I was wrong it wasn't so bad after all

Well, last night while I was finishing packing stuff up I gave Spanky a peanut butter kong. Which he loved and devoured as you can see. I love this picture it is pretty funny.
So I woke up this morning and did my finishing touches gave Spanky lots of kisses packed up his "Fun Things About my Puppy" including a few pictures. I did say that I had about a million pictures of Spanky that I was going to hold ransom until they contact me. (Whoever his new family is. lol, I am so mean) I went in the front yard and played fetch with him one last time which he loved and ran himself to exhaustion. We played until my leader showed up to take me and Spanky to Salt Lake to get on the truck. (My leader was going up anyway, she wanted to see the new puppy truck so I just bummed a ride off of her) Here is Spanky in the car on the way up. He had no idea what was going to happen.
We get to the puppy truck and it is NICE. I love it. The picture on it is absolutely adorable too. I'll bet it took a LONG time to get all those pups to stay still like that. :)
They handed out seven puppies. This part really did make me sad but those puppies are so darned CUTE! Lets see if I can remember the pups there was Saunders MYL, Nell FBL, Thurston MBL, Saranac MYL, Sakari MYL, Teesha FYL, and Millicent FBL, whew I did it. They were all so small and cute. Below is a picture of Thurston I got to pet him for a bit and he has the cutest little wrinkly face I love it. The pic is not very good, he didn't hold still for long.
Then it was time to load the returning dogs on the truck. Lee came over and asked my puppy name I said Spanky and he said "Oh, yes, he is returning today." Then he told me that it would be okay if I wanted to bring him back on Saturday night or Sunday morning. My eyes welled up and I said no, it is okay, he can go. So Lee went back on the truck to get Spankys sign in paper. Then my leader leaned over and asked me why I didn't bring him back Sunday. I couldn't give a great answer just said something like because it was so hard to get work off and if I don't it won't be worth it. "Worth it" how silly am I. Anyway then she offered to drive me and Spanky back up on Sunday herself. How could I refuse. So then Lee came off the truck with Spankys card and I said, "I think I will bring him back on Sunday." So Lee gave me all the info about the Sunday drop off and directions and everything. I really love my leader, that was so nice of her to offer. I totally would have regretted it and come Saturday/Sunday I would have been freaking out knowing that my boy was in Utah and I couldn't see him. So Spanky is still here with me and I am so happy (and I think he is too) So here is me and Spanky right before the truck took off. I guess it was a good day at the puppy truck after all. (Thanks for all the good thoughts and offers of your puppies, I really appreciate it) So I will have Spanky until Sunday and then i won't be puppyless for TOO long. :) I just have to say again MY LEADER ROCKS!!
The look on my moms face when I walked in the house with Spanky was priceless. Her eyes bugged out of her head and she nearly fell on the floor. After a little explaining she understood.

Later today was our Halloween meeting. I was kinda sad I didn't have "F" because I had cute matching costumes for me and him but it was still fun. All the pups dressed up and we did a puppy parade around the mall.

This is Forbes the witch.

Safari the Vampire.

Sparky (Sterlings brother) with a cute jester collar on.

Myra the pretty princess

Dax was there too but I never got a chance to get a picture of him. He didn't dress up but he is still cute as a button. :)

ALSO,
I got a little tid bit of news on "F"
It is very tentative information and who knows what could happen between now and then but in an effort to tell you what I know here it is:
GDB has scheduled for "F" and his brother (who also got sick and didn't make the truck) to fly to Utah on Tuesday (November 4th) and arrive here around 3:45 to the Salt Lake Airport.
Here is what my CFR had to say about it:

"This is VERY early info, no real plan can be made until Monday when we see how the pups are and if they are well enough to go."

So everyone say prayers and cross fingers, toes, and paws that my puppy is better by Monday and can be flown out on Tuesday. It is pretty good timing because I get off work at 3pm and can make it to the airport by 4-4:15pm ish. I will be crossing everything until I can get more info.

