Three great dogs

I am a puppy raiser for Canine Companions for Independence, an agency that trains and provides service dogs for disabled adults and children. I have three great dogs. Brix didn't want to be a service dog so we kept him as a pet. Demi graduated and is now working with an autistic child. Beulie is currently in training and is now five months old. Parisse is just weird and was released for behavioral and medical reasons - but we adore her so she is also our family pet.

Here's my Brix...


And my Parisse...


And Beulie, who we're currently raising (she's always smiling...)

Enjoy what comes!

Sometimes I just have to enjoy what crosses my path -- like these dogs in a stroller being pushed along Waikiki.

Mitzi, my mother

Tonight Beulie had her weekly training class at Canine Companions for Independence. By strange coincidence, her mother Mitzi was waiting in a car in the parking lot so they were reunited. They were last together two months ago.



Did they recognize each other? Obviously, yes. While Mitzi was a bit indifferent, Beulie made many attempts to nurse.



So here they are, mother and daughter.

Puppies here, puppies there, puppies everywhere!

One of my friends takes care of Buley, a breeder dog for Canine Companions for Independence, an agency that breeds and trains dogs to be service animals for the disabled (usually wheelchair, hearing disabled, autistic, etc.). Here's Buley:



Buley produced her first litter of ELEVEN pups about five weeks ago and I was invited to meet the puppies! They were calm until we approached and then the scene looked like this -- the picture of greedy puppy hunger:



So wonderful Buley nursed her babies, all eleven of them:




And then they received their mushed up kibble:



And then we held them:



And then they fell asleep, all eleven of them! End of story.....Awwwwwwww.

Hot summer chill

Steve thought Brix would like to chill a bit after their long hot walk.


But youser! Brix found it a bit colder on his tush than he anticipated!

Puppies I love

There's puppy love and then there's puppy love. Parisse, a black labrador/golden retriever mix is 11 months old and has some problems. One veterinarian diagnosed her as slightly developmentally delayed and having some sort of neurological deficit. A canine orthopedic surgeon said she's got panosteitis, a self-limiting bone disease that causes pain. All we know is that she's on pain medication and is just about the sweetest puppy in the universe. She is definitely the easiest by temperament.



Her half-sister, Beulie, is a yellow labrador/golden retriever mix, now 3-1/2 months old. She is as normal as normal can be, the very definition of a puppy. She romps, she plays, she smiles, she investigates, she snuggles. She also barks, but we're getting that under control. She sleeps through the night and she's almost, very nearly housebroken (joy of joys).

I discovered dogs late in life, didn't have my first puppy until I was 58. Now, at 62, I am beside myself with the love I expend on my dogs. (There's a third one, Brix, who's actually the first, the one who got me into all this.) Beulie is in training with Canine Companions for Independence, the goal being that she will eventually be someone's service dog and their best friend. In the meantime, she's mine for a while. Brix and Parisse are mine for keeps.

Vertical dog

Of the four dogs we've raised for Canine Companions for Independence, Beulie is the most vertical. She stands inside her pen like this. She greets you like this too. She doesn't exactly jump up on people, it's more like a little kid, arms outstretched, wanting to be picked up. Whenever I let her inside - after she's been out to play with the others - she holds her paws up and seems to want to be reassured that she's still a member of the family. This is probably going to be a training problem if I don't nip it, but I'm still trying to understand it first.

The week flown by

I want to introduce you all to Beulie Arf-Arf, our latest puppy-in-training. She is our fourth attempt to raise an assistance dog. The first one was too headstrong to make the cut so he has been our pet. The second did graduate and is working with a young child. The third one has medical problems so was released from the program in the 10th month. And now there's Beulie who has definite potential. We're so happy to have her. Hopefully I'll get back on track and actually create something this coming week, but for now, thanks to Beulie, I created a larger family, how's that?

I'm baaaaack

Sorry folks, it hasn't been until recently that I've really, really gotten into blogging. I've been reading others and posting my own private blog on another site and now I'm ready to go public again. This time I'll keep it up, I promise. If I uploaded the photo correctly it shows me in the chemotherapy suite yesterday with the foster puppy-in-assistance-dog-training we have these days. The nurses are always so gracious about allowing -- encouraging -- me to bring in these puppies and they do seem to add to the ambience. Isn't this the cutest little puppy? She's almost three months old.