Back to School with Chemistry!

This week we had a full week of classes.  Coach and I went to the Honors Chemistry classroom to teach thesis statements and research. Ms. Schneider is one of the Honors Chemistry teachers and she also happens to be a good friend.  She recently donated the earnings of the Serve Tutors to Coach's Walkathon effort in order to help the SLPs name a puppy.  That donation was over $800!

She is also very involved with the St. Francis Society which helps spay and neuter homeless and feral  cats.  They are also very active in finding homes for kittens and adoptable cats.  As you can imagine, she has all sorts of interesting kitty cat smells on her, coupled with the chemistry smells!  Coach loves her.

Here is a photo of Coach sitting next to Ms. Schneider.

We had two class periods with each Honors Chemistry class: one to talk about thesis statements and then one to talk about research and annotated works cited and the podcast assignment.  Coach generally remain sleepy and quiet nearby.

However, during one class, Ms. Schneider and I were sitting at the long table in the front of the class and students would bring their thesis statements up to us to have them approved.  Coach was sleeping in between our chairs.  Ms. Schneider had wheels on her chair and started to roll back without realizing that sleeping Coach had his tail directly under the wheels of her chair.  The wheel caught up his tail hair and zipped it into the wheel covering mechanism, which then yanked it out of his tail in a big hank.


Coach leaped straight up into the air going from sound asleep to immediately awake in zero to 100 flat.

All of the students cried, "Oh! Ms. Schneider!" and rushed to the front of the classroom.  Coach had crowded in close to me and was giving Ms. Schneider the hairy eyeball.

Now, you have to know something about Ms. Schneider.  She's a very no nonsense, kind of person.  So, with all the class looking on and Coach over at my side, she says, "Oh, you're ok," and patted her leg.

Now, Coach never let out one little peep. In fact, at this point, he scoots a little closer to Ms. Schneider and wags his tail.

"You probably just want me give you a big apology." Coach circled around to her, wagging his tail and sat down looking up at her.  The kids all relaxed and started to sit back down.

Soon the next class started and Coach was off into dreamland.

Coach, lying up against the wall dreaming.

The Honors Chemistry podcast project just isn't interesting enough to hold his attention.

Saved by the Bounce

Today was a calm day for Jam.  He seemed to have less than the normal amount of testosterone racing through his system resulting in a calm and steady, dare I say it, guide dog like presence today.

Apart from the small incident of leash tug of war (I won by virtue of taking him upstairs and making him do obedience for 10 minutes, which the kids reading up there found incredibly amusing), he was very good on the leash except for one incident on the way back to the library.

As we were walking through the mall to the library, a freshman boy in front of us started to bounce his tennis ball as he was walking.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Bouncey, bounce. Bounce.

Jam stopped and seemed to quiver all over.  Every hair seemed to stand on end like he was electrified.  I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next.  Would he explode?  Or would he leap at the ball?

So before anything bad could happen I called out, "Hey, could you stop bouncing the ball until he can't see  you?"

The boy turned and saw that Jam was very nearly ready to pop.

"Yes, ma'am," he said cheerfully and walked away clutching his tennis ball.

Jam watched him out of the corner of his eye until we were headed off in another direction.

"Good boy Jam.  What a good boy you are."  I patted his head marveling that all of his hair was now flat against his skin.  "What a good boy you are."

A Very Observant Puppy

Sometimes I forget that Jam is a lab.  That he has a history of hunting and chasing in his genes.  Some things will just come naturally to him.

So the other day when I was down in the lower division library in a meeting I was surprised to find Jam staring very intently at something.  But we couldn't figure out what it was. We followed his line of sight.

This year's theme for reading in lower division is Soar Into Reading and they have bird houses all over the library.  Bird houses with fake birds living in them.  Bird houses with fluffy fake birds all around them.  Most of the faux birds are very small, but there were these two owls...

Out of the entire library, Jam had found the two big owls and he stared at them.  He still followed commands and even went over to pose by them.  But he was aware of them and what they were.

I thought he showed enormous restraint.  Good boy, Jam.

