First, a little background--
My journey began 20 years ago, in September 1991. My husband Paul and I went to the Durham Fair, where there were volunteers manning a booth for The Seeing Eye. They had a puppy raiser program that we thought was pretty neat. We had been looking for a way to give back and other things we tried didn’t really suit us. We decided that when our two senior dogs were no longer with us, we would look into raising a guide dog puppy. Paul had heard that there was a guide dog school in CT. In June 1992, we bade farewell to Paul’s beloved companions, Stoney and Snow. In October, we went to Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation and applied to their Foster Program. We got our first pup, Logan, in January 1993. He was quite the handful, but we survived. When he was about 11 months old, we bought a puppy that didn’t have the confidence to go into the foster program. We named her August, and she helped us raise six puppies, until she went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2005 at the age of twelve. One of the pups we raised was kept for the breed program, and Troy sired 14 litters. We raised 3 of his pups and one of his grandpuppies (Titan.) I also would frequently attend the classes and got to know many of the wonderful foster parents who were raising his puppies.
Paul and I raised 9 puppies over the course of 18 years. (Logan, Pica, Troy, Glinda, Pearl, Zuri, Inga, Titan and Trekker.) In 2009, there was a change in management and in June 2010, Mrs. Kaman passed away. That was pretty much the end of the Fidelco that we had come to love. To us, it became a cold corporation instead of warm family. Changes were implemented and decisions were made that hurt a lot of people we cared about. After Trekker graduated in January 2011, we made the most difficult decision of severing our ties with this “new” Fidelco. We were able to remain friends with many fosters, volunteers and staff. We will never regret our Fidelco experience; it has made us who we are. We looked into raising a puppy from another school and considered Guiding Eyes and ultimately decided to go with Freedom Guide Dogs for the Blind. The founders, Eric and Sharon Loori, originally worked for Fidelco over 20 years ago, and the organization was more like the small, family foundation that drew us to Fidelco so many years ago.
I applied to Freedom to be a puppy raiser in July 2010. I told them I would prefer to raise a collie or a white shepherd, and Sharon tried to produce one for me. But it was not to be. There was a litter of yellow labs born in July 2011, but they were all spoken for. On September 1st, I got an e-mail from Sharon, telling me that someone had backed out on raising one of the females. I scrambled to arrange for day care and told her we would come and get her at their Open Kennel on September 17th.
Two of my former Fidelco foster buddies had gotten black lab pups from the same litter in the spring and three other families from Fidelco would be getting puppies from this V litter. There were a total of 13 people from CT that made the trip to upstate New York for Freedom’s Open Kennel. We were welcomed with open arms and they even arranged for a cookout for us after the Open Kennel was over.
We named our little girl Victory, and her littermates that are being raised in CT are Valley, Vegas and VaLinda. The “Freedom Weekend” was wonderful, getting together at the Open Kennel, meeting the staff, some board members, clients and puppy raisers. Victory fell asleep in the middle of all the hustle-bustle and was out cold for about 45 minutes. She didn’t move a muscle, even when her sister Valley tried climbing on her to wake her up! We spent the night at the Lake Chalet Motel and Campground, and hung out in the Lamb’s camper, enjoying the company of friends, and a few bottles of our favorite wine. Victory slept through most of the night. She did very well on the drive back home, riding on my lap for a good part of the way. We stopped in Albany to visit my cousins for a while, then another two hours to home.
Our dogs, Inga and Hanna took to her right away, each playing with her in their own fashion. Victory, who we call Vicci, (rhymes with pixie) is not afraid of anything! Inga may try to ignore her, but Vicci will have none of that, and will launch herself at Inga’s face and neck to entice her to play. I took Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 19th and 20th off in order to bond with her and start the housebreaking. On Wednesday, I dropped her off in town with my friend Doreen, who works mornings in her husband’s woodworking shop. She is a puppy sitter for Guiding Eyes. Also lined up for daycare are Norine and Ed Stepule, who raised several Fidelco puppies, along with Marge and Edwin Minor, who are former Fidelco fosters and currently have Vicci’s sister VaLinda. On Fridays, Vicci stays with another Fidelco friend, Tricia, who is a SAR handler and has a male GSD named Flint and a female Malinois named Izzy.
