What It Means to Sponsor a Puppy

Southeastern Guide Dogs' primary mission is to provide dog who blaze a trail of freedom for their visually impaired partners. A secondary and lesser know mission is the one the dogs have embedded in their brains: their name. For each dog is named for someone special and he or she carries the hopes and dreams of that person's legacy with them. 

Sponsorships

The naming process is a very special process.  A person or a family or group will come together and make a decision to honor someone.  At Berkeley, we decided to honor our retiring headmaster, Joseph A. Merluzzi: JAM.

Joseph A. Merluzzi holding puppy Jam upside down in his arms.

One year, we had one particular student, Austin Iglehart, who raised all the money himself and wanted to recognize and honor his football coach for being such a role model and mentor.  That was Coach. Our sponsor was shy.

Austin Iglehart with Coach on the football field.

And sometimes the honoree touches everyone's heart.  

Christie Bassett

This January, 16 year old Christie Bassett lost her life in a  tragic automobile accident.  In addition to being a competitive swimmer, she was a vivacious young lady with a zest for life and a love for dogs.

Christie with her Uncle Chris's career changed guide dog Johnny.
Christie is a little girl in this photo.

And I know that while you all may be thinking that this is very sad, but I don't know why this matters to the McLeans and why it should matter you.

Christie with Wally, Chip and Chris's current guide dog in training.
Wally is asleep on her lap. Christie is smiling.

When Jam went in for training, he had a problem: he had bad separation anxiety.  Perhaps you have seen the Jam Cam or remember the posts about all the problems we have been working with him on about separation anxiety.  Well, at some point, Southeastern felt that for Jam's mental health that he needed a break and he needed to go to someone who would help him not only with his anxiety but would help him complete his training and allow him to come back, eventually.

They sent him to Chip and Chris.

Chris with Jam.

Chip and Chris got him through.  Chris is Christie's Uncle.  Chris has also been volunteering with Southeastern since 1997. Both he and Chip have been our friends since we got Jam back.  

Sponsorships are a way to let that loved one live on in memory.  We were thrilled that we had an opportunity to be a part of helping to name a puppy after such a sweet girl. Our hope is that you feel that same way.  Will you be a part of helping her name to live on in the spirit of a lab, golden or goldadore puppy?  Just click on Walkathon and go to our walkathon page to make a donation.

Any donation is acceptable!  However, if your donation is $50 or over, I will personally handknit you a scarf like the one Jam is wearing.  Just tell me your favorite color.

Here's a video of Christie.

Virtual Valentine

By Fred
It seems like forever since Coach and I were out for lunch. Vacations, puppy camp, etc., it's a busy life, but I miss my outings with the little guy.

Today we had a mission, a simple mission, to visit several of the Dunedin gift shops and practice our Down/Stay. But first, a nice long walk, just to get our puppy craziness in check.

Usually at this time of the year I succumb to market and peer pressure and I have some flowers delivered to Cheryl at school. But lately the flowers have not been very nice. How hard is it to deliver some nice flowers? This year I was resolved to find something new.

As usual I discuss all of this with Coach...

Coach and I walked into several of the stores and he, tired out from the walk, was just perfect. Sit, down and stay, and just inches from all sorts of temptations. Very good dog.

Coach, is it too old-fashioned to get her a card? Virtual cards don't seem quite right. A hand-made card would be nice (and not at all predictable, coming from me).

But what about the missing flowers this year--do they need to be replaced with some other public display of affection?

Just in case...

Catching Poo: Oops, I did it again!

The morning did not start out well.  For starters, I had stayed up late watching Dexter.  (Note to self, DVR it! My days of staying up past 10 pm are long gone!) So, when the alarm went off, I was none too happy.  But I proceeded to get up and greet the day.  Coach was his usually calm self.  He rarely gets giddy in the morning.  Or at any time frankly.

We fixed up a peanut butter kong for him and had a minor mishap when Fred went to toss it in the car and missed and tossed it somewhere in the dark. He did find it though, even though it was a black kong, at 6:45 am in the pitch dark.  

