CCI and Build-A-Bear partner up again

CCI and Build-A-Bear(BAB) have teamed up again for the month of May! Last year they started this partnership where every Kennel Pals animal that was sold, $1 was donated to CCI. It's a national campaign and last year netted over $60,000!!

So it seems that CCI and BAB have decided to do it again for the entire month of May. So starting May 1st you can buy the animals online or in the store. Some stores have only one or two of the dogs, but you can order the others online. I know my local BAB only had the Black lab lsat year. They do have a Golden, Black Lab and Yellow Lab puppies to stuff.

Last year we did a weekend at my local BAB and had the pups there with us. There were many parties with young kids and it was a great way to educate everyone about service dogs. Many of the kids wanted to switch their animals after they heard that the Black Lab puppy would help out our dogs. It was so great to see!They also have a little service dog cape that you can put on the pup.This one was made for the little girl that I babysit for. She loves it and carries it around with her. But they have these cute little capes that you can buy and the lead and collar are really nice too.

So go out and buy a Build-A-Bear Kennel Pal and support CCI! You know you want to....

Wilara Update - AT report

So it's the end of the month and that means AT reports here in the Northeast! I'm not sure how often they come in other regions, but NER has them sent out the last Wednesday of every month. Well surprise! They decided to mess with us this month and sent them all last night! I was at puppy class and my phone rings saying there's a new email and it was the AT report! I was so happy to get it because I have missed my little Wilara so much and these are what I look forward to every month. It seems that Wila has gone back to barking and whining a bit more than I think they like. They were both checked off this time and they haven't been checked off before. She really started this when Nuri came along and it's no good that she is still doing it. Hopefully it's something that will lessen over time.

Other than that it seems like she is still in good shape. Any PR will tell you that most of the reports that we get are not stellar. Instead they tend to make us worry and worry and worry some more about our pups. I try not to get upset by some of them, but it never works. Whatever the dog chooses I am fine with! But Wilara is hanging tough and that's all that matters.


Here is what the comments section of her report reads:

This month in training, Wilara has begun retrieving a wooden dumbbell. She has also transitioned well to working her basic commands around the wheelchair. We are currently working on down position and generalizing push to new drawers. On a field trip to Sam's Club, Wilara was low management but slow to initiate her commands. In the play yard, we have been working on patterning her to return with a fetched toy and lifting her head to place it in my hand. When approached by other dogs in the play yard, Wilara will stiffen and hackle when they sniff her. Next month, we will begin to generalize the retrieve to new objects as well as work on push in new settings.

It's a very positive report except for the hackling part. It is something that she has always done and nothing I ever tried could get her to stop doing it. It's like she needs to feel out the other dog first before she lets down her defenses. She's a little one! But like I said before, she's hanging tough and working hard and that's all I ask of her. I know that she will make a great working dog, or even a great mom. She's still in consideration for the breeding program. I haven't heard anything yet as to whether she was selected. But her report still has a checked Y when asked if she is a potential breeder! So I'll go by that for now.

Until the next report!!

Goofy and still sick

Well Nuri is still sick! She was fine from Friday up until this evening. I figured that we would try the mall again tonight and see how she did. hanging out in the back seat on the trip home. she's making sure I'm driving correctly!

She was wonderful at the mall (except for that incident where she decided to poop in the middle of the mall) and was very calm and didn't forge ahead like she used to. Being in the kennels has really helped her to calm down and not be as crazy as she used to be. But after we got home I was giving her dinner and she decided to throw up instead. Awesome. So I'm still thinking that it might be stress related which is just not good. I'm keeping track of everything and I will be talking with my vet again tomorrow if I happen to run into her or her vet tech at work tomorrow. Hopefully we can have some answers as to how to deal with her.

But these last few days have been really nice around here and Nuri has loved being outside. She was having fun hanging out on the deck which I showed in the last post, and yesterday while I was at work, my mom had her out on the deck. She was doing some planting and looked around for Nuri and couldn't find her.
Yeah she was hanging out on a couch that we are going to throw away. It currently is up on the deck and has to be dismantled and taken to the curb for the garbage men. So Nuri thought it looked like a really comfy bed and decided to use it! My mom had a good laugh about that one!

A Gorgeous Day!

