Advisory Chooses Southeastern Guide Dogs

I do have the best advisory there is.  I always do.  And for the past three years, I have had a wonderful group of very talented and funny girls and boys.  They are all juniors now and will be heading into their senior year next year, which makes me a little sad.

We had a spirit day today and all the advisories were supposed to pick a theme and dress up in costume.  Our kids decided to dress like Southeastern Guide Dogs.  Julia told them all "to wear black pants so they would look like Corky."

The Southeastern Guide Dogs (Girls only) with Corky and two Puppy Raisers (Me and Mrs. Fletcher).

Now you might notice in the photo above that there are just girls.  The girls got to wear the glitter letters and Caroline made headbands with felt dog ears on them for them, assuming the the boys wouldn't wear them.  This was confirmed this morning when Wade said, "Yeah, I'm not wearing that" and it was echoed by three other of the boys.

Good call Caroline! Julia brought nose paint, but not everyone was into that.

Just the girls who did nose paint, Caroline, Julia and Kimberly.  They rock!
Caroline made the ears and Julia made the shirts. Kimberly got it all to school on time.

 So, we took a photo of just the three who went whole dog, so to speak! 8-)

The whole advisory group. Everyone participated!  Such a nice group.

Here's the whole group.  I think they all rock.  They all participated and were great.  They are a very sweet group and Mrs. Fletcher and I have a lot of fun with them.

Coach's First Day at School

Today Coach went to school for a full day of work.  Because of his car sickness problem, we decided that a delayed breakfast was the best choice.

Coach is sitting at the far end of the kitchen by the pantry (magic) door.  He looks wistful and a bit hungry.

Coach didn't agree and sat most of the morning close by his dog food and the magic door where the dog food lives hoping that breakfast would be served.

Coach at the bottom of the passenger wheel well all curled up.  He's not asleep, but not looking at the camera either.

On the car ride in, I cranked the AC down to freezing and blew it just on Coach, because he is the most precious cargo.  He just sacked out and fell asleep.  But no puking!  So, that plan worked.

Coach is sitting on the floor beneath our bulletin board.  The board says, "What's Your Favorite Book?"

Here's Coach under our end of the year bulletin board where we asked everyone to write in their favorite book.  We got some great responses.  No one put in any dog books.

The Headmaster is seated and leaning over a bit to pat a sitting Coach on the head.

Later that morning we stopped in to say hello to the headmaster.  Coach was just as calm and sweet for Mr. Seivold as he is for everyone (sigh of relief!).  

I'm kneeling by Coach, who is seated and looking up at Coach Dom.  Dom has just opened his office door and is seeing his namesake for the first time.

That afternoon we drove over to the Straz and knocked on Coach Dominick Ciao's door to see if he wanted to meet his furry namesake. 

Coach is sitting in the locker room box with a #30 blue jersey behind him.  You can also see a blue helmet.

 We even got a tour of the locker rooms.  Coach got to sit in Austin's dressing area with his #30 jersey! Austin is Coach's sponsor.

Coach Dom and I are talking and I am holding Coach (the dog) in my arms.

Coach Dom asked some detailed questions about the puppy raising program at Southeastern Guide Dogs, like how long coach would be with me (until about May or June) and what do I teach him (basic obedience and socialization skills.  We also talked about what the trainers at Southeastern teach and what happens to Coach when he gets called in for training.

Coach Dom is holding Coach.  Coach (the dog) is staring into the camera.

I do think Coach Dom was pretty impressed with how laid back and calm Coach was. They seemed to get along very well.

Coach is sitting next to a sign that says Play Like a Champion Today!

Coach seemed ready for the start of the football season!  Go Bucs!

The Importance of the Stay Command

Last Monday I had an appointment with a lady parts doctor. Monday being one of my bring Berkeley to school days meant that she was coming to the doctor's office with me. Not a problem. She has been much more mature since her puppy camp with John and Angel and seems to be barking less and not being so autocratic.

Good for us!

This was a new doctor, so I had to go to their concierge services to be checked in first. Berkeley went into a down under without a problem and went right to sleep for the whole interview. Good girl.

