and so far is doing VERY well with that ;) I'm sure O'Connor will have a wonderful life as a guide in Denver and if he ever wants to come home...that is fine with me as well! (but I DO hope he works for a long time!)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

All grown up

This is what my beautiful O'Connor looks like all grown up at age 2! I'll post pictures of him in his harness and write about graduation in the next few days! Isn't he pretty??? He's 23 inches and 63 pounds right now. Practically perfect!


Friday, March 07, 2008

The day has come...

I don't have any pictures today...but it is official...Ontario is going to GDB for his formal training next month! I'm very excited to see how he does and I know he'll do great! I'm not so sure I'm ready for him to go so soon...it seems like I just got him :( But anyway...I love him and am proud of him that he's made it this far and that GDB has enough confidence in him to take him back! He's come a long way. Of course, when I get back to UT, I'll take pictures and do another Ontario post...

Monday, March 03, 2008

Ode to O'Connor


8 Weeks
8 months

10 months

13 months-recall

Sick and Tired

We've been sick and tired and tired of being sick at our house the last 2ish weeks :( I had the flu and Ontario and Frisco were very good to conform to my lazy, sleepy lifestyle. They got themselves into this position on their own when I was watching a movie...how cute are they?