Fun Day!

Fun Day this year was of course very fun, and I got to meet a lot of blogger friends and dogs! I want to apologize for the lack of photos, I forgot my camera and was really not into taking pictures and going to all the presentations this year, so I guess you could say I was kind of out of it. I love Fun Day, and this year was different as I did not receive a puppy and I did not have a recall dog (which is surely not a bad thing!!)

We drove down Friday morning, which is about a 4 hour drive, the drive goes by super fast as we drive that route a lot going to guide dogs and to see my brother who lives down near San Rafael. We had 3 puppies in our car: Ryder, Corona, & Mallory. They were all very well behaved and we only had to stop a few times to relieve them. We noticed Ryder gets really nervous when riding long distances, he will pant, whine, and not settle down. This could be an issue and could be a reason for him to get CC'd. Hopefully he will get over this but it's hard to tell. He is perfectly fine riding in the car around town and to Reno, Tahoe, etc.

We arrived in San Rafael around 5:00 as we made a few stops on our way. We checked into our hotel than drove to Guide Dogs to help set up our booth. After setting up our booth we met up with my brother and headed to the mall to eat dinner and do some more shopping.

Saturday morning I slept in a little and made it to Guide Dogs right at 9 to hear Morgan Watkin's wonderful speech! I headed to our booth after, and helped run it than left to go shopping at the other booths and go look around. I didn't really buy anything except a wonderful Born to Lead sweatshirt and a puppy sleeve coat for Ryder.

Ryder can also be VERY dog distracted so he wore a Halti most of Fun Day. He was very well behaved with it on and enjoyed walking around.

After Fun Day, we left and went back to the hotel to go swimming (not Ryder, though I am sure he wished he could have gone) to cool off and than get ready for dinner. We decided to stay another night because my mom was too tired to drive, so I didn't complain as it meant more time to shop and socialize.

Our booth went pretty well, considering this was our first booth ever! We ended up giving all our "Fun Day 2010" bandannas away for free as they did not sell. The K9 Water Bottles (that were mentioned in my last post) sold pretty well we only have about 40 left and we started with 120.

If any of you blogger people missed out on the K9 Water Bottles, or would like one for a pet dog, we have some left. But only in pink, purple, and red. If you are interested please contact me through e-mail, puppyrazor103@yahoo.com. The water bottles are $13.00 plus 4.95 shipping. You can see the description and picture in my last post of what they are and look like.

You can barely see Ryder, as he was too short to put his head through so my friends lifted him up. :)

5 out of the 7 "R" litter mates showed up and I learned that a lot of them are a lot like Ryder, calm, easy going, and willing to do anything. From L-R: Royalty, Radar, Ryder, Roz, Rumor. We also got to meet the sire of the litter, Atrus. I meet him last Fun Day as well when I was walking around with baby Ryder. It looks like Ryder got most of his calm genes from his daddy, which is great!!

Ryder at out booth wearing his "Fun Day 2010" bandanna.

Hope everyone enjoyed this year's Fun Day as I know I did!

Katlynn & Ryder

Fun Day 2010 Product Preview!

Carson City Guide Dog Club will have their first booth this year at Fun Day! I wanted to give all you fellow bloggers a preview of what our club will be selling.

We will be offering K9 BPA FREE water bottles that are specifically designed for dogs. They have a ball (like hamster water bottles) that the dogs lick that will than release water. They are not suitable for every day hydration, but they are perfect for quick drinks and walks. They come in 4 colors (pictured above) with white paw prints all over them We will be offering them at Fun Day only for $13.00

Our second product is this custom made "Fun Day 2010" Bandanna. They come in 5 colors and they all have the picture which features all 4 types of dogs that Guide Dogs offers. Our club is lucky enough at the moment to have a type of every dog. We will be offering them for $5.00

Close up picture of the picture and the lettering.

Our third product is a Western Paisley Print Bandanna. They have adjustable Velcro straps so you can have your dog wear them at Fun Day this year since the theme is western. They fit all of our dogs, so I am sure they will fit all the dogs at Fun Day. They are made to fit a neck size of 16"-20." We will be offering them for $2.

• Well there you have it those will be our products that my club will be selling this year! Please stop by and introduce yourself and check out our products!

• We may be bringing a western theme photo opportunity for you and your dog so come check us out!

• We also will be offering a combo deal which includes any color water bottle and any color Fun Day Picture Printed Bandanna of your choice for $15.00 .

Green Leash Giveaway!

Megan (and Picassa) are doing yet another green leash giveaway!! I have been hoping for awhile she would do another one because I have been really wanting one! I think it is a great idea and I am happy she is sharing her talents with all us bloggers!

(Picture of the green leash)

So head on over to Megan's blog to get your entry for the fabulous green leather leash!

Katlynn & Ryder

Happy Birthday DeSoto!!

Happy 3rd Birthday DeSoto!!

It is SO hard to believe that DeSoto is already 3, it seems like just yesterday that I was down at Guide Dogs picking up my first puppy! He was born into this world with a huge weight on his shoulder, and that was to one day be the trusted guide for someone who is blind. He managed to successfully make the dream a reality. It was truly awesome to have my first puppy graduate and see him go with a great person. I am not in contact with Seth, but I have found some pictures & videos on the internet.

I do miss DeSoto as he was my first and he will always be special to me. I wish I was in contact, but that is not always how it is. I am happy that DeSoto is a happy, healthy, 3 year old. He looks great in the pics & videos, so I guess I could not be happier than to know that he is well loved and taken care of.

Happy Birthday Soto Boy!!!