Today was absolutely gorgeous! The weather reached into the low 90's and we were having a blast outside. Nuri is getting over being sick which is great. She has been feeling better so we decided to make a short trip out to Wal-Mart to get some plants to plant around the deck. She was so good! Walked very calmly next to me on her lead which she's just getting better at. We also worked some more on Up and Jump and she is very good at distinguishing between the two which is awesome. I had her jump up on the slats that hold the plants and she was very interested in them. The slats have open holes that are a bit smaller than her paws so she wasn't going to fall through. It was a good idea to get her used to the other surface and she did great! We also ran into a young girl who had a CCI SC awhile ago. Ordway just passed away within the last year at the age of 15. She doesn't know if she wants another dog though. They remember "boot camp" and don't know whether they can do that again. I don't blame them! It's a LOT of work and you really have to be mentally prepared for it.

So after getting home Nuri and I spent a good deal of time outside on the deck. She loves being outside! Although she tends to get into everything. She likes sticks and seems to have an obsession for potting soil. She is one strange dog. But she had a lot of fun hanging out in the sun.
With my 5th pup, Shane III, we got these raised "hammocks" so that the pups wouldn't be lying down on the hot deck. Shane loved his (it was a bigger one than this one) and took it with him to his new home. This was Nuri's first time on it and seemed to like it. We'll see how it goes this summer! She might be on it more often than not.
But since she was a bad girl and wouldn't stop eating the potting soil and everything else on the deck, she had to go inside. She wasn't too thrilled and I knew that she wanted to come back out and be in the sun.Too funny!!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful day today!

goofing off at Borders

Nuri and I had some errands to run this morning! But first we took the little girl I watch to story hour at Borders. While my mom stayed with Ginn at the story hour, Nuri and I went around the store and practiced commands. We worked on Under, Jump, Up, and more Under! She loves to do the Under command because she gets to lay down. Silly puppy! I was wondering how she would like the Jump command since we haven't been working on it at all. I was focusing more on Up. But she seemed to love jumping onto the bench in the store! She would be given the Jump command, jump up, and immediately sit and wait for another command. Such a good little puppy!!

After working for about 15 minutes we wandered back to story hour and I noticed a little shelf that had nothing on it. Sooooo......Nuri and I decided to have some fun and have a photo shoot at Borders! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I had to use my iPhone to take the pictures. They aren't as sharp as the regular camera, but they're still good!
She had a fun time hanging out on the shelf.

I went to Borders and the bank, two of Nuri's favorite places since I allow people here to pet her. But after being home for about an hour, Nuri decided to throw up again. So I am starting to think that she is throwing up from anxiety. All PRs know that this is not good! So she's back again on the chicken and rice diet.

Life is never boring! But I love my little girl all the same!

Nuri's weekend

Well Nuri is loving being home! She has had a lot of fun playing with our other dogs and just lounging around. The only thing is that she is not feeling very well. My poor baby decided to reveal the contents of her stomach a few times this weekend which is not so good! So I emailed NER's Kennel Manager, Jen, and asked her what Nuri was like in the kennels while in heat. She is now on chicken and rice which will hopefully help settle her stomach and make life a little bit easier for her. She is subdued still which could be because she isn't feeling well, or just the transition from coming out of her heat cycle.

One thing that has really changed is that she is extremely clingy right now. When Wilara went into heat and came home she wasn't nearly as clingy as Nuri has been. Wherever I am, she has to be. She loves to sleep at my feet all the time and even as I write this entry she is curled up with her head on my pillow (I'm laying on the floor) and watching me. It's like glue! I dont mind it now, but hopefully she will be able to get over the clingyness since it's not a good trait to have!

Another little recap of the Abilities Expo:
I forgot to mention a few funny things that happened at the Expo on Friday when I was there. Nuri and I wandered around a lot since that seemed to be the only way I was going to get her out of the crate for a long period of time. While wandering I had a lot of people shout out praise about CCI. It was quite a shock! I remember walking around last year and stirring up attention, but nothing like this. I had people shouting "YEAH CCI!" and "CCI is the best organization!" or "I love CCI, there's no organization that's as good as you guys are". It was so encouraging to hear these things! It helps me know that we have been able to reach out to a lot of different people which is just awesome. On my walks around I sent a lot of people to our booth and I know we had a lot of people fill out an application request form. Many people were very impressed that we could give the dogs for free and it helped us gain a lot of attention. Another organization was there and people were liking the fact that we could offer the dogs for free while they charged a sizable donation to receive one of their dogs. It's also interesting to see the many different organizations out there. I usually see at least 4-5 different capes/harnesses in any given day. It's so amazing how many there are!

