Lost...

LOST ONE PUPPY BRAIN
Small, grayish, with occasional flashes of brilliance
should fit into the skull of one yellow Labrador
has been know to vacate it's owners head on occasion.
Current owner needs it back to be released from asylum
can not return to guide dog school without it.

Family and friends are mourning the loss.
REWARD

You gotta love 'em

Labra pups of course. But I also love blogs. I started this so my sister who lives in the heartland can keep up with the lives of the girls, and over the years it has been a good record of the pups lives.

Case in point. Waffle's ear issues. I went back and reviewed my posts, and almost a year to the date last year she had a similar infection and again in Feb of this year. I think it is yeast....

She has been on lamb and rice forever, but I think it might be the food, I did try her on the natural balance low calorie version, it could be that. Now I'm nervous, cuz I wanted to switch her to another food (costco, lo cal).

Or am I over reacting three infections in one year too many?

there is no place like home.....

Smelly Ears

So as Truffie's post suggests The Waffler's ears were infected. I had noticed the baby licking her ears and someone told me that was a pretty good sign she had an infection. I usually clean them 2 a month, and generally try to sniff her ears every few days. Right after a bath I use this stuff called epi-otic to dry/clean out her ears. So we do all that and she still has ear infections. This is her second one this year. When we 1st noticed she had crud in her ears I started cleaning them every day, I thought we had it kicked, but it came back. Does anyone have suggestions? She had a shot and is on ottomax, this is not a cheap experience. Our last lab we never had this many ear problems.

any other cleaning solutions, labrador ear clips/head bands ect... how do you get the stuff way down at the bottom of the ear canal?  I feel like I'm sticking my finger into her brain. Any other suggestions.
Carrie

send help

Waffle's ears are on fire! someone send a fire extinguisher quick.

She had to go to the vet for her yearly vaccines and they looked in her ears and said they were inflames - so she got an extra poke (he he he) in her hinnie! and they put out the fire in ears with water. She came home with a wet head and drops for her ears.

I think I'd better have a fire extinguisher on hand in case other parts of her spontaneously combust.
love Truffie

New Rules

Our ADA officer at work just forwarded this to me. I was surprised to see that ADA and DOJ would actually specify that a  service animal is a dog (or horse). I thought it would be easier just define a service animal as an animal that performs a task that makes the person's life livable. Extra surprised to see they address emotional support animals. I guess this is going to shape our current animals on campus policy, and I know of one person who has an emotional support dog who will be very un-happy.

I guess there must have been a lot of complaints for them to make a move like this. Like many I am incensed by the 'great pretenders' that we all see out there, but I'm also kind of live and let live. If your animal is in control and you pick up after it.....meh. What I'd like to do away with are the bad seeds that make it harder for us to train and legit users to go about their lives.

Here is the new policy:

Service Animals. The rule defines "service animal" as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. The rule states that other animals, whether wild or domestic, do not qualify as service animals. Dogs that are not trained to perform tasks that mitigate the effects of a disability, including dogs that are used purely for emotional support, are not service animals. The final rule also clarifies that individuals with mental disabilities who use service animals that are trained to perform a specific task are protected by the ADA. The rule permits the use of trained miniature horses as alternatives to dogs, subject to certain limitations. To allow flexibility in situations where using a horse would not be appropriate, the final rule does not include miniature horses in the definition of "service animal."  

And continuing on with cleaning out my 'funday' file, here are some pictures from the 'Running of the Dogs' or as most folks know it as 'Follow the Trainer' if you've ever done it you know that the 'brisk' walk is more like a fast trot. This year I saw a few blogging friends. I think that is Erin's (Rocco) foot in the picture below, and some place I might have a shot of Megan's (Paris and Snickers) feet too.

mom and I were so far behind our group we ran into another group

I think this is Dodger

This is Nissan - I can see his tag

Pretty sure the person's name is Kristen

Have a great weekend!

I guess this is a good picture to post with this bit of news. 

First Truffie is on 'vacation' for the next 3 weeks. That's what I've been telling her fans at work. I explain that every GDB pup gets three weeks off every year where she gets to relax and not work. Yeah right - you'd be surprised how many people believe that. But I'd rather tell them that then explain that she is in season. 

Second!!!! Lani is prego! some might remember I announced she was bred in April, well it is not the world's longest k-9 pregnancy, that breeding did not take. We like to think she just had a little fling. 

Anywhoo she came in to season at the end of September and was bred to Samuel- her ultra sound came back today with 6-8 pups! So if anyone wants to raise again maybe in mid-January ask for a Lani pup!

Funday

Truffie and her two moms

I'm not fat just fluffy

This has got to be the fattest pup I have ever seen, this little pup was in the kennel tour during Funday, one of the 'S' litter. Samantha or Sabrina? can't remember. You'd think this is fluff, but no it is all puppy under that fluffy golden exterior. 

Her chubby-wubby-ness (I know not a word) was adorable.

