July 10, 2007

Two years ago a male black lab was born into this world who had very high expectations. Who is the puppy, you might ask? This puppy was DeSoto, my first GDB puppy. My time with DeSoto is something I will never forgot and I loved every minute of it. Through all the complications we faced and the happiness we shared it was all worth it to see him doing what he was born to do. He was almost the perfect first dog.

When recall came, of course tears were shed. Walking out of his kennel with him following me and having to push him back and closing the door broke my heart. Six months later I got a phone call that made me day. DeSoto had been placed with Seth from Venice Beach and was going to graduate on January 31, 2009 DeSoto my cute little puppy I will never forget.
DeSoto`s first Birthday, celebrated at Lake Tahoe

DeSoto now

I hope where ever you are DeSoto, you are loving your job. I wish you a happy 2nd Birthday and many more! Thank you for being a great first dog, I hope to see you down the road.

Katlynn & Focus

Summer Activities

Our summer begun by me graduating 8th grade, which means now I am officially a high school kid! Focus was great during the two hour ceremony and did not make a peep. Since school got out we have been sleeping in, a little shopping, and running around town nothing too exciting, therefore the lack of posting.

Focus with my middle school memories and my honor roll medal

Today our club had a meeting at the local train museum and we also rode the steam train. This was Focus` second time riding the train as he rode it on his first meeting about a year ago. It was a very good meeting and all the pups did great and had to reactions with the noises, train, etc. I was very pleased with Focus, he handled it great and no problems.

Focus Then

Focus Now

Focus is the museum by a train kids could play in.

Focus in the train

Katlynn & Focus

Gnarlybone Contest.

As I was reading on Cabana`s blog, I saw there was a contest for the gnarlybones! I think this is a great contest and I would love to win a cute treat pouch! So I looked through all my nylabones last night and found 3 that were in rough shape. I encourage everyone to enter all you have to do is take a pictures of your gnarly bone(s) and leave a comment on Cabana`s blog under the post about the contest!! As I like to call it the Nyla half ring.
This poor dinosaur has had some rough days!

The original nylabone with chewed ends.

Good luck everyone!

~Katlynn & Focus

News Flash

I just wanted to let you all know that Focus is being recalled on August 15, which works out great for me because that is when Fun Day is and I will probably end up bringing a puppy home! As promised a picture post will be coming probably sometime on the weekend because school is ending this week and I have a lot going on.

~Katlynn & Focus

Focus Turns 1!

On Monday Focus turned a year old! I can`t believe he has grown up this fast, but at the same time he has turned into a wonderful dog, for the most part! Haha. Focus got to celebrate his Birthday at the puppy sitters and the report was not that great but I will not go into details, but let`s just say it could have turned into a bad situation. Focus ended up at my leader`s house sometime on Monday and was there till Wednesday when I picked him up. He got a great report from my leader and my leader just loves him. Overall I am glad Focus is home safe and sound and nothing serious happened, though it could have.

On Monday (11) before I left we had a puppy meeting with our CFR, Celeste. Focus got a good review overall and was put on Food Induced Training, where I can use treats and the word "nice" for basically anything with him. I am so happy I can do treats with him because he responds so much better, pays way more attention to me when out working, does his commands amazingly, (most of the time, he does have his moments) and is just a much better dog. The treats motivate him a lot more then the corrections. My goal before Focus gets recalled is to be having him to all his commands perfectly. So for the next few months Focus and I will be doing lost of treat training where ever we are!

Lastly, my trip was great! Disney World was awesome and I had a great time, even though it rained most of the time I was there and it was very hot. I enjoyed all the rides, my favorite probably having to be the Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios. We also went to Cocoa Beach which was awesome though we had a big thunder storm arrive and decided it was best to leave so we headed to the Kennedy Space Center. I thought the space center was amazing! We got to take a bus tour around the a small portion of the property, and when I say small I mean small because the property must have been bigger then Carson City! Anyway off track, we got to see the both launching pads and one having a space craft on it launching today or tomorrow. I also saw the building where the make, fix, repair the space craft which was huge! I learned that there are a lot of "the worlds longest, biggest, tallest largest" things located at the space center. Overall my trip to Florida was awesome and I hope to go back in the future.

