Want to go for a walk?

Thursday, December 29, 2011

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!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Is that a Lab?? (part 2)

In my last "Is that a Lab?" post I featured a girl named Judy. She is still in training. Yay! I don't know what phase though because I don't get the phase reports. Lame.

This is Shiloh. I didn't get the best picture of him but he has brindled legs and a brindle face. He looks so cool!! Unfortunately he has already been career changed.

I really can't get over all the different lab coloring that has been slowly popping up. And, something else that is wierd; GDB doesn't have chocolate labs in their breeding lines because they are usually higher in energy and don't make for perfect guides. Yet, this didn't stop one momma dog from popping out a chocolate. Who knows where this chocolate gene came from. This year, the very first chocolate lab went into training (two of them actually). Snickers and Sweetie. Snickers went to Oregon while Sweetie went to the California campus. It is very different walking though the kennel and seeing one brown dog. I'm used to black or some shade of yellow. I am certainly rooting for them both as they go through training!!

Grads vs. Flunkies

This is a question I get asked all of the time: What happens to the dogs who flunk out?

Well, first of all, they don't flunk out and they are not guide dog failures, they are career changed. When another service dog position isn't available or practical, they are offered back to their puppy raisers and if they don't go back to their puppy raisers, they are adopted by the public.

During my volunteering this break, I have been mostly working out of kennel 3 which does not house dogs that are currently in training. In this kennel, the population is constantly changing as some dogs come in and other dogs go into foster care, get adopted, or go into training.

I took a lot of pictures when I was actually working there over the summer, and I'm using this blog as an excuse to share them :)

Career changed pups: