What's in a name?

Our last meeting with Don and Donna was the Annual Kayaking meeting, which is always great fun. Don owns a kayaking business so we all get to take the puppies out for a spin. I'm going to miss this meeting quite a lot. It was a wonderful puppy experience and a bunch of work for them to put together. Thank you Don and Donna for doing this!

Some of you may think that I gave Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley her name based soley on the fact that it would make for a good blog theme.

Wrong. I'll explain why she got her name and you'll see her earn her name in the video at the end of the post.

When we got HRH, oh so many months ago, there was a sweetness about her, but also a bit of the tartar. Something a little demanding and authoritative.



You can see it in this photo. "Sure, take my photo, but you will pay for waking me from my nap!"



She was very demanding as in the above photo. "You want me to do what?" But what was also surprising about HRH is how much she loved to work. She took to obedience training and loved to learn commands. Her sit is divine and her switch a piece of art.



"Yes, I know you want me to move, but I am going to nap now. Perhaps at a later time?" She seems to be saying.

You can see, we walked a delicate line with her. We had to balance working with what her kennel master called her litter's "soft" nature (which meant essentially that she was afraid of everything) and not coddling her. It was tough. She's very pretty and sweet. And those eyes. We hung tough and I think we made a brave little queen out of her.

I hardly ever see a droopy, tucked tail. And that is why I think this kayaking video is so interesting. She doesn't like the water. She didn't want to get wet. But she knew I wanted her to get in the kayak and go kayaking with me and Keegan and Laurel (the other puppy).

So, she figured it out. (Big thanks to Keegan's mom Cheryl for taking all the video for us! Nice work.)




Perhaps, she should rule the world.

Zumba

Last Tuesday, I took Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley to Zumba. It was one of those last things that she just hadn't experienced. A big, loud dance party! On the way over to Zumba, she was calm and collected.

Here she is with Stephanie before the dance party starts. She has no idea what is coming. Stephanie's dog Princess came to a Zumba class and wore herself out trying to follow the dance moves and ended up sleeping the last half of class. What would HRH do?

I hooked her into the one place on the bleachers on that had a spot that could hold a lab determined to leave. HRH eyed me suspiciously. I set up the camera and tripod. The Zumba teacher was prepped and ready. The Zumba participants were prepped and ready. We were all prepped and ready.



She was fairly relaxed. In fact, I did the stretching routine with her head on my foot. It was sweet. Next week, she goes in for training. I will miss her!

In the News Again!

Photo by Edmund D. Fountain (Times)

HRH made the St. Pete Times again. There's a lovely photo of her and an announcement of the donation the kids made to Southeastern Guide Dogs in Joe's honor for our next puppy: JAM.

Sensory Overload, Part 1

By Fred,
Yesterday was Berkeley's day home with me, normally a quiet day for her. While we work on basic obedience and commands, I've also been introducing some language such as "Time to make some coffee," which causes her to lead me to the kitchen, and "Time to go to bed now" (she heads toward the bedroom and her crate) and "Time to go to work now" (she heads toward my office). She loves to lead me around, almost as much as Cheryl enjoys doing the same (though Cheryl doesn't need any verbal cues).

But yesterday was not a normal, quiet day. At 9am some contractors arrived to fix a leak that was originating from my office window. There were three contractors in all, and each one seemed to hate the others, yelling and cursing at each other from the start, and occasionally one of them would peek in through the window at me and the dogs. Willow couldn't care less, but Berkeley was not at all pleased. "In the real world," I told her, "people yell at each other. It's OK."

Then the work began, first with a circular saw screaming its way through the thick mortar wall outside, screaming like a thousands nails on a chalkboard. Then a pause, more yelling, and then more sawing.

"Time to make some coffee," I said, and Berkeley was quick to agree.

We climbed back upstairs and stopped at the top. It's a left turn to my office and a right turn to the bedroom. The screaming and yelling had picked up, and now they were pounding on the wall with a hammer. "Time to go to work now," I said with a happy voice, waiting for her to turn left. Berkeley looked up at me politely but didn't move. "Time to go to bed?" I asked. She didn't need to be asked twice.

Coincidentally, Cheryl picked yesterday as the day to take Berkeley to a Zumba class (see Part 2).

Jam, Jam, Jam

Her Royal Highness (HRH) goes In For Training (IFT) on June 4th. That isn't much time. But we do have good news on the new dog front.

Our Student Forum raised enough money to be able to name another dog. This puppy will be named after our Headmaster Joseph A. Merluzzi, who is retiring after 24 years. He will be named JAM, after his initials (our new Headmaster is also named Joe).

Sparkly Duds!

We made the papers! Sarasota Herald Tribune photographer Kathryn Brass was taking photos at the Barkitecture event and asked to take a photo of Her Royal Highness (HRH). Of course we jumped in the photo as well. We couldn't resist. For more photos of the event, go to the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

You Meet All Sorts of People

I've heard that there is a Chinese curse that goes something like: may you leave in interesting times. The Southeastern Guide Dog Puppy Raiser Corollary is may you meet many interesting people.

Last Friday I took my car into Lincoln Mercury's body shop to get an estimate and was met by my estimater Wanda, who was this delightful older lady who was familiar with labs as she had previously owned one. She was about to pet Her Royal Highness when I explained about the coat and how she was working and couldn't be distracted. Wanda was great. She immediately made eye contact with me and dropped her hand. When we went back into the shop and neared the administrative assistant's desk, Wanda called out to her, "This dog is working! You CANNOT pet her when she has her coat on!"

The administrative assistant startled and looked up at us, "OK."

Wanda said she would go back and do my estimate and then be right back. Evidently, she did some more PR work because in about 3 minutes a man can out and peered around the admin's desk and said, "Where's the dog we can't pet?"

When she came back, she gave me my estimate and never even asked for the jacket to come off. She was a sweet lady, so I took off HRH's coat and let her pet her. HRH even broke with decorum and gave her a big smackaroo in the face, something she hardly ever does.

And then there are the others...

But you do sometimes meet the whackadoos. Friday night at Crabby Bill's, I was telling Fred the story of Wanda and had just gotten HRH settled under the table when a customer from another table stands up and comes over to our table.

She stands at out table and says the following:

"I have a therapy dog. I am now going to take my left hand and put it under the table..." At this point she has thrown out her left hand a bit like Vanna White pointing out the letter "E" and is on a downward curve toward HRH underneath the table.

"Please don't." I say. "Berkeley is a working guide dog in training and she has her coat on and can't be petted when she is working."

Before I can go on to say anything else about how guide dogs in training are different from therapy dogs. The woman leaps into the air and runs back to her table.

OK. That was weird.

Then you have the nice ones

So I was at Target and couldn't find something. I went to talk with one of the sales ladies to ask her where it might be. There happened to be a piece of popcorn about 5 inches from her foot. Some outrageously messy person had been spewing popcorn all over the store. We had been avoiding popped kernels for the entire Target visit. But here we were faced with a kernel. I put HRH into a down stay and asked my question.

"She seems to be staring at me rather intently." The saleslady said with a laugh.

"Oh, it's not you. It's that piece of popcorn in front of you."

"Well, I'll take care of that!" She scooped up the popcorn and stuck it in her pocket. "No popcorn for you." She looked at me. "Popcorn isn't good for them," and smiled. Then she answered my question.

I like the nice ones. They balance the crazy ones.