Dogs I Have Known, Mostly

This spring and summer I've been pretty busy, not only going places, but also doing a lot of canine entertaining - and I thought I'd introduce you to some of the four-footed people I've been hanging out with. I really like four-footed people. With two-footed people you have to behave yourself. With four-footed people you have to behave yourself, too, but you can get away with a little more. Don't tell anybody I said that.

BUT FIRST... I took my people to a street fair a few weeks ago!

They'd been to street fairs before, but I hadn't, so I figured it was time they got me involved. A street fair is a chance for people to play in the street. Really. They close the streets off to traffic and walk around and talk to one another. And just to make it more fun, a lot of folks sell things, and there are super smells and some things on the sidewalk you're told "DON'T!" about.


We had to line up to get on the bus, which was new to me (the bus, not the line). It was bigger than my living room. The people sat on the seats, but they left the whole floor to me.

Am I doing it right? There wasn't much room to do a real "under" command.



Once we got there, we cruised around.





And one of the first sights was of someone who should obviously be a friend! We were only allowed to wag our tails at each other because we were WORKING dogs!



I didn't get to eat any of those tasty-smelling things, but I did get some nice cold water.




This is a cool boat. Why do people get scared in these? Oh, something about the water under them....


This kind of work I love to do.










There aren't just dogs here! What IS that?






When we got on the bus to go home, my dad let me sit on the seat. There were some great views out the window.






Supervising wore me out.


My mom got a fast shot of me going down the steps to get off the bus. Got that? STEPS? Maybe I'm over my step-phobia. My mom says she'd like to take me to the mall to test that out, but her wallet is highly allergic to the mall.

Anyhow...

On to my four-footed friends! My Creator has blessed me by giving me lots of doggy friends.

Well, no, this isn't a doggy friend, but I couldn't resist. Leave it to MEE-YOWs to think it's fun to watch water drip.


These are my cousins, Loki and Odin. They're Norwegian Elkhounds, but they don't speak Norwegian - just dog. They came to see me last Christmas, and they came back to visit one afternoon not long ago with their mom. It was fun to play with them again.


This is Gus. He lives next door. He is a Vizsla. That's pronounced "veesh-lah" in people language
(and "ra-woof" in dog). He's looking at me through the window in our fence. Yes, we have a dog window in our fence. That's something you don't see every day. He doesn't jump through it (his yard is lower than mine), but sometimes he gets to come over here to play.


Gus was rescued from a puppy mill (I'm not even asking my mom what that is). He can't hear very well, if at all. But that doesn't stop him from looking cute... and having lots of fun.

He was afraid of the steps up our deck. I could have taught him a thing or two (ahem!). But I didn't want to embarrass a guest.

Now, this guy lives two houses down, but plays in Gus's back yard a lot. His name is Buddy. On the outside, he's the shape of a Welsh Corgi with the fur and eyes of an Australian Shepherd. On the inside, he's just another Lab in a funny-colored Corgi suit.

Maybe Gus doesn't come through the window, but Buddy does!



Sometimes he comes over when I'm not home. One afternoon he crashed a party my mom was having. He told me later that the raspberry sherbet punch tasted pretty good. Unfair.



My mom likes Buddy, but he's no taller than the MEE-YOWs, so when he's inside our house he sneaks into the laundry room through the little door...

...and gets into the kitty litter. Then she gets mad at him. (He only says, "Yum.")

My people are taking me to some foreign country called Indiana... so I'll blog again when I come back, if we don't run into trouble with immigration.

Kelda the Journalist

I've been super-busy this week (befitting Kelda the Superdog)! But I wanted to share with you my (ahem) column that appeared in the Chaffee County Times last month. Remember when Gamay and I swapped homes? This is what came of it. Ms. Bensman is my ghost writer (because she has fingers and I don't). She took the pictures, too. Words in brackets [ ] are extra comments from me, Kelda.
........................................

CCI PUPPIES SWAP THEIR RAISERS

(by Kelda - Guest Columnist)


Hi! I'm Kelda. I'm a CCI puppy like Gamay. I met Gamay at the birthday party in Colorado Springs. I live in the Springs, but I stayed with Mary Lee for a week while Gamay stayed with my puppy raisers.

In the city, we puppies swap around our raisers quite a bit because we live close to each other. Since Gamay doesn't get in on all the fun, we swapped our puppy raisers for a week.

