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National Guide Dog Month

September 23, 2011 By 3 Comments

I know I’m a little late it already being towards the end of September, but this month (September) is National Guide Dog Month.  So what exactly is national guide dog month?  According to wikipedia:

“National Guide Dog Month is a celebration of the work of Guide Dogs in the United States as a way to raise awareness, appreciation and support for guide dog schools across the United States. It was established in 2008 as a fundraising drive to benefit non-profit guide dog organizations accredited by the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF).”

National Guide Dog Month

Guide Dog Puppy

Dublin A Puppy In Training

As many of you long time readers know we’ve been raising guide dog puppies for the past 5 years and we’ve also been doing our best to raise awareness for guide dogs as well as share our journey as puppy raisers.  Our goal with our blog is not only to raise awareness and support for guide dogs and puppy raisers, but to also share our experiences and try and help our readers learn more about how to train a puppy.

So why all of a sudden are we adding a post about National Guide Dog Month?  Well, it all starts with my trip to Petco…

Petco Supports Guide Dogs

A couple days ago we visited our local Petco to pickup some dog food and poop bags for the boys (Linus, Stetson, and Dublin).  We were at the cashier making our purchase when our the Petco employee asked if we’d like to round our purchase up to the nearest dollar as a donation to guide dog organizations.  Wow!  I thought that was pretty cool and when I got home I put a little research into Petco’s support of Guide Dogs.  I also tweeted our experience and wrote a short status update on our facebook account.

Here’s some interesting information from the Petco website:

Petco and Natural Balance have teamed up with CSI:Miami’s Eva La Rue and Omar Miller to support Guide Dog organizations.

Did you know that there are 1.3 million blind people in the USA? Every 7 minutes someone in America becomes visually impaired.

Guide Dogs improve the lives of the visually impaired by creating opportunities for life-changing independence and through community outreach and education programs. Guide Dogs provide safe mobility, loving companionship and the “miracle of independence” to the visually impaired.

Unfortunately, the guide dog organization we volunteer for, Guide Dogs of America is not on the list of schools receiving donations this year.  However, we do appreciate the support Petco is putting forth to help Guide Dog organizations.  Thanks Petco!

What are you doing for National Guide Dog Month? Have you visited your local Petco this month?  Did they ask you for a donation for guide dog organizations?

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Puppy In Training TV – Ep11 – Guide Dog Pups At The Movies

July 10, 2011 By 2 Comments

Dublin and I have been planning our Orange County guide dog group outings and not too long ago we took the guide dog pups to the movies at the District in Tustin.

The movie theater wasn’t our only destination.  We also had the opportunity to introduce our puppies in training to a grocery store, borders bookstore, a bowling alley, Johnny Rockets, and as previously mentioned an AMC movie theater.

I’m sure you’re all excited to see Dublin’s latest adventure so check out this weeks episode of Puppy In Training TV!

Episode 11 – Guide Dog Pups At The Movies

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Guide Dog Pups At The Movies Transcription

Here’s this weeks transcription of Puppy In Training TV:

PuppyInTraining.com Logo and Website Address

Hey guys, it’s finally friday and tomorrow we’re going to the movies with our pals Yuki and Baron. Welcome to episode 11 of Puppy In Training TV.

Guide Dog Puppy Training Starring DUBLIN
With Linus Aussie Shepherd Rescue
Also Colby The Human
And Stetson Career Changed Guide Dog

We got up nice and early, cleaned up, and headed over tothe District in Tustin to meet up with Dublin’s friends Yuki and Baron.

The District in Tustin is an outdoor shopping mall, with tons of stores, restaurants and a movie theater. Our plan was to walk our guide dog pups in and around all the stores to first of all expose them to different environments and situations…and secondly to wear them out a bit so they would be tired at the movie theater. Our first stop…the Whole Foods Market across the parking lot.

We walked up and down the food aisles to get the pups used to the different smells and walking on the slick floors.

After walking around for a little bit Baron demonstrated a sit-stay in front of the candy apples.

After spending time at Whole foods we walked across the parking lot, through the cross walk and checked out the everything must go sale at Borders.

As guide dog puppy raisers it’s important for us to expose our dogs to different entry ways…Borders has two automatic doors which can sometimes startle dogs if they haven’t seen them before.

We walked around the store for a little while…all of the books were 40-60% off. Baron waited patiently while tina bought a few books.

We had a chance to work on walking up some stairs as we headed over to the bowling alley.

This was the first time Dublin had been in a bowling alley. Dublin was a little eager to go up the stairs so I made sure he slowed down and walked next to me in a heel. It was dark and noisy, but all three dogs did a great job watching people bowl and checking out the big screen tv’s at the end of the lanes.

After letting the dogs experience all the crazy sights, smells, and sounds inside a bowling alley, we went back outside, and this time took the elevator down rather than the stairs.

The elevator is another great experience for our guide dog puppies and we make sure they get the opportunity to ride on regular elevators such as the one we’re getting on now and glass elevators like the one Dublin rode in episode 10 at the bass pro shop.

We did quite a bit of walking and visited several stores so we decided to head over to Johnny Rockets for some lunch.

All three dogs were wiped out at lunch. Dublin later told me that Yuki made a great pillow.

After lunch we took a moment to have our dogs sit-stay for a photo opp.

Then on the way to the movie theater we went and visited the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

There was a nice water fountain out in front of the movie theater. So we put Dublin in a down-stay and that’s when we noticed King Baron the posing on the highest rock!

Before going into the movie theater, we made sure our pups had plenty of water and relieved them. We went inside and all 3 pups stayed quiet and did excellent throughout the movie

It was a long day, but excellent training for Yuki, Baron, and Dublin. As we head out of the movie theater we’d like to thank you for joining us for this episode of Puppy In Training TV. We hope you enjoyed watching and we’ll see you next time!

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If you’d like to sponsor an episode of Puppy In Training TV visit PuppyInTraining.com

Final Thoughts On Guide Dog Pups At The Movies

It was a small turn out for our Orange County Guide dog group, but lucky for me it’s a lot easier to manage a small group compared to a larger group.  All three puppies were very well behaved throughout the day.  I guess that’s to be expected with older pups.  It was Dublin’s first time going into a bowling alley and although he was a little eager to see what all the ruckus was about he was not scared of the loud noises and settled right in and watched the big screens and some bowling action.  Yuki and Baron were also excellent and I must say it was an awesome day.  Thanks to Yuki and Baron – the Guide Pups, Tina and Rita – The Guide Dog puppy handlers, and Ali our videographer.  Of course thanks to Dublin for being the star of Puppy In Training TV.

Remember if you’d like to sponsor an episode of Puppy In Training TV visit our sponsorship form.

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Guide Dogs of America Open House

June 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

It’s been four years since I attended my first Guide Dogs of America Open House with a little black Labrador Retriever named Stetson.  I remember like it was yesterday.  Stetson was still young at six months old, but no longer that adorable puppy from months earlier…in fact he was at that awkward clumsy stage (little did I know he would always be on the clumsy side).  Although it was a lot of work controlling a six month old puppy with all the other dogs and pups around we definitely enjoyed our first GDA open house.  If you’re interested in raising a Guide Dog puppy this is definitely a great event to attend.

Here are some details on this event:

Guide Dogs of America Open House

Guide Dogs Open House

EVENT: 24th Annual Guide Dogs of America Open House
WHEN: June 11th, 2011
HOURS: 11am – 4pm
WHERE: 13445 Glenoaks Blvd.
Sylmar, CA 91342

What To Expect At Guide Dog Open House

Here are a few hints for those of you who plan on going to the guide dog open house:

  • Parking is free, but open house draws a lot of people so unless you don’t mind walking I’d suggest getting there early for good parking.
  • If you’re bringing a puppy in training keep a close eye on your pup as there are many different smells, noises, dogs, puppies, and other distractions.
  • Obstacle course for puppies in training – Puppies in Training get the opportunity to show off their stuff by maneuvering through an obstacle course past food, animals, and many other distractions.  If you plan on participating in these Puppy Trials I once again suggest your arrive early and try to get the energy and excitement out of your pup before  tackling the obstacle course.
  • Silent Auctions – there’s tons of awesome stuff at the silent auction and it’s not just dog stuff so bring your check book and be ready to donate some money!  Here’s a list of items up for auction.
  • GDA serves up lunch so come hungry!
  • There’s also a Guide Dog demonstration at mid-day.  Our pal Dustin was the demo dog a few years back and he was awesome!
  • There are guided tours of the campus throughout the day.
  • There are a number of booths with merchandise, raffles, and crafts.  There’s even a puppy in training kissing booth!
  • By the way, there are always tons of puppies of all ages so bring your camera!

If you’re interested in becoming a guide dog puppy raiser, love puppies, or just want to have some fun this weekend we highly recommend checking out the Guide Dogs of America Open House…Dublin and I plan on attending.  How about you?  Are you or have you attended a guide dog open house?

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Puppy In Training TV – Ep7 – Puppy Train(ing) Ride

March 2, 2011 By 2 Comments

We recently had a great outing to San Clemente with our Orange County Guide Dogs of America Puppy Raising Group.  It started at the Metrolink train station in the city of Orange, a train ride down to San Clemente, a walk on the boardwalk, lunch, and play time for our puppies.  It was a great day and a super experience for all of our puppies in training.

Dublin had his first encounter with sand and he really didn’t know what to think of the next texture under his paws.  Take a look at this weeks episode of Puppy In Training TV to see Dublin’s reaction to sand and puppy train outing to San Clemente.

Puppy In Training TV – Ep7 – Puppy Train(ing) Ride

Here’s this weeks episode of Puppy In Training TV.  If you’d like to sponsor an episode take a look at the Puppy In Training TV Sponsorship page.

Puppy Train(ing) Ride

We tried to be funny with the title because it was Puppy Training and A Puppy Train Ride…anyhow here’s this weeks transcription.  I hope you enjoy!

Happy Holidays everyone! My name is Colby this is Dublin. Welcome to our final episode of 2010!

