Puppy #3 - Kayla!

Puppy #3 arrives on Monday!! Her name is Kayla and she is an adorable German Shepherd pup. I cannot wait!! Since raising a GSD will be a brand new experience for me, I thought I would try to revive this blog - lets hope I can keep up with it! :)

Josie and Persia have a sleepover!

One of our raiser's unexpectedly needed to leave the country to care for her sick mother-in-law in Hong Kong and as a result, the pup she is raising, Persia, has been getting shuttled around to various raisers and sitters. For a brief four day period, Persia came to stay with me. Now, I thought how hard could one more dog be, but to be honest, I think this experience has taught me that three dogs is enough! :)

Persia is a perfectly lovely dog who goes in for training in January. Josie and Persia got along great, although initially they seemed to think that Persia's crate was the best location in which to play.


Occasionally Dexter even joined in to play with the two labs.


A little posing...


Even though four dogs is a lot, I invited Julia, who is sitting for GEB pup China over Thanksgiving, over for a play session with the dogs. It was not as crazy as I had predicted and we even got all the labs for sit nice for a photo.


On Persia's last night with me, I decided to play around with some Christmas hats I had purchased (which will hopefully be used for my Christmas card pictures this year!). The dogs were not amused but I was so it was all worth it!

Is it time to eat yet??

A Visit with Aunt Michelle & Dina

One of our NYC pups, Freida, needed to get her 12-week vaccines so Julia and I volunteered to drive up to Yorktown Heights in order for Freida to get her vaccines from the Guiding Eyes vets. While we were there, we stopped in to say hello to Michelle, who is raising the most beautiful German Shepherd ever - Dina. Since Michelle was Frito's "aunt," she has also automatically become Josie's "aunt." Dina does really well with puppies so Josie and Dina hit it off right away. Of course we made them pose a bit. :)


I also spotted a harness hanging on the back of Michelle's door and could not resist putting it on Josie for some cute photos. She has a lot of growing and learning to do before she fits into that harness!


In other news, Dina will be headed in for training in January. I will certainly miss her! I am half-hoping they decide to make Dina a brood so 1) she could stay living with Michelle and I could see her regularly, and 2) so I could raise a Dina puppy for my third dog. :) We shall see!

Freida comes for a visit

Josie got some much needed playtime with fellow NYC pup, Freida, who is being raised by a girl named Elizabeth (a first time raiser). When Freida was chosen for our region by our region manager, Rachel, I scolded her for choosing a puppy whose name was so close to Frito's. And sure enough, while I had Freida at my house for a few hours, a few Frito's slipped out, but I do not think Freida minded!

Happy Halloween!

In what is quickly becoming a Halloween tradition, I headed to Silva and Felipe's apartment for some pumpkin carving. I do not actually carve a pumpkin as I always seem to have one dog or another with me and carrying a pumpkin while walking a dog (or dogs) is a challenge I think I will pass on. But nevertheless, I have a lot of fun watching everyone else carve their pumpkins. But I am getting ahead of myself!

This was Josie's first major outing into the city beyond my neighborhood. Here she is sitting on the foot bridge that goes over a major highway.


After making our way across the foot bridge, we headed for the subway station. I was glad that once we were inside the station, we had some time to just hang out before the train came (a rare thing to wish the train did not come!). A train arrived on the other side of the platform, which was great as it allowed Josie to hear the sound of the train but not have it directly in front of her. Josie waited very patiently.


I worked really hard with Josie the first few weeks that I had her to teach her to "close," as it is a very useful command when on a subway. She did "close" almost perfectly but as the train ride went on, she gradually scooted over to one side. We will have to work on this.


After we got off the subway, we stopped at the corner of W. 57th Street and Broadway, right in the heart of midtown Manhattan, for a nice photo of Josie with traffic whizzing by behind her.


After a nice walk through the city (with near perfect loose leash walking I might add!), we finally arrived at Silva & Felipe's.


The pumpkin carving commenced, along with watching The Shining (red rum!). It was a great Halloween with some spectacular pumpkins! Josie agreed to put on her Halloween costume for a few minutes to get a nice Halloween photo. She was a moose (with a very tempermental head!).


Hoping everyone had a wonderful Halloween!!

Another Fall Photo

I just had to post this fall photo of Josie. It was taken in Patterson, NY, at the Guiding Eyes guest house. She looks so sweet and ready to take on the world.