The Beginning

    I'm starting this blog to document my experiences of undergraduate school and my plan to raise guide dog puppy number three. I'll warn you now that my writing skills aren't anything to write home about but hopefully they will improve with time. Over the next semester I will be preparing to raise my third guide dog for Guide Dogs of the Desert (GDD) and starting up a new student organization called Aggie P.A.W. (Partners for Assistance thru Work). I will be serving as the club president as the club strives to create a community for service dog trainers, users, and individuals interested in either of the two.

   A little bit about the two dogs I have raised.

Nick was the first puppy that I raised. I picked him up from Guide Dogs of the Desert on August 13th 2010 as an 8 week old puppy who's dream was to be the worlds greatest guide dog. I started project Nick as a Junior in High school taking dual enrollment classes at a local community college in my home town. While I was home schooled the rest of the time. Nick started out as a rambunctious little pup but quickly grew into a dog that strived for adventure. He wanted to work every day and if he didn't get to he would destroy things. His favorite things to eat other than dog food where socks and toilet paper. One time he ate a five dollar bill and really seemed to enjoy that, although my mom wasn't too pleased. I taught Nick a lot and he turned into an amazing dog. He went everywhere I went, school, work at the clinic, city bus rides, class rooms, Doctors offices, grocery stores, busy downtown streets and everywhere in between. He learned to be well behaved and do exactly what he was supposed to do.

 

   February 18th 2012, at about 2 years of age, Nick returned to Guide Dogs of the Desert for formal training. Before formal training began he had to pass in depth medical exams and testing which he passed with flying colors. Nick worked with trainers for a little over 7 months before my mom got the phone call. It was a dreary October day when my mom called to tell me he had been dropped from the program. He had a natural instinct to air sniff which is a really amazing thing dogs can do to see what kind of danger or potential threats are in the area. However, for guide dogs it is very distracting as they are constantly trying to protect their partner from threats that might not be there. According to the trainers at GDD it became to stressful for Nick to guide as he was always concerned about protecting his partner. The trainers offered us to take him back home with us. I seriously wanted this dog back but I knew how much he loved to work and I asked them to career change him. It was a painful decision to make that involved lots of crying but I knew it was the best decision for him. Shortly after, Nick found his new job as a Mobility Support Service Dog and therapy dog for a legally blind man who didn't quite qualify for a guide dog but needed a dog for support. Nick's a big 85lb boy which is great for mobility support dogs so I hope that it was the right job for him. I haven't seen Nick sine I dropped him off for formal training almost a year ago, but I hear he is doing well and I hope to one day meet his new partner.

 Bodo was the second dog I raised. My brother and I finish raised her for Guide Dogs of the Desert last summer. As the story goes, her puppy raisers dropped her of at the training campus and said that they where going out of town for the summer and couldn't deal with her any more. She stayed at the school for a little over a month undergoing health exams in preparation for formal training. She was about 14 months of age. From observing her in the kennels and attempting to work with her the trainers decided that she needed a little extra puppy in training experiences before she was ready to go into formal training. I got a call from our area coordinator asking if we would be interested in fixing this dogs many problems and my brother and I jumped on the chance.

We only had Bodo for a little over 3 months but the transformation we watched her take over that time was pretty amazing. She was not the smartest puppy I have worked with by far but she was really sweet and loved to cuddle. Her worst habits where jumping up and grabbing the back of peoples pants while they tried to walk by her in the house, and running around in circles around the house so that no one could catch her. She was easily cured of both of these issues and turned into a great dog. I didn't get to do as much with her as I did with Nick but by the time she went back to school she was a well rounded pup ready to begin formal training. She returned to GDD a week after I started college at NMSU and begin working in harness about 6 weeks ago. I'm super proud of what she has accomplished so far and I hope to see her graduating sometime next year!

Why don't I have pup #3 already? Well, I started university this semester and I didn't want to overwhelm myself with to many experiences at once so I decided to take a break from puppy raising for a year. I really miss puppy raising. It also cost a fair amount of money to raise a pup and I wanted to give myself some time to save up for that. This next semester I will be preparing to raise puppy number 3 by making special arrangements with housing and starting up aggie P.A.W. So far, I love university and I want to spend as much time as possible going to school. My end goal is to be a veterinarian possibly specializing in equine or wildlife medicine and donating time to guide dog and service dog organization I love animal science and anything to do with medicine. I'm super excited to be starting this blog and I hope if you read this far because it's really stinking long, that you will leave a comment and tell me how you like it!

That's all for now,

Girl minus pup