(Titles Roll): Puppy In Training TV Starring Dublin. With Linus Aussie Mix Rescue. Also Colby The Human. And Stetson Career Changed Guide Dog. Episode 6 – Los Caballeros Tennis And Puppy Training.

Weclome to Episode 7 – Puppy Train(ing) Ride.  We recently took Dublin on his first real train ride down to San Clemente.  Our first stop was the Orange Train Station where we met the other puppy raisers from our group.

The Metrolink trains are much louder than the train ride we encountered on our trip to Knott’s in episode 4.  The sites sounds and getting on and off the train are great experiences for our puppies, but this trip was recommended for our older puppies only.  As you can tell the Metrolink moves pretty fast and Dublin did a great job just relaxing under my chair as did all the other puppies in our group.

As I mentioned we got on at the Orange train stop and took the Metrolink all the way down to San Clemente.

When the train finally came to a stop.  We all worked on calmly getting off the train with our puppies.  After exiting the train we walked along the boardwalk on the beach.  While walking down the boardwalk we had the chance to get close to the water and watch some surfers.  While watching the surf and the surfers.  The train came speeding by.

After walking for about a mile we got to the San Clemente Pier and we took the dogs down to the end so they could take in the view.  While looking into the water we noticed some dolphins off the shore.  If you look closely you can see them off in the distance.  I tried to get Dublin to take a look, but he just wasn’t interested.

We had a little extra time before lunch so we took the opportunity to take a few pictures of our puppies.  After watching the dolphins for a little bit and taking a few pictures of our puppies we decided to head in and grab some lunch.  During our lunch break all of our puppies absolutely knocked out underneath the table

After lunch we started heading over to the park and I noticed Dublin got excited when walking on the sand that’s something we probably need to work on in the future.

While we were walking towards the park the train came speeding by again.  It blew its whistle and it scared the absolute poop out of me.  However, it didn’t bother Dublin one bit.  When we got to the park the x-pens were already setup and we let our puppies play for a little while.  After running around and playing for a little while our puppies relaxed we took some glamour shots, and we prepared for our long walk back to the train station.

We got back a little early and stopped off at the coffee shop.  Dublin knocked out and curled up into a perfect ball underneath my chair.  It had been a long day for our puppies as we headed back to the San Clemente train stop.  Dublin had one more chance to watch the train pull up before we all got on board and headed home.

Hey everyone!  Dublin did awesome on his first train ride.  The loud noises and speeding train didn’t bother him one bit.  Thanks again everyone for watching Puppy In Training TV.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe holidays!

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A special thanks to Jan Brady for organizing all of our Orange County GDA outings this past year!

If you’d like to sponsor an episode of Puppy In Training TV visit PuppyInTraining.com

Our Final Thoughts On This Weeks Puppy Training Ride

As I mentioned in the video, Dublin did absolutely awesome on his first train ride.  There were some very loud noises especially when the train blew it’s whistle.  It was nice to hang out with all the other guide dog puppies in training on this outing.  Everyone did very well!  As I mentioned earlier the one area that kind of weirded Dublin out was the sand.  It was his first steps on sand and it got him into a playful mood.  However, I’m not too worried about it.  Since this video was shot we’ve walked on sand a couple more times and Dublin did much better.  I believe it’s just a matter of exposing him to different textures on the ground including sand.  We also plan on testing Dublin in the snow sometime soon.

Thanks again for visiting our blog and please let us know if there’s something you’d like to see in one of our upcoming Puppy In Training TV episodes.

How about you?  Have you taken your Puppy In Training on a train ride?  How was the experience?

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CCI Puppies In Training

September 17, 2009 By 1 Comment

I follow a lot of blogs in my RSS reader and too no surprise one of my feeds are simple images and descriptions of adorable puppies.  Every once in a while they (The Daily Puppy) highlights a puppy in training.  In this case we are lucky enough to see Puppies In Training.

I’m sure The Daily Puppy receives tens of thousands (if not more) visitors a day some I’m very happy to see they are highlighting a great cause like Canine Companions for Independence (CCI).

Here’s a little excerpt from the The Daily Puppy:

Canine Companions for Independence is a non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly-trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships. Canine Companions assistance dogs are trained in up to 50 commands designed to make everyday life easier for adults and children with physical and developmental disabilities. They open and close doors, retrieve dropped objects, and turn on and off lights. Outside of physical tasks, Canine Companions assistance dogs provide immeasurable emotional support to their human partners.

And of course they included some adorable pictures of their Puppies In Training.  Here’s one:

Puppies In Training

For the full article and more images of these adorable CCI puppies visit the Daily Puppy.

If you’re interested in becoming a puppy raiser and raising a CCI puppy then visit their website at http://www.cci.org.  If you don’t have the time for puppy raising then they offer many other volunteer activities and also accept donations at their website.

Of course my last two puppies, Stetson and Derby were both puppies in training for Guide Dogs of America.  If you’re interested in puppy raising for GDA then visit their website at http://www.guidedogsofamerica.com.

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