Here are some pictures to tide you over until I *hopefully* to a picture post of the big 1 year old!

This picture makes me laugh, I`m not really sure why but I guess it`s just his expression on his face and how he has his head cocked.

Finally, me and my boy.

Hope all of you school kids are counting the days till summer (10 for me, I think) as I of course am!

~Katlynn & Focus

A Few Notes

First off, I would like to say congratulations Diva, Diamond, and hopefully Dennison puppy raisers for a job well done! Diva and Diamond are now working guides and Dennison is in phase 10. Destiny unfortunately was career changed, but that still means if Dennison graduates there would be an 80% success rate of the litter!

Onto Focus now, Focus is will be a year old on the 18th, which is really hard to believe! He keeps impressing me daily with his commands and his willingness to work. He really has not been doing anything "fun" to report about. He goes to school with me daily and a few weeks ago he went with my mom and sister to a Girl Scout Event and got a good report. Also, I think 2 weeks ago I had Fantom. He was great a lot calmer then Focus which was nice and overall a great dog! I wish him luck in July when he goes back. Focus also got a good report from our leaders except that he barked when put in the kennel for a few minutes.

One more thing, Focus will be going with a puppy raiser on May 13-May 20 because my family and I are taking a trip to Disney World! I am looking forward to the trip but kinda sad I will not be here for my boy`s birthday, I guess he`ll just have to wait till I get back to get his presents. I think that is about it on what`s been going on around here. Wishing Dennison good luck from Carson City!

~Katlynn & Focus

Spring Break

Our spring break was last week and we enjoyed it very much. I spent mine on a 8th grade trip to D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia. It was very fun and a lot of sight seeing and very tiring, I was very happy to be back on Saturday! Since I don`t think you all want me to post 350 pictures I plan on putting them all in a sideshow and posting that at a later date. Focus got to stay in Nevada with my mom and got a overall good report, and was ecstatic to see me on Saturday night! Focus also got to go to the vet while I was gone because my mom has been walking him out in the desert and he got doggy pink eye pretty much, so he now has eye drops (which he is not thrilled about) that he gets for a week.

On another note, I will be doing 3 way puppy swap tomorrow and I will be having Fantom a MBL and Focus will be going to our leaders house and Finnian (our leaders dog) will be going with Fantom`s raiser till Thursday evening. I am excited to have a black lab! I have not had one over night since DeSoto. I am sure Focus will get a great report and love all the walking they do! Well just thought I would let you know I am still alive and give you a mini report. Today Focus and i visited the city pool to visit someone. The pool really did not phase him at all which was great because our meeting next week is at the pool!
Saying "hi" to his buddy Sam in the pool and wondering why she is in there.

Hope everyone enjoyed there Spring Break (if they had one).

~Katlynn & Focus

101 Places

Just for fun, I decided to post 101 places that my puppies have been.