Spankys Last Day *tear*

Well, like the title says today was Spankys last full day here. So, me and my friend, her son and my sister went up to Bridal Vail Falls. It was a lot of fun and Spanky loved it. I stuck Prudys old harness on him (it was quite roomy on him too, lol) and got out my old dusty retractable leash and we were on our way. There is a trail that leads up to the falls and then you have to hike up to the actual water fall, it is not a hard hike but I love it. Spanky was so funny on the retractable every five to ten feet he would look back and check in and I would tell him he was a good boy and he would start walking again. What a silly boy. Here is one of the pictures of him looking back at us.
We got to the bottom of the fall and were preparing to take the hike up and Spanky startled me by jumping right into the water. Usually he takes a bit of coaxing but in he went and splashed around for a few minutes before the hike. :)
The trail to the falls is quite rocky and is sometimes a bit scary because the path gets really narrow but Spanky did really well. I usually would let Prudy off leash as soon as we got on the trail to the falls I kept Spanky on leash for a bit until I decided to see how he did. So he was off leash for about half the hike up before I put him back on because he would get too close to the edge where there is a bit drop off (10-40 feet in some places) and he kept stumbling, so I stuck him back on so I could monitor him more closely.
My Uber handsome boy on the trail.
About half way up my sister dropped her water bottle and since I am teaching Spanky to retrieve things I asked him to pick it up, which he did wonderfully but then he wouldn't give it back. He enjoyed the hike while carrying his own water bottle. It was so cute and he was so proud of himself.
"Look mommy, I have a water bottle."
Finally made it up to the falls. Spanky was panting like there is no tomorrow but he enjoyed playing in the water up there too. Sorry no pics, I didn't want to risk my camera in the mist of the waterfall.
"Mom, that waterfall got me all wet." I love this picture, he looks so cute in it.
Back at the bottom Spanky would paw at the water and then stick his nose in a blow bubbles it was quite entertaining.
And back home Spanky got a good bath to prepare for the puppy truck tomorrow. The new one. Yep, my Spank is going to break that truck in good. lol He got a full spa treatment too, including, nail clipping, ear cleaning, tooth brushing, and a good work over with the furminator. He looks great and shinny and ready too meet all the family's that will be fighting to have as wonderful a dog as he is. :) The classic pitiful puppy in the bath picture. (The water was quite brown, pretty gross.)

Videos of Spanky doing his walk ten feet and then wait for me and then his pawing at the water. I will surely miss this boy but he will make someone very happy and be a wonderful pet.



Tomorrow is going to very hard and there will be nothing to make it any happier. "but, Megan you are getting a puppy why so glum?" you may be asking. Well, I will tell you why tomorrow is going to be such a sad day:
I found out today (while I was walking Spanky down from the falls no less) that my "F" puppy got sick and did not make it onto the truck. So I will not be getting my puppy tomorrow. I am so sad that I won't be meeting him tomorrow. He will be shipped out to me next week sometime when he is better. I am glad that I am still getting him and that they didn't switch puppies on me because I am so excited about this litter but it still stinks that I have to wait even longer. *tear* I will still go to the puppy truck to drop off Spanky since it was such a major pain in the butt to get the day off of work, I kinda feel like it was all for nothing now. So figured I would go drop him off anyway. It will be hard to see all those puppies coming off and know that mine is not there and then drop off my boy and be puppyless until my new guys comes. *sigh* I really hope that the pup comes on a later afternoon/night flight because there is no way that I am going to get another day off of work (especially with so little notice) and I really want to be able to pick up my own puppy. I do have about a bazillion and four questions about how it works picking up a pup from the airport, well maybe just four or five. But alas, I suppose I will have to just wait until my pup comes to find out. Anyway, thought that you would like to know that my "F" isn't coming quite yet. It is so depressing. I just knew something like this would happen, especially since I have been waiting for this baby so long. *Sigh* Well, this turned out to be quite the depressing post so I am going to go now. Hope everyone is doing better than me. . . and be prepared for a few grumbly posts about being puppyless. It has been a long time since I have been puppyless not sure what I am going to do. Anyone have a pup I can borrow for a few days?

Happy Birthday Adeline!!

Today is Adeline's birthday. She is three, my goodness how time flies by. Have a good day Adeline, I miss you girl!! And to celebrate here is a picture her mom send me a few days ago. This is her most recent Agility trial. Still loving the sport and continues to progress nicely. I am so happy she is loving life. (Love the flying ears)

One Week!!

