Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A New Turn-In Date

There is another new post below this one so keep reading!


So on Friday I got an email from Katrina that Nuri's turn-in date has been pushed up to November 14th. YIKES! I had originally asked Katrina if it would be possible to move up Nuri's Turn-In date because I felt that it would be a good thing for her. I was told that the list for November had been finalized and there was not enough room to add Nuri to the list. I was fine with that and began a slow training schedule to help her overcome her bad behaviors that she has exhibited. It's been going well, but this new date has thrown a major crimp into my plans! I am thankful that she is going in early, but I will still miss my little girl!

I have just over a month left with her and I am trying to cram as much training in as possible. Not as easy as you would think! We are working hard though!

Nuri's brother Nico who is being raised in New York is also being turned in early as well as their sister Nanette.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this N litter as they really do have a lot of promise!

I just realized yesterday that I will have had two turn-ins in one year. How crazy is that??? Wilara turned in this past February and Nuri goes in this November. How the time has flown by!

I'm so bad at this!!

I am the worst blogger!! I kept meaning to get a post up, but things have been super hectic over the last few weeks. If you can be patient, I will catch everyone up on the past few weeks.


In happier news though (and a switch in dogs!) Wilara has been certified as a Therapy Dog and Canine Good Citizen!!! YAY!! The test was a week ago Saturday and was incredibly easy for my very well trained girl! She tended to do the commands needed just before the instructor told me to give them. It was hilarious! And there was a section of the test where there was a girl and her dog that were to come meet me in the middle of the room. We had to put the dogs in a sit next to us and then we shake hands and introduce ourselves to each other. The dogs just had to sit quietly next to us during the whole thing and not try to interact with each other. Wilara sat perfectly next to me when I stopped and then turned to greet the girl. She was having issues getting her dog to sit! It was hilarious! And they do a seperation anxiety test where someone else takes Wilara into a small room and see how she does without seeing me. Again not an issue with my Wila! The guy that took her into the room actually forgot that she was there she was so good! I was laughing the whole time. Needless to say, she passed with flying colors and is now a TDI dog and a CGC!! Yahoo!!!

We have been doing many street fairs on the weekends and generating awareness for CCI which has been so much fun. I have been ALL over the state this month and because of that this blog has been put to the side. Hopefully now things will settle back to normal with not so many events headed my way. Yay for a break!!!

This past Sunday we were at the Kessler Stroll and Roll at Verona Park and there we met 2009 Miss Wheelchair New Jersey!! It was so great! And I also had to give a few interviews to the people that were there for the press. Yikes!! Hopefully I did a good enough job. Eek!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Please VOTE!

http://www.nameyourcause.com/view-charity/105/?ref=nf

CCI has been nominated to get a chance to head to Blogworld for free, but we need more votes. Sorry to not post this sooner, but voting ends today and we need to get into the Top 10. We are currently #11 and need a few more votes to push us into the top 10. It takes a few seconds of your time to vote!!

Thanks everyone!!!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Nuri's Evaluation

So today was the BIG day up at NER for Nuri. We had an appointment with Katrina, our PPM, at 10 am and were determined to leave with enough time to spare. As it always turns out, this didn't happen, but we did leave just before 8 am this morning to make the 2 hour drive out to Long Island. There was soooooo much traffic this morning! It was a sign that Nuri shouldn't be going for an evaluation. Hahahaha. It ended up taking us about 2 1/2 hours to make the trip which wasn't so bad and we arrived shortly after 10:30.

We met up with Katrina and headed into one of the training rooms to let the dogs run. I was told to bring Wilara up as well so that Katrina could see how the two of them interact with each other and to see how we correct them during play. Wilara was a model citizen as usual and Nuri was acting on her best behavior. We went over a few ways to give corrections which was great and what I had already been doing. It was a relief to see that I was correcting her the right way when I need to.

For the most part, that entire time was a complete wash since Nuri didn't act up like she normally would at home. It's a different setting so it makes sense that she wouldn't be acting the same. She didn't bite Wilara nearly as much as she usually does. We all came to the same agreement that it's mostly a "sibling rivalry" thing that is going on between them which makes a lot of sense. Those that know me are aware that I overlapped Wilara and Nuri for 6 months (from September to February) and they both did a lot of growing up together. It was just nice to have another opinion from someone.

We were going to see how the dogs did outside, but the trainers were about to run their strings in the outside grass run and we didn't want the dogs all wet, so we couldn't go to the pond. Nuri also showed Katrina how she hates getting her nails clipped. I purposely left them uncut so that she could try working with her and cutting her nails. She just likes to squirm a lot and it takes a looooooong time to cut her nails!

Then I had to say goodbye and let her wander off to the kennels. She went off with Katrina with no problem which was great to see. At least I won't have to worry about that! They are going to try and put her in a foster home for a day or two to see how she acts in another home environment. They are also going to let her run with other pups that are in the kennels to see how she plays with them and how she gets along with them. Nuri is very very very independent and prefers to play by herself and not really interact with other dogs, so this should be quite interesting.

They are going to call me in a few days and give me an update as they go along the process. Katrina agrees with me in the fact that she is far from a "lost cause" and that she can be worked with to get her to stop behaving so badly. She has the energy and the drive to be a great working dog, but I believe that she would be better off as a hearing dog. But like I said before, we just have to see what happens!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something positive will come out of this experience for Nuri. She just takes a lot of work and this downtime for me might be the trick that gets both of us to work that much harder.

Wilara is very sad that her playmate is not here and keeps on giving me her very sad look and wondering where Nuri could be.

I must admit though, it's awfully quiet around here...

