Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 64 - Finale

The long journey came to a conclusion this week. Ricki was our 10th dog we have raised for Guide Dogs. Although we have become conditioned for the process of raising pups for working careers, it never gets any easier. I know that the last episode of the season was dramatic, but I felt it was important to let the audience experience exactly what we experience every time we go through the process. I think the series should be liberating for puppy raisers, and used to help raise awareness across all working dog fields. I hope it helps open some eyes to those people out there who are not aware of the emotional ending. This episode is truly the only episode that has a beginning, middle, and end. Hence why I think it is probably the best one for someone to watch. We are so thankful and proud to have been the raisers of Ricki and wish her the best of luck in the future. Hopefully Guide Dogs will find a great alternative career for her in community placement.

Thanks to all for watching and your continual support. Be sure to check out our new website

http://www.growingupguidepup.com for the latest news on Ricki and our next pup coming in the future.

Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 63 - Final Decision

You know when we first started this web series we had no expectations. Sure, I hoped Ricki would go on to become a guide dog. Not only would it be cool to raise awareness of the process, but damn; talk about a cool Hollywood ending. This episode really sums up the reality of the guide dog raising world however. Unpredictable twists and turns in the story always result. We wanted Ricki to graduate as a guide dog, but at the same time we wouldn't mind her becoming "career changed" so we might be able to keep her. There is always a lot of ups and downs and it can be crazy.

Now we are faced with a whole new challenge. Ricki has made it clear she wants to keep working. She paces up and down the living room as soon as a day or two go by without her working, or training. If she didn't show this tendency perhaps we would think about keeping her. But we want to give Ricki every chance at doing a job because we feel this will give her a much more fulfilling life based on her personality. She is prepped for something other than guide dog work so lets see what happens.

The future is uncertain as I write this blog. The one thing we hope people have learned from the series is that becoming a guide dog is hard. We strived to raise awareness about this, and hope people have a larger appreciation for the "puppy raisers" involvement in the process too. At the end of the day, if we met these goals, then Ricki has done her job as far as this guy is concerned.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 60 - Toy Squirrel

This squirrel distraction thing is so much work. We have been training Ricki everyday with it. She has made huge progress in the past week, and we hope it makes a difference. We will be getting another evaluation from our community field representative soon. We don't know if Ricki will have made enough progress, but we won't have her fail for lack of trying. It's frustrating because Ricki has so many other things going good for her, and yet her distraction issues could end it all. She has had the best relieving habits of any dog we have ever had. She is incredibly patient and rarely gets uneasy or bored. She strives to please and really enjoys working. These things mentioned are equally hard to get a dog to perform well at. Eli could care less about the birds and squirrels when he was training. He ignored them like a champ, and yet he couldn't handle the simple things like actually doing what he was told. Anyways, I'm just venting off the top of my head. Stay tuned and we will see where this adventure takes us next.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 59 - Pigeon Progress

Amie and Ricki have been working everyday on her bird distraction issues. Pigeons are the worse of Ricki's bird distractions so this is where most of the focus has been lately. Ricki has been making big improvements because we have taken a few steps back and started rewarding her for the small things. One of the most effective training tips we got is requiring Ricki to Watch Amie, and ignore the pigeons by constantly redirecting Ricki's focus. Amie walks Ricki away from the distraction and rewards her with a treat. It seems to be making a difference, and I look forward to seeing how our community field rep judges Ricki's progress in a few weeks.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 58 - Ricki Evaluation

We have reached a crucial point in Ricki's training. Her future as a guide dog is in question. Amie met with our community field representative where a myriad of issues were discussed. I wanted to film the meeting, but they decided it would be best if we didn't. We were told we have a few more weeks to get Ricki past her distraction issues. Amie has a few new techniques to incorporate with her food reward protocal, and we are rewarding for smaller things now. We are also taking Ricki out for training everyday at this crucial point in her development. Stay tuned!