The Getty

Living in Los Angeles I get to see a lot of cool things, my mom's cousin's cousin was in town and we took her to see the Getty Villa. It is a million miles away in traffic, so I was very ansy to get out and get museum viewing. I wanted to see all the old roman stuff - I especially had to visit their roman garden - like I said it was a long car ride. It smelled so nice I really enjoyed sniffing the rosemary, thyme and pretty flowers all I which I guess would have been in a traditional roman garden.

Me, my mom and my mom's cousin - cousin

Just to give you an idea of just how big this place is

The sun felt nice, don't I look nice? Oh yeah here is a large water bowl and some pretty statues

I don't want to be a calender girl!

I think I saw a shark in here!

DUCKS! where? over there

maybe over there?

you're not teasing me are you?

Carrie: I just tear up at this picture, she is such a big girl

I fast figured out that this museum was not going to be dog accessible. I mean all the best stuff is hidden way out of my line of site. Everyone is ooooohhhinng and aaaawwwaaaaaing over the gold and paintings all stuff I couldn't see. And let's be real - I'm cute but even I can't compare to priceless ancient artifacts! No one seemed to care that I was on my best behavior I could have been turning somersault and no one would have noticed.

What I saw at the museum

So instead of showing you all the cool sculpture and artwork, I thought I'd show you all the floors I saw.

210

a nice herring bone pattern

woooo waves

M.C. Escher

 

finally the best floor picture of the day!

What do you dogs see when you go out?

brothers and friends

Our club had an outing this Saturday, there was a Police K-9 dog fair over in Glendale. Lots of booths, dogs and heat! We've gone from 65 degrees and raining to hot sunny 90 degrees, global warming? I can't explain it 

except to say eat dessert 1st you never know when world is coming to end.

 So this big guy is Diesel he belongs to my group leader, he is a 145 lbs and growing. We're buds, I had him down by the throat and he didn't even take it personally, believe it or not he is only 11 days older than me! 

He has a big sister at home her name is Gracie who is bigger than he is.

This little guy is Ross

 You might recognize him from this shot. Being so stinkin' cute he got his pic in the latest edition of guide dog news

These two pics came from funday where he was like 9 weeks old

And here he is at the ripe old age of 5 months.

But ya'll might notice that besides being dashingly handsome, he's just as big as I am. 

Ross, brother Zeb, and ME!

 Bigger or not I'm still the smarty pants of the group, you'll notice in our group picture, I'm the only one who got her gentle leader off. 

 Here is a human friend

 Mom made me put in a picture of the fat one

This grumpy girl is Cassie, she was career changed as a pup and she lives with some club members. It was hot and she was tired - so I really can't blame her for grumpy-ness.  

Here are some nice guys! not grumpy at all

To close things off here is the true grump-a-lump

Waffle was right!

So my sister Waffle used to tell me FIBS when I was little. It took a while before I could tell the truths from the not so truths. 

One that had me worried for a while was her story that my yellow would wash out. I think she might have been telling the truth. The Peeps have been noticing that my skin has this black undertone. It is rather annoying because they keep trying to scrub off my dirt. I keep telling them 'it's not dirt' but do they listen to me. 

isn't this the cutest nose

I have black patches on my ears, arm pits, tummy and hinnie (I'm not showing you that!) I don't know if I should be worried or not. What if Waffle is right? I like being a yellow lab. All my ID says I'm yellow, I DON'T WANT TO BE A BLACK LAB! And it's raining!

WHAT IF SHE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE OTHER THINGS?

If anyone notices kibble raining from the sky, make sure to email me, I've been waiving my paws up at the sky a lot hoping that she was right.

lov
Truffle, FYL - for now.

Chibi

This is where she started

and this is where she ended up

So Waffle is a bit of a snob, she enjoys the company of very few people. When she went back to GDB her trainers reported that she had a bit of a 'tude and was very disrespectful  at first and took a while to warm up to Kelly her trainer. When she loves you - you know it, my jaw dropped when I saw her flirt her way onto Krister's lap - something she had never done with anyone before. I should have known then that she was a floozy, to this day she goes all flirty around him.

 She likes Tammy, Me, Mom, Krister, smaller dogs and other black labs, (in that order) everyone else kind of just flies under her radar.
Well expect for, Chibi he belongs to our friend Tammy. From day one Waffle has tried to be his friend. We are not sure where he falls in her list of favorites, but every time he comes over she'll go over to him play bow, wag her tail, sniff him and do her best to entice him to play. 
The problem is that Chibi hates other dogs. Raised with only humans, he is afraid of other dogs and has no idea how to interact with them. He is snappy, rude, and generally does his best to beat her off. But my little floozy just smiles and goes right back to flirting with her boy. I can almost see her thinking 'awww shucks you don't mean that' I think she hopes that she can win him over- but since its been at least twice a month for the past 4 years I'm not holding my breath