Meeting 2-25-2010

Hi all,

We had a meeting today at the library in Albemarle. We got to meet Hope's new guide dog, Shannon. Shannon is from The Seeing Eye in New Jersey. Hope had to travel to New Jersey to learn to work with Shannon as a team, and what team they make! Hope is part of the Graduate Council at Southeastern Guide Dogs. She helps the school by letting them know what blind people need and also helps people by answering any questions they may have. Hope's former guide, Muffin, lives with her and Shannon and is enjoying her retirement.

Our meeting tonight was inside. It was very cold and windy today. My mom said she even saw a light dusting of snow on the ground this morning. We practiced our basic obedience by doing stand-stays (always the hardest for us to learn); going in a square to practice forward, left-left/right-right, and right-about; sits; and downs. Our raisers traded dogs for a little while to get us puppies used to being worked by someone new. I recognized Susan immediately (she was the one I went to puppy camp with the first time). She didn't work me though.

After we got our wiggles out, our handlers traded back and then they practiced eating beside us while sitting on the floor. The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that they can keep us under control while they eat and we are not trying to get any people food. We are NOT allowed any people food whatsoever. There are some things that humans can eat that we cannot, for instance, chocolate. Another reason is that it teaches us bad house manners. We could learn to start stealing food from people or from their plates while they are not looking and that would just not be good. It is impolite. Good guide dogs should resist the urge to eat anything unless it is their specific diet and even then, they should wait for the 'okay' release before they eat. I did very good on the exercises we practiced today.

I have some pictures to show you that I will post soon. I have tried to post them in this post, but for some reason they will not upload. I am going to try a few things and see if I can get it to work. They are really good pictures and I would love to share them with you.

One more thing: instead of leaving to go to Florida for the weekend, we will be taking a trip to the beach instead. It is a lot closer to out home and is less costly, plus mom and dad are trying to save their money to go to Florida so, if Hugh were to get matched with a blind or visually impaired person, they could go see him. It is called Puppy Raiser Day and it is a very special day in which the puppy raisers get to watch the dog that they raised walk their graduation route with their new handler/owner. As soon as we get back from the beach, I will be going on a short puppy swap with Legion and his family. I will be in Concord and Legion will be here. He will get to blog in my place.

Lots of love,
Cameron