Happy Thanksgiving!

Honeydew and her brother Linus enjoyed a fun trip to Bend for Thanksgiving. They got to play with their other four-legged cousins....MacKenzie, Fosters, Cooper, Larry and Tony.

Playdate with Old Friends

Honeydew had a playdate with some old friends....including her best bud Linus (our new adoptee), Sierra (a fellow career changed Guide Dog puppy) and Amber (a fellow puppy raiser's new pup).

I have included an old photo of Honeydew and Sierra (above) when they were Guide Dog puppies together.

Sierra, Amber and Honeydew are cut from the same cloth. They are all high energy...and they look nearly identical. The only way we could tell them apart was by the color of their collars (Honeydew = teal, Amber = brownish, Sierra = pink) .

It was funny. The whole night we were calling them by the wrong name and saying "is that my dog that is getting into something, or is that yours?"

Linus had a grand time running around with the girls. Below is a video of some of their fun. Many thanks to Linda and Roy for such a great evening.

Dew and Kota

I finally figured out how to download the videos from my camera!

This is a video I put together of Honeydew playing with one of her best buds, Dakota. It includes clips from when Dakota was just a baby pup (and could walk under her legs!), to now - when he is a big boy (and she could now walk under his legs!).

Linus - Honeydew's New Buddy

Honeydew has a new buddy! Linus, a 3 year old Aussie/Husky mix has joined our family. He and Honeydew are having a blast together - playing tug and chase, taking naps on the same bed, going to day care together. They appear to be a perfect match in the personality department - Linus enjoys playing with her, but isn't so high in energy that Honeydew becomes a complete spaz around him (well, at least not any more than usual).

Linus has been deaf since birth - but he doesn't seem to let that slow him down at all. It is a new experience for us - learning to talk to a dog with our hands instead of the tone of our voice. But, we are all figuring it out - Linus has been very patient with us.

Honeydew seems much happier to have someone to keep her company during the day. She was left loose in the house all of last week and didn't destroy anything. Linus is certainly earning his kibble by keeping Honeydew out of trouble!

We are quite smitten with Linus - and look forward to having him in our family.

Beach Bunny

Our friend Seaerra was visiting from Wyoming - so we went to the Oregon Coast. This was Honeydew's first trip to the beach, and she had a blast (click on the images for a bigger view).

She was afraid of the waves - running away from them when they would come rolling in. She loved the game of finding the nastiest and smelliest dead thing laying on the beach (crabs, kelp, etc.). She chased some gulls (bad dog) and climbed on the sea cliffs and driftwood logs.

She also made a few other puppy friends on the beach - including a big black lab boy, and a rambunctious standard poodle. Honeydew said we could go back anytime!

Terrible Twos?

It has certainly been a while since a post about Honeydew. Partially, because she is just working on being a plain ole' dog - so there isn't much in the way of excitement to write about. However - she did just turn two years old (March 18), and it would appear she is going through a bit of a rebellious stage. Sigh....

She has started being destructive when we aren't home. She has chewed through all of the TupperWare from the kitchen and anything made of paper in the house - including books - appears to be fair game. As a result, she is going to spend much of her alone time this week in her kennel. Going back to square one in terms of setting expectations for good house manners.

Luckily, she loves her kennel - so she will likely be fairly content. We will also, of course, get her into doggie day care for a bit to burn off some of that never-ending energy. Maybe a pup at doggie day care gave her the low down on being destructive at home? It would be like Honeydew to run with the wrong crowd at day care.....

The pictures are of Honeydew's new favorite toy -- which is also a great tool for helping her burn off some energy. It is this great little plastic egg/ball that she rolls around the house - and occasionally it poops out a kibble. Tonight, she ate her entire dinner this way - provided a good 15-minutes of mental activity!

She has figured out how to get it unstuck when she gets it trapped in places (like under the chairs at the kitchen table), and she has perfected a move that sends the egg spinning like a top on its end - which results in kibble flying out in all directions.

I think she especially enjoys this toy because so much of her Guide Dog training was for her to refuse to eat stuff (human food, kibble, trash) that she found on the floor. So with this, she is essentially "breaking the rules" - which makes the kibble that much sweeter. You know how that is....

Lap Dog

Honeydew is certainly a bit spoiled now that she isn't a Guide Dog in training! She has decided that her goal in life is to be a "lap dog". Nothing makes her happier than snuggling on someone's lap (in this case, pictures are of Honeydew with a friend visiting from Nevada).

