She's Home!!

Hello everyone!!!

Sorry this post is so late. Its been hectic in my neck of the woods ever since the puppy has come home. Not to mention it has been quite an interesting adventure. She has been adjusting well to her new home and is starting to catch on to the whole concept of house training. To recap, here are some of the events that went down yesterday. That day I will always remember as puppy pick up day.

It felt like Christmas eve to me. I could hardly sleep the night before as my head was a mixture of emotions, some good and some bad. I was so worried about what the next 12 months would hold for me and I questioned myself over and over if I would be able to handle such a huge responsibility such as this. Its one of those situations that you truly have no idea what its all about until you tackle it and you get into it. Something told me, 'you may not be ready, but here we go'

The morning was a bit hectic. I did get up relatively early but between needing gasoline in my car and a few unexpected detours on the freeway, I was about a 1/2 hour late to pick up my new puppy from the Leader Dog campus. I arrived at about 1:36 (appointment time- 1 PM) and was greeted by Pat Boyd who is in charge of some of the operations in puppy development. After signing forms and receiving my backpack with "goodies" (aka the diaper bag if you will) I was FINALLY able to meet my brand new puppy. Daisy is beautiful and so are her parents [ for those of you who are Leader Dog raisers her parents are Callie (mom) and Tigger (dad)]. Upon holding her in my arms and looking into her brown eyes I realized that September 2nd, 2012 is going to be one of the hardest days of my life. With goodies in hand and puppy in arms, I headed back to the car with my mom and best friend Elle in tow and we headed home with my new puppy. She did wonderfully well on the car ride home and was eager and curious to know what each new object was and what did it do.

Arriving home we faced another challenge. In our home, we already have a well established male dog who has been ruling the roost on his own for about 12 years. His name is Rusty, a german shephard/keeshound/collie mix and he's my number one guy. My biggest worry: how was he going to react to a new puppy coming into the environment that he has called his for so many years. So with my sister holding Daisy and myself with Rusty on his leash, we gradually and carefully introduced the two to each other. They didn't do too bad and there wasn't any growling or snapping. Very proud of the both of them.

Moving onto the evening hours, Daisy settled into her crate nicely only crying for a few minutes but she was calm and sleepy for most of the night. I decided to awaken around 1:30 AM to check on her to make sure that she didn't need any additional potty time and when I walked to the basement and into the laundry room where her crate is located, I was greeted with a not so pleasant surprise. She had not only pooped in her crate but she had also vomitted a total of two times during the course of the night. With a heavy sigh I took Daisy out of her crate, out to the yard where she managed to potty, and then back into the house to clean up the 'situation'. About 45 mins to an hour later, she was back sound asleep, I was able to rest for another 5 hours peacefully.

The next post will be filled with some terminology to puppy raising as well as some helpful products that I have been using and highly recommend to anyone out there looking for a good product to use with their canine companion. More pictures in the next post and in many more to come!!

Meredith and Future Leader Dog Daisy

Last Checks!!!

Terribly excited because in less than 7 hours, I will be picking up my Future Leader Dog puppy from Rochester Hills. I have the classic "new mommy syndrome" as my sister commonly refers to it as. I am terribly excited but also terribly afraid at the same time. So many thoughts are going through my head. 'Can I do this?' 'Will I mess up?' 'What if Rusty hates her?' 'How's the first night going to go?' 'What are we gonna do about potty training'. Not to mention I was fortunate enough to land myself a new job that I start training on October 8th. Its so nerve-wracking to think about all the responsibilities that are coming into my life, and so quickly! I think its going to be life changing and so time testing. However, life is always going to give you challenges you just have to take them in stride, relax, and take it one step at a time. In the end its going to all work out.

On to the subject of puppies, after much deliberation and debate amongst friends and family, I have finally decided on a name. Here is the long list of possible names that I originally had [reminder: Leader Dog prefers one or two syllable names with the name not sounding like a command or be closely related to an actual person's name]:

Lilly

Lilith

Yoko

Jada

Jade

Sadie

Macy

Lacy

Claire

Mady

Caydence

Daisy

Darla

Cameron

Landry

Holly

Zoey

Noel

Farrah

Bailey

Bryleigh

Kayleigh

Maizey

Long list huh? Well like I said, after much deliberation and debate, I finally decided on a name: Daisy. Thought it would be perfectly cute and appropriate for an adorable black lab female.

well that's all for tonight. Its going to be a big day tomorrow with much to do and lots of excitement. I have a feeling that once I get the ball rolling with everything for the puppy I think it'll start to go smooth once I have the routine down pat.

Expect an extensive update tomorrow with pictures and possibly some video!!

~*Meredith*~

The Final Countdown!!

Figured that now is as good a time as ever to have my first post on the blog!!! To open I'll introduce myself :).

My name is Meredith and I live in the great state of Michigan!!! I'm a full time college student and I'm about to embark on one of the greatest challenges to ever come into my life. I am about to take on the great task of raising a puppy for an organization called Leader Dogs for the Blind. In order to best understand what this whole situation is all about, perhaps we should have a brief history lesson (woh woh wohhhhh...) ......

Founded in 1939 by the Lions Club, Leader Dog is the second guide dog school in the United States. Located in Rochester,MI, Leader Dog provides services to those who are blind and/or visually impaired through the use of GPS systems and/or dogs. Applicants come from all across the world to learn through the Leader Dog program and there are over 3,000 graduates who have gone through the program. Of course this program has to start somewhere and of course why don't we start with.....puppies!!! Well most definatly we have to start with puppies. They are the beginning of the process that is involved in becoming a leader dog. And of course puppies need a raiser. Thats where me and several other hard working individuals come in.

The Leader Dog Puppy Raiser program is a program that allows people in the community to get involved with the organization and lend a hand in providing the independence to so many blind and visually impaired individuals internationally. Leader Dog breeds 3 types of dogs for use in their program: German Shepherd, Laborador Retriever, and Golden Retriever. Raisers are notified (after filling out an application) when a puppy is availible for pick up at the Rochester campus. Puppy raisers have the puppies for 12-15 months before they go back for formal training and [hopefully] placement at Leader Dog. As a raiser, they are responsible for the housetraining, socialization, obdeience training, and exposure to situations that the puppy may encounter during formal training.

Seems like alot to digest huh? That's exactly what I thought back in January when I submitted my interest application. Wasn't sure what was going to happen but I was positive it would be good. I mean, after all, I'm helping someone who will need it. Right?

So after much waiting, and six months of being out of state, I FINALLY have a puppy pick up date and time!! September 18th,2011 at 1PM. Everything is set and ready. Now all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other and begin on this journey.

So I invite all of you to sit back, relax, buckle up, and come along on this journey with me. You will see my ups,downs, conflicts, disappointments, and triumphs throughout the next 12-15 months. I assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Well that's all for now. Time to get down to the nitty gritty on that old fashioned thing they call homework! (homework? what's that? ;) ). More to come!