Belated Congratulations

Congratulations to Darla II for graduating March 13th as a Hearing Dog! Darla was raised in New Jersey and we are all so proud of her! Congrats also to Nancy, her amazing Puppy Raiser!
Darla is the cute and very little black lab in the middle! Her Hearing Impaired/Deaf partner is Barbara. Congratulations to all!

Car Rides

Nuri loves to be in the car since it gives her a good opportunity to stick her nose as close to the windows as possible. I snapped these shots in the van yesterday as I was running some errands. The back windows of the van open a crack and Nuri loves to try and get a good sniff out those windows. Too funny....
That black thing that she has around her is her seatbelt. All my pups have used a seatbelt while in the car. It's easier to keep track of them and make sure that they don't get into any trouble as well. As soon as they are big enough to fit, I put them in the seatbelt instead of carting the kennel around. The pillow was a favorite of my previous CCI pup, Wilara, and it just ended up staying in the car. Now Nuri loves it and snuggles up to it, especially on longer car rides.

Dinner out

On Friday I went out to eat for dinner. Love to eat out! I decided to take Nuri with me this time and see how she did. For our New Jersey Chapter meetings we sometimes go out to a restaurant for dinner/meeting. It's a good way for our pups to learn how to behave in a restaurant while also giving us a chance to socialize and catch up with each other. Nuri has always been pretty good at these meetings, but she likes to be the "center of attention" and will try to come out from under the table more often than not. So I figured that this would be a good time to take her out. It was early, so there weren't that many people there for a Friday night at 5 pm.
She stayed under the table nicely! She mostly just fell asleep on my feet which is what she does at home anyways. Barnacle Bill's (the restaurant) is famous for people eating peanuts at the table and then just dropping the shells onto the floor. It's a good distraction for Nuri. I always ask them to sweep out the shells from under our table, and since we know the owner it's never a problem! Nuri did manage to swipe a stray shell but spit it right out again. I guess she decided that she doesn't like peanuts! After that I was able to keep a closer eye on her by moving her closer to me. She was such a good girl! I was expecting her to want to get out from under the table, but she just stayed in a Down, with a bit of moving around. It seems that she can never stay in one spot for too long. Maybe too much energy!

Nuri had the whole weekend off from having to do any kind of training. YAY for short little breaks! I plan to start up her training again on Monday, so relaxation time (for both of us!) is almost over.

This coming weekend on the 4th of April is NER's Puppy Raiser Workshop/Volunteer Appreciation Day and of course we will be there! I hope to see many people I know and have a great time. This is the first year that I have been able to make the day due to work schedules and other commitments. I'm very excited!

Sleepy Puppy

Well Nuri always likes to find a new way to fall asleep. Just a few moments ago I snapped this picture on my iPhone:Hahahahahha. She gets into some of the funniest places to sleep. I have no idea how that is comfortable, but she enjoys it! There are many times when I find her like this in the kitchen.

Advanced Training Report

So Wilara's Advanced Training Report came through this morning!! I was going crazy all morning waiting for it to come. Now the wait is over! Everything seems to be fine with her. There was some kennel cough, but it seems that she is symptom free (YAY). She seems to be doing well and adjusting fine. Her trainer is Stacey which is great. Love Stacey!!! Here is what was written in the comments section:

Since turn in, Wilara has been through our standard temperament and medical evaluations. She is settling into advanced training and has been reviewing her basic commands as well as learning some new ones. Wilara has been learning to hold a wooden dumbell; which is the beginning stages of the retrieval. She has also begun to learn to push a drawer shut using her nose. In the play yard, Wilara will occasionally hackle and posture when other dogs approach but responds well to verbal correction. During a field trip to Petco, Wilara was easy to manage and responsive. Next month, we will be focusing on progressing the retrieve and push as well as working basic commands in public.

YAY for good puppy reports! I'll get her brother Wexler's report soon from his puppy raiser and I'm sure he will have a stellar report as well.

I always tell everyone that asks "Isn't giving up the puppy the hardest thing to do?" a different answer. You can make it through handing the puppy in, but it's the waiting for the progress reports that is the hardest thing! It's going a full month without knowing ANYTHING about your pup and worrying all the time that they are going to call you and tell you that you have to come get your puppy.

