Alfie Does a Little PR

Alfie and Piper working hard!

Today we had a great opportunity to do some PR for GDTx and have a great training session, all in one.  The Office of the Attorney General hosted its annual State Employees' Charitable Campaign fair, and basically one big room was lined with booths from all kinds of great charities for employees to visit.

Since I knew the Pawsitive Approach guide-dogs-in-training would be there too, I thought it would be smart to give Alfie a little free run first to get the wiggles out and help him settle down.  So our first stop of the day was the dog park.  Alfie split his time between dogs and people, ran around, and generally had a blast.  After that it was back to the car, a once-over with damp washcloth and comb to get him looking nice again, and off to the SECC fair.

I was so glad I did that!  When I arrived I found that not only were our guide dogs there, but also the Humane Society had a booth with an adoptable dog ambassador.  As we walked in the Humane Society dog leaped up, barked, and licked Alfie's face -- normally that would be a huge distraction, but having just had 30 minutes of doggie play at the park, Alfie responded pretty calmly and we got past without much fuss.

At our booth we met up with Larry Gelvin (Puppy Raising Manager), Kim Zielinski (Development Director), and the Pawsitive Approach crew, who brought Piper and Travis.  Piper is the yellow lab puppy pictured above, and Travis is a big black lab with adorable sad eyes, ready to head in for advanced training.  After some initial excitement, all three settled in and did very well -- we put Piper at one end of the table, with Travis between her and Alfie, as she was quite excited to see Alf and wanted to play! 

Alfie enjoyed meeting all the visitors to our booth, especially since we were allowing everyone to pet the dogs (a treat he doesn't usually get on our training walks!)  It was a great experience for him meeting all kinds of people, and many seemed genuinely interested in our mission of providing mobility for visually impaired Texans.  The #1 comment people made on meeting him?   "He's so SOFT!!" 

Just don't call me a softie!

Bye Again

Feels like he's barely settled back in and now Alfie's off again...

What was that?  Off where?

This time, it's just for routine tests.  All future guides must pass eye exams and x-rays.  The way the scheduling worked out, today was the best day for Michelle to pick him up for his appointments in San Antonio next week.  Due to the holiday, though, those appointments are pushed back to Tuesday and Wednesday...so, we won't see him again 'til next Thursday.  All the same, it sure beats the alternative, which would be me driving him clear down to San Antonio for 2 early morning vet visits...bleah!  Thanks, Michelle, for taking him!!

While he's gone, he'll be staying at the Dominguez Pawsitive Approach unit, along with their dogs (Petey, for one!)  It'll be a good experience for him I'm sure.  Have fun, be good, and get all A's on your tests, Alfie!  In the meantime, I get a little break from puppyraising...time to relax!

Back to School

...for an afternoon, anyway!  And look who's with me...

Yes, that's Tracy's puppy Celia.

Monday, the kids and I had the opportunity to share about GDTx with a great group of crossing guards at Highland Park Elementary.  Thank you so much to Ms. Fosdick, the other teachers and parents, and most of all our terrific audience.  We really enjoyed it!!

When I originally set up this appointment, I had no idea when the puppy swap would be, what puppy I'd have then, or what he'd be like.  As it happens, our presentation was to be outdoors, in an area near a playground and tennis courts...full of difficult distractions for a pup like Petey.  While I'd love to take him there just for training sometime, I felt that speaking and helping him to behave at the same time would be a bit more than I could handle.  After checking with Michelle, I got the OK to borrow Celia as my "demo dog" for the day, in Petey's place (remember her from our mini-swap?-- see March 2nd post.) 

I like how her whiskers catch the light!

As it turned out, at the moment Celia was staying with the Pawsitive Approach unit at Travis County Jail.  So that's where I actually picked her up from.  She definitely remembered us, and was as sweet as ever.  I arrived early, thinking I'd walk her for a while before our appointment to calm her down.  What was I thinking?!  Celia is the definition of "calm."  After our "calm down" walk she was so exhausted she just wanted to flop over and take a nap, poor thing!   She was perfect during our talk, and afterward too when I allowed the kids who wanted to come pet her.  Thank you Officer Mullins for letting us borrow her!

Can't believe you ditched me for Celia!

In the meantime, Petey and I continue our work together.  With practice, hard work...and, yes, liver...I think we're making progress!

For Pete(y)'s Sake

So...who's this handsome fella?

No, Alfie hasn't had an extreme makeover!

...Meet Petey!  Lockdown's over, puppy swap's on, and Petey just arrived from the Pawsitive Approach program this afternoon.  As you can see from the pictures, he's a beautiful, black, long-coated German Shepherd.  What you might not guess from the pictures...he's almost exactly the same age as Alfie (7 1/2 months), despite being close to twice his size!  So, yes, he's very much still a puppy.

