Training Internship: Day 3

Today was a rather calm day for a day at GDB. I arrived a little early because I had to turn in Mojito (I will post about that with pictures soon) as he was headed up to Oregon for his training. I spent about 15 minutes in his kennel crying my eyes out as I knew if he was career changed I would let GDB place him. I felt a little more relieved leaving him, because I knew the K3 kennel staff and I like them all very much and they assured me Mo would be well loved for the few hours he was there in the morning. I said my final goodbye and gave him a huge hug and kiss and headed to the bathroom to dry up my tears and get my A game on and get ready for another day!

I reported to K1 and explained to my mentor why I was late and she was very understanding and she quickly put my to work cleaning all the community run bones, jolly balls, and water bowls. Every Wednesday the community run toys and water bowls are cleaned and disinfected. We hurried up to finish as we had a department meeting from 9:30-12 that I was going to get to attend. I'm not gonna lie when I heard I had to attend this meeting I was not thrilled, but I am so glad I went! It was very informational and fun to be a part of! I was able to take a female black lab training dog with me to the meeting, it was good to have a dog with me during that time. The meeting went by super fast and at 12 I was sent to lunch and took an hour and went over and checked out the mall.

I arrived back at 1, and my mentor was not coming back from his lunch till 1:30 so I hung out in the K1 reading some of the reference binders, it was actually helpful info that was fun to read about. Right before my mentor was due back, the K1 CWT asked me to help dish out the food for the 3pm feeding so I gladly put down my reading and scooped food for the K1 dogs! 

My mentor arrived back and we headed over to K3 to walk his project dogs. Each CWT is assigned 1-2 project dogs and that means that 1 hour out of the day they are expected to walk the dog and access them and keep records of them, which helps breeding and training. I took a beautiful female LGX who was white in coloring and looked like a Taylor puppy. We took them out to a grassy paddock and let them run around with toys and played with them for about 20 min. We took them back to their kennels and I groomed the girl I was walking as she was shedding like crazy! I finished up grooming her and then my mentor and I headed back to K1 and I took my afternoon 10 min break.

When I got back from break it was time for the 3pm feeding of dogs who were there, which was a whooping total of 5. I picked up all the empty bowls and started washing them, then locked all the dogs in, and headed out to scoop and spray out their runs. Since there was so few dogs in K1 I was done cleaning rather early so I was sent over to K2 to help out with their cleaning and they had me scoop and spray out a quad of runs. I went over to K3 to do the same thing and they were done with cleaning so I hung out with the other training intern and we waited for my mentor to come meet us. He came and found us after he got out of his meeting and he took us to go help him clean the bathing room. Cleaning the bathing room consisted off: cleaning the hair/dust off washers & counters, acceling/spraying the floors/drying kennels/bath tubs/mats, and taking out the garbage. It took us about 20 min to clean, then we were done for the day but I still  had 45 min till I was due to leave so I was sent to the employee lounge to read the CWT reference until 5 when I was due to leave. The time went by fast and I headed home empty leash and enjoyed a delicious dinner and ice cream. 

~Katlynn 

Training Internship: Day 2

I arrived again at 8am and was greeted by all the staff and they always make you feel welcome! The staff there is amazing they are very appreciative of our help and are always explaining what goes on & how to do things, they are happy to answer any of my questions, and they are just fun to be around and work with!

I was quickly sent into kennel 2 and started cleaning the morning food bowls. Like I said before there is a never a dull or down moment when you are working, you are always walking around doing this, or getting that, or getting/taking a dog somewhere, etc. I finished dog bowls the went to one of the quads (one of the 4 groups of kennels in each kennel) and let all the dogs in and went out to their runs and scooped poop and started acceling (cleaning solution that they use to clean the runs with every morning) the runs and washing them out. I was pulled from cleaning to attend the daily CWT meeting at 9:30 and they just discussed how each kennel was doing with cleaning, staff, dogs, etc and if any kennel needed help and if any changes to the schedule needed to be made, it lasted about 5 min and then I went back to kennel 2 to finish my cleaning of the runs and a community run. Immediately following the cleaning of the runs and community run the dogs were let out in their runs and my mentor and I went out and did community run with a quad of dogs for about an hour. One dog was left behind for training this morning and he was not in the quad we did community run with, so my mentor and I took a black lab male on a walk around the campus. We walked him for about 15 min and we came back put him back in his kennel run and I went to go grab a female yellow lab and brought her out into the center of the kennels and spent about 10-15 min grooming & loving on her. A lot of the female labs I have worked with I call them "pocket labs" because they are tiny for a lab, and so loving & sweet, made me want raise a female in the future. By this time it was near 11:30 and I finished up grooming her and put her back in her run and now it was time to lock the dogs in their kennels and hand out enrichment. Enrichment is usually a large frozen peanut butter Kong with treats in it, that we hand out to the dogs that are in the kennels that are allowed to have them. Some dogs are not allowed enrichment due to many reasons or some dogs are simply out working with their instructors and miss it. Once all the enrichment got passed out I headed out to my lunch and went and grabbed Mojito from the receiving kennel, and hung out with him during my lunch.