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 56 - Off Duty Ricki

This week we won Outstanding Reality Series at LAWEBFEST. It felt really good to get recognition from the filmmaking community for our endeavors . It was also nice to see that our uninspiring viewership doesn't reflect it's content. LAWEBFEST is the only film festival in the world for web shows currently so we feel like mavericks exploring a new world. Our format is one of a kind, and I'm so proud that we make the show format easy to follow for the visually impaired. It's very descriptive and we don't take for granted anything that is going on. We describe everything. Big thanks to everyone for supporting our series and keep watching because it could get interesting from here.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 55 - Farm Animals

This week was cool because we were able to review all of Ricki's main issues. Her small animal distractions, bird distractions, ball distractions, and dog distractions. We are constantly exposing Ricki to the things that could cause her to fail puppy college. It is the only thing we can do before her formal training. Will it be enough for her to graduate? Only time will tell and everyone will have to continue to tune it and find out.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 53 - Vet Conference

Well here i am talking about our second video we shot while in Vegas. The whole reason for our being in Vegas in the first place was so Amie could attend the WVC conference. We just have learned to adapt our lives to making a series and taking opportunities to train Ricki when then pop up. This episode was probably one of my least favorites that I have made in awhile. 100 percent of the footage was shot with a flip cam, and most of the footage was indoors providing a pretty unprofessional result. The camera does everything automatically including exposure control and it's low light capabilities are ok at best.

Despite my own reservations this episode seems to be received well. It just goes to show that story takes precedence over everything else. Amie and I have learned a lot about our audience from this episode, and the value of showing other working teams holds high. Marlis and Gable were a pleasure to have breakfast with, and provided some great insight to their world. A big thanks to them, and to all our fans for your continual support.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 52 - Las Vegas

So we just got back from Las Vegas, and had a great time. We acquired so much material that we decided to break it down into two weeks and two episodes. This is the second time we have done this. We also did this last year when we took Ricki to Los Angeles. I know that it makes our weekly progress a little jaded, but we think it's a good sacrifice when there is a lot to show. Las Vegas was probably Ricki's best trip to date. She did really, really awesome. In fact, since we have gotten back she has been pacing around the couch as if to say "hey, why can't we be busy doing all kinds of stuff like when we were in Vegas?". She seems to have that work drive that working dogs have. So here is to another great trip for Ricki, and Amie and I really like using our series as a great excuse for traveling all over the place. We could get used to this.

Thanks for everyones support. We think it will only get better from here. There is a lot of exciting stuff coming in the near future.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 51 - Rain

It rained a lot when we filmed this episode. If we can't beat em, join em was our motto. Plus, we thought it would be cool to focus on an episode where the weather was a big factor, and we could give our audience some things we have to think about during a storm. Ricki handled it all so well. She was soaking wet when we got back to the car, but looked like she could have filmed in the rain for another hour. She is really impressing me lately. Nothing seems to phase her, and she handles new things very well. Keep it up Ricki, we are rooting for ya!

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 50 - One Year Anniversary

Well it's official. Our first year of the series has been completed. We did it. It's been a big challenge banging out a episode every week, but very fun. Although there are 52 weeks in a year, we have 50 episodes. But I guess if you count the two birthday special episodes we are right on track.

Our series has premiered at the New Media Festival, and was recently accepted into the LAWEBFEST. We did our first radio interview for Working Like Dogs on Petliferadio, and recently were told Nylabone is going to sponsor us, and give us a bunch of products for free. We are going to do a Youtube contest with some of the products, and also give a bunch of toys to our fellow puppy raisers in our group. So it seems we are doing pretty good, and the future looks good.

Ricki is well on her way to becoming a guide dog. She is our tenth dog, and one of the best prospects we have had so far. We think she has a really good chance of making it so stay tuned to see how it all goes.

Thanks for watching, subscribing on youtube, becoming a fan on facebook, telling your friends and family about our series, and your continual support.

Matt

Growing Up guide Pup - Week 48 - Seth and Bamboo

This week was very difficult for us. We battled back and forth on what we should do. Would talking about this publicly be a good idea? We contacted Seth's parents as well as got advice from my family about if doing a video tribute for Seth would be a tasteful thing to do. We got overwhelming support that we should move forward with the idea. We thought it would be appropriate to do a hike at Mt Tam. Seth had expressed on a few occasions, and even left a comment on our youtube page about how awesome it would be. We really enjoyed celebrating his life in our own special way and it really helped us feel better doing the walk.