On Sunday, October 2nd, we had Victory on display at our Colchester Lions Club’s Pumpkins ‘n’ Pooches Autumn Fair & Dog Fest. Karen and Bob came with Valley, and they took care of Vicci while I was overseeing the event, doing my chairperson duties. The girls were wonderful ambassadors for Freedom that day. They tried putting both girls in the large crate at the same time, but the rowdy wrestling that ensued did not bode well for the nice, calm quiet image that we wanted to portray.
We had some warm autumn days and Vicci really enjoyed splashing in our kiddie pool. At first, she had some trouble clearing the sides when trying to jump out; once or twice her little belly hit the edge and bounced her back into the pool. She just got up and tried again. We have a half-acre fenced-in yard for the dogs, and she chases the big girls as they are chasing the “fribbee” or the ball. When she gets tired from running up and down the hill, she just flops down.
On days that I had no day care available, I could either work from home, or bring her to work if it was cool enough. I left her in a crate in my car, parked behind our building in the shade. I would then take her out twice a day, walking her behind the building. She has no problem relieving on the pavement, a good trait in a guide dog! She has come up into the office a couple of times, and met my co-workers. When she is a little older and fully housebroken, I plan to bring her into the office with me on a regular basis. I’m so happy that my co-workers and manager are being very supportive.
Vicci is growing like a weed. When we got her at 10 weeks old, she was 15 lbs, and a few weeks later, at 3 months old, she weighed 25 lbs. She stayed with my friend Melissa for 8 days while we were on vacation, and it seems like she is a lot bigger, and more of her adult coat color is coming in. It is now October 23rd, and I go back to work tomorrow. It is cool enough to leave her in the car during the day, so we can settle into a routine. I will walk her at lunchtime, to start her “formal” leash training. Prior to now, she’s been on a leash for very brief walks, and she just lolly-gags behind. It seems like she is a little spunkier now and more inclined to go where she wants to go. She needs to learn to walk politely at my left side, without pulling.
November 2011-
We established a routine at work. I would take her out to relieve at around 10:00 a.m. and go back around 1:00 to take a walk with her. In the morning, I would literally have to drag her out of her crate because she just wanted to sleep. After a couple of weeks, I eliminated the morning break, as she did not seem to need it.
On November 3rd, we had a meeting of the CT Freedom Fosters with John Byfield, to review any training issues we had. Afterward, we went to dinner. It was a very good meeting, and the pups all seem to be doing really well. What a difference in raising a lab! With the GSD pups, there was always so much worry about their sensitivity and having to be very careful in introducing them to increasingly stimulating scenarios. I was being very careful about exposing Victory to the traffic in Glastonbury, wanting to avoid overwhelming her. We talked about her hesitancy to step up while on our walks, and noted that she did pick up her pace when we went around to the front of the building a couple of times and she knew she was going to visit people in the office. We surmised that she actually needed MORE stimulation, so I started walking on busier streets and she was very confident and curious about everything she saw.
Victory has come to two of our Lions dinner meetings and remains calm while everyone is seated. Of course, when we walk in, she is very excited about greeting all these wonderful people who are just there to see her. We need to work on polite greetings! I’ll have to pick out a few people that will understand how to do the Negative Punishment (Person removes their attention if she jumps up at them) and Positive Reinforcement (Person pets the pup as long as she has “four on the floor.”)
We need to work on obedience, as well. Her sits are very good, but I still have to lure her for a down, and she pops right back up. Her sit-stay is coming along, but I’m still at the point where I have to be right in front of her, and she’ll do about 20-30 seconds. Down-stay is at the very beginning stage, where I have a treat and when she is laying down, I stay squatting next to her and move my treat-hand away for a couple of seconds, then tell her “good stay!” and give her the treat, as long as she hasn’t gotten back up. She sits and stays for a few seconds when I put her food bowl down in front of her. She also waits until I give her permission to come out of her crate. Tomorrow, she starts coming INTO the office with me. I plan to give my co-workers a little instruction on how they can help with her training.