Mr. "F" is coming a week from today. So, I decided to post my top ten favorite F names. So here goes: (in no particular order)
1. Flash
2. Fizgig
3. Fezic
4. Fitz
5. Fax
6. Fresno
7. Fynn
8. Forest
9. Fonzi
10.Figaro

Each day brings me closer and closer to my little bundle of fur. My dilemma now is that I am trying to decide whether to take Spanky and drop him at the truck on Thursday or wait until Saturday. I am so torn because I don't know if I want to drive to Salt Lake twice in three days. I also don't know how much time I will be able to spend with Spanky with a new pup around, and I am a little worried since Spanky has had dog related issues I don't know how he would react to having a puppy in the house. Part of me is thinking it would be better for him to drop him off on Thursday and the selfish part of me wants to keep him as long as I can. I also don't want to get too attached to him as a pet because it is that much harder to say goodbye. He really is an awesome dog and such a happy boy and I am going to miss him so much. I am planning on taking Spanky on a hike up Bridal Veil Waterfall next week sometime (one of my favorite hikes) so expect pictures from that. :) So that should be a nice farewell.
And to tide you over here are some videos of Spanky. I think he has finally gotten the hang of the Spin command. I had to change how I was teaching it because he wasn't getting it so I started using a toy and if he spun on command I would throw the toy for him. He loved that game and started understanding what I wanted from him really quickly. The second video I liked because he did a couple of his nifty leaps that he does. Enjoy.


Till next time. . .

Single Digits!!

As of today there are only nine more days of waiting for Mr. "F" I am officially in single digits. WOOHOO!! And I was just thinking the other day that I am going to be potty trianing in Winter. That'll be a first. It's a good thing I love the snow. :) Hopefully Mr "F" is a fast reliever. lol

Yesterday me and Spanky went to get an oil change for my car. Petco is just down the street so we went there to walk around while we waited. I had some fun down the Halloween costume isle. So here are the pictures that followed. Spanky was a little less than cooperative. He did not appreciate the costumes at all. :)



I thought it was fun but Spanky did not reciprocate the feelings.

Just some random stuff cuz I am bored out of my mind

I don't really have anything to say but I found out that Spankys sister Savvy was career changed. Not sure why but that makes two Career Changed so far. Salvador and Shakespeare are leaving for training at the end of the month. Not sure about Strawberry and Scooby but I hope they all do well.

And just in case you wanted to know I got my puppy assignment today. :P I am uber excited, I am getting a Male Yellow Lab whose name starts with an "F" I did ask for a Male Yellow because it is the only flavor of Lab I have not raised yet so I figured, what the heck. :) I am a little nervous though because I can't think of any good F names. Except Fizgig (from Dark Crystal) I like that name. He was born August 31, 2008 (so he will be a day shy of eight weeks when I get him) to Saga and Tiburon. (Pictures below) This is Sagas second litter and Tiburon has been used by GDB quite a bit. I can't wait in just under two weeks I will be holding my little boy. Now that I have an assignment it just seems more real. I can't wait. So guess away!!


Saga Born 6/19/05 to Baker/Lynelle
Tiburon born 1/17/02 to Tex/Ricotta
SO EXCITED!!

First Week as a Pet

Spankys first week as a pet went pretty well. He is still getting used to (and not liking) having to stay home when I leave. He was throwing a fit the first three days (I could hear him barking when I was outside and getting in my car) but now he whines until I am up the stairs and then he stops. It kinda breaks my heart but he is getting better so that is good I guess. It is so weird running errands without a dog though. And I can't even count the number of times people have asked me where my dog is. It is hard to explain 50 jillion times a day especially because it is hard for most people to understand. lol I have taken him to a few friends houses, the pet store, Home Depot, and the park a bunch so he is getting out and he really loves going with me. His neighborhood walks are much more relaxed now too because he has a bit more freedom to sniff and do what he wants and he is enjoying that. I have also been teaching him some tricks and he is having fun with those. But all in all pet life is good for the Spankster!