Puppy Class

Well it was the fourth Tuesday of the month today and that means....Puppy Class! Our Puppy Class Instructor (the amazing Ann!) decided that this time we would work on walking across different surfaces. So she had people bring in different objects and things for the puppies to walk over. We had some bubble wrap, construction paper type stuff, grates, and garbage bags. Then we used some of the fold up tables in the room and some of the chairs as well as different surfaces. Nuri loved them all!! She didn't have a problem with them, and she actually liked to snuggle in with some of them!
She thought that laying down and hogging the garbage bags was a lot of fun.

We also worked on some basic commands such as Sit, Down, and things like that. Also a lot of distractions were brought in. They do love to chase after those tennis balls! Nuri in particular is very distracted by tennis balls, or really anything else that happens to go past her. I've been working hard to get her to pay attention, but it's like she just spaces out for a little bit and doesn't want to work. Oh, my lovely little blond....

Tired and wiped out from the day.

Puppy AT report comes through for Wilara tomorrow!!!!!!!! I can't wait!! I'll post it as soon as I can!

Vet visit and the mall

Well I took Nuri to the vet's today to get her weighed while my other dog had a checkup. While waiting for them to call us I was working with Nuri on her commands. We have been working a lot on Under. I usually have an issue with my dogs trying to get them to work on the Under command. They all used to fight me when I tried to get them to go under something. Nuri, however, LOVES to do the Under command! It's seriously one of her favorites.
Nuri weighed in at 51.3 pounds! She's a big girl! I tried to get the weight in the shot as well. If you look closely you can make out the numbers! And yes that's right, she does weigh that much. And sometimes I have to coax her to get her to eat her food. Mostly in the mornings she doesn't want to eat all her food.

Today we went to a mall that has some "floating" stairs. They are the ones that have the openings between each step. The dogs are not really a fan of going up those stairs because they can see through them. Nuri did great with them! She was a little unsure of them at first, but she settled down fine and was more than happy to go up and down them. Of course, we attracted all kinds of attention (who wouldn't?) going up and down the stairs. I'm sure people were wondering what was going on!

Puppy Update!

Well I am anxiously awaiting my first Advanced Training report for Wilara! It should come through on Wednesday morning and I will be able to see how my little girl is doing. I haven't heard anything recently from my sources, so this should be interesting! I was talking with a few of Wila's littermates' Puppy Raisers. So far, Walker, Weston, Whisper, and Wexler are all still in Advanced Training and doing well! YAY for the "W" litter! It was sad to learn that Winnett was released in Mid-January, but I know that she is making another person's life that much brighter. We are all keeping our fingers (and paws) crossed for puppies to graduate in May.

As for Nuri, I was catching up with a bunch of her littermates as well. It's funny how her siblings seem to be so calm and quiet and I have Nuri who is the complete opposite of them! The picture on the right is of Namiko. She looks so much like Nuri! The one on the top left is of Nanette. The bottom left is her brother Navarro! They are all just so cute! It seems that everyone is doing well and there are many similar quirks between the siblings. Such as Nanette does the same "push" thing that Nuri does! I'm taking Nuri to the vet's to get weighed since another of my pups has to go for a check-up with the dermatologist. (Yes they have them for te dogs too!) I'll check back in with her weight, but I would assume she would weigh around the same as her siblings who seem to average around 45 pounds.

Busy Busy Busy!!

So Nuri and I have been super busy and working on new things every day! Since the weather has been cooperating and been beautiful out, we have been taking some nice walks. Nuri still tends to pull on the lead too much while walking so we are working to get her to stop. She likes to work on new commands and we were trying out Side and Heel.

CCI uses a few different commands than other people would use. The Heel command is different from what most people use it for. Many people use Heel to tell their dog to walk next to them. CCI uses the command with a different meaning. Heel to us means that the dog has to come and sit on our left side when given the command. Side means that the dog has to come and sit on our right side.

So we have been working on that as well as Up and Jump. We were at The Grove (a shopping center near me) and we were walking around when I saw a stone wall. I decided to try and see if she would jump up. Unfortunately she didn't like that idea, but she loved being on the wall after I put her up there! My mom had walked off with the camera so I couldn't get a good picture.

Nuri tends to get anxious a lot. Even when we go on a walk around the neighborhood she starts to breathe heavily and pull harder on the lead. I'm working on it with her, but it could be a looooong process. But she is so good at learning her commands that I love to work with her.

