Becky's Guide Dog Etiquette Contest

Many of you may already be familiar with Becky's blog, Cruisin' with Cricket. Becky's goal is to raise awareness about blindness, retinitis pigmentosa, and guide dog etiquette. I have learned so much from following her blog. And as a puppy raiser, I am motivated to do my best for Cabana's future partner by reading about Becky's experiences with Cricket.

Becky and I are supporting and promoting one another in her current Giveaway. She will be giving away a cork wristlet with matching key fob and coin pouch. These are all items that I made personally, using cork fabric, a beautiful leather-like fabric that is animal- and eco-friendly. (Cork fabric is also a great vegan alternative to leather, in addition to being stain- and water-resistant.)



Please stop by her site and leave a comment or question about your experience with guide dogs or guide dog etiquette. She's hoping to get at least 50 comments, so please add your input! A random winner will be chosen to receive my handmade items.

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Empty Poop Bags - What a Relief!

A couple months ago, Cabana started the habit of needing to poop on our morning walks. Even though she goes poop first thing in the morning and we go for a walk only about an hour later, the walking was making her need to go again. If I tried to make her go before our walk, I'd just wait and wait and wait on our lawn with her--but she needed the walking to stimulate her bowels.

On our walks, Cabana would show signs of needing to relieve, like pulling over toward patches of grass or walking in a zigzagging fashion. When she started behaving like that, I would look for a good place (i.e., not someone's fastidiously manicured lawn), then I would give the command, and she would go. She was very good about waiting for permission.

However, my puppy group leader said that we needed to help Cabana be even more controlled about her relieving. And we needed to break that habit, because she was needing to relieve 9 times out of 10 (she's got a regular little system!). So we picked a designated spot on our route where she could relieve if necessary. She would not be allowed to relieve anywhere on our walks except there.

It took a couple weeks, but Cabana was able to handle that. We had a lot of success with that plan. If Cabana needed to go before or after we had reached that spot, I would give an emphatic "No!" (I think in the manual, it says you should act like she's about to go poop on white carpeting) and I would make her sit for a minute or so. The urge would pass, and we would continue our walk.

Now Cabana rarely even uses her designated spot to poop. I still stop there and ask her to do her business. Sometimes, she'll pee there, but it has been weeks and weeks since she's needed to poop on our walks.

So I come home with an empty poop bag...and a happy tired pup!

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Fun Day Shirt Update

CURRENT ORDER INFO: If you'd like to place an order, please send me an email (see profile). We have t-shirts in adult and youth sizes, as well as adult hooded sweatshirts and full-zip hooded sweatshirts!

Guide Dogs' Fun Day in San Rafael is only 3 weeks away! Our puppy group will be selling t-shirts as pictured above (mens/unisex S-XXL and youth S-XL) AND hoody sweatshirts (mens/unisex S-XXL). The shirts are $15, hoodies are $25. All shirts/hoodies are in navy. Quantities are limited so stop by our booth early!

My family, Cabana and I will NOT be able to attend because we'll be out of town. Sorry to miss the opportunity to meet some of you!

Proceeds from our shirt sales will go toward harnesses for graduating pups. I'm HOPING that Cabana will have need for one of those harnesses someday....

Pictured in the photo above is my Daughter A who designed the shirt. Yay, A! I can tell Cabana is very sleepy in this photo--her ears hang low when she's tired!

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Coming Along

Although I wouldn't call them best friends, Cabana and Angie are learning to get along. If it were only up to Cabana, I might find the two of them cuddled up on her dog bed together, like in cute photos you see in calendars or on coffee mugs. But Angie is the one who'd have none of that. She's 14 years old and quite set in her ways. She tolerates Cabana, but she won't put up with Cabana's eagerness to sniff her posterior orifice.

Still, the fact that Angie is staying put on this lounge chair while Cabana sits beside her on the ground is tremendous progress in my book. And I didn't even put Cabana in a sit--she sat there completely on her own. We've come a long way since this photo, where Angie would beat a hasty retreat whenever Cabana was in the same room.