Band of Brothers

Honeydew just spent the holidays at our family's house in Bend, Oregon. This place is like Disneyland for dogs. In addition to having lots of acreage to run, squirrels to chase and deer poop to eat...she gets to run with a pack of big male dogs (her favorite, being the big American bulldog named Tony). I think she likes trying to show these boys who's boss. The pictures are from a walk we took yesterday - through a winter wonderland!

In the group photo you can see the pack (click photo to enlarge), "Honeydew's Band of Brothers"...from left to right: Tony (American Bulldog), Larry (Boxer), Cooper (Border Collie), Mackenzie (Golden Retriever), Fosters (Australian Sheppard), and then finally Miss Honeydew (well, her rear end anyhow).

Look At Me!

Today there was an article in The Oregonian (click the link) about the doggie day care place that we take Honeydew. A fellow Guide Dog puppy raiser emailed us about the article -- because Honeydew is mentioned.

I couldn't imagine why they would have written about Honeydew - I mean, there are probably over 20-30 other dogs there at any given time. Why notice Honeydew?

Well - I think the description of her in the article says it all! The need to be the center of attention! How embarrassing! At least it is confirmation that she does indeed have an absolute ball when she goes to day care. No wonder she comes home so tired and has to sleep for two days to recover!

In case the link above doesn't work - here is what the article said about our little girl:

"Honey Dew, a compact yellow lab, doesn't mind being second-best, as long as she can be the center of attention. No wonder she's spinning madly and yip-yapping among the two or three larger retrievers who give chase until their target throws herself onto the ground, paws in the air and chest exposed for playful whacks and nips. "

Honeydew Sausage!

Today, Honeydew experienced every lab's dream.

While we were at work she somehow got into her dog food container. She ate, and ate, and ate - until she quite literally couldn't fit another kibble down her gullet. Which, for a lab, is a lot!

She is currently walking around the house like a little stuffed sausage! It is really more of a waddle. Normally she has a nicely defined waist - but not anymore! In the picture you can see that she can't get her back leg all the way down to the ground because her belly is in the way!

Don't let her fool you with this pose - she isn't as miserable as she looks in the picture. Actually, she is quite smug and has a bit of a smirk on her face.

We will keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't have any medical problems - but I am guessing she is just going to feel like most of us will in a few weeks after Thanksgiving dinner!

Doggie Day Care!

We tried a new experience today - Doggie Day Care. I tried taking the Dew to a dog park the other day, but she is so intense and her energy level so high that she got the whole pack at the park worked up. I decided that day care might be a better, more controlled option.

Based on a friend's recommendation - I took her to a place not too far from downtown, which will work well in the future since I work near there. Honeydew had to pass an evaluation - and she did fine.

They then let her into the large yard with all of the other dogs (I am guessing there were 40 dogs in there). She immediately went running around the yard at full speed - a total spaz. She finally calmed down and spent the next 20-minutes smelling every square inch of the enclosure.

I came home to see if I could find her on the web cam feed they have -- I can catch little glimpses of her only now and again because she is always on the move. Just a few minutes ago - on the web cam - I could see the all of the dogs running in big circles, followed by staff trying to calm them down...only to realize that the chaos was being caused by none other than our little Dew, who had convinced the other dogs to chase her wildly around the yard. How embarrassing. Hopefully, she doesn't get kicked out!

Pictures are of her when she first entered the yard.

P.S. I am happy to report that Honeydew officially had a blast and was invited to return. They said Honeydew seems to think that doggie day care is the best invention ever, and that during the entire 4-hours she was there, they only saw her sit once - and then that was only for about 30 seconds. They said she ran and played the entire time. It must be true, because she immediately feel asleep as soon as she got in the car to go home.

Sniff-Sniff...Where's the cheese?

Today we tried out a new job for Honeydew - "Tracking" (think search and rescue, without someone's life on the line). We took an all day tracking workshop. It was a blast!

I had no idea that dogs could just do this, almost without any training. An absolute "plug and play" adventure. In early training you use tools to help both you and the dog be successful (putting out flags to mark the track for the human, and dragging raw chicken on the ground to mark the track for the pup).

Honeydew instantly knew what to do - I could hardly keep up with her she was so intent on the track. Even if we had to wait for a while for our turn - which meant that the scent spread over a wider swath of path - she still worked it well...nose to the ground, weaving back and forth, back and forth over the scent trail as we wound our way to the end point (which was usually a leather glove with string cheese inside - oh the excitement!).

