Jamie's Blog

Happy Birthday Quasia!

2008-04-25T13:44:00.003-05:00

Wow, Quasia turns 4 today. I can't believe she's already four - time goes by so quickly. I'm getting old. I wanted to go home to see her today, but finals are next week and I can't realistically do that. Plus, I'd have to stay until Sunday for my grandpa's birthday as well. I've been really busy with work lately, so I haven't even had a chance to get her a present. She's getting spoiled when I get home.

Happy Birthday girl!

Puppy Withdrawal

2008-04-15T13:15:00.002-05:00

So it's been a real long time since my last post. I guess not that much is going on since school causes me to be away from Quasia. I did try to get in contact with a region that is closer to my school about helping out, but they reasoned that I was too far away to help without actually raising a puppy. It's been since the summer since I've been involved with anything GEB related I guess (besides my winter break trip to NY).

Anyways, right now I really really want a puppy. I keep on hearing about new puppies added to our region and I've seen the pictures and I want to be able to raise again. I'm going to be home for five months this summer and I'm going to try to beg my parents to allow me to raise or at least puppy sit. I live with my grandparents and my grandma has asthma and she's claimed to have had problems when I've puppysat other dogs. It only seems to happen when she sees the dog though - my room's in the basement and I've had a puppy stay for a weekend before and she never had a problem. Plus, a pup probably won't shed as much as a grown dog. And my grandma and Quasia are getting along much better now and she hasn't really complained about her recently.

I guess I'm just realizing that school is almost over (last exam May 1st!) and I'd love to be able to raise again. I do need a job and to make money during the summer because I'll be studying abroad in the fall, so I don't really know how feasible raising a puppy would be. I guess sitting might work, but I want to be able to have a pup to myself, at least for the five months I'll be home. Anyways, those are just my thoughts for now - I should be concentrating on final exams, final papers, getting transfer credits, and finding someone to sublease my townhome, so I can't even really bring up the topic with my parents for now. I feel bad for even saying a thing because I know I should be concentrating on that and getting a job.

Quasia gets a package!

2007-12-13T00:20:00.000-05:00

I just got home tonight, and Quasia's Secret Santa (err... Hannukah Harry) package was waiting. She got really lucky this year and she loves all of her new stuff. Here are pictures.

A package!

Looking at what she got.

Quasia's Secret Santa made her these homemade peanut butter cookies (dog friendly), and she absolutely loved them. This is her waiting anxiously for me to give one to her.

Her two favorite toys were a bear and a platypus beanie baby dog toy that she got. She carries both of them around everywhere now.

Everything all together. You can tell she's very happy now.

So now I'm home for winter break, which means that I will probably have more Quasia updates, but not right away. I'm leaving tomorrow to visit my brother up north, and I will be taking the bus back, so that I can visit my friends from my summer internship. I will probably be stopping at the CDC, so I can see everyone again and get in a good puppy fix. I'll see about posting pictures from there.

I hope everyone has a good holiday. Quasia's definitely in the holiday mood, though Hannukah is now over.

Santa Has Arrived

2007-12-05T01:01:00.000-05:00

Well, at least he has arrived to someone. The package I was talking about in the previous post, finally made it to my Secret Santa, Daisy! She is an adorably cute 3 year old, with the most animated face. Just thought I'd share a picture of her with all of her goodies. (The chocolate is not for her).

Quasia's package has not arrived yet, but Santa (or Hannukah Harry) should be coming soon. :)

A Quasia Thanksgiving

2007-11-26T15:47:00.000-05:00

Of course whenever I go home the thing that I'm most excited about is Quasia's greeting. This time, my mom opened the door before my dad and I walked in, and she ran right passed my dad (who she usually greets) and she ran right to me, wagging her tail a million miles per hour. Then she ran back inside the house, grabbed a toy and ran around the house. It's always the same thing. She definitely makes me appreciate coming home.

During the first 24 hours she was perfect, like usual. She followed me around everywhere, making sure that she didn't lose eye contact. I think she made me pet her all night.

She was pretty good during the whole week I was home actually. It just came on Sunday, where Devil Dog came out to play.