If you were at the Expo this weekend I hope you enjoyed yourselves and saw all the amazing things that were being offered. Hopefully you stopped by the CCI booth to say hello! We look forward to seeing people there next year!

Abilities Expo

Well today Nuri and I went to the Abilities Expo that is being held this weekend at the Raritan Center. CCI always has a table, or booth, here and the NJ Chapter has the job of staffing it for the weekend. This is one of the funnest events of the year and I look forward to it every year. The people are so much fun to talk with and everyone is just having fun being themselves which you don't see very often out in public.

For those that don't know what the Abilities Expo is, I'll explain a little bit. The Expo Center is a huge building where Exhibitors have booths showcasing many different items and services for people with disabilities. There are many booths for different types of wheelchairs, scooters, and even some bike type wheelchairs. There are many different car companies there with vehicles that are handicap accesible. Booths have items that you can buy to "trick out" your wheelchair. There was one booth last year that had little wheels that, when in motion, flashed different colors. I think I saw a booth today that sold hubcaps for the big wheels of chairs. They were really neat too! Anything you can possibly think of to help someone, there's a booth there and people to offer advice.

I spent the whole day there from 10-5 and the time just flew by. Nuri was a little bit sluggish today which is what I mostly expected of her. When dogs come out of their heat cycle they seem to be a little bit subdued, but within a few days they are back to their normal self again. So I expect that in another week she will be back to her spazzy self again. Can't wait! So most of the day she spent in the pop-up crate that I brought along for whenever a pup needed "down time".

I was happy to see a lot of graduates there today which was so nice! Service Dog TIKI, Service Dog JANUS, Skilled Companion TULANE, Facility Dog PETE, Skilled Companion EFRAM. And there were a few of us Puppy Raisers there as well. We had CALLIE, NURI, ELLA IV, and IVANA II. CCI Pup-in-Training CALLIE

I know that tomorrow we will have a lot of puppies and graduates showing up. Saturday is usually the busiest day and so we will have people walking around and handing out brochures to people. I know that Nuri and I attracted a lot of attention when we walked around! Unfortunately I can't make it to the Expo tomorrow, but my mother will be taking Nuri instead. I have to head to work, not fair! Hopefully I will be able to go on Sunday to the Expo and spend one more day hanging out with the CCI people!
If you're heading to the Expo, it's a lot of fun and there are some interesting exhibitors there this time!

Nuri's home!! and Zack II

I am sooooo glad to have Nuri back! It was so weird to not have a puppy around to train and play with. I went up to NER yesterday to pick her up. I left around 6:45 am and arrived at CCI around 9 am. I was able to catch up with some people and watch a few dogs training. It was so nice to see everyone again! Katrina (our PPM) went and got Nuri for me since I am not allowed back into the kennels since Wilara is back there for AT. But Nuri was so glad to see me! It was great to see her again and she has gotten so much bigger! Well maybe not, but to me she looked like she was bigger. And I noticed that she has this weird wave going down the middle of her back. I have to get a picture of it, it's hilarious. I don't know if that's just how her fur dried, or if that's a new thing for her.

I was also picking up a puppy for another Puppy Raiser in my area. So I was picking up Zack II, a male yellow lab/golden. He's adorable!Well he was eating away at my jeans. Silly puppy!I love how puppies love to go under the bed and peek out from under the dust ruffle thingy. That's Nuri in the picture as well. Zack had a fun time pulling on Nuri's tail too. It was so funny!

I'll post about the Abilities Expo "Day One" later on tonight. Til then....happy reading!

OMSI III x Halor "L" Pupdate and Nuri coming home

It's a wonderful day (well besides the fact that it was raining all damn day) because I found out that Nuri will be coming home tomorrow! She is through her heat cycle and I will be heading out to NER tomorrow morning to pick her up. I will also be bringing home another pup for a fellow NJ Puppy Raiser. Little Zack II will be spending the night with me and will head off to his PR's home on Friday morning. But I'm so excited to have Nuri back. It has been a VERY long two weeks without a puppy around to play with and train. I did have another PR's pup, Ivana, here for the day and we had a lot of fun running errands and playing around!And as for the Pupdate on Halor's litter, they now have NAMES! Awesome! They are absolutely adorable too. I would put up the pictures as well, but my computer is being a pain. Another time I promise! But here they are in birth order:

(F)Red: Laurie
(F)Blue: Lovey
(F)Purple: Lillith
(M)Neon Green: Locke
(F) Neon Pink: Loralee
(M) Brown: Louie
(F) Light Pink: Lupe
(F) Turquoise: Leah
(M) Orange: Linus

This weekend is also the New York Metro Abilities Expo which is held in Edison, NJ at the Raritan Center. This is an awesome place to be and I truly enjoy working CCI's booth. There are a lot of people wandering around and the stuff that they have is amazing! It's a long day of work, but it's really a lot of fun. If you're in the area, try and check it out! They have so many cool things to help people lead an easier and more comfortable life. There are booths with new scooters, wheelchairs, vans, and all kinds of little things to trick out your wheelchairs with. I remember last year there was a booth that had some of the little wheels that, when moving, flickered all different colors. So neat!