It seems like Cabana has learned to pay less attention to cats on our walks. In the past week, she either hasn't seen them or hasn't cared enough to see them. I hope it's the latter. If she can be less distracted by cats, MAYBE there's hope for her being less distracted by dogs.

I was pretty discouraged by a recent post on the Guide Dogs blog about career changed dogs. Sharon Davis of Aurora, CO, describes her feelings after her puppy Argos got career changed. She is a puppy group LEADER (i.e., she has much more of a clue about what she's doing than I do), and she was not able to help Argos overcome his dog distraction. She says, "...he just wanted to play with those other dogs." I know there's nothing more that Cabana would love than to play with the other dogs we see on our walks.

Still, I know it doesn't help to dwell on what may or may not be. I need to focus on doing the best with the puppy I've got, and I do feel encouraged when I see the teeny tiny baby steps of progress that Cabana is making.



Speaking of which, I've noticed my garden is progressing very nicely. I planted the veggies in this planter box on June 22. Click here to see how they looked just over a month ago. Last night, we had homemade pizza and salad. I used tomatoes, basil, lettuce and arugula, all harvested from my little garden. My zucchini plants are the huge leaves in the back. I think we're going to have zucchini coming out of our ears in about a week!

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Back to the Black Poodles

Not many folks ventured guesses on the baby/black poodle post. I drew quite a blank when I first looked at it myself, but here's how my daughter and I each interpreted the exhibit. Of course, there is no correct answer, and I'd still love to hear more of your opinions, if you have any!

My thoughts: Dogs' lives are centered around humans, so even a human infant exerts influence and control over dogs. The baby is powerful, while the dogs all have to obey. I didn't think of this as being a positive statement, but more indicative of how humans have too much power over all animals in general, not just dogs. We say what they can and can't do, whether they live or die. We try to create too much order by imposing superficial and unnatural behaviors, shown by the poodles standing in rigidly defined circles.

Daughter A: The poodles represent society since it is a breed that people exert a lot of control over, with their coiffed pompadour hairdos and oftentimes luxurious human-centered lifestyles. The baby in the center symbolizes purity, while the poodles symbolize social pressures, media, and other evils, waiting to manipulate and sully the purity in all of us.

To read a bit more about the exhibit, click here.

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Good Report from Sitters

This morning, I picked Cabana up from the puppy sitter's. She got a pretty good report. The puppy sitters said that she had very good house manners, but she didn't like getting into cars. In the past week, I have noticed that Cabana has been hesitant to get into our car as well--maybe she hit her leg getting in one day? Part of the problem is that she BOUNDS into the car, rather than calmly stepping up into it. We have a Toyota Rav4, and she sits on the floor of the middle seats, not the far back--so it's not a high step up. I need to work on getting her to go in more sedately this week.

The other thing Cabana didn't like there was getting into her crate, whether at night or during the day. They said she was fine once she was in--she didn't bark or whine. But they had to push her to make her go in. I wondered if this might be because they have 2 other dogs and a cat, and maybe she didn't want to be confined when the other animals were on the loose. At our house, although I can't say Cabana is eager to get in, she does enter of her own accord.



Two days before I took Cabana to the puppy sitter's house, their cat had a litter of kittens! Now, at 5 days old, they are beginning to open their eyes. They were adorable mewling little things. Cabana even got to "meet" one of them--she sat very still and seemed highly intrigued. They've already got homes for all of them, so thankfully, there was no temptation on our part to take one off their hands!

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What's with the Poodles?

Cabana is at a puppy sitter's house this weekend. To be a GDB puppy sitter, you must attend half the puppy meetings (or something like that). Our group had a puppy sitter for a while, but then she stopped coming, most likely because no one ever used her services. Not as a reflection of her abilities, but more because no one needed their puppy to be puppy sat. So earlier this summer during my week of alone time, I would have loved to take Cabana to the puppy sitter's, rather than the GDB kennels--but she hadn't been coming to the meetings and wasn't eligible to puppy sit. Last week, she started coming back to the meetings, and I felt that it would be nice to utilize her services. It would be encouraging to her, a respite for me and my family, and good practice for Cabana.