Indestructible Bone

Turns out, Her Royal Highness Berkeley has the best teeth on the planet. They are made of solid diamonds and can chew through a block of wood in seconds flat. In fact, in a race between HRH and the dreaded Formosan termite HRH might win if the goal were to chew up an expensive dog toy that marketed itself as indestructible.

If the package said triple seamed and made from extinct weatherproof sloths who died from sleep and old age, never from a cut, tear or stab wound, then it took ten seconds longer for her to rip through it.

At the last puppy meeting we were told to look for Nylabones, but I was thinking about the greenies and easy chews that she had easily demolished. No, no, they said. There are others. Much harder. Tougher bones.

These bones are not at MY Petsmart. So I went to another. There they were. Big fat bones. HARD, INDESTRUCTIBLE BONES. Hmm, yeah. I had been told that before.

We would see.

This video was taken in the library. We learned to never let her chew this bone in the library because

1. It makes a hell of a racket when she flings it around and it hits the metal shelves!

2. She cries or growls when it doesn't fall apart like she wants it to

3. The hopping, dancing and butt jumping is extremely destracting to the children and to me and really funny and we don't do our work and end up taking video and laughing at her, which is bad, very bad.

It should be quiet in the library. Bad HRH. Bad Librarian. 8-)

Getting a Feel for School

Monday I took Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley into to school for her official meeting with the Headmaster. She had a quick meeting with him when we brought her home at 9 weeks, but she was groggy and didn't really know what was going on. This time, she had on her puppy coat (she looks slightly like a parade float in it, but moves majestically as royalty should) and I was eager to point out her easy execution of the sit command.

We entered his office and of course the first request was:

"Is the coat coming off?" And, I don't know about you, but when the Headmaster wants something, you do it. Plus, when HRH sits and gives you her you will love me stare as see below, you do what they want.



With the coat off, she became touchable (everyone at school has been pretty good, with some notable exceptions, about sticking to the no touch or acknowledge rule when she has her coat on, the kids are especially good at it). So, the Headmaster made his feelings for her known.


Later, we visited the Director of Communications to drop off her 6-week portrait in case there might be a need to use it to announce her in any of the school newsletters. We also found out that the bookstore only stocked school spirit dog shirts in small sizes. Imagine that. As if HRH would attend a pep rally in an inappropriate outfit. That will be soon corrected!

Lastly, after rounds, we walked past the library doors, where inexplicably, HRH went over to them and sat down. Almost as if to say, "Back to work."

It will be a good year.

Bingo's First Official Outing - Day 3

Last night we tried on Bingo's SEGD coat for the first time in preparation for his first official trip out to school on Thursday. Here he is in his puppy coat:

He is handsome in his blue coat.

I was pretty nervous about the school visit. Bingo wasn't. I walked him and made sure he went to the bathroom outside at our house. Then Fred and I figured out how to secure him on the floorboard in the Honda (guide dogs don't ride on the seats, they sit on the floorboard) so that he would not be mobile but would have a bit of futzing around room. Once that was worked out, we were on our way. He fell asleep. Once we arrived at school, I walked him in the grass for a few minutes . . . then we walked to the lobby and our school visit began! Here Bingo is happily greeting a few people from Admissions, Reception, Alumni Relations and the Headmaster's Executive Assistant.

Of course, Bingo charmed them all. Notice, please, that he is sitting to be properly petted.

Then the Headmaster arrived and gave him some tips on proper decorum at school and expected behavior (which must have worked, because later that day, for the first time ever, when we gave Bingo the sit command, he actually SAT on his own! Such is the power of our headmaster.)

Bingo also dropped in on the Upper Division Director and connected with him very quickly! I think Bingo is very glad I am the Upper Division Librarian, because he is going to be spending most of his time in Upper Division. We also visited the Lower Division Library and the new librarian there, who gave Bingo some much needed water.

Bingo was only there for about an hour and a half, but he had a huge morning. He was admired by all the students he met and it seemed that the teens were just as excited about him as the little kids were. It was really sweet. It's going to be a great learning year both for Bingo and for me.