So, do they look like your pups?

This is a special blog just for Deb, Frederick, Adrienne, Vicki, and Darlene...

Here are the last four "I" pups the day of turn-in at NWR. They are a beautiful bunch of pups and we are so proud of all 8 of them. I thought you would enjoy these photos!

Izzy

Inca

Ivan

Ikris

Of these four, Izzy is the the leanest, Inca is the prettiest, Ivan is the biggest flirt, and without a doubt, Ikris is the biggest. We kept the singing to a minimum - thinking that was best. I have a few more photos I'll try to get posted in the next couple of days.

Off to Santa Rosa

Izzy ~ Bed!

This princess knows how to live it up - I hope they have king size beds in AT.

Izzy plays in the SNOW

Izzy and I went up to Yuba Gap over the past two days so that Izzy could experience some snow before she matriculates into Advanced Training on the 21st. We were invited to go snowshoeing with some friends to celebrate Cheryl's birthday. Sally was kind enough to open her cabin to all of us - six women and five dogs. I was excited to go - both for the snowshoeing and because it was a very fun group.

When we arrived there was about 18 inches of fresh snow on the ground and we were treated to another 6-8 inches after we got into the cabin. The snow was not your typical Sierra Nevada snow - it has been very cold so the snow was light, fluffy powder. Izzy took to the snow in a heartbeat and resembled a porpoise as she galloped through the deep snow.

When we got up this morning, the sky had cleared and it was beautiful outside. We went for another snowshoe walk - this time in the sun. Izzy got quite the workout as she ran and played in the snow with the other dogs.

We had a terrific time hiking in the beautiful place with good friends and great dogs. We did learn that our dogs tend to be natural hitchhikers and were often right at our heels and on our shoes! All in all, a great outing with perfect weather and way too much food.

Izzy does Disney(land)

"I" is for Izzy!

The ultimate test for any CCI pup turning in to Advanced Training is a theme park. Talk about long days, big crowds, unusual sounds, strange smells, odd little kids, weird vehicles, and "fun" rides!

Izzy had no problems navigating the cargo nets!

Sooo, off we went to Disneyland last Friday. Izzy and I drove from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, picked up Chris and Anthony, then we all drove to LA, spent the night, I went to a meeting in Hawthorne, and we headed off for Anahiem.

While it might look like Izzy did the teacups, this is a fake ~ she did do the Jungle Cruise (didn't care for the gunshot), Pirates of the Caribbean (wasn't her favorite, but there's lots to see down there), and Buzz Lightyear (hopped right up in the seat and enjoyed the ride!). I think the Monorail was her favorite but she sure didn't understand those snakes under the seat in "Honey, I shrunk the Audience"

We checked into our hotel, had lunch and hit the parks. We didn't stop until the park closed Friday night and we were up and at it by 8:00am - early entry into Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

After Anthony and Chris had their picture taken with this guy, Izzy met Buzz Lightyear and didn't even flinch - I was very proud of her!

I can't say enough great things about Disneyland and CCI pups in training. They are well-informed and extremely well-intentioned. Service animals are welcome anywhere in the park and in the hotels. I was never questioned once by an employee and Izzy proved to be the perfect guest. The one trick is finding appropriate places to toilet ~ this takes a very observant team and careful planning, but once you scout out some spots - you're A-OK.

Izzy was one tired girl at the end of the day.

DAVIS is GRADUATING!!

Irish smiling

Davis and Halor

Wow, Saturday is a big day! Irish goes off to college and Davis is graduating. I guess it's sort of a bad news/good news thing if you think about it. Halor, Izzy and I sure wish we could be in Oceanside for the big day ~ we'd love to be there in person to see Irish off to college and congratulate Davis and his puppy raisers, Pam and Gary, for a job well done!

OK, which dog is going to AT next month?

Will it be the nice, calm, quiet dog with the pleasant non-exciteable greeting?

Or, will it be the fun and wiggly, noisy, horribly voiced singing dog with the very exciteable greeting? Only time will tell....

I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for the happy, wiggly, singing dog who steals the dog-catcher toy from her great-grandmother!