1. Eagle Valley Middle School
2. Nevada State Library
3. Chili`s
4. Public Library
5. Applebee`s
6. Carson High School
7. V&T Train
8. Virginia City
9. Hollister
10. San Francisco
10. Downtown Reno
11. Movie Theatre
12. Best Buy
13. Costco
14. Smith`s
15. Kohl`s
16. Walgreens
17. Sir Drake Frances Hotel
18. Apple Store
19. Hospital
20. Children's Home
21. Walmart
22. Savers
23. Classy Seconds
24. Ice Rink
25. Goodwill
26. PTSA Meetings
27. Girl Scout Meetings
28. Dillard`s
29. Gap
30. Old Navy
31. Resting Homes
32. Buffalo Wild Wings
33. Girl Scout Council
34. Friends Houses
35. Public Buses
36. Meadowood Mall
37. Staples
39. Ross
40. Olive Garden
41. Grand Central
42. Target
43. Candy Dance
44. Legislative Mall
45. Macy`s
46. Home Depot
47. Lowe`s
48. Abercrombie
49. Aeropostale
50. American eagle
51. Pacsun
52. Tilly`s
53. Lucky Brand Jeans
54. El Aguilia Real
55. Guide Dog Fun Day
56. Puppy Sitters
57. Orvis
58. Coach Stores
59. Nevada State Museum
60. I Paint for Joy
61. S.A.P.
61. Taco Bell
62. Out of Bounds
63. Petco
64. Petsmart
65. Petedge
66. Vet Office
67. Montessori School
68. Gottschalk`s
69. Jo-Ann`s
70. Fuji Park Meetings
71. Save-Mart
72. Subaru
73. Hyundai
74. Borders
75. World Market
76. Claire`s
78. Craft Market
79. Michael`s Craft Store
80. Fire Station
81. Health Department
82. Gotchy Shoe Store
83. Qdoba
84. Charlie`s Grill
85. Red`s Grill
86. Chocolate Bar
87. Christmas Tree Cutting
88. Cabela`s
89. Scheel`s
90. Coldwater Creek
91. Lane Bryant
92. Talbots
93. Hot Topic
94. Buckle
95. BJ`s Restaurant
96. Justice
97. Sunglasses Hut
98. Journey`s
99. Sephora
100. M.A.C. Cosmetics
101. Williams-Sonoma

So there you have 101 places Focus and DeSoto have been. I encourage all you puppy raisers to try and think of 101 places your puppies have been!

~Katlynn & Focus

Double Digits

On Wednesday Focus turned 10 months!! I can`t believe that we have been together for 8 months! He has matured so much since 8 months ago. It is hard to believe that I have roughly 5 months left with him.

The past week has been pretty boring, school, meetings, grocery shopping, etc. He did wear his green attire on St. Patty`s Day and I wore a green shirt. Focus is such an awesome dog to take to school that I forget sometimes he is there! I would like to trade with someone in our club that attends High School, so Focus could get a High School atmosphere experience, and I would be interested to see how he does with longer class periods. So hopefully that`ll happen before he is recalled. Besides school, Focus is usually always good when we go places, it is so nice to have a puppy that is a breeze to take places! Don`t get me wrong though, Focus is not a perfect puppy, he is great when his jacket is on but when it comes off, he is another dog.

Hopefully on Monday I will be able to take pictures of Focus at school so I can post about 'A Day in the Life.' So sometime this week there should be a post regarding that. Other then school and normal errands there is nothing really to post about now or in the weeks to come. But for now, enjoy the pictures of the big bot!

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

~Katlynn & Focus

Reno Outing

Today was our club`s annual meeting in Reno, where we ride the city bus downtown and walk through downtown Reno. All of our pups at are a great age to do this outing, (except Patrice who did not come) so it was the perfect time to do it. Oh course all the puppies were well behaved on the bus, downtown, and in the mall. Focus was great and acted like he done this even lots of times. Focus on the bus.

Finnian enjoying the outside.

We did puppy trading so I got Burgess. Burgess is the moose of the group and is in an XL jacket.

Tahoe and Amato looking at the ducks in the river.

Focus was very focused on all the ducks.

Overall the meeting was very enjoyable and great for the dogs. Focus will be 10 months on Wednesday which is hard to believe but I guess they have to grow up eventually. The last few weeks have been not very interesting. Focus went with Becky (one of our leaders) on Thursday because I had testing and it would not have been reasonable to take a dog. I got a great report though he never wanted to go potty for her for hours on end, but eventually did. So I guess that means Focus needs to be traded. Last Tuesday my mom and I went shopping at the mall just to waste some time, and Focus was great and enjoyed getting all the exercise. I think other then shopping at the mall and Focus going with Becky, that`s about all I have to update on.

~Katlynn & Focus