Update on Wilara and her siblings:
So I've been in contact with a few of Wilara's siblings over the last year and a half. Weston and Winnet were raised in the Southwest and Walker and Whisper were raised in the Northwest. I hear from their puppy raisers every now and then and they tell me that all pups are doing well in Advanced Training! We are all hoping for graduates this May! Fingers and paws crossed!

Transition Fair

So on Monday night Nuri, my mother and I attended a Transition Fair at our local high school. A Transition Fair is an opportunity for children in high school who have physical and mental disabilities find out what options they have after they graduate high school. Some options include work opportunities, the local college, and organizations that will help them to transition to life on their own. So we were asked to come and set up a table and talk about CCI!

We had a recent graduate from not far away, Kimmi, come and tell people about her Skilled Companion, Orson III! It was great to see Kimmi again. The last time we saw her she was graduating in September 2008 in the inaugural class for NER's new Miller Family Campus.

We were also joined by fellow puppy raisers Christina and Marianne who brought with them their puppy Ivana (Ivy) and another puppy raiser's pup Dayne! Ivana is also a Golden Retriever, and if you want to get into numbers.....she's 7/8 Golden! Dayne is an adorable yellow lab/golden cross.

As always, we were a big hit! Everyone wanted to come over and play with the dogs. We had a huge crowd gathering around us and the night was a lot of fun. I got a few pictures, so enjoy!

Skilled Companion Dog Tiffany III

I stumbled across a cd that was made by CCI of pictures of my third dog, Tiffany III, who graduated November 2006. She's working with an autistic boy, James III, down in the DC area. Tiff loves to work! I hear that she heads off to work at Congress with James's dad (her facilitator). She also tells us that she loves to go visit people as well. She is one busy pup! Tiffany is that adorable dog that was featured in the NER's Capital Campaign brochure. Didn't see it? Click here! She's on Page 5. And for all of you that have a CCI Calendar for 2009, Tiffany is Miss April! If you don't have a calendar yet then go buy one!

Here are some fun pics from that cd: (captions under each picture)

James III and Tiffany III getting started in Team Training!

Tiffany and James heading out to do some shopping!Tiffany and James taking a quick break for some hug time!

Tiffany with her Companion James III and his dad James II (facilitator) heading off to the mall!

Tiffany working on her TUG command! Look how well she does that!

Nuri and her cape

So Nuri, like a few of her siblings, does NOT like her cape. She tries to bite at it and scratch it to get it off. Sadly, she is not successful. Instead, she looks really funny when we go out in public because she is always trying to get her cape off. So now she has to wear it ALL THE TIME! It's the best way that I can think of to get her used to wearing the cape all the time. Maybe it will help tone down her barking too! It's worth a try anyways.

Nuri has been doing some shopping lately and found that there is nothing entertaining to buy at Circuit City. We walked into the store and she immediately let out a big yawn. Guess she was bored there! No good sales anyways. Nuri is also getting better out in public although she still pulls a bit on her lead.

Wilara Update:
Still no news on Wilara as we are at exactly two weeks since she was turned-in. She was really one of the hardest ones to give up and I miss her every day! But as always, I am sending her good thoughts and wishes so that she stays in AT and behaves like the good little girl that she is! I just wonder if she will make it as a breeder dog. How cool would that be?? I would definitely want to raise one of her puppies from her first litter. Here's to hoping!

Nuri playing

So Nuri has a really funny "push" thingy that she does. I'm not really sure what to say to describe it so I tried to catch her on video. This was the best that I could get! Enjoy!

Update:

Thanks to Chandra's (Nuri's grandma) BC! She informed me that Nuri gets this from Chandra! Good thing to know. I thought she was just a little bit on the odd side, but now I know other pups do the same thing! And apparently another of Chandra's pups, Akeelah, does the same thing. It's all in the family!

So I have OMSI III's barking habits and Chandra's "push" thingy. Believe me, living with Nuri is definitely not dull! She keeps me entertained!

SNOW! Part 2

Well Nuri went out in the snow yesterday and I would have had the pictures up earlier, but my internet decided that it didn't want to cooperate! So here are some pictures! She had a LOT of fun. And I know that my little Wilara in AT is going to have some fun outside today as well up at NER.

SNOW!

Well, I personally don't enjoy the snow, but Nuri loves it! And I'm sure Wilara is loving it up at NER. I can't take Nuri out to play for awhile since I'm snowed in at a friends house, but here are some other pics of Nuri and Wila playing around in the snow! They really love it!