The Home and Landscape show

Today we went to the Home and Landscape Show at Cal Expo. I neglected to take too many photos but these two were pretty important. Above, Izzy is pictured with the giant Golden Bear that scared her to death last September. Today, she took a look, was a tiny bit weary, but walked right up to the bear and did a perfect "up" on command. Later, she was happy to sit beside the scary beast and have her photo taken with him. Go Izzy!!

OK, this stuff is called "K9 Grass" and it is specifically designed with dogs in mind. I really want it but it's not cheap.... It's anti-microbial and won't break down with dogs playing wildly. One home that has it has 7 Great Danes. My favorite quote (from the salesman, I admit) ~ "I haven't wiped a muddy paw in a year." WOW!! Izzy walked right up and laid down (thank god, no "hurry!")

More recent photos of handsome brother Ira

From Ira's puppy raiser:

Thanks for the great link-it is fun seeing these puppies all grown up-they are all beautiful and look so similar! Here are some more recent pictures of Mr. Ira, taken end of November. We are counting the weeks now, too, and trying to be stoic about it.

Darlene

More puppy class highlights

I'm not sure who learns more at class ~ Izzy or me.... I did rediscover how hard it is to steer, push, command, and hold a leash. Whenever we have class in wheelchairs (especially on a slope) I get a renewed respect for wheelchair pushers!

Dog Christmas

For quite some time I've been a fan of the $20 dog beds at Costco - but, over the years, they've been trashed, chewed up, and even peed on (I know - I hate having to admit that). So, I've been meaning to invest in indestructable and comfortable, cleanable dog beds. All my dog owner friends say these are them! So, for Christmas, we got THREE new Karunda beds (thinking positively, since Izzy turns in this February). They seem to be a huge success! One of the things our CCI golf tournament asked that the proceeds be spent on was Karunda beds for the kennels at NWR I don't know how many are there now, but there should be a bunch!

Isn't she lovely?

This is Ingrid, Izzy's sister. She is absolutely gorgeous (even if she does hate baths!). Ingrid was helping at a CCI fundraiser in the Southeast Region where supporters could make gingerbread houses. Nice job, Ingrid!

Big Baking Day

Well, about once a year we get domestic and do some baking. Today, Jon, Kendra, Jack and I baked about 8 batches of cookies. It was quite an undertaking. We did double batches of Spritz and Snickerdoodles, some chocolate kiss cookies, some peanut butter cup cookies, some chocolate chip cookies, some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and some magical mystic mint chocolate cookies.

Stuff was everywhere...

Cookies started piling up!

Jon and Jack made White Russians (yes, the beverages).

Halor and Izzy "tried" to stay out of the way (but of course, were right where I needed to be).

And, they couldn't help themselves from doing a little begging for cookies.

So, they had peanut butter "Noses" with banana in them. YUM!

Irish's friends, the aliens have traveled north

and abducted Piniella, Halor, and Cayenne, while Cirie looks on... Yikes!

Way back when....

The lovely Miss Piniella had 8 puppies by Baumann. Note the fifth pup from the left - Auburn.

Auburn is now all grown up and a breeder for CCI. Today, Auburn looks just like she did then... almost pure white with maybe a touch too much eyeliner and a very black nose.

Auburn has her second litter on the ground now and they are 5 weeks old. Izzy and I went over to lend a couple x-pens to Auburn's breeder/caretaker as it seems Auburn's brood needs a little more space.

Yep, that's right - TEN little black puppies. They are the "M" litter and their dad is Terrence, a Bobby dog with that double black dominant gene.

In case you're wondering how Miss P's litter did - Astro, Anson, Auburn (breeder), Averell, and Aero are all graduates!

We really do go to class...

We spent a lot of time working on "stand" this past Saturday. Izzy was not all that proficient because I think I tend to forget about this command. She was pretty good at staying in a "stand" position, once she got there, but somewhat confused about going from sit to stand. I have to admit that saying "let's go" then stopping to practice "auto-sit" just to then be told to "stand" again, does seem like a bit of command overkill to me - so I can just imagine what Izzy thinks.

After some practice, she seemed to be getting it. After that - we moved on to Izzy's absolute favorite command ~ "BACK." Izzy loves "back" so much, that sometimes she adds a little "woof" to her backing. She can back from "heel, " from "side," from "here," and with an "out" ~ all without me moving my feet or adding any of that body English. If CCI dogs could graduate based on their backing ability, I would be feeling pretty smug (well, except maybe for that "woof" at the end).

