Quasia gets a package!

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

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

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

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

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

Click

My Internship

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

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.