Katlynn & Ryder

Painting

My club is doing a booth a Fun Day this year (first time ever) and I made a sign today at my mom's daycare to put at our booth. I am not sure if I like it, but it looks ok, I may have to re-do it. :)

Anyway Ryder was there with me and my mom does not have any paw print stamps, so I used Ryder for a stamp! He was SO good about letting me paint his pad and slept while I did it. Did I mention I LOVE this dog?!

The sign with Ryder's paw prints.

Ryder's foot. I washed it off immediately after I was done using it.

Katlynn & Ryder

Evaluations

As a puppy raiser, when your CFR comes to town it's always stressful and you are trying to prepare your dog so he/she will be at their best behavior and impress your CFR.

Today we had our weekly meeting, but this meeting was one where Celeste (our CFR) came to do evaluations on all our puppies. Our club was sitting at a conference table and Celeste was going around to each puppy reviewing all her notes from last time. All the pups did really well, and she is not really worries about any of them. When she got to Ryder, she looked at her notes and said, "Ryder is perfect." When I heard that I was so relieved and happy, cause truly Ryder is pretty perfect and bomb proof, his only issue is he is VERY MUCH attached to me, and will stress out when I leave the house and I leave him home with family members. Other than that Ryder is an awesome dog, I can take him anywhere (that he is aloud to go of course) and not worry that he will have an accident, be misbehaved, cause trouble, or be immature, he truly is a puppy raiser's dream puppy. So basically that's all Celeste said about Ryder, she did ask if I have any issues or unusual problems with him, but of course I said no.

So after hearing her say he is perfect (minus a few flaws, no dog is perfect, haha) I of course thought "oh no she is going to recall him soon." Ryder is ready to go back anytime, but I am not ready to let him go anytime soon. She said she is not recalling dogs until they are 15-17 months old these days. So overall I could not be happier with how evaluations went, and knowing that I should have Ryder till November probably.

Happy 1st Birthday Ryder!

On Friday (June 18th) Ryder turned 1 year old!!! It is so hard to believe that my boy is one, that just means recall is just around the corner. I could not be happier with what he has accomplished in a year.

• Helped me through me Freshman Year of High School
• Welcomed Focus back as a CC Dog
• Mastered all of his commands
• Became a well mannered & mature dog
• Has always listened to me and hardly ever needs a correction
• He is a great dog all around who will do great things in life

Our club had a meeting at the train station on Saturday. So this is me and Ryder getting off the train.

Katlynn & Ryder

P.S. I am very sorry about the lacking of posting I have been doing, I have been super busy. Now that summer is here I will be blogging more ofteb.

P.S.S. We have our CFR coming next Monday, so wish Ryder good luck on his evals (tho I am sure he will pass with flying colors, Celeste LOVED him last time.) Hopefully I will get some golden news as well. :)

Focus Visits!

This past week I have had the pleasure to puppy-sit Focus. I really enjoyed having him, he really has matured and become a well mannered guy. He is no longer the high energy dog I raised.

We really had no complaints about him, other than his shedding, he sheds SOO much! He has AWESOME house manners, we were able to leave him home for 3-4 hours alone in the house and he would be fine. I love seeing him, but seeing him happily go home and not turn his head when I leave, lets me know that he loves his home and is well taken care of.

I know Ryder is not allowed on the bed, but while I was downstairs making cookies I let them both have freedom, and I came upstairs to find them both laying on the bed. After I took the phone I made Ryder get off.

Katlynn & Ryder

Happy 2nd Birthday Focus!!

Today my 2nd Guide Dog puppy turned 2! Focus taught me the definition of exercise, and so much more. He was born into this world destined to be the eyes for a blind person, but he had other plans.

He now happily lives with some family friends nearby. He was being trained to be a hunting dog, but he refuses to pick up birds so that option is out of he question and I feel bad about that because that was the main reason his owner wanted him. I got to go over there today and say Happy Birthday and bring him a new bone. His owner said that even though he did not get a hunting dog out of him, he got a great companion who he loves and could not see his life without Focus in it.

I got to have Focus last week overnight which was awesome!! He got to come to our puppy meeting, and than got to sleep on the bed! I really do miss him, but when I dropped him off the next day seeing him walk into the house with Rob not looking back at me made it all worth it. Just knowing that Focus loves his home and is well loved and taken care of is all I wanted. Rob said now that hunting is out of the picture for Focus, he would love to do Dock Jumping (since Focus LOVES swimming) or possible Agility with him.

Focus as puppy

His 1st Birthday

His 2nd Birthday

I hope you have many more Happy Birthday's Focus, keep up the great work!

Katlynn & Ryder

Biggest Little City In The World & Lake Tahoe

I am a little late at posting this, but last weekend our club had its annual meeting up in Reno, where we ride the bus to downtown Reno, than walk around, and ride the bus back to the mall where we eat lunch and socialize our puppies. All of the puppies in our group are all over 6 months, so this was no big deal to them. They all did wonderful and our leaders were pleased.

Our Club in front of "The Biggest Little City" sign

We traded dogs a lot, so my leader ended up with Ryder one of the times.

Ryder looking at the Truckee River

Gordie, Ryder, & Keno on the bus.

Last Sunday, Emily, Kelsey, and my mom and sister, and I all went up to Lake Tahoe to let the puppies play and to enjoy the lake and pretty scenery. I was very happy that Ryder loved to swim, last year when I took him he would not even go in.

Ryder on a rock with the lake and Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.

I love this photo of Ry, he looks so handsome.

Katlynn & Ryder