Puppy Number 3

Today was the Fun Day at the California Campus and is was going to be a bittersweet day for me. One, it was Focus` recall and two, I would be getting my third puppy. Fun Day all together was very fun (will post about Fun Day, Goodbye to Focus, and Walk With the Trainer tomorrow hopefully.) All in all Fun Day was very fun and towards 2:00 I was getting very anxious, it meant puppy delivery would start!

It was finally 2:00 and they were right on schedule. They called all the raisers that would be getting a puppy to come up to the stage. They started reading off the raiser and then the puppy would be handed to you with the name announced. Mick read about 10 raiser`s names before he got to mine. I was getting very excited to meet my "R" boy! Finally he announced his litter and I was the third raiser to get a puppy. When they announced my name I went to the center of the stage, and racing through my mind was all the horrible "R" names there were and that I was going to get one of those names.

So without further or do I would like to introduce my new little puppy...... Ryder!!!

Don`t you all like the picture? We were leaving campus and I offered him a drink of water and this is what he did, and at one point he did drink laying like this! We all figured he was hot, and I got the lucky job of carrying him all the way to car.

I was very exited about the name, it was a name I really liked! Funny thing about his name is, my friend about a year and a half ago raised her first GDB puppy and his name was Ryder! Unfortunately he was Career Changed and did not make it. So having a Ryder again in our club is pretty cool and unusual.

On the way home he was great, he slept most of the way and was awake very little. I found out that he was a snuggler and wanted to sleep only on my lap. He was great the entire 4 hour drive and caused no problems. When I got home, my family was very excited to meet him! So while they played with him I prepared his food which I found out very fast that he does not like to eat. He maybe ate 1/4 cup but after 3 hours I threw the rest away. So hopefully he will realize that he needs to eat!

A Year Together

A year ago today I was at Fun Day with DeSoto and waiting patiently all day to receive my new "F" puppy. The day went by fairly fast but not fast enough, when it finally came time to presenting puppies I waited until they called my name and said I will be receiving Focus. I was not a big fan of the name, but as you can see it grew on me a lot. :)

Raising Focus this year has been a great experience I will never forget. Though he was difficult in his puppy ages we got through it, and he turned into the a great mature dog I will love forever. Of course we had our rough days and some days I wanted to let him out the front door and never see him again, we got through it together. Focus has taught me many things especially patience. I am very thankful I got to have him a full year and then some. Though he is leaving in 13 days, I plan on making to most of them.

Focus will always have a special place in my heart and what ever career he chooses weather it be guiding or playing ball at my house, I will love him no matter what.

Katlynn & Focus

Puppy News

I don`t think I have told you guys this, but on Fun Day I will be receiving my third puppy! It`s hard to believe I am on my 3rd already! Anyway, I got an e-mail from my leader and I will be receiving a male yellow lab Astrus/Indiana puppy born on June 18 with the letter "R." The only good names I have thought of are Rookie and Rocky. So please start guessing and maybe someone will guess the name!

As for Focus he is doing great and I plan on posting tomorrow about the Baseball game we went to last Saturday and videos of Focus swimming in a lake nearby us and just some cute/funny pictures!

Katlynn & Focus

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