Sundays are always crazy, before heading back to school. I feel like I'm always rushing. This time, I had a Secret Santa package that I was preparing to send off, and I, of course, waited until the last minute to pack it up and send it. I brought the bags from Petsmart and I put them on the kitchen table. Then, I had to run downstairs real quickly to bring up some clothes to pack. When I came upstairs, the bags were on the floor, and Quasia was a couple of feet away in the family room, munching on the peanut butter dog treats that were not for her. Luckily, she didn't eat too many, but the bag was already ripped through, so I couldn't give that to my Secret Santa. Instead, I took one of Quasia's uneaten treats and I exchanged it with the peanut butter treats. I don't know if she deserves them though. I already made an announcement, saying that Quasia does not deserve her Secret Santa package - she's on the naughty list this year.

After getting into the dog treats, she felt like she still had to get into trouble. I left a plate in the family room, and she took that. Later, I left a banana peel and she took that too. I suppose it was my fault, but she usually isn't that bad. My mom said it's because she knew that I was leaving.

Anyways, I added in some pictures to this post - they're all from when I was home. I have some videos too, but I put them on my dad's computer, and I didn't have time to upload them online before I left. I should be home in just over two weeks though, so expect more Quasia updates them, and possibly Quasia Secret Santa opening package pictures, if Santa has decided to let that incident slip this year.

A Picture

2007-10-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

So two weekends ago I was home and I was looking through some past pictures of Quasia. I completely forgot about this one. When my dad was in the hospital, my mom and I were going to make him a little book of funny pictures, and this is the only one we ended up doing, before things got hectic and I moved to New York. Anyways, it's kind of photoshopped, but I thought it was cute.

Lab Love

2007-09-11T12:53:00.000-05:00

I just have to post this because it's the cutest thing ever. This is why Labs are the best. :)

Click

My Internship

2007-08-19T12:41:00.001-05:00

Sorry that I haven't updated for an incredibly long time, but I didn't really have internet during my internship. I finally have time now to update.

Anyways, I had an amazing time at GEB. I worked at the canine development center on a project that they are working on to learn more about puppy temperament and what puppies are best suited to become guide dogs. I worked on two aspects of the project, crating and follow me

I worked along with two other interns, which was so much fun. We also worked on the project for Suzanne Clothier, who is an amazing lady in the dog world. She knows dogs.

Here's an article at the CDC website that pretty much shows what we did.

http://cdc.guidingeyes.org/bin/bcnews?0

And here are some pictures:

This is little Victoria, who I got to take home for a night.

Here's Elba, who is in breed evaluation. When she came she had kennel cough, so they needed to keep her away from the other dogs. I was the lucky person who got to take her home for a night before her IFT. She's such a sweetie, and I think she still is in breed eval.

The final dog I got to take home is Quanna. She is very shy and she doesn't like the kennels at all. I took her for three nights while she was in heat. The poor thing didn't even want to eat.

Here are the EE pups, in particular Emerald. Everyone loved to pick her up because of her white spot. She's a cutie.

Here I am with Taffy. Taffy is one of my favorites. The T litter in particular is special because they're the first litter we started working with on crating in the Whelping Kennel (when they were about 5 weeks old). Taffy wasn't placed for awhile and this is when I was doing follow me with her in front of Suzanne. Taffy was amazing and Suzanne was impressed. The picture just shows how focused and how well she did.

Here's little Akron, a GSD. There were only two in his litter and he was a huge boy.

This is Erika, one of the other interns, stealing little Celeste. We always told them that one day they'd be missing a puppy and we'd be behind it.

Here's another one of Taffy (with Erika).

Two of the DDs - Dayton and Dennis

Two of the BBs - I'm not sure who

Benson

2007-05-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

So I guess it's about two weeks late, but I'm finally coming around to posting about Benson. He came early Friday morning and left late on Sunday. I think the best part of puppysitting is each time I realize how much I appreciate Quasia.

Benson is a pretty big boy at 11 months (bigger than Quasia, but that doesn't mean much). His raiser had a martingale with him, but that was it - not even a leather leash. His raiser also said that he was a very laid back dog. I don't think I saw that side of him at all.

