It's been a long week!

For those of  you who don't know, I am a certified volunteer with Canine Assistants, an organization that trains service dogs for adults and children with mobility problems and other physical disabilities. We train Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, mixes of these two breeds, as well as some Golden Doodle and LabraDoodle mixes (so we can meet the needs of recipients with allergies to dog dander). These are amazing dogs! They are very smart and learn so quickly. As a certified volunteer, I take dogs on outings to stores, movies, restaurants and so forth so they can have opportunities to practice what they have learned out in the public. I also bring them home for home visits to work on basic house manners. When they are home with me, I use umbilical cord training which means that the dog is tethered to me with the leash 24/7 unless they are supervised in a fenced yard or kenneled in a crate. I don't call this volunteer experience work as I love animals and it such a rewarding experience to be able to help teach these dogs who will someday help someone become more independent in their daily lives. In the past, when I have brought a dog home for a home visit, it has been for no more than 2 nights. There are about 100 volunteers so we get a chance to work with many of the dogs. The dogs are usually fully trained and ready to go to a recipient when they are around 18 months old.

We had a pup at the farm who had some special needs of his own and could not run and interact with all the other dogs on the farm (approximately 140 of them). so volunteers were taking him home for extended periods of time. I had this dog at home with me for a week and he was the sweetest dog ever! Even though he was by my side constantly, he never got in the way.  I really hated taking him back to the farm. Since that week long experience went so well, I thought I would volunteer to be part of a new program Canine Assistants is trying - putting 10 week old pups in homes for 2 weeks at a time. It is assumed that this will expedite their training experience by exposing them to more daily household noises like washing machines, dryers, garage door openers, vacuum cleaners, etc. much earlier in their lives. It also give the pups more opportunities to go out in public since more volunteers are working with them. So, this past week I have had 2 ten week old sister pups at home. What an experience! I forgot what it takes to house break a puppy! I have been watching these little guys like a hawk for the past 7 days. I think they have finally got it though. They haven't had an "accident" in the house for the past 3 days! I am reinforcing their learning of the basic commands of sit, down, shake, roll, wait, settle, kennel, and "better hurry" (their command for going to the bathroom) as well as some other basic commands. They are really good sleepers - they have not cried at all when I tell them to go to bed each night.

I am taking the puppies back to the Canine Assistants farm tomorrow. I think I am going to miss them -  they are just so darn cute! But, at the same time, I am ready to get my house cleaned up and have some alone time once again!

By the way, Lucy, our 13 year old Aussie Shepherd-Chow mix doesn't know what to think about me bringing all of these strangers into her house. She tries to ignore the bigger dogs when I bring them home and since they are tethered to me, they usually ignore Lucy as well. Lucy has gotten to where she never knows what I am going to come into the house with next! However,it has been kind of hard for Lucy to ignore these two puppies. They want to play, play, play! They play and "fight" with each other when they are in their kennel and when they are outside, they want to play with Lucy. Well, Lucy is like an old grandma dog, she really doesn't want to be bothered by these little pups. I think she will be really glad to see them go so she can have the house all to herself once again - at least for a little while!

These are some pictures of the little guys I have had at home or have worked with at the farm. If you want to know more about this awesome  non-profit organization, please visit their website at canineassistants.org.

Oakley, a Golden Doodle, working on the agility course at the farm. The dogs work on the agility course to get them used to walking on different types of surfaces, different heights, elevations, and tight spaces.

    

Selena, Oakley's sister. She is also working on the agility course.

Raven, another Golden Doodle. Her trainer likes to groom her body close cut which makes her look very different than Oakley and Selena.

Woods, a Golden Retriever and Lucy

Cassius, a Golden Lab mix with special needs (notice his crooked front leg). He is scheduled for surgery on his leg in June.

 

Frazier, a Golden Retriever.

Some of the dogs in their kennel at the farm

The puppy building.

Sallie, a 10 week old Golden Lab mix.

Fowler, Sallie's sister, a 10 week old Golden Lab mix.

Fowler aggravating Lucy.

 

Fowler and Sallie ganging up on Lucy. They love to pull on her kerchief.

Sallie and Fowler acting like siblings - fighting over a toy.

 

They decide they may share it. The other's toy is laying on the deck right in front of them!

Or, maybe they will fight over it after all!

Spring at Stone Mountain

Well, I had my last photography class for a while on Thursday. I was taking Digital 102 and really enjoyed this class. It was more challenging, making me learn more settings on my camera and doing a lot of low light photography. I have finally learned to use my camera in the full manual mode and it gives me a lot more control on how my pictures turn out. It was a really great class. I wish I was able to take more but we will be going on vacation soon and I would miss 2 out of the 6 classes so I will wait until I can be here for the entire course. I can't decide if I want to take Photoshop or People I next. I do eventually want to take the People classes so I can learn to take better pictures of individuals and groups. I'll decide that later.

For my last Digital 102 class I had to have 10 pictures that I had taken over the past 6 weeks. I decided to go out to Stone Mountain and spend an afternoon taking pictures. It was a beautiful day, was in the middle of spring break for the schools in our area, and the park was packed. I had fun driving through the park, getting out of the car and just walking around. Everything was beautiful. Here are a few of the pictures I took that day. Enjoy!

The Carving

A gorgeous pink dogwood

Rhododendron blossom

The covered bridge behind white dogwoods

The beautiful dogwood blossom

The grist mill

Rhododendron amongst Crepe Myrtle trees

Easter Eggs and Cookies

Friday, John and I kept Kennedy while David and Summer started moving into their new house.  I told David we were going to dye some eggs for Easter decorations. I didn't want to do hard boiled eggs since it was over a week before Easter so I decided to poke holes in each end of the raw egg and blow them out. David laughed, saying that Kennedy would crush the eggs but I thought if I told her to be gentle with them, they would come out fine. We had 6 eggs and Kennedy chose the colors purple, blue, and pink. We got the water ready but what I thought was the pink dye tablet was really orange. While I had my back turned for just a second, Kennedy reached for one of the eggs. David was right! Kennedy crushed the very first egg she picked up in her tiny little hands! So, we proceeded with the 5 remaining eggs and they made it through without getting cracked.

When the eggs were dry, we decorated them with glitter and stickers.

Later in the afternoon, we baked and decorated some Easter cookies.  Kennedy had more fun eating the icing and sprinkles off of the cookies than she did baking and decorating them!

I think Kennedy had a fun day!