Then we went up the elevator and into the waiting room where we waited patiently to be called. The nurse looked at us a bit funny, but decided that she would choose to ignore the dog at my side completely and made no mention of her AT ALL. I thought this a bit strange, but, hey, whatever gets you through the day. Berkeley decided to snub her as well and when we hit the examining room she did a down under the chair and a stay and went to sleep.

When the doctor arrived, he was delighted to see Berkeley and asked all sorts of questions about her. She poked her head out and thumped her tail a few times (she is quite the tail wagger), but ultimately decided that our discussion was boring (read: didn't involve her) and went back to sleep.

At this point the doctor stands and gets one of those full coverage (ha ha!) paper sheets and says I need to take off my skirt and he will come back to do the examination. Berkeley is still in a down stay under the chair and is still asleep, so I disrobe and jog over to the medical table with the sheet around me sarong style. The examining table is about 10 feet away from where Berkeley is sleeping under the chair. Berkeley is directly in front of me and to my back is the door where the doctor will come through. Now that I am half naked and on the table I am starting to realize that I have made a huge error in judgment but am unsure if I have time to correct it or even how I can correct it. Will she STAY? Do I have time to jump off? Should I jump off? Is she deep asleep? Should I test it?

Before I can try anything, the doctor walks in and Berkeley comes ALIVE!

"People! People have entered my realm!" She emerges from under her chair. I half stand on the examining table and get a blast of cold air on my bare behind. I sit down quickly.

"BERKELEY! STAY!" She barely registers that I am there. After all, I am half naked and nearly shouting, she is Her Royal Highness. Why would she deign to see a naked crazy person yelling commands when there are professionals in the room?

She walks towards the doctor. "Stay!"

"It's alright. She's pretty." I gnash my teeth. Did I ask if she was pretty? NO! I have no panties on! I can't get off this table! I can't do anything.

"Berkeley, come here." That she recognizes. She finally looks at me and walks over. I bend over, carefully mind you, and grab for her leash. However, the examining table is REALLY TALL. This is a bad idea. I see this. The lady parts doctor sees it and so does the unseeing nurse who still is trying to act like there isn't a dog in the room.

"Just let her run free," my doctor says.

Ah, what the hell. This will be an interesting examination.

Note: There will be no photos for this post.

Berkeley Loves Mad Men

By Fred
We got a new DVD player. So while I was playing with the new settings and changing the wiring, I noticed that Berkeley was very interested. She is crazy about me, of course, but she doesn't normally just sit and stare like I was made out of sausage.

I moved back a little to see the screen and realized it wasn't me after all--Berkeley was fascinated by the opening of Mad Men, which I'd been playing over and over. She had never shown any interest in the TV before, much less Mad Men, which is not the kind of show that most puppies would like anyway.

OK, but what were the chances she would do it again, and do it when I can trick Cheryl into thinking that I'm exaggerating or just saying something stupid (which I almost never do).

That night Cheryl and I were in the living room and I said "Berkeley loves Mad Men."

Cheryl squinted at me.

"I'm not kidding," I said. "Get your camera ready to take a video. She will go nuts when it comes on."

"Mmm-hum," Cheryl said.


Video Narration: The opening credits of Mad Men show on the screen, with cool music and a stylized animation of men, women and buildings. Berkeley sits transfixed, tail wagging, and watches until the music dies away. Does she like the music or the video most?

HRH Visits the Common Folk and Rides a Trolley

Last Thursday was our monthly local meeting and it involved a ride on the Jolley Trolley and a trip down the Clearwater Beach Boardwalk to Coneheads Ice Cream (located in the Red Roof Inn on Clearwater Beach. They are big supporter of SEGD, so please support them! Plus their ice cream rocks!).

As we gathered near the trolley stop the first trolley came screaming by, saw the huge group of us with our dogs, never slowed down, and took the left curve with what I thought was an amazing amount of luck considering that physics should have had him on two wheels and screeching! We debated as to whether we should wait for another trolley and experience the same rudeness or walk to Coneheads and take a trolley back. We decided to explore the pier a bit and try another trolley.

