Oops!

After reading over some of my old entries, I realized how many typos I have!! Sorry for not spell-checking!

Good-Bye

...for two weeks! I just dropped Ty off at her puppy sitter, who she will be stayin with while I am gone. There is lots of room for her to run, and 3 other dogs to play with...so she should be a happy pup!

She had her second puppy class yesterday, and did excellent...yet she STILL hasn't barked! But I guess that's not something to complain about! Gotta love the silent baby!

I also worked at a CCI booth yesterday at Access Chicago, which is a fair for the disabled to come and learn about new products/activities for the disabled, as well as the renovations and steps the city of Chicago is taking to make itself more disABILITY-friendly. There were lots of cool stuff there! I got to see MANY MANY working guides, a working hearding dog, a service dog from another school, and a CCI service dog! I also worked with a 7 month old pup in training. His name was Aspen, a MLGX (black). While working at the booth, Aspen's raiser got a call from the North Central Region center telling her that her previous puppy has passed and will be going into team training to be paired withs someone!!! How exciting!!

I will be missing my baby! Expect some pictures when she gets home...she's gonna be HUGE!!

Busy Day

Today started of early. I took Ty to the farmer's market. She did GREAT! She only pawed at her GL a little bit, and was great with all of the people. After a while, she just sat and watched everyone pass. Then we came home for a rest and went to our town's sidewalk sales. Again, she was a PEREFECT PUPPY! She touched her GL once, and was SO good with all of the little kids and weaving between all the tables and clothes racks etc. Never even put her mouth on one thing!

My family and I then went to church (without Ty - still too young). Well, sitting behind us the entire time was a working guide! I only noticed him at the end when the team got up! Although I'm not raising a dog guide, it still gave me a spark inside. It just reminded me of what I'm doing....and how I need to get Ty to do that! The dog was practically invisible! He was directly behind me and when unnoticed for an hour!!

Here are some pics from today:

Update

Ty went to her first puppy class on Wed. She did really well, but was a little distracted by the other puppies. She is extremely excitable around people and dogs...any tips?? She/I pretty much knew everything that was covered, so it was pretty easy. She's doing really well at her 'homework' too! She is also making great strides with her GL. CCI only sent a puppy one (tiny and skinny) and an adult one (thick), with no inbetween. She has grown out of the puppy one, but looks funny in the big one! Overall, she's doing very well. Pictures soon!

My friend gets a little girl chocolate lab puppy tomorrow (named MAKI, which I thought of). So now my little girl will have a new friend! My other friend has a 5 month old black lab pup...so there will be many lab pup play dates!

Loungn'

100% Lab

Yesterday Tyanna went for her first swim...in a real pool! My friend has a pool, and her dad wanted Tyanna to go swimming. But at only 12 weeks, I was a little hesitant....until she jumped in. At first, I FREAKED out! But then she came up to the surface and was doing a PERFECT doggy paddle! No splashing or ANYTHING! She LOVED it!! Just goes to show...no matter the age, a lab is a lab! Or at least, a 7/8 lab is!

Love Her

In the past few days, there has been a big change in my little girl. She seems to want to be with me, no matter what I'm doing. If I'm on the computer, or on my deck reading, I always find her under my chair sleeping, or watching me intently. It's such a great feeling to know that she looks up to me, and realizes me as her leader and caregiver. Our bond is growing everyday, which is good and bad. For now it is good, but it only makes turn-in harder. I love my baby girl, but I know she is destined for more.

Growing Growing

Everyday I wake up and am surprised about the size of Ty. She literally grows everynight. When you haven't had a pup for awhile, you tend to forget exactly how fast they grow! It's truly incredible. Before you know it, you have a 75 lb. dog running at you instead of a 14 lb. puppy. Ah, the days of puppy hood.

I snapped some new pictures a few days ago...

School is in session!

Now that Ty's appetite has (greatly) increased, I have been able to work with her more (now she's a lot more willing to work for her kibble). She already knew 'sit' and 'here' but we added signals to them today. She picked up SO fast! She already knows 'kennel', but I'm going to start weaning out treats. Her 'wait' is also pretty good. Next on the list: 'shake' and 'down'.

I got her a puppy toy that's a pacifier...and she LOVES it. She never lets it leave her sight! Such a cutie! It's so cute when she's chewing on the rubber pacifier part on her back, cuz she looks like a baby.

Puppy #1

I thought I'd post of picture of my first puppy, Lincoln. He was raised for Paws With a Cause (Wayland, Michigan). He is now working in bomb detection!

The Wild Beast

Ty likes to stalk icecubes...this includes lunging, stalking, jumping, and pouncing. Then she's ready for a nap!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th everyone! Hope it all went well....

I had a REALLY exiciting experience tonight at my town's fireworks. I saw this GORGEOUS golden retriever pup with a blue bandanna and a patch on it, so I decided to get closer. Well, the patch read "future leader dog", and I recognized it immediatly because I was thinking about raising for Leader Dogs for the Blind and one point. So I got really excited, and introduced myself to the raiser, who was an older woman. She said it was her first pup, named Ginger. This puppy was beyond cute, it was beautiful. She was so nice, and so happy to meet a fellow raiser, as was I! Since we don't have any schools anywhere near us, it's always nice when these things happen! Unfourtunatly, I didn't have Ty with me because I was going to be staying through the fireworks, and we aren't supposed to bring our pups to the display for obvious reasons.

Another thing I forgot to mention: A few days ago my mom was on her morning walk, and she met a neighbor (around the corner) who has a Skilled Companion dog from CCI! What a small world!

Ahhhh, what a night! I LOVE it when things like this happen, it just reminds me of such a community we have formed all for the same cause: independence, freedom, and love. Ironically, that's what the 4th is all about too.

Time for a REAL post

Alright, I have decided to sit down and right a real, good post of how things are going with Ms. Tyanna.

Of course, she is growing faster than I can keep track of. She's still a sleepy little pup, who likes to spend most of her time with her eyes closed. She loves to go into her crate and take naps, which mean I then have to wake her and literally drag her out of her crate just to go outside to "hurry".

Walking her can get a bit annoying. She's not yet acclamated to her Gentle Leader, which is a pain. She loves to put anything and everything in her mouth, which means walks are stop go stop go stop. Sometimes, she decides that she just does not want to walk, and likes to lie down in the middle of the street.

She has only had 2 accidents in the house (one happened 1 minute after she had just gone hurry outside), and those were 2 weeks ago. She's also going a lot on cement (which is a must for CCI pups), but still enjoys grass.

Ty has her first vet appt. tomorrow, and her puppy class starts in 2 weeks, which I'm really excited for! Her trainer will be a woman who worked with Leader Dogs of the Blind, and has done some amazing stuff. I'm excited to get Ty going on more of her commands. It will be hard, though, because sheh is on a food study, and she can't eat ANYTHING besides her kibble, which she doesn't really like in the first place. So it's been kinda hard to motivate her. I've tried verbal, and toys, but they're just not as good. We only have a month left of the study, which is nice.

I think that's about it! I'm hoping to get some good pix of her in her baby cape, I'll put those up when I get them.

Happy training!

Say Cheese

Meet Tyanna...the supermodel. My friend took some black and whites of her, always good for the baby book! Here's some of the results...