Monday, September 14, 2009

New Layout

Had a little fun putting together a new layout for the blog. Hope you like it! I'll post about the two street fairs we attended this past weekend a little later when I have all the pictures loaded onto my computer. It was a busy and very fun weekend!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Nuri's Evaluation Has Been Set

So Nuri will go in for her evaluation on Tuesday. I'm a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. I know that I pushed for it to happen, but it's still a "scary" kind of thought. She hasn't calmed down at all no matter what I do. On Labor Day we took a walk to tire her out and walked for over a mile. She got home, completely wiped out and lay down. She was asleep for not even 5 minutes and then up and running around the house like a wild child all over again, like she hadn't even taken that walk at all!! I swear there is nothing that can wipe this dog out for a long period of time.

But Nuri's evaluation should be interesting. I will be bringing both Nuri and Wilara up to CCI so that they can watch how the two of them interact with one another. It seems like most of the bad behavior is with Wilara so they want to see how that works with them. Then Nuri will be staying at CCI for a few days to see how she acts around the kennels. Hopefully she will be able to go and stay with a foster home where they can evaluate how she is in a home environment.

I'm also looking to Puppy Swap with another PR so that I can see how she acts away from home. It's difficult since not many people want to deal with her and her issues! But I am still looking around for help. Any volunteers? Hahahhaa.....just wondering!

I'll keep everyone posted on how Nuri's evaluation went.

And we have two street fairs this weekend that we are going to be at. Cranbury Day and the Red Bank Street Fair. It's a busy CCI weekend! I'll try to get some pictures up here at the first chance I get!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Update - Skilled Companion Tiffany III

We got an update on my Tiffers today! I was so excited to hear from her, it's been awhile since we last heard anything from James. For those that don't kn0w about Tiffany, she was the third pup that my family raised. A female Golden who is the cutest thing ever and graduated 3 years ago this coming November with her companion James. James is autistic and Tiffany helps him stay calm and helps him to be motivated to start talking. It's GREAT!

Tiffany sent us a note saying that she is still living the good life and that she had a great time at Disney World!! She sent some pics of the trip and my girl is all gray in the face! She's still my little cutie and good girl though.
I laugh as I look at these pictures because James isn't in most of them! But I know she loves James the most and sticks by his side through everything. He just didn't want to take her on all the rides. She did go on "It's A Small World" (shudder), Dumbo's Air Ride, and "some spooky ride that had some poor dog and he/she looked like she was starving to death!" Sounds like she had a great time and I'm sure she was smiling for everyone and posing for pictures.

Love to my Golden Girl!!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Nuri's Photo Shoot

Well Nuri and I decided to make use of the nice weather on this lovely Labor Day and take some photos outside next to a bush by my mother's garden that has some HUGE flowers on it! Nuri was so well behaved during the whole picture taking extravaganza! My mother came out to give me a hand just in case Nuri decided to pull any tricks. We do not have a fenced in yard and so it was a bit of a daunting task to get the photos. I wanted pictures where Nuri does not have on her GL or a lead attached to her so I had to make sure that I gave her a lot of praise and attention so that she didn't decided to get up and bolt on me around the neighborhood. Here are the photos from that photo shoot!
And before we did those fun pictures we were playing around in the pool area which is fenced in, but my father refuses to let the dogs run around in there. He doesn't want the grass to get ruined. So not fair! But Nuri and I decided to play around a bit anyways. So here are some pictures of her being cute....

Friday, September 4, 2009

A Great Day for Shopping

Nuri and I decided to head out to the outlet mall not too far from our house with my mom and the two kids that she watches in tow. We had fun walking around and in and out of stores. I like the outlets because when I have a little 5 month old puppy I can be quick in and out of stores and still get them used to being in that environment. It's better than a mall since I don't have to be completely embarrassed if the dog happens to get freaked out or "hurries" on the walkway between stores. It was great fun and Nuri and I were able to work on some of the commands that she has been having issues with. One such problem command is the difference between Up and Jump. So we got to practice it on a bench along with Stay to allow me to take these pictures:
The pictures don't show any people around which is funny because there were a bunch of people watching Nuri perform her commands. I thought we were going to have an audience! And Nuri did very well and didn't pull so much on her leash, so hopefully we are making some improvement in that area! YAY!

She does have a leash attached to her GL. It's a training leash so it's only about 18" long and it's draped over her back!

But I have to make this post quick since Nuri is telling me that we have to go outside, NOW!
She likes to put her head in my lap and nudge me to tell me she has to go out. I like this way better than her barking like crazy!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Puppy Shopping

Well I did some online shopping today for the dogs! First purchase was Wilara's new vest that she will wear for her Therapy Dog duties. She will not have any sort of patches on this vest, but I have asked a friend of mine if she will embroider some things on there for me. It should be awesome! All of our pups were color coordinated as a little bit of fun for us. Shane III was all in red (GL, collar, and lead), Wilara was all in purple, and Nuri is currently all in green. There was a website that I really did NOT want to order from that had this purple vest, but it was the only one that was what I was looking for. So I placed my order and that's the last that I will be ordering from them. I just have a problem with what they have written on their website about Service Dogs.
And then I went and placed an order to get the new favorite thing - goughnuts! So I placed an order for both the stick and the round wheel. We'll see how they work. You can read about them at www.goughnuts.com. They are supposed to be indestructible and they have a lifetime guarantee on them which is just awesome! We'll see how the dogs do with it since Nuri has become a semi-power chewer, and Wilara loves things like this too. They float which is great so that I can use them in the pool as well.

I am still waiting to hear from my PPM about Nuri's evaluation so I am just in that waiting period. I want this to be addressed as soon as possible so that we still have time to work through it. Here's to hoping!

Oh right...I have to send out Nuri's August Progress Report.....