"Found it!" Go Fred!  He placed it in the car.  Coach hops in and starts to lick the kong.  I give Fred a kiss goodbye.  

At School

Once we arrive at school, I lead Coach over to what I call the Horton Hears a Who flowers, but he isn't interested in doing his business.  He wants to smell the flowers.  

OK.  Fine.

We go inside the library.

I remember that today is book club.  In my calendar, today is also the department chair meeting.  Crap.  I've messed up.  I need to reschedule all of my book clubs!  What a major pain.  So I send out a long email explaining what I did and how we have to redo the meeting dates and choose from the following options.  Then Tim sends me an email that says the department chair meeting is on Wed.  Double crap.  Now I have to send an email saying I'm an idiot.

Isn't that lovely?  So I send that out.  What a great day.  I look at Coach.  Let's go tell Tim thank you for saving me more embarrassment.  So we start out for the upper division offices.  

Tim with Coach. Tim is sitting on the imagine bench and Coach is in a down stay beside him.

Coach and I go up the stairway and down the hall.  We stop to chat with Michele and then continue down the hall to Tim's office.  I turn left into his office and as I am about to sit down, I glance at Coach and notice that he is HUNCHING.

OMG!  I can't let this dog poop on Tim's carpet in his office after he just did this nice thing and saved me further embarrassment on all these emails.  So I did what evidently comes naturally to me: I put my hand behind Coach's butt and he pooped into it.

What was I thinking? With my other hand I raised up his hind end and said, in a slightly elevated tone of voice, "Tim! Get something!" Forgetting that I carry with me poop bags. I turn my head and all is lost because Coach has already left a big poo at the entrance of the office.  ACK!!

Now, you may be wondering what I was doing lifting his butt up in that air like that.  And to the uninitiated, it would seem like a foolish thing to do, but it so happens that when HRH Berkeley was in mid pee I grabbed her hind end and she immediately quit peeing.  So, here I was, mid-poo, as it were, with a new dog and I thought, "If it worked with one dog, surely it will work with this one." You can see where I am going with this can't you? So I picked up his rear end.

Oh no, brothers and sisters.  It did not work!  Rather it was like picking up a cannon. A loaded cannon. One you were going to aim and fire, because now I looked and there were THREE more pieces of poo on the floor and they must have SHOT OUT OF HIS BUTT WHILE I WAS HOLDING IT IN THE AIR.    I don't know what else could have happened. Holy crap.

Coach is bewildered by all of this.  Tim is laughing and talking it all very well and I... I am horrified and frantic.

"Wipes.  I need wipes."  I finally remember I HAVE poo bags and bag up all the poo. Sweet Kate Manley next door comes running over with wipes and hands me several and I think I actually barked at her for several more.  I blame my poo smeared hands! I'm sorry Kate!

I scrubbed the carpet, I threw out the poo. Then I washed my hands over and over again.  Back at my office, I left Coach with Jan and rushed back to Tim's office with the diffuser and a fresh pad filled with lavender oil to dispel any remaining poo odor.

Tim was such a good sport.  And as other people told me throughout the day, at least it wasn't the headmaster's office!

Coach Won't Get Out of the Car

I guess I blame myself. I was trying to figure out a way to make Coach, our Southeastern guide dog puppy, love the car.  Ellen, another puppy raiser, gave me some ideas for making Coach love the car and I decided to try it with his favorite toy and his favorite treat because we can't feed him a meal every time we go out in the car!

So, I started loading up a kong with peanut butter.  But I didn't fill it with peanut butter.  I just smeared it around the inside so there was a really good 5 minutes a fun in the kong.  Unfortunately, on Friday, I had outsneakied myself because on Friday I needed to drive to the fieldhouse, then drive to Academy of the Holy Names, then drive back to Berkeley, then drive home, then drive back to Berkeley for tailgate then drive home.

Getting Coach in the car was no problem.  He ran into the car.  Getting Coach into the car at Berkeley for the Academy was no problem, as the kong still had major peanut butter smells.  Coming back was the problem.