If you want to come by, stop over at the CCI booth and say hello!!!

OMSI III x Ona "B" Litter Pictures

Sooooooo cute! The litter is now about 7 weeks old so should be going out to Puppy Raisers in about a week. Good luck to everyone and I hope you enjoy having them! If you want to know where any of their antics come from it might be from dad OMSI III! I have written about many little antics that are just too fun to watch. They're in birth order as always!

Halor's pups, Nuri's half siblings

I just looooooove to see puppies! They are just the cutest things ever and the pictures are usually so cute. The Breeder Caretakers are really amazing people and it's so neat to see what each one does for their puppies. The pups from OMSI III x Halor litter are getting cuter and cuter! Here are some pictures that the Breeder Caretaker took of them. They are one week old!

So cute!!!

Puppy Raiser Workshop/Volunteer Appreciation Day

Busy busy day! Today the NorthEast region of CCI held their annual Puppy Raiser Workshop and Volunteer Appreciation Lunch. This is the first time that I have been able to attend and I was soooo excited! The only bad thing was that I didn't have a puppy to work with since Nuri was in the kennels since she went into heat on Tuesday. Still it was a lot of fun and very informative!

In the morning we worked with the pups on different things. People broke up into a few different groups to work in different environments. Some worked on noise distractions, others on walking up and down see through stairs, and others on visual problems. They had puppies walk through a raised ladder, jump onto a table, and walk across a little platform that rocked. Our Puppy Program Manager (PPM) taught everyone how best to approach an object that the pup is showing resistance to. She told us to bring the pup closer little by little if they are afraid of it and constantly use praise to reward good behavior. There was one pup that wanted nothing to do with the raised ladder and she was working with him to get him to walk through it. One good thing she told us to do was to get down on the dog's level. They see this as a sign of equality almost and it makes it a little easier to go closer to the object that they are afraid of.

The stairs that they had to walk up and down were nice because they were ridged, metal, and see through. This gave them a few differet looks at a set of stairs which was nice. The noise portion was where they dropped different objects onto the floor to see what kind of reaction the dog had to them. If they bolted then you would bring them back to the object and use praise to get them to overcome the bad behavior. Laura Ann (LA), one of the trainers, worked with one of the pups and it was really interesting to see how the dogs reacted. Of course with LA doing it, the dog did everything perfectly!

They had a lunch for the Volunteers which was really nice and we all got a little bag of blue and yellow M&Ms with a "Thank You CCI Volunteers" ribbon on it. Very cute! Thanks CCI for that!

After lunch there were some graduates there that wanted to share their stories with us. I love to hear everyone's story about how they learn about CCI and how their lives have been changed because of their dog. It's an amazing feeling to know that I was a part of that incredible journey by raising these cute little puppies. It gives this job of mine that much more meaning to it. And I really love every bit of it!
There was also a demonstration done by Flora, one of the trainers, and Derry who is going to rotate through Team training in May. Always amazing!!
I was also able to send Ellen to the back to snap some pictures of Wilara and Nuri in the kennels. YAY! They put the two of them together which was nice, although I think Wilara is wondering why she is back with this annoying puppy again! Ellen decided to have some fun with my camera and figured out how to record video so I got a video of Wilara running around in the kennels. I love my little girl!!!

Puppy Collages

Well since I don't have a puppy to keep me busy, I decided to make some collages of pictures that I have of my pups. I created them in Picasa from Google. Love that!

Enjoy!

Nuri's half-siblings

YAY for OMSI III litters! There were two litters born within the last two months of full Golden pups with Nuri's dad as the sire. The first was Ona's 'B' Litter born on 2-20-09. There are 7 females and 2 males. I have pictures of the little cuties too! They are in birth order:
Soooo adorable! And the other litter is the OMSI III x Halor 'L' litter that was born yesterday, March 31st.
There are 6 females and 3 males. They are so adorable! YAY for Golden puppies!