Ducks for Dogs

On Sunday Maddi went to Fin's in Newville and sold rubber duckies for the Ducks for Dogs on August 28th. There were a lot of dogs there. We had a great time selling duckies and meeting all the people. We also got to meet the newest puppy, Lori. She is a sweetie.

Dog Den Blast

Woof fellow black dogs...we rule!!!!

Shepherds and Goldens quake in our dust!!!

Oh, wait, water-break...ahhh.




We all had a great time playing at the Dog Den Saturday morning. Pictures were a little difficult as most turned out to be blurry streaks. We were all pretty well behaved with only a few "unnecessary roughness" penalties and time outs. Poor Harley and Louie were on injured reserve...Harley was just neutered and Louie had a bit of a limp so he didn't get to play either. The humans just stood around and blah blah blah until a pack of labs broke up the talking.





I'll admit, I'm no Lab either and enjoyed some quiet time with Kotah.



There are some more pictures posted here.

All for now,
Wilbur

Switcheroo

All of Maddi's litter is now old enough (8 months) and we are switching them around with the other raisers to see what happens in new situations. Maddi is with Sonny's raisers and we have Sonny. Casey, Sparta, Finley have also switched homes for the next two weeks. It is always interesting seeing how the dogs react in different situations.

Poker for Paws Pictures

I had a great time at Poker for Paws - I had lots of people to love on me :-)

Woof, Harley




So did I!! Nanny Nanny boo boo!!




Love, Wilbur

Click here for more pictures for Poker for Paws and if you have pictures from there, send them to mark@occupaws.org and they can be added to the facebook album.

Poker for Paws.

First, Promise was a good pup and went to vote last week. The polling place was getting ready to close, so no excitement there.


























Yesterday was Poker for Paws, and the pups all had a grand time. Promise enjoyed seeing all her friends and was wiped by the end of the day.










Promise and her new friend Moby resting. As you can see, Moby was all wags.

More Graduation Pictures

Hi,

Click here for more Graduation Pictures.

Randy & Deegan's Graduation

Today was a graduation party for our second guide dog puppy, Deegan. He is now with his forever partner, Randy. It was a long ride there and back, but well worth it to see Deegan again and to watch him work.



















Here is Randy & Deegan walking the last block to the restaurant
















Here is Randy, Deegan and myself & Randall.

There are more photos here.

There were a lot of us at the party. Puppy raisers & friends & family of Randy. We all had a good time.

Fun at the Dog Den

Woooof

Did we have fun last night. All us dogs got to give training lessons to our humans. It's amazing they rule the planet cuz they just don't seem to speak dog!! We had to pretent to not know what we were doing so they had to try harder to pretend they were training us...silly humans. We stayed in a "down stay" for way too long (I thought) while the little ones did their thing.






Then we had to stay still while the little pups played. Tough!!

All for now,

Harley

Phone Home...Show

Arf All!

I had fun today!! I got to meet up with Maddi and Casey at the home show today in front of the Bruce Company display. Harley and I love Bruce Company trees best.

Then some people came up asking if I was Wilbur. It turns out that Steve and Sally gave me my name Wilbur - does that make them my god parents??? Anyhow, here we are.

Bye,

Wilbur

Garden Show

I took Maddi to the garden show at the Expo Center in Madison and who did we meet but Casey & Marlette. Maddi & Casey had a fun time after not having seen each other for a month or two.














There were a lot of nice garden arrangements. Maddi wanted to sit here for a bit and rest. There was a lot of walking to see everything.

















When we got home, she took a nap with her favorite new toy, a huge orange monkey.

Janesville Boston Store

Saturday Maddi and I were at the Janesville Boston Store. We met a lot of nice people. Maddi spent most of the time trying to nap.

School Day

Maddi went to UW Whitewater with Kathy yesterday. According to Kathy, Maddi did very well in all the classes. She didn't even snore very much. Maddi got lots of attention from other students and the professors. She was so calm that many people couldn't believe that she is only 6 months old.

