Update

Well I finally found Internet access and I'll have you know it took me two hours of walking around to find out that there was a McDonald's with wifi a block away from the house. Well here is the update, more detail will be added later when I have more time.

Tuesday
I did more of the same as Monday. We also washed dogs that are going into class on Wednesday with the retrain students.

Wednesday
Wednesday was exciting. The puppy truck left in the morning, and I got to hold Elka, walk her a little bit and put her on the truck. PS. to Lee, I hope you are having a good trip. I also took pictures, to come later, of Betsy and Bianca the Canine Welfare Techs (CWTs) holding Betsy and Bianca, the puppies! Later in the evening, I got to watch Final Guidework Testing in San Rafael. The trainers were under blindfold and we did the Bank of America route. So named because of the detour through the Bank of America. We tested Lahina and Carl (trained by apprentice Nadine) and Franz (trained by Instructor Darren). Also following on the routes was an Instructor from a Guide Dog school in France. All of the dogs passed, but they all need a bit more work. Again, more details will be added later.

Thursday
Thursday we washed the dogs going into class on that day. They were matched with "newbie" students (those who have never had a Guide Dog before). One dog was the puppy of breeder Sage, who's breeder keeper and co-raiser happens to be Barbara Browning! I also got to watch Final Obedience Testing, also done under blindfold. All of the dogs passed, Good Job Puppy Raisers!

Friday
Yesterday we did tons of body checks. Every dog in every kennel is given a body check every week. Those lay over exercises we all do really come into play here. We also prepared for dogs coming in from the recall. This included making name tags and putting tags onto 35 Martingales. GDB is switching from the large link training collars (or Fursavers) to Martingales, which will be issued to all training dogs and students from this point forward. We did this tagging in the dorm's tack room. Oh my, I wish I could have a room like that. One full side had harnesses and handles of different sizes and lengths. In the middle of the room were trash cans full of toys, one for rings one for kongs, etc. On another wall hung training collars in about twenty different sizes. Another wall held leashes. The last wall had shelves filled with tubs with all sorts of things. A box full of clickers (about 200), booties, brushes, martingales, dog tags, and blindfolds (for the trainers, apprentices and not totally blind students to use). I really really wish I had one of those rooms.
Well that's about all for now. More will come later, obviously. I am supposed to go out next week to help Jeff's team train traffic! Soon...