Hanging With the Dogs

This is Weston!

I am such a sucker for the handsome male yellow labs! I think he is adorable and I love this one paw up thing that he is doing in the picture. He is currently in for breeder evals and so far has been passing all of his tests!

This is Sake!

She is a very small little sweet golden. This picture is of her first day in the kennel so she was still a little unsure about the place. I believe she was CC'd out of the puppy raising home.

This is Leigh!

She is still going through her breeder evals. Her sister Lana was spayed last week and after she has recovered, she will enter the next string of training.

This is Oprah!
She is still a young puppy who was CC'd out of the puppy home. The CWT's have been working with her daily to have better manners and teaching her a few tricks for fun. After she learned what the clicker was for, she was taught how to play dead. Point at her and say bang and she falls right over. We have also been doing a lot of recall work with her and to up the challenge, we added a dog distraction. An intact male named Newport came in for breeder evals and he was absolutely perfect with the puppy. We let them play together in the community run area and worked on her recall. He played extremely appropriately with her and when a CWT called for Opera to come, he stopped what he was doing and it sure didn't take long for her to learn what was expected of her. Unfortunately Newport  will not become a breeder because he didn't pass his eye exam due to cataracts. He sure would have made some amazing guide pups. He was CC'd and his raisers came to pick him up. He is going to live out the rest of his life as a beloved pet. 

What I did today...

Today I volunteered in the afternoon for a few hours. First thing I did when I got to the kennels was collect the enrichment that had been passed out earlier. I grabbed everyone's empty kongs and put them in the sink. I then did some organization stuff around the kennel. Some dogs had left, so their tags had to come down from their kennel, be cleaned off, and put away and information needed to be updated. Record keeping and communication  is a very important part of being a CWT.

Then, it was time for the fun. Five CWT's took two groups of dogs out to the grass paddock. Here they enjoyed smelling the grass, running around, playing with toys, getting lots of attention, and being teased by the squirrel who likes to sit on the fence. The first group of dogs contained Lana, Tenley, Diesel, Vienna, and Nigella and the second group was Tamar, Jacuzzi, Fave, Jamaica, and Jody.

Tenley and Vienna playing tug

Vienna, Tenley, and Lana

Lana getting love and Nigella playing with the jolly-egg 

Jamaica

Tamar

After all this play time was over, it was time for meds and feeding. I checked a few suture sites to make sure they were healing nicely and cleaned someone's lip sore and then began scooping food. Lots of hungry dogs equals lots and lots of dog food.

The food carts in the Kennel Kitchen

After all of the hungry dogs are fed, we have to collect and wash all of the bowls. After dishes, it's time for cleaning. Grab a shovel and start scooping the outside of each dog's run. There is definitely a learned technique to scooping poop with a shovel. After they are all scooped, and the pooped dumped, its time to hose out all of the runs. Today I had a friend helping me clean the runs. 

His name is Phoenix. 

He is in for breeder evals and boy did he love his play time! He is such a silly dog!