Fun Match

On Saturday Maddi went to the Rock County 4-H Fairgrounds to attend a Fun Match fundraiser for the Rock County 4-H Dog Project. The morning was spent watching the obedience run-throughs. It was good practice for Maddi to have to watch the other dogs working and walking right past her and have to ignore them. The afternoon was spent participating in the conformation run-throughs. Kathy took Maddi into the ring for the puppy 4-6 month class. Maddi did quite well considering the fact that we had never practiced this with her before. Of course, since you can have treats in this ring, Maddi was all attention.





Journey and Candy also joined in the fun in the show ring, but I could never seem to get a picture of Candy. Someone was always in the way or she was moving so much it was too blurry.
Maybe next time we can get her to be a little still.

Janesville Boston Store

On Saturday, Maddi went to the Janesville Boston Store to sell coupon booklets for a fundraiser. She was a very good girl. We met up with Marlene, Juan and the two German shepherd puppies, Justice and Journey. This was the shepherds first outing and they did quite well as our selling time was their usual nap time they slept for a lot of it. It didn't stop people from petting them though. They didn't mind at all, they slept through a lot of the attention. We also met at least one new puppy raiser, maybe two.

Poor Maddi was upstaged by the babies for most of the time. Maddi is very good at her pathetic puppy face so she did get some attention. She didn't mind so much after her sister Finley showed up. Unfortunately the batteries in the camera died so I didn't get any pictures with Finley. Note to self, charge batteries before leaving house!

Come Visit

Hi, Maddi and some of the other pups will be at the Janesville Boston Store in the Janesville Mall between noon and 2 pm on Saturday, January 23. Stop by and say hi for this fundraiser.

Winter wonderland walk.

Today I took Maddi for a walk in the local park. The hoarfrost was so pretty. Unfortunately, most of the frost had fallen off some of the trees & branches. Maddi had a good time walking in the woods on the trail in the park.



As you can see, we did find a couple of trees that still had a lot of frost on them. Maddi did not really want to stand still and pose for pictures.


Maddi would have rather sniffed and explored the woods some more. I however, forgot to wear my boots and my toes were getting cold in the snow with only tennis shoes on.

Her favorite thing to do is climb to the top of the snowbanks and look around at everything.

Shopping!

Today we went shopping in Milwaukee and Richmond. We stopped in a tea store at the Mayfair Mall and the Cabela's in Richmond. Maddi was a very good girl at all the stores. She did like one of the herbal iced teas that she tried.



She couldn't quite figure out the bear. It just sat there and didn't move at all.





None of the animals moved!
She just looked and looked.




The ducks were behind glass so she couldn't even smell them.

Training

Well last night we had an OccuPaws training night. I also had my own training class going on on the other side of the room. So since I was busy with my class, Maddi worked with some of the other puppy raisers. From what I could see, she was mostly good, but she kept breaking her stays. I know what I need to work on with her for the next few weeks. Along with all the other things she needs to learn to be a great guide dog.

On the other side of the fence, Marlene came back from the graduation ceremony with a few items for puppy raisers to work on. The first was the importance of getting the dog to potty on command and on any surface (grass, gravel, concrete, wood chips). She also reminded us that we need to physically touch the dog as she poops, so she is accustomed. To make the point, we all experienced picking up poop (pine cones) while blindfolded.

Still blindfolded, we called our dog, had them touch us, SIT in front, and HEEL. The important part was to teach the dog to touch when she COMEs - a blind person will not see them sitting in front of them.

We finished off the session with some basic obedience: SIT, DOWN, STAY, and recalls with plenty of canine distractions. The oldest puppy, Cinder, was a fantastic role model for STAYing while others were called.

Slick & Kaitlyn's Graduation

Today we went to Kaitlyn & Slick's graduation in Waukesha. It was a very nice time and at least 50 people attended. We had all of our Children's Visual Companion Dog teams in attendance.

Here is Maddi patiently waiting for something to happen besides talking.



You can see here that Kaitlyn really loves Slick.


Here is the whole family after the formal presentation of Slick and Kaitlyn's certificate.

Janesville Petco

Maddi, Finley, Magic & Candy were all at the Janesville Petco on Saturday for a couple hours. The puppies got lots of pets and hugs and we talked with some really nice people.



Here are a couple shots of Magic and his sister Candy.