I arrived back from my hour lunch and put Mo back in his kennel run and headed to kennel 1 to find my mentor and we headed over to kennel 3 (K3 is where all the career change dogs, breeder dogs, boarding breeders or boarding guides are, so basically no training dogs are in K3) and me and 3 other people took 4 dogs on what they call the cemetery walk. The San Rafael Cemetery backs right up to the campus and it's a nice 20-25 min walk that the dogs get, and it was hot!! I was surely sweating when we got back and the dogs drank water and passed out on the cool linoleum floor. We made sure all the dogs were doing well in K3 (kennel 3) and headed on back to K2 (kennel 2) and my mentor and I each locked a quad in and started the afternoon cleaning up of poop and spraying out the runs. My mentor then had to go to a meeting and there was no other CWT (canine welfare technician) for me to hang with in the kennels so I sat in K2 and read about all the signs of illnesses and what to look for when you think something is wrong with a dog. I finished up with that then walked up and down the kennel hallways and did some basic quiet work with the dogs (praising the dogs for being quiet and calm in the kennels, and quieting down the barkers). By not it was 3pm and that means dinner time for all the dogs that were left behind from training for whatever reason. We walked up and down the K2 hallways feeding the dogs that were there and then back tracking and getting all the empty bowls out of the kennels and placing them in the sink for washing and disinfecting. Between 3-5 the instructors are usually back and it is then their responsibility to feed their dogs. After dinner the dogs are given 10-15 min to relieve in their run and they are then locked in their kennel while the runs are scooped and sprayed out again.

My mentor made it back from his meetings (he's  kennel lead for K1 so he stays very busy running around, dealing with any problems in K1, going to meetings, and whatever else he gets called in to do) and we headed over to K3 again to do an afternoon walk with those dogs, all the dogs in K3 get an AM & PM walk. I leashed up a female yellow lab, and my mentor and another intern leashed up a dog and we went and walked the campus with them. I learned that all the dogs are walked on an EZ leash (it's a gentle leader and leash all in one that can be used for any dog in their kennels) and sometimes you see them being walked with a gentle leader and leash that usually the volunteers walk them on, but regardless all dogs are walked on a gentle leader, which makes walking all the dogs very easy because you might get a very easy walker or you might get a headstrong puller. Now it was 4:30 and I was due to leave in 30 min so we went back to kennel 1 and discussed what was going on tomorrow, made sure all the other training kennels were doing good, and just hung out and he let me go 5 min early.

The entire training dept. has a 3 hour dept meeting from 9-12 so no dogs are going out for training in the morning, and I get to attend the meeting! From what my mentor was telling me, a lot is going to be discussed and a few presentations. The dogs will be taken in with instructors and CWT's, so hopefully there will be a dog for me to take as well!

Sometime during the day blindfolds came up, which is volunteers/interns/staff gets put under blindfold with a class ready dog and the instructor right there and you get to be guided by the dog for a little bit. I asked my mentor is there was any way I would be able to do this and he said he would talk to his boss and we met up with her in the hallway and she said I was already on the schedule to go out to town next week (either downtown San Rafael or maybe San Francisco) with the instructors and would most likely get to experience blindfold. I was beyond excited when I heard this, this is the part I was looking forward to the most!

Mojito and I enjoyed his last night with me going on a picnic to Angel Isalnd and enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL view of San Francisco and The Golden Gate Bridge with my amazing host family! Pictures will follow soon!

~Katlynn & Mojito

Training Internship: Day 1

Today was busy, busy, busy to say the least. I started my day off by arriving at 8:00a.m. and checking Mojito into kennel reception so he could be boarded during the day, then I headed off to meet the head of the interns, and from there she took us 3 interns to our departments, and me and another young women headed off to training!

Most of my morning was spent going behind the scenes of GDB, watching a video about hazardous chemicals, and reading about the chemicals GDB uses and how to properly use them, dispose of them, precautions to take, dangers, etc. It was definitely not the highlight of my day but you always have to learn the ground work before you get to do the fun stuff. After I finished reading I was taken out with a CWT (Canine Welfare Technician) and was taught how to be a distraction for a working team (a trainer and their dog) which I found out there was 3 levels of distractions. I didn't get to put those skills to the test yet, but I'm sure within the 2 weeks I will! I was told I will perform distractions around the campus and downtown San Rafael. Right after distraction training I hooked back up with my CWT mentor and he took me and showed me how to clean/disinfect runs, clean/disinfect food bowls & toys. It's a lot more then you think, but it really made me feel that our dogs that we loved for the past year are really well cared for and all the staff loves them as much or more as we did. That was pretty much my morning, and I headed off for my 30 min lunch. Guide Dogs is very flexible, any employee or intern can take a 30 min or an hour lunch and when you have worked your 8 hours you are free to go home, I thought that was really cool that they are really that flexible!