The wooden pier was in and of itself quite an experience and Berkeley didn't at first find it to her liking. I wasn't sure if it was the smell of fish, the birds, or the weird planking that made her nervous, but you can see by the photo that she had her tail tucked and was taking things very cautiously.



We've learned to not coddle this behavior but to power on and be matter of fact about things. So we continued down the dock. Fortuitously, we ran into a very nice boat captain (and I am sorry to say, I didn't catch his name) who kindly let ALL OF US get on and off his boat. Talk about a real interesting experience. Berkeley wasn't big enough to do the jump onto the boat, but once we got on the boat I let her explore.



She wandered around and then sat under the benches and took a breather. I think she was wondering if this was one of those ill fated 3-hour cruises! 8-) But soon enough another trolley happened by and this time a very jolley man was driving it and he was quite happy to take the lot of us to Coneheads.



Berkeley got on without too many problems and fell asleep at Fred's feet for the rest of the trip to ice cream. Then we walked back to our car with Princess and Stephanie, making it a royal walk of sorts. 8-)

The next day, we took HRH Berkeley out for an official outing, since she had had her 12 week shots and could be about in public now. We started at Panera, where she was a dream in line, sitting and laying down as necessary.



Then we moved to Lowe's. I was really pleased that within one day she went from a fully tucked tail to one that was only turned down a bit at something new. She did pull away a bit from Fred, but other than that, there was no tail tucking. She walked beautifully on the leash as well.



All in all, HRH made a grand outing in society.

One Step at a Time

Admittedly, our little HRH Berkeley bears only a slight resemblance to the Warrior Queen Boudicca in the painting above by John Opie. I think it is mostly in the fierce eyes and wicked mouth.

None of those were in attendance in her next photo where she chose to ignore the stairs with disdain. "Really? You want me to walk up and down the stairs? How could you?"


It was a weird phenomenom. She ran up and down the two steps on the deck outside with no problem, but seemed to be afraid of the set of four and the really long set of stairs in the house. With Bingo, I think we took the stairs too fast, so I wanted to work with her slowly on them,especially as she showed signs of trepidation.

The last few nights I would walk her over to the steps and in a casual voice say, "How about these steps?" She gave me some funny looks and wouldn't come near them for a couple of nights. But the tail did wag. The last two nights, she came near the steps and I was able to interest her in them enough that she put her paws up on the first step. Then she looked down, realized where she was and freaked out and jumped off the steps.

"Today," I thought. "Today she will make it up some steps."

I planned my attack. I went to get a toy as a reward and then positioned HRH. At first she did the disdainful sleeping thing. Then it was like Boudicca came down and possessed her. She lit up and barked at me. (I was holding the toy and asking her to come get it and it was out of reach at the top of the stairs. So unfair!)

"Britons Unite! We will conquer these stairs, show this crazy woman and then get that toy to shut her up and make her stop annoying me."



With that, she proceeded to methodically climb the stairs. She didn't do it in a rush, like Bingo. She did it with thoughts of falling backwards, so she went slowly and carefully. Very methodically. Almost easily, one might say.



At the top she turned around and sat and I gave her the toy. I detected a small smirk but that could have been the toy hitching up her jowls, right? She didn't play me. Not me. She's a puppy.

She's not Boudicca. Not really...

HRH Goes to the Vet

Her Royal Highness Berkeley had her first vet appointment last week at Animal Hospital of Northwood with Dr. Woodman, who is also a puppy raiser. We were the only ones in the waiting room when we arrived, but soon enough a couple of other dogs came in with their owners. It was such a new experience to have someone say, "You have such a good puppy!" HRH was sitting and observing the new arrivals with a bit of a glacial, haughty air. Distant, but interested. The tail was slightly wagging, but no indication that a lunge was imminent.

What a difference!

We went into the examining room and met with the nursing staff, who were very sweet. In addition, I was offered something to drink (that was super nice!) while I waited (which wasn't very long at all) for Dr. Woodman. HRH needed a flu booster shot.