Gamay and I are almost the same age (one year, at the time of writing) and we are both being turned in on the same day (August 22) at the same place (Oceanside, California). That's were we go for advanced training ("college").

Here are more ways that Gamay and I are alike: We wear the same clothes; we don't like our Gentle Leaders; we like to walk ahead of our handlers instead of beside them [oops]; we are both Labs (although I am yellow - almost white - and she is black); we are both writers; we both get really excited to meet other people and dogs; we are both party animals.

When Mary Lee picked me up at my house and left Gamay with my puppy raisers, we went shopping. We shopped til I dropped! Mary Lee said I did really well in the stores. Except the office supply store; I barfed in the office supply store. Mary Lee had given me a chance to "hurry" before we went in, but she never told me to barf. So I did it in the store. [You'll notice there are no pictures of this.]

She was really nice about it. She knelt on the floor with plastic bags and paper towels scattered about, and let me do what I had to do. Then she wiped it all up. It's kinda hard to be inconspicuous about something like that. But she said she would prefer that people watch me barf than hurry in a store! [For those of you who may not know, "hurry" does not mean, "Get a move on." It's a substitute for saying, "Go to the bathroom right now." "Hurry" is one of the commands we learn. When we're real service dogs we may not be able to run outside any old time we need to. We need to do our business when it is convenient for our person.]

She called me "perfect puppy" in the restaurant! I just lay down on the floor without even being told to, and stayed there until we left.

Lots of people talked to Mary Lee about me. "How is she doing?" they asked. She said, "I don't know. I've only had her a couple of hours!" Then she explained all about the puppy exchange. By the end of the day, she was just telling them I was doing great!

We went to the pet supply store and Mary Lee bought a dog chew ring for me to play with on the way home! Well, she got it for Gamay, but she let me play with it while I was here. She also bought a hard rubber bone, but as soon as I started eating it, she took it away. She's kinda picky about puppies eating toys.

When we got back to Buena Vista, I scarfed down dinner! Then I had fun sniffing all around the yard and the house. I went right in my (Gamay's) crate when Mary Lee told me to. I knew just where I was supposed to sleep.

We went on a hike on Sunday and played ball, but it got kinda hot.

One time, I was lying on Gamay's pillow in the living room, playing with the new dog chew ring. I rolled on my back and gave it a toss, and it landed right in the water dish! I couldn't do that again if I tried! I drank as much water as I could so that I could get it out, but I couldn't.


I loved playing with the firewood that was on the deck. I picked out the biggest ones.

Mary Lee calls me "Sweetie" when I'm not trying to bite her! [I wouldn't bite her! It's just that when my tail moves fast, my mouth moves, too. I think the puppy college teachers aren't gonna like that.] She's kinda picky about that, too!

By the time you read this, Gamay will be home.

..............................

If you want to know more about Gamay, go to www.maryleebensman.com. I had a terrific time in Buena Vista. Everybody is friendly, the firewood sticks taste good, and Gamay has a really cool basketball!

Gamay, the Guest Columnist

(Note from Kelda: Gamay is writing this week's blog because she was me for a week! We traded Puppy Raisers. Fun!)

My name is Gamay! If you're old enough to remember a face soap called Camay, you won't have any trouble with my name. I'm a beautiful black Lab, the only CCI puppy being raised in Buena Vista, Colorado. My PR mom writes for the local paper, so I fill in for her sometimes. (It's nice to be needed.)

A few weeks ago I came to the Big City, and attended Zebrina's birthday party while I was here. My mom thought it would be good for me to get more learning outside a small town, so she asked if Kelda and I could trade places for a few days. So Kelda went off with my mom, and I got to stay here.

Kelda had told me about her MEE-YOWs, so I couldn't wait to meet them. It turned out they were perfectly willing to wait to meet me. They would have waited much longer.

All I wanted to do was play! After all, they don't seem to play with one another - why shouldn't they play with me?


This is Nonny. He's kind of old. He didn't want to play. He growled and hissed.





All of a sudden, out of the blue came Mr. Grey! He got between Nonny and me, and started using his claws on my ear. OUCH!

I never dreamed the MEE-YOWs stood up for each other!







(There's another MEE-YOW named Cetty but she wouldn't give me the time of day.)