I spent my 30 min lunch with the other training intern in the staff lounge and boy did the 30 min fly by!  I couldn't complain I was more they happy to go back to work! I spend my afternoon helping another CWT prepping for the recall dogs coming in on Aug 11, which is way more then you would ever think! We spent 2 hours making collars, writing kennel tags (which included the dogs name, tattoo #, Micro Chip #, Sex, Color, & Breed), writing paper work with the same info as the kennel tags, and other misc. kennel tags that were needed for 39 incoming dogs. I never thought about all the work and prep that goes into recall dogs. I headed back to the kennels to return all the ready packets. I found my mentor in my kennel and he briefly taught me how to properly put on their 2 in 1 leash/gentle leader to any dog in the kennel in case I ever needed to grab a dog for whatever reason, then it was off to learning how to prep food for that kennel! Food is prepped around 2:30p.m. and by the time you scoop all the food and scoop the special diets for the dogs that need it, it's around 3 and you start at one end of the kennel and work your way down to the other end feeding the dogs that were left behind when the trainers went out for the afternoon and watching/separating any dogs that it applied to, and about that time the trainers are back and bringing their dogs in and we back track and feed those or the trainers take care of it. I then went back to where I started and collected the empty dog bowls and took them to the sink where they would be cleaned. The dogs are given about 15-20 min after being fed to go out in their runs and "do their business" and after that time they are locked in and the runs are cleaned and sprayed out for the 3rd time that day, and I got the privilege of doing that again, I really didn't mind I actually enjoyed it! After the runs were cleaned out and sprayed down in my kennel, my mentor took my to get a dog and showed me more behind the scenes of the campus.

By now it was near 4:15  and everyone is winding down and getting ready to leave and making sure they wrote down any needed info about dogs in their kennel in the logs or on the whiteboard. What I took away from today is GDB is very organized/scheduled orientated and you need to learn/love/live that schedule to survive a day there! It was a very busy day of learning and experiencing what goes in the 3 training departments and how to communicate with the employees and that it's extremely  important to read and understand all the kennel tags that could be on a kennel. I was dismissed at exactly 4:30 and I went into the receiving kennel and grabbed Mojito and headed on home for the night where I enjoyed a delicious homemade meal! I am NOT a morning person but waking up at 6:15 in the morning for the next 2 weeks I will not mind doing at all, I throughly enjoyed my day and can't wait for what's coming!

On another note I was informed Mojito is flying to Oregon on Wednesday at 11am and will be arriving there around 4pm. GDB is hoping to have a volunteer fly with him in the passenger area but if not he will be placed in a kennel and picked up in Portland!

~Katlynn & Mojito

6 Days & Counting!!

That's right only 6 more days and I am off to San Rafael to be an intern in their training department. I made a promise to myself that I would write a post every night about my day so I will not forget this experience, so be sure to look back Monday night!

As excited as I am for my internship I got the news Mojito is being recalled August 11, right in the middle of my internship. I am beyond excited Mojito has made it to being recalled as there were a lot of doubts about him, he will be almost 15 months when he goes back so prime age of being recalled! Of course how can I spend 2 weeks at GDB seeing all the cute puppies and knowing Mojito will be staying a GDB when I come home, I decided a puppy will be heading home with me on the 18th. I have no puppy assignment yet, all I know is it will be a male, so as soon as I get it I will post, and the name guessing can begin!

I can honestly say Mojito has been my most challenging puppy, yet the one who as worked his way into my heart the most, and it will not be an easy goodbye. He was a challenging puppy from day 1 with his extreme puppy jacket sensitivity, to his extreme body sensitivity. I am proud to say that today he has no issues with wearing his puppy jacket and loves to be groomed. I could not be more proud of this puppy and I learned it really takes a community to raise a puppy! I could not have raised Mojito without the help from my leaders, club members, and CFR.

Summer Internship

This is the second year I have applied for the GDB summer youth internship. Last year I was not accepted, however this year I was!!! I will be interning in their training department from Aug 6-17! I am very excited as I know this will be an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

My goal is to blog about it every day, so I can share my experiences with you and also to look back on and remember all the little details!

~Katlynn & Mojito

So I am sure as all of you can tell, my blog has been neglected & put on the back burner for the past 7 months. But I am back and wanted to give you a quick update on Mojito!

