WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011
FIRST DAY IN MY NEW HOME
My name is Craig and I am a Seeing Eye Puppy.* I was born October 6, 2011 and I am the 18th puppy born in the new fiscal year of Seeing Eye (their year starts October 1st, weird I know). This first day was very eventful for me. I was hanging out in the breeding station with my mom, Jean, and my five siblings. Then, the nice people at the breeding station took me for a final medical exam and I was put in a van with my sister Cookie. After Cookie was delivered to her new home, I finally arrived at my new home in Sparta, New Jersey and met my puppy raisers - the Phillips family - John, Jeannie & JC. I went outside on grass for the first time ever and was taken to the store to buy some new toys. (Apparently, the prior puppies that lived here were chewers.) By the time I got home, I was exhausted and crashed for a really long nap.
* For more information, please visit them at www.seeingeye.org/
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2011
THANKSGIVING
What a long, but awesome day I had. Today was Thanksgiving and I spent the day with John, Jeannie & JC at the home of some friends, who are also puppy raisers. I hung out with their career change German Shepherd, Duncan, and their 5 month old puppy, Tadd, a Labrador and Golden Retriever mix. In case you can't tell, I am the little one under Tadd. The day was filled with lots of playing, running around outside, and learning about getting along with other dogs.
The biggest problem of the day was the constant attention. There were over 15 people there and everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted to hold and cuddle me. I thought my fur was going to fall off. Finally, I had to hide under the table to get some shut-eye. But, it was a great holiday and I can't wait to run around with Tadd and Duncan again.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will point out that I chewed off a little piece on the basket on the right. I guess I have a few more things to learn about being a good houseguest. I'm glad we bought chew toys yesterday after all.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011
BLACK FRIDAY
I found out that the day after Thanksgiving is all about shopping. Whoa did I meet a lot of people today. Because I was so tired from Thanksgiving, I only went to two stores. I am not sure that walking on a leash is my favorite thing, but getting to go into stores and meet people is pretty cool. When I was at Dick's Sporting Goods, I had to work really hard not to taste the shoe laces on sneakers or bite at low hanging apparel. I am happy to report I did not have a single accident while in stores. I did really well for my first time out and was rewarded with a great cuddle from a Dick's employee.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011
I LOVE A PARADE
The party never ends with these people. Today my puppy raising club, Love On A Leash, participated in the annual Newton Township Holiday parade. The weather was perfect and I did a great job keeping up with all the bigger puppies. I even figured out how to enjoy (ok, maybe tolerate at this point) walking on the leash.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2011
FINALLY A QUIET DAY!!
At last I have a day to myself to explore my new home. I found out a few interesting things: 1 - Eating houseplants upsets Jeannie; 2 - For some reason they throw me outside all the time and get really excited when I go to the bathroom; and 3 - I have to sit before I am given my food.* I met some of the neighborhood kids outside and found out I love longboards. The wheels feel great in my mouth and they are fun to chase.
* The first two commands we work on with our puppies is sit and park. Sit is obvious and we start by having the puppy sit before feeding him. This helps the ultimate owner be able to place food in the bowl safely while the dog sits and waits patiently until told to eat. Park is the command to go to the bathroom. Of course, a new puppy won't understand what the command means for a while but we start using it from day one. As the puppy gets older, it is important that they are emptied out before entering any building so that there are no accidents.
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