I did other things, too. Kelda's mom was looking for flowers...

...and I helped her.


These smell good. Taste good, too - oops. You didn't hear that.


I took Kelda's dad for walks.




I made sure Kelda's toys didn't get lonesome.

Here I am talking to Gus, who lives next door. You can't see him. And this isn't really my best side.

And, over time...


I can't say the MEE-YOWs and I became friends, but they started to put up with me. A little.

The big city is really a lot like a small town, because you can only be in one place at a time. The CCI commands we learn are the same wherever we live. So we can practice anywhere. With Kelda's people I went to Home Depot, to Walmart, to church, to the grocery store. It was interesting seeing all the different people.

Kelda's mom took me to a thrift store. There were lots of nice smells and lots of nice people. But I couldn't figure out why that monkey was hanging around up there on that person's NECK. Was it waiting to jump on me? Yikes!






When the cleaning gals came, it was fun. They like dogs.


They also have noisy machines.







I had a great week! Kelda and I had the chance to talk (and sniff) when we traded people back.








We'll be going to puppy college together in August. But I hope we'll have some fun before that. Colorado Springs, like Buena Vista, is a good place for a CCI pup to be!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's official: I'm a big girl! No, I haven't put on weight. I haven't grown tall enough to play basketball. I haven't set a record for playing with MEE-YOWs.

I'm a year old!

Last year at this time (May 13) I was born in California. I have six brothers and sisters. Here's a picture (left) of Keilus - she lives in Maryland, where the crabs are.

If you have trouble telling us apart, there's a reason... we wear the same style of birthday hat.








I spent the beginning of the week with Auntie Phyllis.

She's not my real auntie (if she were, she'd have fuzzy ears and a tail). But she loves dogs so much, and takes care of them so well, that she's Auntie Phyllis to all of us.

She took me to the library (Zebrina was there, too) so kids could read to me. I wish somebody had taken pictures because not only did the children like me, but they also pasted five-pointed stickers on my face after they read each book! I always knew I had STAR quality!

On my birthday she took me to class, where my PRs met us. We CCI pups have class together every two weeks. Sometimes it's a field trip - maybe to a fire station or a retirement place - but most of the time, we practice what we're learning at home.


Here we are doing "cradle."

You lie down on your person's lap on the floor and let everything show. Not ladylike, but nobody minds. I don't like cradling much. That's why my dad has his hand on my chest to keep me where I should be.




My friend Augie would rather be bouncing around, too. He has the very best bounce I've ever seen.

But some pups just lie there and snooze - or smile. Here's Emmy!







This is my teacher, Megan, talking to Nara and her PR mom. We have a lot of little kids in class right now.














Everybody needs to learn to sit. This is Malin. It's harder to "sit - stay." We like "sit - get up - run around" better. But that isn't a command.


"Down" doesn't mean, "Get off the furniture"; it means we get all our feet and our tummies on the floor. This is a very good napping command.









Here's a harder one: "Stand." It gets boring. But you're not supposed to sit - you need to keep standing. I'm getting pretty good at this one.



"Roll" is good for tummy scratches.








We learn to walk beside our people in the right way - not too far ahead, not too far behind, not sniffing the floor as we go.


(This - well, this is what sometimes happens when the little guys come to class.)

"Jump" means to get on something above the floor - like maybe a table at the vet's office. I like "jump," but this counter is too slippery.














We even learn how to go through doorways with good
manners. This is cute little Rio.

This is "visit." You stick your face in your person's lap and look up adoringly. If you do it just right, you should get a treat - or at least an "Awwww."











We learn to take things in our mouths and then drop them when we're told. This is Sherwood. He's a CCI release dog. He's been a therapy dog for five years, and he knows all the commands perfectly! We all look up to him.




And here I am, starting to do a "lap." I think it should be half a lap, because only half of me should get up there. But then, that much of me takes up a person's whole lap. We learn this because maybe our person will be in a wheelchair and won't be able to bend over to give us attention. So we go where the best attention is. Very sensible.

After we did all our schoolwork (and there's more than this), we had birthday cake!


Auntie Phyllis made it out of people food that is all right for dogs to eat once in a while.









Mmmmm! My mom wanted to get a shot of me eating the cake, but she didn't move fast enough. Even the crumbs were good.





It was too rich for the little puppies, but we big dogs loved it!