First off I am loving the experience of raising a cross, he definitely acts golden and has those "golden moments!" He is definitely a funny dog who has a crazy personality, but yet for the most part works really well. When he was a puppy up about until he was 6 months he had severe body sensitivity, he would constantly rub/scratch at his vest (and gentle leader but more so the vest) and would walk very nervously & unconfident. It got so bad that my leaders took a video of how he walked in jacket and how he walked without a jacket and sent it to guide dogs. It was amazing the difference and confidence levels he had with/without the jacket on. He has been on food protocol to try to get him over the vest problem, and I am happy to say that he is pretty much over it. He still itches at it more than normal but it is 1000 times better!

Ryder and Mojito out hiking today!

*Mojito only had his jacket on and leash off for this picture*

Katlynn, Mojito, & Ryder

Welcome......

MOJITO!!

Breed: 1/2 Lab 1/2 Golden

Gender: Male

Born: May 15, 2011

P.S. Happy 4th Birthday DeSoto!!

200th Post!!!!

So for my 200th post, I thought it should be something big, something exciting, and something extraordinary! Well lucky for you all I have some pretty exciting news!! But exciting news comes with bad news too, right? Right.

Well let's get the bad news over with first. Aniko was recently Career Changed at 10 months due to his awful alarm barking. My CFR was up a few weeks ago, and I mentioned to her about his barking, and her immediate response was I will have to drop him. Needless to say, I was shocked!! I just figured she would give me some protocol as to what to do with him and help him stop alarm barking. He will bark at door bells, when someone enters the door in our house, and at other people's house's when I am visiting and they are answering the door. Just recently he started growling/barking at those items. His alarm barking has not gotten any better it's only gotten worse. I was very bummed about him getting CC'd as he was my special golden boy and he was such an AWESOME puppy, I had high hoped for him, and I am graduation hungry it's been almost 3 years! My family and I made the hard decision to let GDB place him. They are going to neuter him and do a few months of training with him, to maybe help his barking issues.

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Now for the exciting news!!!

With Aniko being CC'd, I of course was offered a puppy. How could anyone turn down a puppy?! My plan was to get one on Fun Day (July 23), but I got an e-mail from my CFR saying there was a puppy that needed a home by this weekend!! Now here where the fun happens! You all get to guess the:

~Breed

~Color

~Gender

~Name: "M" Puppy

~Birthdate

I will post the details this weekend, when I get home from picking it up!

Bittersweet Ending

Today while driving around with my mom, my leaders called. I didn't think much of it because it was not Thursday and I had nothing to worry about. They told us they wanted to talk to us in private, I was now worried that I had done something totally wrong and they were going to tell me Aniko was going to be transferred or some awful thing like that. I was now worried.

When they arrived they had sad looks on their face, they said to go sit down and they want to talk. They began by saying, "it seems like every time we call or come over it's bad news." They then said, I'm very sorry we just got they news Ryder has been Career Changed." I didn't know what else to say besides when can I go get him.

He was dropped for dog distraction and hackling an unknown dogs while in harness. I did observe him hackling as he got older and more hormones at unknown dogs while out working. I can't say I am no disappointed, because I am. But I am more then thrilled he gets to come home and live with me. Ryder and I always had a special bond that no other dog and I will have. My CFR was bummed to hear that I would be adopting him as she knew he would be the perfect dog for an adoptive family because of his calm temperament.

I will post the actual CC info when I get it which should be in the next day or to! I am planing on going down Friday to get him, needless to say I am MORE then excited!!

One of the last pictures I had of him!

On a more happier note! Aniko is 8 months old and is doing awesome! I am in love with the Golden's and I would love the opportunity to raise another one! He is such a kind hearted, loving dog. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Aniko at the Capital grounds on Monday.

Katlynn, Aniko, & Ryder!

What Do You Call Your Puppy?

I do apologize for not posting, I have been super busy with school and now work. I'm hoping to get a post up of Aniko soon, but he's doing great almost 6 months old, and is a great worker and over all awesome dog!

Just to have some fun I was wondering what all of you call your dogs and what nicknames they have. Aniko has accumulated a lot over the past 3 months.

Of course he is "Aniko" while out working and doing commands but around the house or just having fun he could be one of the following:

~Nikko (most common and easier to say than "Aniko")

~Freaky Nik

~Nikky Freak

~Nikky Freaky

~Nikko Freako

~Freak

~Aniko Freako

~Nikky Nikky

Notice how 99% of them all have "freak, or freaky?" He got the name freaky for being a golden as we thought all golden's were freaks (turns out he proved us wrong, he is a lab in a golden's body) and not have a typical lab temperament, so it just kinda stuck and it fits him well. :)

We went up to Tahoe today to get some professional pictures done by a friend, I'm hoping to get them back soon so I will post them! But for now here is an i-Phone picture of Aniko and 5 months! He LOVED the beach but was not a fan of the water, i'm thinking it was because the water was freezing as it is January! We will hope for better success in the summer!

Katlynn & Aniko