Here is Spanky wearing his non-GDB collar. I just wrote his name in Sharpie on one of Prudys old collars (she only wore it for a week because I found this super cute floral one that I thought would look good on her and my mom was giving me a hard time for not getting her girlie collars) So it is Spankys now and I think it looks good on him. His name is on one side and his tattoo number is on the other. I tried to do some fancy embroidery on it to make his name but it failed miserably so I just wrote it. :)

He is getting more comfy on my bed though. So much that he gets up there and moves my blankets and messes up my freshly made bed. Silly pup and he is a bed hog but it is really nice to have a dog on the bed again.

Here are videos of his tricks. (I really wish I could figure out how to turn them so one you will have to tilt your head to watch, sorry) The first one is from the other day. I realized that if I growled at Spanky when he has a toy in his mouth he would growl back. It was so funny I got a little clip of it. We did that for about twenty minutes. The next is "paw" and "other paw" and then then third on is "paw" and "other paw" but it was while he was learning and he hesitated for a minute and then he got so excited when he understood what I wanted it was so cute. and the last one is "where's your toy" He will go grab a toy. We have not learned specific toys yet but we started with just getting one of his choice and then do specifics later. I figure it would be fun to send him off to his new home knowing some fun tricks. Also I am trying to keep him stimulated since we don't go on outing anymore he will go crazy if he doesn't get to do something. We are also working on Spin he hasn't quite grasped that one so we are still working on it. Also I am trying Play dead and Roll over. Not quite there on those two either. Hopefully I can get some video of those for next week. :)

Oh, and no puppy news yet. I am dying for news! Hopefully in the next couple of days. . . Please!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Picture and Video Post

Here are some pictures and videos that I got of my boy today.

Spanky takes a break on my bed.
Spanky and me playing toss the ball.
More Toss the ball. He has some amazing jumping skills.

Two videos of me and Spanky playing a game.

So why do I post these pictures and videos of me breaking several of GDB puppy raising rules. Well, it is because I got this today:

DOG: 46N7 - Spanky M\LAB\Black - PRP\REL DOB:6/30/2007
LOCATION: Constituent
RELEASED DATE: 10/8/2008
PLACEMENT:
SUMMARY: Spanky has a history of alarm barking and hackling at unusual objects or people in the distance. He had a severe reaction to a man working on a car with the hood up and noisy tools. He backed away with no recovery. Tug toys and food rewards for calm behavior have been used with limited to no success. While the behavior, at times, seems to resolve, it returns suddenly and is unpredictable. In known situations with his primary raiser, Spanky is a calm and relaxed-looking dog. He is affectionate and friendly in these settings. He is interactive with people and dogs and plays nicely with dogs.
RELEASE REASON(S): 21301 - BEH: Fearful Behavior Environment Generalized

So Spanky is officially a career changed dog. I found out this morning while I was at work so on the way home me and Spanky stopped at the pet store and I bought him a ball. One of those Kong Bounzer Balls and he loves it! I also had my first puppyless puppy class in a long time today but it went well. I had a lot of fun there! And I turned in Spankys puppy coat so no more socialization outings for him. He will be staying here until November 1st when the puppy truck comes through, his first raiser is not taking him back so he will go to the Oregon Campus to be placed by GDB. I really hope that what happened with Glennie doesn't happen with him and that his adopters keep in touch. I don't want to loose track of him. So for the next three weeks he is going to play the role of spoiled rotten pet. I am going to try and teach him some fun tricks and we will be playing fetch a lot. (I can tell he has been itching to play since he got here and he is a natural) He absolutely loves it and didn't want to stop. Today is the happiest I have seen him since he got here. I think that pet life agrees with him and he will be so much happier without the stresses of being a working dog. I am glad we got to go out with a bang after his FANTASTIC outing at the mall a few days ago. I am still sad, but it is what is best for him. :)

So, I guess now I am just waiting on puppy news. I was kinda hoping to get some info today but alas, looks like I will be waiting another week. So maybe next Thursday. . . *sigh*

Spanky and the Fire/Helicopter

Well, I will start this post with pictures! I have been wanting to take some cute pictures of Spanky before he leaves. He is such a handsome dog that getting cute pictures was not very difficult. :) Anyway, I cleared my camera card and charged the battery in preparation for Spankys big photo shoot. Here are my favorites from our shoot a few days ago.