I think that Honeydew loved it most of all because she got to do three things that were always against the rules as a Guide Dog puppy....she was allowed to smell the ground and follow her nose (instead of following me, at my side), she got to pull hard on the leash (pulling in the harness when she has the scent is encouraged) and she got to eat string cheese she found on the ground. She definitely thought that "being bad never felt so good!"

In the pictures you can see Honeydew and I giving this tracking stuff a try (small specs out in the field), my view of Honeydew's butt - which is what I was looking at most of the day, and Honeydew patiently waiting her turn. She was really into this and could hardly contain her excitement while waiting for the other dogs to finish the track. "Can that pomeranian puhleeze get a move on? What is taking her so long? Is it my turn next?"

I think we found a good "job", at least for the weekends.

Dew's Arch-Nemesis

The Dew has met her match in the "cute puppy" department - her arch-nemesis of adorableness. I don't think she knows what to make of the whole situation - this little creature is taking attention away from her!

This weekend we are puppy-sitting an adorable little 10-week old Goldendoodle puppy. He isn't a Guide Dog puppy - he is a mix between a Golden Retriever and a Standard Poodle.

"Dakota Cooper North" is his name, and he is an adorable ball of fuzz. He wasn't sure what to make of Honeydew at first - but once she started spinning in crazy butt-circles (see picture), he decided she was pretty fun.

Honeydew, on the other hand, is pretty sure that he shouldn't be allowed to chew on her bones - and she sits looking longingly at whatever he is chewing on waiting for her chance to steal it away (grass is always greener, I guess).

A Dog's Life

Today I took Honeydew over to Bend (OR) to visit my family. My brother and his wife have 5 large, male dogs. I wasn't sure what to expect - having never been around Honeydew playing with other dogs (we didn't let her do that as a puppy because she was so dog distracted).

Honeydew hit it off with their newest edition - a big American Bulldog named Tony (see the pictures). She played and played and played with him. Chase, tug, wrestling. It was very cute. Needless to say, she snoozed the entire drive back to Portland.

I think she thinks being a 'normal dog' isn't half bad.

Home Again!

We got the call today that Honeydew was being "career changed" - which means she won't be a Guide Dog for the Blind after-all. She did a great job, and made it through the various phases of training, but in the end it wasn't meant to be.

The pictures above are from our trip to get her today, including Glenn and I picking her up on the Guide Dogs campus, her sleeping in the car on the way home and checking out the house upon her return. She looks the same - still small and skinny, with long legs. She is very alert and definitely has more focus -- but is still the same goofy girl we knew before.

About a month before she was recalled, she began being nervous around unfamiliar men. We can't think of an incident that may have precipitated this behavior - it just came on gradually, and very inconsistently (e.g. sometimes she was just fine with unfamiliar men, other times she got anxious). It really only happened a few times - but was noticeable enough that we included it in our puppy write-up when we dropped her off for training. It seems that this behavior persisted and the professional trainers weren't able to get her past it.

So, we went to pick her up today - and to bring her home to be our beloved pet. Certainly there was always that small part of us that, on any given day, hoped that we would get the call that she wasn't going to be a Guide Dog - we missed her so much. So, this news is bitter-sweet. We are so very proud of her, and so thankful to the great trainers and staff that did everything they could to help Honeydew be successful.

Honeydew appears to be settling back into life in the "home" quite quickly. She has already made the rounds of the house (nose to the floor), greeted the cats and dug out all of her old chew toys. We have her outfitted with a new collar and a new bed, and tomorrow we will get her tags and license, etc.

Next - we need to find her a new "job". She is such a busy pup, that we need to find something to burn off that mental energy. Maybe agility, or something like that - although that just brings up visions of me tripping over my own feet trying to keep up with her.

It would appear that this is the end of her journey as a Guide Dog pup, and the beginning of her new adventures as an offical Crim Critter. It has been such a fun ride. We definitely plan to raise another Guide Dog puppy in the future - but for now, we will relish this time with The Dew back in our home.

The summary of why she was career changed is below:

SUMMARY: Honeydew is an affectionate, intelligent, alert and active female Yellow Labrador. She is aware of and interested in all that exists in her environment. Honeydew bonded quickly to her primary instructor and loved the learning process, especially when it involved the clicker. She enjoyed every Guidework learning challenge presented to her and met each one head on. However she did have multiple reactions to unfamiliar men (and a few women) particularly in the kennels but also intermittently when on routes. Extensive exposures using high value food, mentor dogs and mentor people were done with employees on campus and people on the street. She improved with these individuals, but there was no carryover to unfamiliar people.

