Sunday, July 31, 2011

just get movitatved..




Abbie and I head up to the barn... and find.....














Empty harness hooks!!! Which means.....












Rick has arrived to "play" with horses. Now as painful as it is for me to admit - I will be honest here, and tell you that I have not worked our horses nearly as much as they should be. True I am busy, but there are times where I could be (should be) out with horses and chose not to. And the sad thing is, the horses were one of the reasons why we made this life switch... and I haven't followed thru. Some of it is motivation, and I just need to "do it". But, we did "do it" today... and started out with some ground driving (Rick took Duke and I took Tonka)




And then Rick decided "enough of this walking business" and put Duke in the cart and off they went. Duke was a bit fussy to start, but once Rick got him off the farm and really working, he said he settled in well, and they had a good time on the road. (Even stopped some traffic and picked up a few compliments)








Since Tonka had been so good for me, we put him in cart next. Rick took him for a short run up the driveway, and then I hopped in and off we went. On the road, Tonka wasn't nearly as quiet as Duke had been, but he was listening. We headed down by the post office, pulled into the parking to turn for home, and Tonka decided to pitch a fit!!! Fortunately, Rick is calm (and a very good horseman), but I admit, I made my exit from the cart and let them alone to work (and to be there in case Rick needed a pair of hands from the ground). It took him sometime and lots of circles, stops and standing to bring Tonka's head around again. But, one thing for sure, this horse needs a ton of work, and the only way that will happen is.... for me to get out there and do it!!!! So, somewhere, if I want a nice driving horse, I have got to find the time!!!!! We did get Tonka back to the farm without too much fussing.... but it will be awhile before he is road ready.



After all that work, the horses were in need of a shower and cooling off. Rick took this time to bring Otis around for horse introductions. Duke was ll for it, but Otis had a different ideas of this.....











Abbie tried to tell Otis that everything is OK.. that horses really are nice....














and that she loves to kiss them...... (Mocha just loves it when Abbie pays a call).....













Later that evening, we met up with Kas and all the Flaggs.... Abbie was exited to learn that it (tomorrow) is Nate's "Krunkels" birthday!!!!













And she gives him the best gift she can...


a hug just for Krunkle!!!!



Happy Birthday NATE!!!!





























Thursday, July 28, 2011

big city work




Now, if you are thinking "what, she's writing about going to NEADS again"... well, the truth is, another month has gone by. And yes, here is yet another story about us heading to NEADS for our check in. We swapped our puppies back, loaded into the vehicles and headed south. The July check in with Dave. And, dear reader, this also means another thing - Ginger and Leo will check in in August, and then September.... turn in, but that will be another story.










We did our usual "question and answer" time with Dave, and then right into the city. By now the dogs are getting pretty used to this, which is exactly "what" the point is. Maybe I am getting a little used to it too.... but who knows....


















We went to our favorite place, the hospital. It really is such a good place to work, Dave can find all sorts of things for us to do. Remember that silly game we played at puppy night - fit your dog into a laundry basket - well, here is where it pays off. Ginger, quite nicely, I might add, tucker herself under this little chair and "disappeared". She is such a good girl, and you know, I am going to miss her very much!!!!!








We do the down stays all over the place. Now only is it good work, but it gives the dogs a few minutes to rest and just take in the sights. What sights......
















Well, the groups of people that they attract for one. Many of the hospital folks are used to seeing the NEADS puppies working around... but none the less, they still draw alot of attention....












and why not... any way you look at it, five dogs doing a down with "tons" of people around... is impressive....













We rode on those glass elevators a "million" times. Leo and Otis gave up and had the "again??" attitude... T, Ginger and I had more of the "oh no - AGAIN" attitude. I might get used to the city, but those elevators... never. I will raise a hundred puppies and still "hate" the ride!!!!!








And another day zooms by... Dave with his last words of wisdom, and home we head. And even though the day in the city is always fun, there is something grand about pulling up to the farm.. where the crickets are the loudest the sound that you will hear....




















Wednesday, July 27, 2011

the "great" puppy swap


One thing that Dave has been encouraging the puppy raiser to do.. is swap puppies. Now, we all thought that would probably be a good idea, but actually doing it.... we all love "our" puppies and the idea of handing the off (when we have such a short time with them) was hard - for the humans (for me!!). But, being the good raisers that we are, we made the swap one evening after puppy class - for three days!!!! Bernice got Otis, Rick got Leo, Kathleen got Ginger...








and I got "T".











He was fun to have around, but Abbie was even funnier. She got up the next morning and found T in the house... her first question... "where's Ginga"... so, we tried to explain to an almost two year old, that we had T instead.










Dog trainer in "training".. Abbie loves to make Ginger do her little commands, and Ginger does listen to Abbie with sit, down, go, and touch. So, she tried it with T... but poor T doesn't really understand "baby"... he had kind of a hard time working for her.







