A Hands on Life

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Kelsa is Being Transferred

Well, the time has finally come. We have tried everything we could think of to fix Kelsa's relieving and I have carried out the ideas to the letter, but it hasn't worked, she's still having accidents. While I am very disappointed that I couldn't fix it I know, my ego is taking a bit longer to catch up, that I did everything I could and everything that was asked of me.

I have a couple ideas of what might be going on. One; She has gotten in a habit of having accident's in my neighborhood or with me. Two; She having accidents because she's so stressed when she goes on walks. That could possibly be a self reenforcing cycle, she gets stressed, she has an accident, she gets corrected, she gets more stressed. I've been giving her food for walking comfortably with mixed success. Or three; She's just a bit different biologically from other dogs and physically unable to not relieve when on walks. While it's possible it's the least likely of the three. The one that I think is closest to correct is the second although the first is a strong contender too, which means there's still a chance she could become a guide. All I can do is see what happens.

I found out this morning that Kelsa will probably be leaving in 2 to 7 days. In the mean time I'm going to keep going with all the training we've been doing, like trying to get her to poop three times a day and food protocol on walks, and spoil her as much as I can. And I've been taking lots of pictures of her.

I submitted one of my pictures of Delphine to the Guide Dogs 2012 calendar contest and it got in! So I've been trying to get pictures of Kelsa to submit to next years calendar.

Delphine is second from the bottom on the far left.

One toy is never enough

I love that cocked head!

She is a champion sleeper

My favorite doggy portrait

While I was writing this I got a call from my leader, it actually more of an extended evaluation than a transfer. If her reliving problems aren't getting better in a few months she'll be Career Changed. I also found out that she will either be leaving tomorrow or Saturday. I think I'm going to be skipping yoga to go take pictures.

Driving

I took and passed the permit test on Monday and had my first experience driving. I also got to experience my brothers first time at driving. I'm happy to report that I didn't hit anything not even a curb! we won't count the invisible cars. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think I'll ever be ready to actually go out on a road much less a highway.
I wish I had learned to drive a long time ago because it would have made life with Kelsa easier, but I didn't and there's nothing I can do about the past. However, I'll be ready for the next time, so long as it is 6 months to a year from now.

Fun Day

Every year Guide Dogs puts on a party to thanks to the puppy raisers and it's called Fun Day. Fun Day is actually two parties, one at the California campus and one at the Oregon campus. Fun Day is an apt name as it is always so much fun! It also has a theme for each year, last year was western, this year was 50's. It really hard to find 50's style dog costumes so I had to get creative. Some people managed to find one though as I saw a couple walking around. Vona was one of them! I was so happy to see Vona, she was transferred from my club 5 or 6 months ago. At first I didn't recognize her, but as soon as I said hi she recognized me. I just love getting rapturous greetings!

Speaking of seeing a puppy that I hadn't seen in a while, Jill, Tabetha's raiser got to spend the day with Tabetha and by proxy I got to spend the day with Tabetha. Tabetha went back for formal training at the beginning of July (I think) and is probably going to be a breeder. She is getting the final health and temperament testing in California now. She's as sweet and funny as always and she was very happy to play with her best friend Zuni. Zuni and Tabetha are the same age and very close in color so I keep mistaking them for siblings.

Tabetha put herself in the crate for some reason

Still as cute as the day she arrived

Play time! Shh, don't tell.

So cute!

Hey Zuni...

Look in the same direction? No thanks.

Goofy, and adoreable Zuni

We're done with pictures; it's playtime again!

Kelsa was not impressed with having to sit on the side lines.

Tabetha

Tabetha cuddling with her raiser

This would have been so cute if only Tabetha hadn't just finished licking her lips!

Zuni also had to stay at campus because it was his recall day. He is going to make a fabulous guide. I got the privilege of taking a family portrait before he left.

We had a poster of all our current puppies up at our booth, I'm so proud that 5 out of the 9 pictures are ones I took! I can't say just how grateful I feel that people think my pictures are that good, good enough to hang in public and put in their scrap books!

The middle picture on the top row, the entire second row, and the middle picture on the bottom row are mine.

I also got to meet one of Kelsa's littermates, Kai, who is being raised in the area and I know his raiser. He's a very handsome boy. He looks most like Kashi and any of the other puppies I know.

Kai on the left and Kelsa on the right.

It was a great day! I got to see and talk about puppies all day.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Getting back to guide dogs

I realized that most of my posts recently have been about myself and as my intro banner says this blog is supposed to be about my experiences raising a guide dog.

Raising Kelsa has been a rocky road to be sure. I expected to have challenges and to have to work with her on things, that's what raising a guide dogs is all about. What I didn't expect was to keep running into the same problem again and thinking every time that we had finally gotten past it just to go back to square one again. I am of course talking about relieving. As Bethany my leader keeps saying, relieving is one of the hardest things we have to deal with as puppy raisers, but knowing that really doesn't make dealing with the problem any easier. Enter our broken record period; Kelsa was having numerous accidents on walks so we decided to have her not go on any outings for a month. After that month was up she was doing really well on outings and on the short walks we were taking. Then on a run around the block she had another accident. Back to no walks for a month and not doing any walking outings more than two hours after she relieves. I have no idea why we didn't make any progress on that problem!

What does it feel like I've accomplished since getting her? Nothing! I feel like we've been stuck in the same place while all the other puppies are growing up and getting better every day. Is that completely accurate? No. In her nearly four months with me she has learned the Down command, gotten pretty good at the Go To Bed command, gotten much better at the Come command and is relieving on concrete like a pro. That's it. Not a lot to brag about.

The hard thing is that I adore Kelsa, but I am so sick of the problem. My puppy raising moral is at an all time low. Right now I almost feel like quitting all together and never looking back. Almost. But I'll regret it forever if I quit now. I'm the kind of person that can fall off a horse ten times and will still get in the saddle again right away because I know it can be done and I'm not quitting until I do it. Which makes considering transferring Kelsa to another raiser really hard. I'll have quit before I beat the problem. But if transferring is best for Kelsa then I have to do it. It would be irresponsible and unkind to Kelsa if I didn't. Then my only way to get back on the horse is to try and raise a different puppy.

Anyway, I decided to go though all the pictures I've taken of the guide puppies and pick out my favorite.

My criteria for favorite is most professional looking while also showing personality.