Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Adventure-The End

 Carla has Trey on loan Southeastern Guide Dogs, which is here 8 miles from my home.

Trey is a 4 month old Lab in Waiting to be a Southeast Guide Dog graduate and spend his life giving the gift of sight to an unsighted person. Carla says she will keep him until he is 1 year old, she is to let him play and be petted and loved by people, socialized she called it; At age 10 months he will start his training to ignore everything and every person except his owner.
 Their motto is "t takes a village to raise a puppy, especially if that puppy serves proudly as a Southeastern Guide Dog." 


I asked Carla why they wore the blue jacket, and she said it is so they get used to the harness they will be wearing. They are taught, when the harness is own they are "working" and no playing allowed. If the blue jacket or harness if off, they can play.
 Charles Norris, graduate says "I thought the lights had gone out of my life, but Southeaster Guide Dogs turned the lights back on. for his story go HERE to watch the very touching video.
 SGD has many dedicate employees and many volunteers that form the village to raise these magnificent dogs.
they encourage volunteers to come out and PLAY WITH PUPPIES whoo hooo
They need volunteers from ground maintenance to cleaning kennels and dozes of other jobs. the one we loved is this
puppy hugging and dog walking Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri-Sat from 9:00am -11:00am
A couple of years back, Bob and I signed up to walk the dogs. We registered and went to the kennels and they assigned us each a lab. we walked the designated trail for and hour and came back and said We want to walk 2 more.
Bob got a lab, and I received the leash of a beautiful and very big Collie. We hit the trail and 5 minutes later, the sprinkler system came on and my dog dashed out in the middle of the sprinkler pulling me with him. Bob had to take the leash to get him back on the trail since it took MAN strength.

when we arrived back at the kennels, the lady burst into laughter because we were all wet.... and said....

OOPS! I forgot to warn you that he loves water and when you are close to the sprinkler he has to be on a tight and firm and short leash...... NOW she tells us. We did not really care, it was a wonderful 2 hours.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a wonderful organization. So great of you to volunteer, and that sprinkler story brought a smile!
I'm in awe of service dogs. It's amazing how much independence they can provide the disabled.
Thanks for sharing this!

Ruth Hiebert said...

THese dogs areas valuable.I wish I could have watched you,the dog and the sprinkler.LOL

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

our seeing dog wear a red cape.

Anonymous said...

Interesting about the blue jacket. LOL! about the sprinkler. Sounds like fun. This way you can get some puppy time in and then give them back.

srp said...

He looks so well behaved already.
How funny... you really have to watch those sprinklers. When ours are on and Daisy goes out, she forgets and then looks utterly shocked when she accidentally runs through one. Well behaved for baths, she definitely would not jump into a pond for a swim or run to a sprinkler for fun.

Remington said...

That is GREAT!

Unknown said...

Beautiful dog and a wonderful story, Sandra. Hope you are 100% back to normal soon.

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

These dogs are amazing with their training. Glad they get to play some too

Ginny Hartzler said...

The film was really interesting. Especially the part about the intense socialization, where nothing should be able to scare them, they must be "chicken proof"! And also the intelligent disobedience part. Gosh, this was posted at almost 2 A.M. I hope it was scheduled to post and you weren't up then!

Betty Manousos said...

such beautiful dogs!

and what a wonderful story!

betty xx

S. Etole said...

what a beautiful dog and service ...

I'm glad you are feeling better.

Ann said...

what a cute dog that is. It's amazing what they can do and how they can give a person back some independence.
Your story about walking the dogs cracked me up.

Chatty Crone said...

I think that is WONDERFUL what you and Bob are doing. AND I think you would be great trainers.

Two women at our church are trainers and bring their dogs to church!

Kilauea Poetry said...

You know I spaced that out and just clicked the link!! That was cool Sandra..I just love dogs- they are so special. Interesting about the guy. Thanks-

Dawning Inspiration said...

I'm sorry to admit this - but tears are in my eyes at the picture of you being pulled out into the sprinklers by the puppy. Oh the things we do for the love of animals...and the things we "suffer" for.

How wonderful of you two to walk those dogs... how fun!

SquirrelQueen said...

The people who train service dogs are angels as far as I am concerned, those dogs help so many people is so many ways.

I love the sprinkler story, that is too funny. Good for you for volunteering your time for the dogs.