Honeydew was slow to adjust to the kennel, due to the frequent reactions when people strange to her entered the building. Her adjustment improved with the addition of a roommate. However if her primary instructor was not present when a strange man entered the building, she would often run outside barking and could not be coaxed back in until the stranger left.

It is due to the continued reactions to men which are not conducive to the Guide Dog lifestyle that Honeydew is being Career Changed at this time. This reactive behavior is consistent with comments noted in her puppy raising history.

Thema Sitting

We are puppy-sitting "Thema" for a couple of days. She is a very sweet pup - and looks so much like Honeydew. When Thema first joined our puppy club it was hard to tell them apart.

Turns out, Thema's mom was a black lab and her dad was a 'red' colored yellow lab -- just like Honeydew's parents were. Thema isn't as leggy and skinny as The Dew - but very similar otherwise.

Thema settled into our home almost immediately - and has made fast friends with the cats. Bodine is pretty fond of her (see the picture of them hanging out above) - she must remind him of his best buddy Honeydew too.

Phase Nine!

Yay for The Dew. She keeps moving along through her training phases. Only one phase left...can you believe it?!

In Phase Nine, she is continuing to practice everything she has been learning (see earlier posts). She gets to do more relaxing residential routes with less difficult and more straight-forward work for confidence building. She is also doing advanced (more difficult) work that require higher level decision-making.

She is "almost Class Ready", which means that she is almost ready to get paired with her blind partner and begin training with them. In preparation for this, she is working with unfamiliar and novice handlers.

She is working with her instructors under a blindfold in several traffic situations. She is also still working on riding escalators, walking in sidewalkless areas, train/rail platforms, blocked paths, overhead obstacles and socialization.

Phase Ten, here we come!

Phase Eight!

Honeydew is plugging right along. She is now is Phase Eight! In this phase she continues working on what she has been learning to do...but everything gets more advanced. She is particularly focusing on sidewalkless routes - for example, maintaining a travel line to the extreme left of the roadway (facing oncoming traffic), working around obstacles on the roadway and immediately returning to the left edge of the road.

She is also learning to avoid the drop off of subway and rail platforms and riding on the light rail (she is a pro at this!). She is also learning to ride on an escalator - acquiring a safe stance, exiting safely, etc. She is always doing a lot of work in malls and stores (slower pace, elevators, multiple stairways, floor colors/textures, patience in shopping situations and intensive food avoidance situations - like the food court).

I keep watching for her when I am downtown - but I haven't seen her out training yet. I bet she is super cute riding on a escalator! We are so proud of her. Two more phases to go Dew!

Dorena Sitting

This weekend we "puppy sat" Dorena. Glenn - who always has to give everyone a nickname - is calling her "Heavy D". She is a great pup. Always amazes me how different the personalities are. She settled in right away with the other dogs and cats - although, she LOVES to try to get the cats to play with her. She is just sure those hisses and swipes are an invitation to play. She is going to work with me today - and we are going to ride the new section of the light rail train which drops off just a few blocks from my work. Very exciting!

One of Glenn's work friends said that he is pretty sure he saw Honeydew in downtown Portland training the other day. Oh, to see her in action - that would be a treat.

Above is a picture of Dorena. She has the most amazing "cat eyes", they literally glow almost a honey topaz color in the sun. The other picture is of Honeydew meeting Dorena when she was a new baby - all dressed up for Halloween.

Phase Seven!

Oh my - The Dew is now in Phase Seven of her training. Only three more phases to go. I am totally blown away and excited. What a good girl! Who would of thought she would still be hanging in there.

She is currently working on obedience and distraction training in various environments and with new handlers. She is also doing advanced guidework training (yahoo!) in downtown urban areas - learning to negotiate difficult crossings, curb approach challenges and pedestrian islands.

I should start keeping an eye out for her when I am going to meetings downtown, maybe she will be out training. Of course, if I see her I can't let her see me - which would be sad - but boy it would be fun to hide behind a bush and watch her in action.

She is learning to keep her handler safe around traffic - even learning to back up when a vehicle gets too close. She is learning to make "emergency decisions" with traffic problems in order to keep her team safe. She is also learning how to inform her handler of objects that are totally blocking the travel path and then working out a route to go safely around them. She is also being trained to look up (above her head) for obstacles. Certainly don't want her walking her handler into a low hanging tree branch!

Keep up the good work Honeydew, we are so very proud of you!