We're having class at Sac State in the parking garage - a great place if it's raining, a bit cool and definitely a lousy photo location when it's sunny outside.

Gotta love that Sable!

Sable loves to go out to the field with the other dogs. Most of the time, she and Piniella just do their own things - Piniella might dig a bit while Sable wanders around and just seems to enjoy the outing.

Every now and then, Sable decides she is going to enter the ball game. This is tough since it might be a bit like your grandmother deciding to go out and play catch with the pros at Yankee Stadium. Halor and Izzy are young, fast and totally focused (not to mention ball-hogs). Piniella waits to join the game until Hal and Izz have worn themselves out.

Here is Sable deciding to play ball. She stops wandering and starts looking for the next ball toss. When the other dogs run, she goes galloping after them. I don't think she sees all that well, but she seems happy to be doing what everyone else is doing. On the odd occasion that she gets the ball, she runs about 10 paces and drops it - leaving it for Hal to find later.

I'm way behind.....

I've managed to get myself way behind... Just put up the Christmas tree yesterday - but, still no ornaments on it. Bought Christmas cards, but I'm out of ink, so I can't print the address labels, so that's as far as that project's gotten. I have a few posts for the blog, so I'm trying to catch up.

The other day, Cayenne and Cirie came over to play. This brother and sister team is about 6 months old and I don't think they'd ever had an experience like this one. My girls were happy for the company and before long, the two pups could hardly walk.

While the pups played, the puppy raisers yakked - as you can imagine. We discovered that Cirie and Cayenne are pups out of Rowina (mostly Golden but not quite) and Alijah (all Golden). Alijah is a male breeder out of Kittredge (all Golden). Kittredge, is a male breeder out of our Piniella and OMSI - PIniella's first litter, soooooo, everyone, except Sable, was related.

My friend Averell is raising Carol in Florida, so I'll send her this link of Carol's sibs playing at our house.

You might be able to tell from the video that Cayenne hasn't been to see the vet for that 6 month event most CCI boys don't look forward to ~ he definitely took a shine to Halor and Izzy and was more interested in them than the ball.

Please excuse Piniella's bad manners - that's just so unlike her!

Ingrid checks in

Hi,

It's me, Ingrid. I just couldn't wait until Monday to tell you how exciting the Puppy Christmas Party was. I could hardly keep from barking! Of course, I was a little disappointed that with all that food there, us puppies didn't get nuttin, not even a frosty paw.

Oh well, getting a gift, playing games; getting my picture taken; seeing my best pal Alanis and the other puppies kind of made up for that..

But it even gets better than that! When we got home, my humans gave me a bath - not that I needed one, in my estimation.

Well, I went through my usual bath routine - you know, climbing, jumping, pushing, splashing, squirming, scratching, falling, fake-choking, moaning, groaning, crying, and pleading.

I actually managed to get out of the tub twice and did my famous violent shaking and rapid spinning act on the bath rugs. But here's the best part. Amazingly, instead of my humans getting frustrated with my antics like they usually do, I heard them say, "boy is this dog A WINNER!!!!"

Imagine that - they are going to give me an award or some kind of prize! In fact, they said on my turn in date they are going to attach a big bright red award (maybe it was spelled w-a-r-n-i-n-g) to my cape or collar. I couldn't read all the big words but I copied what the award says:

"WARNING, BEFORE BATHING INGRID - READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS!

~ CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN TO SEE IF YOU ARE PHYSICALLY ABLE TO ENGAGE IN THIS TYPE OF ACTIVITY.

~ DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY AT HOME.

~ DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY ALONE.

~ DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY WITH LESS THAN THREE STRONG HUMANS IN ATTENDANCE.

~ DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY ON SLIPPERY SURFACES.

~ DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ACTIVITY IF YOU NEED ANY STRENGTH LEFT TO BATHE ANOTHER CANINE.

~ IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU HAVE DOUBLE THE NORMAL AMOUNT OF TOWELS.

~ ALWAYS HAVE A FOURTH HUMAN AVAILABLE IN A SECURE AREA IN THE EVENT IT IS NECESSARY TO DIAL 911.

