Too Bad!!!

So they didn't choose any of my pictures for the calendar :( Guess I'll just have to try for next years! I need to take more pictures anyway ;) Maybe they will be one of the small pictures again??? Who knows.

Frisco and I are missing Ontario terribly! No news is good news, so we're assuming he's still at GDB and that he hasn't been career changed yet or anything.

Yay!!!!

I am done with my bachelor's degree and will graduate as of May 2nd. Anyway...one of the things I needed to do in order to get a job, is take a test. It is called the Praxis test and all teachers have to pass this test in order to get their license. So, I took the test in January and got my results in Feb. I did VERY well on the test (193 out of 200). I was pleasantly surprised with this score. Anyway...tonight I was at a conference with my advisor for college and started chatting with her and guess what??? I got the highest praxis score out of anybody who has ever taken the test from my university! Anyway...I am now over the moon!!!

Beautiful Brog

I got this picture from Brogan's mom today! Isn't he so pretty? He is 4 1/2 now and while he is a bit chunky, he's really doing very very well and his family loves him very much! What more could a puppy raiser ask for? Rudy is the small dog in the picture-Brog's little brother...he is a 1 year old French Bulldog/Pug mix.

Goodbye Ontario

Ontario went on the puppy truck on Sunday...so here are some of my favorite pictures of him. Frisco and I miss him a lot :(

A Vote...

Some of you might remember O'Connor's Tulip pictures from last year right before his recall...well, aside from wanting beautiful pictures of O'Connor for myself, I also was on the quest for the perfect calendar picture for the GDB calendar. O'Connor's tulip picture was not one of the 'month' pictures in the calendar, but it was one of the side pictures...Well, this year I want one of my pictures to be a 'month' picture...since I have 2 pups, I get to send in 2 pictures...so anyway, for Ontario it is going to be between one of these 4 pictures...so I need you to vote on which picture you like the best...

#1...

#2...

#3...

#4...

PS...I do realize that his ears are cut off in most of the pictures...they are just TOO big and if I don't cut them off a little then it just looks a little funny...

Cricket...

Today I picked up Cricket...

She is a working guide here in UT...

Her handler went to Europe...

So she will be staying with me until the 12th! She's a very pretty girl and very very easy and mellow! She is almost 3 years old and has been working with her handler for a little over a year.

About a year ago...

Since I forgot to do this on March 30th...

My little baby Ontario arrived in UT on March 30th 2007! He was full of FLUFF. He was amazingly fluffy and INCREDIBLY bony! He had great BIG tree trunk legs, but only weighed 16 pounds! He was EXACTLY 10 weeks old! He was very very calm when I picked him up. I promptly fed him and he ate like a horse and then he pooped!

Denny got to be the one to hand me my new puppy...Ontario!

My club also got Montgomery, Sherman and Rondelle that day!


Since I had several new raisers getting puppies that day, we did a puppy handling session at the truck...Ontario screamed "bloody murder" when I was making him do this...


That night we went to my mom and dad's house to show them the new puppy! This is the first "solo" picture I took of Ontario...after having him for a few hours!


This little 16 pound...10 week old puppy has come a LONG way! He is now 14 1/2 months old and weighs about 75 pounds! His face is no longer almost all black, his ears poke straight up, his chest is a darker tan...but his EYES are still the same...AND he's still the adorable, sweet, loveable pup that I picked up from the puppy truck a little more than a year ago!--oh, and he's not quite so bony anymore!

Questions...cause I'm bored...

1} How many puppies have you raised? Frisco is #10...I also raised Magician, Anya, Spence, Garvey, Brogan, Sonny, O'Connor, Carlisle, and Ontario

2} Why did you start raising? I went to GDB puppy meetings because I needed to learn how to train my beagle...I started raising after 1 1/2 years of meetings when I convinced my mom that we needed 2 dogs.

3} How Long have you been a puppy raiser? I started in 1999...so 9 years

4} What is one thing you have learned in raising? Consistency and praise are the KEYS to everything...Also, Dogs and Kids are so much different ;)

5} What have your puppies taught you? Magician taught me that Supervision is KEY to all good house behaviors...Anya taught me that some dogs are just perfect...Spence taught me about patience and perseverance...Garvey taught me about love...Brogan taught me about giving something/body your WHOLE heart...Sonny taught me about how important relationships with people are...O'Connor taught me about being the best you can be, no matter what others say...Carlisle taught me about the importance of tough love and respect...Ontario has taught me NOT to listen to others, but to do what you KNOW you should do...and Frisco will teach me many things while I have him as well.

6} What is the strangest thing someone has asked/said to you about your puppy? My favorite was when a second grader told me that "Ontario was made really well"

7} Do you give your puppies real name out in public? usually...but sometimes I make up names...just to be interesting...

8} What is the most embarrassing incident that you've had with your puppy? various potty stories...

9} What is the most proud moment you've had with your puppy? graduations of course...but also a few weeks ago when I realized that Ontario doesn't have some of the behaviors that people told me I couldn't fix because he's a GSD. Or when Carlisle stopped barking all the time...or when Brogan decided to come...or when I see my working guides walking down the street in their own environments and their partners have full confidence and trust in them...

10} What advice do you have for newbie puppy raisers/owners? Listen to your leaders...they know how to help you...stay humble and ALWAYS remember to be CONSISTANT and PRAISE your puppy constantly!

One Down...

So I dropped Frisco off at the puppy sitters house tonight :( He will be gone until April 11th. :( It's funny because you would think after raising so many dogs it wouldn't be so hard to take a dog to the puppy sitter...but I get worse and worse at it! He needed to be away from me for a while though as he is SO attached--maybe even more attached than the GSD??? (is that possible?) Anyway, so since Ontario is leaving...we needed a few days of one on one time...plus I'm going to be babysitting a working guide from the 3rd-12th. Then Ontario leaves on the 13th, so really Frisco had to go to the puppy-sitters house! I hope he's good for them. But I miss him already...