So today, being puppy-less, we decided to spend the day in San Francisco. First, we went to the Renegade Craft Fair, where my daughters and I drooled over all the fun items (and my husband patiently humored us). We stopped at Emily Martin's booth, The Black Apple. For anyone familiar with Etsy, Emily is one of Etsy's top sellers with over 23,000 sales! She's what every Etsian aspires to be. She's even been on Martha Stewart's show. And when I asked if I could take a photo of her and her booth, she gave me the sweetest pose! I felt so privileged to meet her.


Then, we went to SFMoMA (Museum of Modern Art). I personally enjoy abstract art and the way its message is left open to the beholder's interpretation. The exhibit that attracted me most was a pristinely white baby doll, lying on an 8-pointed gold star, and surrounded by hundreds of black poodles.

It was so interesting! I asked each of my family members to tell me what they thought the artist was trying to convey. And I'd like to ask you all the same thing. WHAT does it mean--the white baby, the black poodles, the star, the concentric circles?

In a few days, I'll post what my family members said. Of course, there's no right answer, and I'm not sure what the artist herself meant by it. Please don't do any online research--just post from your own gut feelings!! I'm curious to hear what you think!

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Murphy's Law

Today, a friend invited me, my daughters, and Cabana to her house for lunch. She has a lovely swimming pool in her backyard, so my daughters got to swim. But my friend asked that Cabana not be allowed to go in the pool (she didn't want dog hairs clogging her pool filter). Since Cabana doesn't like to swim anyway, I said that's totally fine, not a problem!

So of course, today, since Cabana wasn't ALLOWED in the pool, she decided she WANTED to go in!! I was flabbergasted. She kept putting her paws down onto the first step in the pool and would have gone in further, but I kept pulling her back out. We've been to this friend's house before, and Cabana didn't show ANY previous interest in being in their pool--so who on earth knows WHAT made her decide that now she wants to be a "real Labrador" and go for a swim.

But my friend's garden is beautiful, so I took a few pretty pics. Too bad I couldn't take any action shots of Cabana in the pool (or even BY the pool; I just didn't think of it at the time, don't you hate it when that happens?).

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Tuesday Topics 20 - Topic-less

On the occasion of my 20th Tuesday Topic, I have realized that my topics are running dry! Although I may resurrect Tuesday Topics in the future, they will be more sporadic instead of weekly.

THANK YOU to all who have answered my questions, whether they were no-brainers, silly, introspective, or personal. I have learned so much, and although I've said it before, I'm so blessed by this online community who have taken time to read my blather and post such helpful comments and encouragement.

But I'm not going anywhere. Tuesday Topics was a good way to ensure that I published a post at least once a week, but I'll still post on a fairly regular basis.

Update on my discouragement post of last week: As your comments predicted, things have been going better with Cabana. Funny how when life is stressful, our dogs pick up on it, and it shows in their behavior as well as ours. Now that this week is a bit calmer (although only just a bit), Cabana seems more relaxed, too. I appreciate everyone's encouraging comments. I think I do forget how far Cabana has come, and it helps to be reminded.

I took the above photo this afternoon. I realized I hardly ever take photos of Cabana in her jacket. This one (in my opinion, if not anyone else's) might even be worth entering for the calendar!

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Feeling Grateful

Yippee, my busy week is coming to an end! I have a show this Sunday where I'll have a booth (I make purses and accessories), so this week has been endless sewing. My workshop is in my garage, and Cabana enjoys being out there with me. I set up the ex-pen as a barrier, and she sits in the sun and watches the world go by. Kids on bicycles and skateboards, neighbors walking their dogs, gardeners cutting lawns--everything is SO interesting to Cabana. She's very content there and has never tried to jump over the ex-pen, even though she probably could--but I keep a pretty close eye on her, just in case.