Disclaimer: Ingrid's Puppy Raisers do not guarantee that the above stated warnings and recommendations are a complete list of the precautions that need to be taken when bathing said canine. The puppy raisers bear no responsibility for any possible unsatisfactory results that occur as a result of attempting or actually performing this bathing activity.

Note from Izzy and Patty: What a bummer that there's no photograph of this fun event!

How Izzy Spent Thanksgiving

Nothing better than a romp in the field with Mom ...

Hal even let Izzy win in the great tennis ball race ~ but only a couple of times

Not my best shot, but they are happy as long as I "chuck-it!"


And, of course, the obligatory holiday family portrait.

It was a beautiful day!

Oh Yeah, Izzy's home

And it's not boring anymore....

Izzy is coming home Tuesday!!

Hi all,

I found out today that I should be able to pick up Izzy at my friend's house on Tuesday about 4:00pm. I hope she hasn't forgotten everything she knew before she left home on her vacation/kennel visit. I can't wait to get her back, because, it's for sure - she's the most interesting of the girls.





On the egg front (I know everyone is just dying to here what's going on with the chickens), we had 5 eggs in a row - one each day Tuesday through Saturday. On Friday, we microwaved one and fed it to Halor. She really thought she made out on that deal. That, of course, prompted an email to Dr. Ruth, asking, "Just out of curiosity, is there any value or harm in giving the dogs an egg, either raw or cooked?" (after the fact, typical!). She promptly replied that the white should be fully cooked and one or two a week is fine. Then she added a typical Dr. Ruth-ism ~ "Watch their stools!"





On Sunday morning, we scrambled the remaining four eggs and split them between my friend Tracey, Dennis, and me. Darn good - but really, they tasted like eggs...





Sunday, apparently was a day off for whoever is the early-bird layer, as there were no eggs in the coop.





Today, major disappointment. Jon discovered that the rookie egg-layer doesn't seem to know a thing about gravity. It appeared that today's egg was laid on top of the little hen house, rolled down the roof and broke - VOILA!! ~ breakfast for all six. ; - (



This can be a very bad thing, because you don't want your hens to think eating their own eggs is a good thing - or you won't have any eggs for yourself or your friends or your dogs.

We're pretty sure that one of these gals is the beginner egg provider. Their names are "Dolly" and the other "Dolly" since we can't tell them apart. They are affectionately known as "The Dollies" and are Am Rocks.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hopefully, our next post will be more about dogs.

XOXO

Patty,

Halor, Piniella, and Sable

It's boring around here without Izzy

But, as you all know, we've been waiting and waiting for something really huge and exciting to happen around here and today is the BIG DAY!!

We don't know when exactly it happened or who did it ~ just that it was discovered late this afternoon. I went outside and there it was, like a miracle, just sitting in the dirt by the tree trunk. I was so thrilled, I picked it up and ran inside to show Jon. Together, we carried our surprise downstairs.

We set it on a pedestal and took its picture - just in time, as it turns out, because it rolled off the pedestal and cracked.... TOO FUNNY!!

Our entertainment factor has risen and we are off and running, expecting more great things from our six chickens! YEAHHH!

Latest Izzy news

It's sort of a good news/bad news story today, with no photos. Dennis and I went on vacation and Izzy went to stay with friends and puppy raisers Paul and Kerry. She had a terrific time and we were looking forward to picking her up when we got back. On Saturday came the email from our son that Izzy had gone into heat. We knew it was coming ~ just not when.

As it happens, this is a great time for Izzy to go into heat - she can be there, get her hips x-rayed, get her one year shots, and still come home in time for about 2 1/2 months of training before February turn-in. The bad news is that Izzy went on the CCI underground railroad from Chico to Lincoln to Rocklin to Santa Rosa without a stop in Cameron Park. We managed to get her a ticket which was good for us travel time and gas-wise, but I feel really bad that I won't see her for another 3 or so weeks.

So, it's nice to be back home but it's a bit sad to be without our girl Izzy. The other three girls are happy to have us here and even might be happy to not have Izzy... Skippy is thrilled to have someone who pays attention to him back in the house and the chickens did quite well under Jon's care.