I think HRH won over the Dr. with her puppy cuteness, but that may be just my desire to do her bidding. Dr. Woodman and his staff won me over. I'm so glad we switched vets to his office. We definitely felt better taken care of and the service was more attentive and prompt. Plus, Dr. Woodman is a fellow puppy raiser, and how can you not like that. We'll be switching our chocolate lab Willow over into his care as well.

Daddy's Girl

Some of you might remember the posts we did about dog beds. We bought these ginormous dog beds from Orvis. They were so big that full sized Bingo AND Willow could sleep on them. We have one of them downstairs in the TV room and one upstairs in our bedroom.

Berkeley found the one downstairs pretty quickly, the first week actually. She had been pretty good on her potty training, so we didn't pay much attention until she squatted.

"ACK! She's peeing on the bed!"

"No! Berkeley! Quick, take her outside."

Rats, that's when you have to shake yourself. Get in puppy mode. Tiny bladder mode. If you let her out an hour ago, chances are, she has to go again. Every nap, take her out again. Having an older dogs lures you into complacency. Big bladders, longer times between pee breaks. Peeing on the bed, however, big no-no. We have to undo the covers, then wash them, then undo the covering of the bedding and clean that and search to see if there is leakage. All in all, a big process. Needless to say, it happened once more, before we said, "No more bed until she is 100% potty trained!"

So imagine my surprise when I am at a conference session and I get a text message with a photo showing HRH (her royal highness) Berkeley on the bed a mere few days after we had enacted our No Bed Policy.

"Why?" I text back thinking succinctness will also imply other emotions.

"She ran and got in it and I am weak."

Ah. Houston, we have a problem. 8-)

Was it Berkeley?

Photo by Melisa: thanks

I got to see our new Berkeley yesterday in the puppy kennel at Southeastern Guide Dogs. And I may have even held her for a minute. About 20 of us puppy raisers were in the room, all sitting on the floor, while 30 more people stood in the oppressive heat outside, including Mikey's puppy raiser, who generously offered to hold Bingo while I went in to catch a glimpse of our new six-week old black lab female. Cheryl was busy meeting with some students yesterday, so she missed out.

I discovered that grown adults, when asked to sit on the floor and play with puppies, will quickly transform themselves into giggling six-year-olds (myself included), each one cooing and clicking and whistling to attract some attention. As luck would have it, Berkeley was in the group of puppies. I was at the far end of the room and, reminiscent of my first dance in the seventh grade, I couldn't attract a female to save my life.

Finally I picked up up a squeaky toy and gave it a squeeze and two of the puppies came running: a male and a female. The puppies aren't officially named yet, but this litter has only two females, so despite my past experience with luck, I'm pretty sure I got to meet and hold little Berkeley. And she seemed happy to see me.

Back outside, poor Bingo was hot and panting to excess. He gets so unusually hot even when, like yesterday, he's just sitting in the shade. Part of this is self-induced, I'm sure, since he is so exuberant all the time, like a car engine running at full speed. Before I went into the puppy kennel he had a quick poop, and like the poop at the beach a few weeks ago, it was a small poop that just popped out unannounced. I'm wondering if this pooping thing is heat related--he's only done it twice.

From there we all walked to the training kennels, a place I really wanted to visit, but by this time I was getting concerned about Bingo's panting, so we went home. He'll be back in three weeks as a incoming freshman. And of course we'll be back in two weeks to pick up Berkeley.

I continue to be impressed with the people at SEGD and with the facility itself. What a clean and beautiful place, all due to donations and to people who like dogs.

New Puppy

We are having a problem uploading the video of the Sara/Gunner litter that was born on April 29th, 2010. One of those cute, fuzzy, black fur balls is our bundle of female joy. As soon as I can figure it out, I will add the video. She will be called Berkeley in honor of our school's 50th anniversary. The Middle Division's Animal Club and Upper Division's Student Forum raised the money to pay for a naming sponsorship!

I am so proud to work for such a great school with such wonderful kids and faculty and administration and trustees, not to mention the people at SEGD who helped to make the naming happen. It is going to make 2010/2011 a truly marvelous year for everyone!