Our neighbors across the street have always been a bit of a thorn in my side. There are at least 65 people living in one house (okay, maybe only about 10, but still, it's a lot of people for one house), each of whom have their own car (in the photo, you can see 4 of their 52 cars sitting in front of their house). And they like to drive up to their house with their car windows down and their music blaring (thanks for sharing, people!).

Also, they have been painting their house and landscaping their front lawn for...oh, about 5 years. They work on it for a day or two, then they leave all the ladders and equipment and dug-up dirt sitting there for 5 months--that's been their typical work cycle. I'm all for do-it-yourself-ers, and I understand that it's hard to make time for house projects with a full-time job and kids, etc. Still, I've always wondered if they would EVER get these jobs done!

Well, this summer, I'm happy to report that they've been making fairly steady progress. And the BEST part of it is that Cabana loves it! It's like her own personal reality TV show--"The Neighbors Get To Work." They are a constant stream of entertainment as they all come and go. So, I have a lot more positive feelings toward these neighbors now. Amazing how a having a dog can change your attitude about some pretty random things!!

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Tuesday Topics 19 - Doggone Discouraged

Although yesterday I posted 9 awesome things that Cabana does well, I could just as easily have come up with a list of things Cabana doesn't do so well. At the 9 month marker, I am realizing that our time left with Cabana before she enters formal training is getting short--and there are still so many kinks to work out in her behavior.

Cabana is much better at walking with a loose leash--but if there are any cats, dogs or humans within a 200 yard radius, the loose leash goes by the wayside. We can't even follow a person walking ahead of us at a comfortable distance because she stays in her alert mode, trying to catch up with the person.

We took Cabana to a 4th of July party, and she did fairly well overall. But she still greets our friends way too rambunctiously, wanting to jump and nibble all over their hands. Even when I am completely ready and expecting these behaviors, with my hand on her collar to give the corrections, she persists in doing it almost all the time.

And even though Cabana is very good in the house, after all these months, I still feel like I am not used to having a dog. No matter what else I may be doing, a portion of my brain is always "on", thinking about what Cabana is doing, where she is, how long it's been since she's been out to do her business, whether there's water in her dish, what does she need from me....During "normal" times, I can handle the added distraction of having a puppy. But when my life gets busy, like this week is, the added stress makes me feel like the circus performer who's spinning plates on pointy sticks--and any second, they're all going to come crashing down.

Thankfully, I feel like I am not alone in my discouragement--misery does love company! In reading other puppy raisers' blogs, there seems to be a bit of a malaise--maybe it's a combination of midsummer blues or the crappy economy or all the celebrity deaths? What do you do when you've got the doggy blues?

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9 Things at 9 Months

Heavens to Mergatroyd, where does the time go. I'm late with this post! Cabana turned 9 months yesterday, and here are 9 things Cabana rocks at doing:

1. No accidents: I can't even remember the last time Cabana had an accident indoors, whether at our house or in a public place.
2. Shhhh: Cabana doesn't bark or whine (except when she's got business to do).
3. Selective chewing: She knows what's hers and what's not.
4. Beddie bye: Cabana is always happy to go to sleep at night.
5. Good morning: Quiet in her crate until we come get her, Cabana loves to hang with us, chewing her bone, while we drink our morning coffee.
6. Wait: Although she still knows this one a little too well, Cabana is very patient about waiting until we give the go-ahead to eat.
7. Tug-O-War: Still her favorite game, but when we say "that's enough", she lets go without any fuss.
8. Ready, get set, go: Grocery store, library, bank, no matter how mundane, any outing is like Disneyland to Cabana.
9. Stay: Cabana is great about staying put. In the photo above, she sits patiently while I take a quick turn around the tennis courts near our house to scout for any left-behind food or trash. Cabana loves to run around the courts to burn off some morning energy and practice off-leash recall.

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