Just the same, though, he was very good with her, and Abbie became quite fond of him. She loved the idea that she could say his name, and when she found out that he was a poodle... she called him.. "T the pooda"....




so, T the pooda, hope you had a good time with us!!!!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

dog days of summer...



There are just some things in my life that I can count on year after year. And even though I moan and groan about it (because I really "hate" doing the MC part of this) one of those "count on things" would be our summer dog "show" that we do at the beach. I don't even know for sure how long we have done this (wished we had blogging back then so I could have kept track!!!) but it's been a long --- long --- time!!!!







We've only skipped out a couple of times , due to weather, but for the most part, the last week of July will find my dog club doing this demo. Some years we get quite a big crowd, and every year, we get some of the same people -who (we have been told) wait for the show to come each summer.



This year, there happened to be a professional photographer in the crowd. She got some amazing shots of the dogs, and I "stole" them off her website.













She took pictures of all of the dogs there...... love this one of our Ginger...








Cammie....









Kassy's and Nate's .. Banjo....






















And then my friend Denise got these photos for me (and the blog)... Ginger helped with the MC (and showed off for the service dogs)












A nice big crowd of the dog club members... I can always count on them. Not only is a great place for us to practice and show off... but we get to talk "dogs" all night....










Rick gets the opportunity to work with Otis.




So, another "summer event" marked off the list... these are some of the markers of summer, and this one is "mid list"...


scary how fast the summer is going by!!!!


























Tuesday, July 19, 2011

a wedding.....



The perfect summer day.... a beautiful country setting... just the place.... for a wedding!!! And so it was, the wedding of Lauren (Nate's sister) and Johnny. I haven't been to a wedding in a while, and it was just so grand to attend. We had just finished a week of horribly hot weather, but it seemed to break just enough for this special day.







It was a great spot, with all kinds of walk ways, gardens, and ponds... before the ceremony, Abbie and Sadie had a little time to enjoy the gold fish pond. Abbie was thrilled that the fish would come right up to the "shore"....











Kas (and Nate) were part of the wedding party.















The Father and the Bride...... (Lauren was stunning in her dress)










And a very special moment... Lauren's Uncle John over saw the "legal" side of the ceremony and her Grandfather did the spiritual side (being a retired minister)... he has done hundreds of weddings.. but this more than likely will be the last one that he'll do.













The new couple.....












Taking a moment to catch their breaths before the reception....
















The parent's of the couple... Deb and Dave (in front) and Sue and Greg (in the back)....











Kas and Nate enjoying some time on the dance floor















As well as Dave and Lauren....














A nice photo of all my kids!!!!!














And me and my girls... (Abbie couldn't stay awake a moment longer!!!)












A"little surprise" for the newly weds!!!! but mostly, all our best wishes for a long and happy life together... and by God's good grace.. they will celebrate their 30 years together - like Ed and I will be doing next month!!!!!
























Friday, July 15, 2011

service puppy nite



Another service puppy training night... here's a great photo of the puppy chapter folks... because is was such a pretty night, and the training room we use was "under construction" our friend Jeanne, offered her out door fenced area to work in. It was great.









Arika joined us, I loved to watch this "team" work and it's always a reminder to me of "where" our dogs are headed. These two have really bonded and I think sometimes they read each other's minds....





Course, you know that Camille must come and supervise the whole event.





I had a couple of "theme's" for this month. Because Jeanne has some agility equipment, we were able to play with that. This builds trust on the part of the puppies, and it's so fun to watch them conquer each thing. We have been using the tunnel for sometime and now the puppies just run thru it for fun....








Another theme was "surfaces", I brought all sorts of silly things for the puppies to play with. A couple of table laying on the ground, and then later we covered them with plastic. Some baby gates and an ex-pen, that we laid down and had them walk across...









But, the main challenge came from Dave. Teach the dogs to lay in a laundry basket. Talk about a challenge, you really have to show them how to "curl" up in a tight ball for this one. Which of course, is great because who knows when they might need to fit under a small table, under the seat on a bus... or any other tight place. Course, Arika made this look easy....






Ok, so Ginger and I had been practicing, we couldn't go to puppy night and offer this challenge without having done it ourselves!!!!












Leo tried next, he's a big dog (bigger than Ginger).. so he wasn't so sure he could fit. But, he gave it a good attempt with a sit....














Otis snuggled right in...















it was "getting him out" that proved to be more challenging!!!!!














and then of course, a photo opt of the whole group that came. People are getting really excited about our little service group, it's growing...












and you just know we had to take advantage of that wonderful big, fenced yard..











and let the puppies go for a good ol fashion romp. Who says service dogs don't know how to party!!!!