Tashi's Web Photo and Storybook
February 17 -- CCI PUPPY RAISERS ARE AMAZING PEOPLE!!!!!!!!OK, so that isn't news to anyone who reads this on a regular basis, but let me tell you why I'm emphasizing that point today. When Stan feeds me and my packmate, a 14 year old mixed breed that lives here as a pet, he usually puts a gate up in the walkway between the kitchen and dining area in the house. I eat so much faster than the other dog that Stan feeds me in the dining area and the other dog eats in the kitchen. Then we both of us have finished eating, (did I mention the other dog eats really REALLY slow???) he picks up the food bowls and takes the gate down so I can go get a drink of water if I want after eating. Well, tonight Stan made a mistake in that whole process. But, thanks to MY AMAZING PUPPY RAISERS THAT TRAINED ME SO WELL there will be no unwanted side effects from Stan's mistake. Like me gaining extra weight, for example. Anyone who has ever been around one of us Labradors knows that if we are given the chance to eat something, we'll eat it. Doesn't matter if we are hungry or not, doesn't matter if you people think it's edible or not, if we can swallow it, it's food, if we can chew and swallow it, well that's a bonus. So here's what happened tonight. When dinner was over, Stan took the gate down and picked up my empty food bowl. However, he forgot to pick up the other dog's food bowl, and it always has leftovers in it. (Silly dog, I just can't imagine why ANY dog would leave leftovers, but I guess if you aren't a Labrador........) Anyway, Stan left this other food bowl with leftover kibble in it sitting right there in the kitchen floor. It wasn't until almost three hours later that he discovered what he had done. Just in case anyone doesn't know, CCI puppy raisers spend a lot of time training us in basic obedience commands. One of the commands our puppy raisers teach us is the command that lets us know it's OK to eat something. There are lots of reasons for this, safety for us dogs, manners when we are out in public (i.e. you will probably never see any of us CCI dogs stealing food from a kid or anyone else), and so our handlers know exactly how much we are eating so we don't gain extra weight just to name a few. So, back to the story. For three hours this food bowl sat there in the kitchen floor with kibble just waiting for me. Except for one thing, Stan hadn't given me permission to eat from that bowl. I remembered Cindy and Jenny and all the time they spent training me. Just so you know, it worked. All your efforts paid off. I didn't have permission to eat and when Stan discovered that he had forgotten to pick up the bowl, he expected to walk over and find it empty. But instead, when Stan looked in the bowl, there was still the usual amount of leftovers still in the bowl. So for all you CCI puppy raisers that read this, take heart, you really do have an impact on our lives as dogs long after our training time with you is finished.
In other news, Stan took me to the vet for a regular check up this week. During the checkup, the vet discovered that I have infections in both of my ears. The vet was surprised, she said she would never have guessed that I had ear infections because before she looked in my ears with the scope, she checked them and looked at them with just her eyes and said they were very clean. Anyway, she gave Stan some medicine for me and I have another appointment to have my ears looked at again in two weeks. My ears aren't bothering me at all, but infections aren't something to play around with. As for the rest of the checkup, the vet said I'm in excellent health overall.
Stan and I are going on a train ride again. This time we are going to go all the way across the country to Mississippi where Becky has been since September for training with the NM Air National Guard. It's been a long time since Stan or I have seen Becky and we are both looking forward to it.