Spanky in my neighbors corn field. The guy is a huge farmer and yes, I did ask him and he said he would be "honored" if I took pictures. He is an interesting guy. :)

Spanky in my yard. I like this one, but I wish his neck flab wasn't sticking out so much over his jacket.
This is classic Spanks. It makes him look so puppyish too.
Just so handsome! I love his droopy jowls and you can really see them in this pic.
And Action shot this was his official "I am done with pictures" picture. Hooray!!
And now for Spankys amazing accidental outing. It started with my friend calling me and telling me that she had major cabin fever and had to get out of the house. I am always up for a sporadic outing so I went over. We decided to cruise the mall so off we went. When we got there both of us noticed a HUGE fire over in the parking lot, so nosey people that we are we decided to check it out. There was a mass of firetrucks there along with booths and helicopters and cranes it was crazy. So we parked and got out to get a closer look. The signs everywhere said that it was National Fire Safety Week. I had no idea so we walked around to the booths, checked out some firetrucks. Here is me and Spank by a fire truck (He even met some firefighters in uniform but unfortunately didn't get pics. :(
Then we walked around and saw a Helicopter so we went and checked it out (no pics of that either because I took video, you can see it at the end of the post) and talked to the pilot for a while. Then they said that they were taking off so me and my friend decided to watch. We were literally no more than 20 feet away while it was taking off it was amazing and windy. I had my friend film it so I could take off if Spanky got freaked out but he did wonderful and didn't even move until the helicopter started lifting off the ground and then he just sat up and watched. I was so proud of him especially with some of the issues he has been having he was perfect and I was so happy with him.

After that they said they were going to do one more burn so we ran over to watch. The "burn" is what we saw in the first place but missed the rest while we were parking and didn't know what was going on. It was so cool, they lit this tree looking thing on fire with propane and the firefighters had to put it out. It was amazing to watch. Here are a few pictures of Spanky and the fire. We could totally feel the heat. It was awesome.
Again Spanky was PERFECT. Didn't flinch at all he hardly noticed that there was a fire except it lit rather quickly and when the heat reached us suddenly he looked over at it and then nothing. I can't even explain how happy I was with him.

Here are the vids. They are kinda long but you can see me and Spanky at the end of the helicopter one. :) It is just too cool not to share.

In the fire one my friend asks what the beeping is and I said it is something on their belts. Later we went and asked one of them what they are and they said it is a location device. If they are still for 30 seconds then it starts chirping and if they are still for 1 minute then it is a constant chirp so that another Firefighter can locate them if they get lost in a building. I thought that was so interesting.

I have to admit that Spanky totally impressed me. Had I known all that was going on there I probably would not have brought him. But I totally underestimated him. He has given me hope that maybe he might be able to make it to training. He was stellar with all the distractions like popcorn all over the ground, little kids running all over the place, peoples pet dogs walking around and barking up a storm, mobs of people coming up to pet him, a helicopter taking off, and a huge fire and he didn't bat an eye. Words cannot describe how proud I am of him. Even if he does get career changed now I am happy with this amazing leap that we have made with the issues he has been having.

After all of that we went inside the mall and walked around for a while before heading home. My boy slept really well that night. He totally deserved it and got tons of praise, pats, hugs, and all of the above. Can I just say I LOVE this boy!

I'm so excited. . . and I just can't hide it

I just got news about Sherman!! Literally about 10 seconds ago I opened my inbox and saw an e-mail from D4D. My heart skipped a beat as i moved my mouse over the message and clicked. The message told me that Sherman is in "finishing school" which means that he is placed with a foster diabetic to learn to alert on a human. And apparently my little man has alerted several times already. So it could be very soon that Sherman is placed with his very own person. I am one proud momma.

I also have a post of Spankys amazing day yesterday complete with pictures. I am so proud of him for handling everything so calmly because it was quite crazy. It will take me a while to post so look for that tomorrow. But I couldn't wait to share my Sherman news!