Alfie left us for his swap home in Fredericksburg last Friday.  While I very much needed and enjoyed a weekend off my puppyraising duties, I was more than ready for Petey's arrival by the time he came.  Somehow, going for a walk just isn't anywhere near as much fun without a dog by your side! 

Puppy swap is a great part of the training program, since it multiplies the types of different experiences and training opportunities a puppy can encounter.  Working with a new handler in a different home and changing work environments, the puppy learns to accept all these things and take them in his stride...so important for success as a guide dog!  Of course, Petey's had many training walks in various locations already, but living in an ordinary home for a month or so will be a totally new thing for him.  And YES, we'll miss Alfie...but he'll be back...and in the meantime we'll definitely keep busy with Petey.

As you can see, he's already doing his best to worm his way into our affections.  I wanted to get a picture with us both in it so you could get an idea of his size and he took the opportunity to give me a big kiss...just look at that sly grin on his face!

Heh heh, let's see if we can get her to forget the doodle...

Interestingly enough though, I can already see a few similarities between Petey and Alfie.  Both of them are the super-alert type, quick to pick up on the slightest noise or movement anywhere in the house.  Both are very focused on their people.  Petey gives me the impression of a much more submissive, cautious temperament than Alfie, but of course it's his first day so perhaps that will change as he gets settled in!

His favorite thing so far?  Playing with Katharine!  He'll grab a toy and race around to get her to chase him in the backyard...so full of puppy fun!

I think I'm going to like it here!

Back to Normal...For Now...

Monday we got Alfie back from the Travis County Jail, where he'd joined guide dog puppy Piper at the Pawsitive Approach Program. I forgot my camera in the car so no pictures...rats! I enjoyed meeting his handler. She'd obviously done some good work with him and you could tell Alfie liked her a lot. She said that he did "test" her at first, but then settled in and worked well. Other than being too vocal toward Piper (which alas, doesn't surprise me), it sounds like he did all right (even on his down/stays, hooray!) They said they'd be happy to have him again any time. That was good news -- I'm always worried about how "my" puppies behave away from home!

My time away was truly wonderful, but of course it's good to be home, and good to get back to routine. Today I took Alfie with me while I ran some errands and decided to stop by Garden Ridge since I've never worked him there before. I asked him to "find the girls" (ladies' restroom) and he took off confidently to the right. I was pretty sure they were to the left, past the registers, but then again they'd done a remodel so I gave Alf the benefit of the doubt. Sure enough, he went straight to them! Good boy!

Alfie's got more excitement coming up on his calendar: on May 8 we'll be going to Splash Day, an annual fun event hosted by Guide Dogs of Texas. A few of us raisers will be doing a swap at that time, so I'll come home with a new puppy for a month...stay tuned for that! Going to live and work in a new environment with a new handler is always a good learning experience for the puppies.

New people? New places? Let's get going!

Alf in Action

I thought it'd be fun to share a bit of what Alfie's working on these days. This walk happened to be in a nearby neighborhood.

I'm ready...let's get goin'!

The first obstacle to get around was these cars, parked so that they blocked the path of the sidewalk. Alfie pauses and works around them...nice...although eventually he should do this without sniffing the ground!

He also works on keeping in guide position, as I change my walking speed from fast, to slow, to fast again. Alfie thinks this is fun. We both prefer a faster walking pace, but he needs to be able to adapt.

Of course we get lots of practice crossing the street. Alfie must sit at the "down" curb (here, it's really a textured pavement ramp), and then also wait for me to get my footing on the "up" curb before we continue.

It's important for him to work calmly despite distractions...like this mean-sounding dog. I was proud of Alfie for this!!

Here's an interesting obstacle. The bushes have overgrown the sidewalk on the right, but you can't get by on the left either because there's a big pole right there. You have to step down on the street to walk past. On Alfie's first walk here, I showed him how to work it by going to the curb, sitting, going down, then walking past the obstacle on street level before getting back up on the sidewalk to continue. The second time we approached it (a couple weeks later) he improvised an easier solution...anticipating the obstacle ahead, he uses the sloping driveway to walk down to street level. That way he doesn't have the extra step of sitting at the down curb.

...So, that's just a little taste of what we've been up to on our walks. Right now, though, Alfie's off to a new adventure. I have a trip planned this coming week and so Alf is going to join Officer Mullins and the crew at Travis County Jail's Pawsitive Approach Program. We'll miss him but I'm pretty sure he'll have a terrific time making new friends and working in new places! Stay tuned because I'll have a couple posts coming out while I'm gone...just in case you need a "chocolate" fix over the next week!

I like adventures!