Anyways, he and Quasia had such a good time together. They wouldn't settle down together though, so I had to eventually separate them, as they were panting very heavily. At first, I was the only one home, so I took him on a walk, after giving him some time to settle in. We walked for about a minute, when he lied down on the ground and refused to move. I kept calling his name, with food in site, but he wouldn't move. Eventually, he walked some and we got to walk. He was pretty good with walking if there weren't any distractions. I think my hands started to blister after that first walk though, with a regular leash. After that I used Quasia's leather leash with him, and it worked a little better.

When my dad got home we took both Quasia and Benson on a walk together. I walked Benson in the street to keep him away from distractions, and midway through the walk he just lied on the ground once again. My dad pointed out that it was probably because the street was too hot for him. Once I moved him to the sidewalk he did better. Sometimes we would have to move him to the street and he just kind of freaked out and lied on the ground. Quasia never acted like the street was too hot for her, so it was just strange.

He was also hard to control because he did not care about food too much. I could say his name five times, and Quasia would look at me, but Benson was focused on something else. At first he was not too good with just general commands (sit, down, come), but eventually he seemed to get/listen better. At one point my dad had Benson and he told him to sit. Quasia sat down that instant, and she seemed to act like she was showing off.

On Saturday we decided to bring them to a tennis court to let them play. That was the best thing for them. It was so funny to see Benson watching exactly what Quasia would do. If she was interested in chasing the ball, so was he. If she started to slow down, so would he. She even started eating sticks (bad habit) at the end and he starting to bring sticks over for her to eat. It was so cute.

Anyways, that was pretty much our weekend with Benson. We didn't really have a chance to take him anywhere special, but he seemed to have a good time with Quasia. Here are some pictures.

When Quasia found out that he wasn't allowed on the bed, she acted like the Queen of England. He even tried to jump up at one point, but she kicked him off.

Quick Update

2007-05-18T13:55:00.000-05:00

Yes, we did get Benson and we puppysat him last Friday and Saturday. Yes, I was planning on giving an update and posting pictures here.

The problem is that on Mother's day my dad fell (we don't know how, he doesn't remember) and he fractured both of his shoulders. He also dislocated his right shoulder and broke it in two places. The tried to pop it back in, but they were unsuccessful. My mom and I were in and out of the hospital until Wednesday afternoon when he finally came home. He's in a lot of pain and we've been rushing around to help him. My brother flew home yesterday and he's been a lot of help. Anyways, between all of that I haven't been able to update or do much. I feel horrible because during the days we were at the hospital Quasia was in her crate for almost the whole day (with little breaks). Either this coming Tuesday or the next one my dad is going to have surgery on his shoulder, so we'll be away again.

So I'll be posting about Benson in a little while.

3 Years Ago Today - Brandy

2007-05-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

3 years ago today we had to say goodbye to my first dog, Brandy. Brandy was the best dog and she was the one that gave me my love for dogs. I honestly don't think I would have become involved with Guiding Eyes if it wasn't for Brandy. She was the sweetest, most gentle, and loveable dog. I grew up with her and we had her for 11 of her 13 years. I remember dropping her off at the Emergency Vet on a Thursday night, the night of the Friend's finale. She had pneumonia and she was not doing well. That Friday night we got our first GEB pup to puppysit, 16 week old Dinah. I was so excited that we were going to have two dogs. Saturday we took one last walk with Brandy and we said goodbye. She couldn't eat anything or even keep down her medicine. We had to come home to take care of a 16 week old puppy.

So this post is in memory of Brandy: 5?/15?/91 - 5/8/04

Puppysitting again!

2007-05-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

I know this might not be a big deal to a lot of you, but I'm really excited. Pretty much the second I got home on Tuesday, we got a call. I just had gotten home from school, so we didn't want to bother with answering from someone we didn't know. They called again the next morning and left a message. They need a puppysitter for their almost 1 year old black male Lab, Benson, for May 11-12. My parents said that they've never gotten a call about puppysitting since I've been away, so I felt that was extremely odd. My grandparents said it was okay (they live with us, and my grandma has asthma). My mom was reluctant, but my dad convinced her finally. For some reason she never wants to puppysit, even though she doesn't do anything when a pup comes. She loves dogs and everything, but she always fights me when we get a call about puppysitting. Anyways, my dad called back and we're going to be puppysitting again! It's been about a year, so I'm not sure if I'm going to know what to do. We may not even be able to go to class on Sunday, so we'll have to see. It will only be for two days anyways.

