St. Pete Market

Last week at obedience class John had mentioned that Dodger was very distracted by all the non-SEGD dogs at the Sarasota market. Jennifer suggested maybe a trip to the St. Pete market was in order. John emailed us and asked if we were still interested, so we set up a meeting spot for Saturday.



Here we are by the musician stand. You can see the nuttiness of the market in the background. There were dogs everywhere! Talk about distraction city. It was a huge distraction for our pups. Plus the crowd was very big. We listened to the music for a bit, which the pups didn't seem to mind (open space for them, I think they liked it). Then we decided to move to a less crowded spot for a sit down.



We got all three dogs in a down-under under the table very easily as the table was pretty big. Unfortunately, the table was in some serious shade and we all became very shivery fairly quickly and abandoned our table to walk some more.



Since it was after 11, we decided it was close enough to lunch to find a restaurant and eat. So we headed down to beach drive. Along the way we stopped and did a little obedience (a few doggie pushups).

It was fascinating to watch how people reacted to the dogs. At one point Stephanie was bent over Princess trying to put her coat back on and only taking up her half of the sidewalk. Along comes this old woman with a sack of St. Pete Market purchases and a very sour look on her face for Stephanie and Princess and the fact that they didn't move completely onto the grass. Mind you, there was more than enough room to pass by on the side. So she sweeps past and knocks into Stephanie. Sweet. Really sweet. But that was countered by the elderly couple who had us all stop so they could take a photo of the three dogs. The elderly gent loves taking dog photos on their mornings out. Then they both started asking us questions about the dogs and the program, which we were able to answer and we had a lovely conversation.

It was also rather cute that when we went past a table of diners on Beach Drive I heard them say, "Those are Southeastern Guide Dog Puppies! Look! There!" I didn't turnaround. I was smiling too hard.

Dodger Goes Home

By Fred
We humans have a binding, sentimental and sticky nature. How long does it take us to form a bond with a dog? Days? Hours? Seconds?

Today Berkeley comes back home and Dodger returns to his puppy-raiser, John. We've really enjoyed Dodger this week, and we bonded with him right away. Even Willow, who can be very slow to show her approval, has adopted her new friend. Here they are, sharing an intimate moment in the kitchen.

In this video, Dodger and Willow sit close together on the floor, arms locked, at least until he discovers the camera and moves away. Willow appears cold and aloof, but she doesn't fool me. She's crazy about Dodger.

Cheryl and I have been sick with colds the entire week. Cheryl was determined to go to school early this week (and give Dodger his new experience around kids), but by Thursday her cold had turned into bronchitis. Now she is back in bed. What a hard-head!

I felt better by Thursday, so Dodger and I went out for lunch at our dog-friendly place in Dunedin: Casa Tina. He has excellent table manners. Everyone at the restaurant bonded immediately with Dodger. He is a quick bonder for sure.

Here we are in the back yard, exploring the wonder of fish.

I point out some fish in our pond to Dodger. Like any good house guest, he humors me and pretends to be interested. Good boy.

Of course we are happy for Berkeley to come home. Why wouldn't we be? What kind of question is that to ask, anyway?

In this video, Dodger stares into the camera, wondering why I've just asked him to sit.

Dodger Rules the School

Dodger was a big hit at school. He mustered through convocation without a problem, doing a down under with nary a ear twitch at all the commotion. Then, when we went up on stage to introduce him to the Upper Division, he calmly flopped down on the floor and went to sleep. So calm.

In fact, he spent the day either playing or sleeping.



At the end of the day he was so tired I took this photo of him on the way home.

Dodger's in the House!

Dodger arrived yesterday for puppy camp. Puppy camp is where you trade puppies for a week so they can experience a different type of household than what they are normally used to having. Dodger's dad works at home and isn't around kids very much so he wanted Dodger to get to go to school for a week, so we agreed to swap.

Our first event came when we met up for lunch with the two dogs at Casa Tina's, a very guide dog friendly restaurant. After the initial few minutes of energetic stretching to see if they could touch (when they have their coats on they can't interact with each other), they calmed down and ignored each other. Then it was head home, meet Willow and pack up Her Royal Highness!

As you can see in the photo above, this was similar to the scene in the restaurant, very calm dogs ignoring each other. That's what we like! Outside, it was a different story. Dodger is much larger than HRH and had the idea that he would play with Willow. Willow turned and did a matron growl ("young fool, back off now!"), which to his credit he did. So he turned to HRH thinking, "Oh, she's small and female, I can dominate her in a flash."

Yeah, right. Have you met the Queen?

HRH was on him in a flash.

"What?! I've got 20 pounds on you?" It was actually pretty amusing to watch this poor boy get what he was giving out handed right back to plus some. With attitude! (And a little head toss. There might have been some foot stamping as well, I was laughing and might have missed it.)

Many of you may know that we have koi ponds in our backyard. Apparently Dodger didn't get the memo. He fell in. TWICE. I'm tempted to say something about blondes because he did it all within the span of half an hour and the first time he fell in it was while he was drinking out of the pond and staring at himself. I wouldn't want to stereotype him.

In the end, I think Dodger was happy to see her go. What evil plans she has cooked up for John, I hesitate to think about. Good Luck!I crochet. I love yarn. Consequently, some might say I am a yarn harlot and buy too much yarn. Those people will not be receiving lovely yarn creations for Christmas! We immediately discovered that it is very easy to forget that we have trained our dogs not to bother with the yarn when the first thing Dodger did was run over and grab a ball of yarn.

Bad Dodger!
See all the yarn Dodger. Run Dudger, run!

Grab the yarn Dodger!
There is so much to choose from. What color do I want?



There are some things that you can teach in a week and some things that you can't. Yarn no, isn't one of them. Hence, the yarn blockade. Working so far. As for Dodger, he moved on to practice his artful moves.

See Dodger on the stairs?

See the chairs at the bottom of the stairs?

Somehow, Dodger got through the chair blockade and up the stairs. Clever boy, making my earlier blonde comment so much stereotyping balderdash. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this one.