We walked up to the car and Coach eyed the car warily.  I opened the door and pulled out the twice used kong and held it out to Coach.  "Car in!" I said cheerfully.

Coach sniffed the kong and then gave me a baleful look.  It was clear the jig was up.  He knew there was no peanut butter in the kong.  I pulled the kong back and looked inside.  Crap!  Why did I do that? I just confirmed it!

He was still staring at me.  I stuck a finger in the kong and way down at the end was some hardened peanut butter.  I scraped a nail against it and came up with a smear of peanut butter.

"See, it has peanut butter!" I held out my hand and the kong but Coach was holding out for fresh peanut butter.  I squashed the old peanut butter against the ouside of the kong and held it under his nose.  The tip of his tongue started to come out.

"Aha! You do want it!"  I had him now.  I moved back and tossed the kong into the car.  I stood and in my commanding voice said, "Car in."

Coach looked at me and at the kong.  Then he started forward and hopped in.

Later, at school, I had to go to the library's workroom where we kept a jar of peanut butter and refill the kong with fresh.  Who knew Coach was such a demanding fellow?


But the real kicker came on Saturday when I started carrying two kongs smeared with fresh peanut butter.  I had learned my lesson and wasn't going to get caught out with old, dried up peanut butter on a kong again.  I had one kong for the trip out and one for the trip back.  I might even start carrying emergency peanut butter in my bag.  Like emergency wipes.  (Do they have tiny jars?  I have to look into that!)

I think he is so happy with this new routine that he's decided that he doesn't want to leave the car.  What do you think? Mind you this is after Fred has asked him to leave the car and I have started to ask him to leave.  Remember, this is a dog who couldn't wait to jump out of the car as soon as possible!

 

Walking Around Naked

Today, I made a major mistake.  I had Coach with me in the office and I needed to run over to another colleague's office and give her some paperwork.  I grabbed the folder and picked up Coach's leash.  

"Come on.  Let's go." Coach hopped up happily enough and trotted along beside me.  We walked through the library and up the hallway.  I stepped out of the library and started to walk through the Aye Arboretum.  Across the mound, I could see a couple of faculty members do a double take at me.  I was wearing a new outfit, but it wasn't THAT unusual.  Well, they were palazzo pants, but I thought they were rather stylish, and I got them on sale for $6! (I know! Seriously! Stein Mart rocks the sales, but I digress.) Then I noticed that one of the teachers was really giving me quite a look.

I mean, a real look.  Like a "what are you doing?" look. So I looked down.  

I had a naked dog.

OMG!  A naked dog.  A visible naked dog!!  Right there in the middle of everything! Holy naked puppy Batman!

I hot footed it over to the office and dropped off the paperwork.  What had I been thinking?  Walking out of the library without his coat on?  I don't know.  It was just one of those days, I guess.  Fortunately, I was not attacked by ravening hordes of students wanting to pet Coach.  Usually, the ravening hordes come out at lunchtime and we were having wings today.

However, later in the day, I did take off his coat for some specific groups to love on him.

Two girls from Coach Daly's advisory are petting Coach.

Coach Daly's advisory got to have some personal time with Coach.

At the Homecoming meeting one of the girls gives Coach a big fake kiss.

At the Homecoming meeting, I took off his coat upon request so the girls could love him up.  He is the most amazingly calm dog at being loved by oodles of sweet girls.  Jam would have been dancing on the ceiling.

Coach rolling around with his coat off.  Coat = Serious!

But after lunch, he was feeling frisky, so I let him roll around upstairs while we weeded books and waited for a freshman class to come and pick out reading material.  Yes, they still assign fun reading and aren't I the happy librarian who works at school where teachers love reading and want their students to love it as well.  I was in heaven suggesting books to kids. HEAVEN!!!

Bored Coach lying on the carpet sleeping.

Coach was mostly bored.  I ran around finding books.  He was in a sit stay or down stay.  However, at the end of the day, we took off his coat and he proceeded to be loved by very happy students.

A circle of students all petting Coach who is lying on his back.

Lesson learned: check your guide dog puppy for nakedness before leaving the office!