Kirkland Recalled

2007-04-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

Last night, I just heard that Kirkland was recalled. I told you guys how scared I was of this dog food recall thing. Even though it's just canned food, I'd rather not take a chance. A couple of days ago they said something about Diamond (same food, Kirkland is just the Costco named brand) manufacturing food that was recalled. They didn't put it in their own food, they just manufactured it for another company. I looked into switching brands because of that, and I found that there was a place really close to my house that has Canidae. My dad and I decided that we would try Canidae after we ran out of the remaining Kirkland food. I'm not waiting any longer.

Happy Birthday Quasia!

2007-04-25T00:12:00.000-05:00

I can't believe Quasia is 3 years old today. I remember celebrating her 1st birthday, and it doesn't even seem so long ago. I wish I could be home to celebrate, but I did send a package home. I'll probably wait until I get home to let her have it though. Hopefully my parents will spoil her. I'll probably post pictures later of when she actually gets to celebrate her birthday.

Oh, and I'm sorry I haven't really been around or updated lately. I've just been so busy. It's my last week of classes, before finals, and I've just had so much to do. I haven't even really had a chance to study for finals yet. Anyways, that's my excuse.

Happy 3rd Birthday Quasia Cutie!!!

Which Collar?

2007-04-15T15:06:00.000-05:00

Okay, I want to get a new collar for Quasia for the spring/summertime (I'm a collar freak). I can't decide which one to get. Which one do you guys like the best? Or do you not like any of them?

Collar 1

Collar 2

Collar 3

Collar 4 (also comes in pink)

Collar 5

Collar 6

I got my internship!

2007-04-04T13:53:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited! I just got an email asking if June 4th would work for me to start interning at GEB!!! I said it would be fine, though it kind of sucks because my birthday's two days later, but I don't mind. I asked when it would go until and she said she's not sure about the end date yet. I was hoping to take a class at my community college over the summer, but it's okay if that doesn't work out.

Anyways, I just had to post about my good news!

Dog Food Recall

2007-04-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone else is worrying about it, but this dog food recall is kind of starting to be crazy. It seems like every day they're adding a new food to the list.

Around the beginning of January I decided to switch Quasia's food. She ate Iams since she was a pup because that's what GEB uses. She's done well on it, but I just haven't heard the best things about the food and I had some other reasons to change. We switched her to Kirkland and for the first week she did not do so well on it. She was extremely thirsty and before she had never really cared so much about water and drinking. After that week she became better, so I did not think about it again. Then with this recall business they've listed Iams as one of the dog foods with the tainted ingredients. I know they said it's only wet food, but now they're starting to add dry foods to the list. I think they even are recalling a certain brand of Iams dry dog food, the diet brand or something. When I found that out I looked up the signs of kidney disease. The first sign is exessive thirst, which is really scary. I did read that the regular Iams food does not contain wheat glutan, which is the problematic ingredient. Now that they've started to add treats to the list, I'm getting worried that a treat that we gave her was no good. I'm going home next weekend and whenever I go home I like to bring Quasia something. I bought her a filled marrow bone and I noticed that it has wheat gluten. I know it's rare that Quasia will actually get sick or that she already is, but I just am scared to give it to her. Luckily I also bought this small teeth whitening bone with the other treat, and it doesn't contain wheat gluten. I'll have something to give to her.

Anyways, I made my dad call the vet's office just to make sure. They said they haven't seen any cases that are related to the recall, so that's good. Quasia has an appointment on Wednesday to get her distemper shot, so I think my parents are going to ask again about it at that point. I don't know if kidney disease can just go away, but it just makes me worried reading about the recall. Right now I'm really thankful that I switched Quasia's food because Kirkland has never been on the list of recalled foods.

