Happy New Year!

I thought I would recap my 2008 for everyone to help enter into the new year.

January

In January I completed Phase 2 of guide dog training. This is what my trainer Jean had to say about me:

Irie is a bright girl who is a quick learner. She has good drive and initiative which also correlates to a high level of distraction and desire to chase. She has however developed a very nice focus while she is working and she is very accurate in her work. Irie is body sensitive and this sometimes causes her to react to the harness. She also tends to stiffen and shy away from physical contact. Irie is impulsive on leash. She finds it difficult to remain composed around other animals. Irie is currently living with both Skip and Atkins who are male black Labs.

February

In February I zipped through both Phase 3 and 4. I was also deemed class-ready and Mom kept her fingers crossed for a March or April graduation. This is what Jean said that report:

Irie has continued to do very well in training. She is a bright girl who learns quickly. She has developed an excellent work pattern. She has good initiative and readily problem solves. Irie's level of animal distraction is high and this can cause her to deviate from her work. The distraction is even more noticeable on leash as she becomes a control problem. Irie has shown a sensitivity to noise and traffic, however thus far it has not interfered with her work. Irie has only to finish with a couple of exposure items before she will be ready for class.

March

So I didn't make class this month. Mom didn't hear any news on me either :(

April

Happy Birthday to me! I turned 2 this month. I celebrated with a brand new trainer-Kate. She was so awesome and thought I was just too cute! Here's what she said about me:

Irie has been passed to us in Special Needs to spend a little extra time in training, so she can work on a few areas without any time pressure. She is such a sweet girl and very bright. I have enjoyed getting to know her during this training period.

She has improved a lot in self-control around distractions from her previous reports. She is still interested in these distractons--especially animals, like other dogs--but at this point she does not present a control problem. We are supporting and rewarding her for this self-control, and I would like to see it continue as we change our handling to mimic a GD user rather than a GD trainer. In addition we are continuing to work on walking over manhole covers, which she does fairly willingly at this point.

Irie lives with a cute little black lab male named Gus, who she really likes a lot. For a short time she and Gus were part of a large 4-dog run. Whenever Gus came back from training (far more so than when the other dogs would come back) Irie would be SO happy to see him, would want to run around with him, etc. Cute!!

May

I still hadn't found my perfect match yet, but everyone had their fingers crossed for me. The best thing happened at the end of May-Mom came to work at my school! I was so happy to see her, but I often cried at night when she walked out of the kennels without me.

June

I continued to do well in my training. I got another new trainer this month, Graham. He found the perfect person for me, who would be coming in August to get me. Until then, I got to go work with Graham and my roomie, Sancho, everyday.

July

My last guide dog workout was in the beginning of July. A big scary monster tried to eat Graham and I while we were out working and I protected us by going backwards a few feet and into a restaurant. While Graham appreciated my help, he guessed that my person would not appreciate it quite so much. He told Mom and she snatched me out of the kennels as soon as she could. She was disappointed that I wouldn't be a guide dog, but she sure was happy to have me home. I loved my new brother, Keller, although he only stayed a week and I was especially happy to see my Indiana again.




August

In August Mom and my time at school was coming to a end, but we still enjoyed our time there by doing lots of swimming, off-leash work, and we fostered a dog from the kennels. He let me boss him around which was great and we even attended our pal Farrell's birthday party together.


At the end of August, Mom and I went back to her school. I had a blast staying at her apartment and enjoying being a pet.


September

I spent this whole month with Mom. We went to the park a lot and I thoroughly enjoyed the college lifestyle of sleeping in late (especially now that I could sleep in bed).




I also took my first and probably only attempt at dock diving. It was a fun day, but I did not enjoy the actual diving part of it.



I also met my friend Yara. We had such a great day together!


At the end of the month we went on a road trip to visit Aunt Wendy. It was a long trip but with all the swimming I did, it was so worth it!





October

Fay arrived in October which meant I had to go live with Grandma and Grandpa. I love being here, but I miss Mom.


We also attended Walkathon. It was such a blast!


November

In November I stayed with Mom and Fay for a little bit. I got to meet my half-sister, Kylie. She is pretty cool!


December

In December Mom and Fay came home. Not before the little brat opened all my Secret Santa presents...


We also got our first real snows, which I LOVE!


And that brings us to our Christmas trip (see separate post) and the New Year. Wow, what a year I've had, huh?