Looking Back..

2007-03-23T16:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, I don't have many updates, but I just came across this video recently. It's from last summer when we took Quasia to a Lab Fest in Annapolis. I just thought it was kind of cute, so I wanted to share it. That was the first time that Quasia actually swam. Before that she just went as far as she could reach, but she finally opened up and enjoyed swimming that day. Oh, and the narrator is my mom, and I'm pretty sure that was the first time she used the camera video.

My school's internet does horrible with playing videos, let alone uploading them. I've tried, but I guess I've settled with the fact that I'm just going to be able to post the link. Hopefully that will work.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3475610454052772524&hl=en

My Time at Home

2007-03-15T16:34:00.000-05:00

Last week was my Spring break, like I've explained, so I got some time with Quasia. It was really short, especially since my mom and I went to New York on Thursday morning-Saturday night. The weather wasn't great either, so it was hard to take my walks with Quasia. I did get a nice walk in with her one day, but it snowed the day after that. When I came home Quasia attacked me like usual, and she made me feel welcome. Anytime that I come home she runs out of her crate, jumps all over me, and then goes to my bag and tries to grab something from my bag. She usually grabs a shoe and she brings it to me. Silly dog. After she settles down, she normally stays attached to me for the rest of the day and normally into the next several days. Most mornings I'll bring her to my room downstairs and she knows that routine. She runs down the stairs (usually with a toy in her mouth), and runs right into my room, jumping on my bed (yeah, not a guide dog in training anymore). She loves my soccer ball pillow, with I've finally decided is her toy. She normally just rests her head on it, or runs around the room with it in her mouth.

Anyways, here are some pictures of from when I came home.

On my bed with my pillow.

She just won't give up on sock stealing.

I swear she knows where every sock in the house is.

Her new big tennis ball toy. It's already broken.

My Trip to GEB

2007-03-14T17:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, first of all I want to say sorry for not updating for awhile. I was really busy being home for Spring Break, and I have lots of school work to do now. Hopefully I'll be able to update more, and really get into this blogging thing.

Anyways, on Thursday my mom and I went to GEB in New York because I had an interview for an internship at the Canine Development Center. The last time we went (when we dropped Quasia off), we got really lost, so we rented a GPS for the weekend. I also printed off directions from three different sites, so we were able to get there without getting lost. We stayed at the guest house when we arrived late that night. Nothing really exciting happened that night.

At 1, I went to talk to Maria (who I had been contacting about the internship), and Jane (the head lady). They asked some questions and they showed me around. I was able to help with this new game they have with the puppies called something like Round Robin. It's amazing what these 7 week old puppies already know. I was also able to watch a class. They had some dogs being looked at to become breeders. One of the dogs was raised in my region, and it was just interesting to see them working with her.

I left the CDC around 4. Maria told me that she had more people to interview and she would call. I didn't have a good feeling because they said that they really wanted someone who was extremely eager and excited about the internship. They only have one spot for someone who needs to stay at the guest house. I am really excited and I want to do it, but I just don't show my emotions very well. I'm quiet and I'm not sure that they understood that this was something I really wanted to do.

We left GEB after that to go to Connecticut. My brother lives in Boston and he wanted to visit us. We went to Hartford, which is the halfway point between Boston and Patterson. We had a nice lunch with my brother and his girlfriend, who I love. I'd trade him for her. Anyways, after that meeting we went home and we were home by Saturday night.

Pictures

2007-03-01T21:04:00.000-05:00

I said I was going to post pictures, so here we go. I'm still trying to figure out how to use this site, so please just be patient with this.

Quasia's 3 Dirty Dawgz Valentine's Day Collar

Almost Home

2007-03-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I'm finally going to be going home. I get to see my Quasia again. I feel bad now because I don't have anything for her. Almost every time I came home last semester there was a package for her because I was part of a Secret Pal from the Lab Retriever chatboard. It ended at the end of the year, so now I don't have a package, and she probably going to be expecting one. I know it's a bad habit that she got used to it, but I don't care. I love spoiling my girl. Anyways, I just really can't wait to see her again.