We were shocked when we found out Seth had passed away last week. Seth was so supportive of what we were doing and really helped validate our series. His opinion meant a lot to us, and he always chimed in. He participated on all of our videos on youtube leaving funny, and quirky comments. He also was a regular participant on our facebook fan page. He was known to help with great info, and even answered questions from time to time. We had big plans for the future, and his continual involvement in the show was something we had discussed a lot. We were deeply affected by his untimely passing, and will forever be inspired to continue raising awareness about guide dogs in his honor.

Seth was a super star in our guide dog world. It will be difficult without him, but we must push on. We know this is what he would have wanted for us.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 47 - Puppy Handling

Amie and I enjoy the challenge of making new episodes with content that is refreshing and new. Although this week lacked the sizzle of a spectacular outing, it has performed good compared to most of our first week numbers. We will certainly keep this lesson in mind for the future. There is plenty of stuff we can do in the house that focuses on our training with Ricki at home.

I am also excited that we were able to unveil a little clue of the entire other world Amie is involved with as a vet tech. That's right, not only is she a puppy raiser, she is also a licensed vet technician at a ER for pets south of San Francisco.

Thanks to everyone for their support.
Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 46 - Museum

Amie and I have really gotten into a groove with the series. It has become second nature to bang out a episode every week. I don't worry about pulling it off anymore. When we first started I used to wonder if we really would be able to do this for a year and a half. That is no longer a concern. Now it is more of a question of what are we not going to be able to get around to showing before Ricki goes back? What should we save for a second season? Haha

Ricki is showing constant improvements every week. However, she constantly needs to be reminded of the rules in place and is not the fastest learner. We think that it will all sink in with time. She has the most important personality trait. She wants to please us and that is awesome.

We are only a few dozen subscribers away from 1,000 on youtube. Please show your support by subscribing if you like what we are doing.

Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=guidedogmaniac

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 44 - Airplane

It took us a long time to get Ricki ready for travel. Amie felt Ricki was not ready when we traveled back in May of this year, but now she seemed ready. All sorts of things have to be in order before we consider flying with a pup. Our dog has to have awesome relieving habits, our dog has to be calm, our dog has to be able to handle curve balls that we can't anticipate, and our dog has to reach a level of maturity that gives us confidence that the adventure will work out. Ricki performed beyond our expectations. Even though the weather was bad both days we flew , Ricki handled it great. In the video we mention the delay on the air flight home. Well we also had a delay in the terminal leaving to Santa Ana. So between both flights, Ricki had an additional 3 hours to deal with on top of the the normal routine traveling stuff. Great job Ricki and here is our latest.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 43 - Xmas Tree Farm

Ricki and Eli rarely get to go out and do something fun together. Dogs are not allowed at most places we take Ricki for our outings, but a tree farm was a great exception. We had a lot of fun. Amie and I really experimented with our training of the dogs, as well as the approach to how we shoot the show. I loved putting a camera on the tree and watching it timber. Growing Up Guide Pup is my petri dish of camera experimentation.

I'm in LA right now writing this blog. We just finished our big travel from SF to LA. Ricki is exhausted sleeping on the ground next to me. She really handled traveling well so stay tuned for the next episode. It is going to be really great. Airport traveling awesomeness.

So Ricki turns 1 years old tomorrow. I can't believe it. Our little pup is growing so fast. Pretty soon she will be going back to school for her formal training. Won't that be exciting. The next several weeks should be a lot of fun, and packed with more content than normal to celebrate her first birthday. We are going to release a birthday special episode, and perhaps an additional behind the scenes video for the first time.

Thanks for your support.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 42- Puppy Swap

This week was a little crazy. Ricki was requested by Guide Dogs to join Lester on a trip to the campus the day we went to the parade. We had plans on taking Ricki and had to come up a solution quickly. Big thanks to our puppy leader Robin for getting us Cash for the day. Also a big thanks to Cash's family for lending us the goofy guy.

In hindsight it was really good. Ricki got to be around another handler, and we got to raise awareness about puppy swapping. We have been talking about doing it for awhile, so in the end it all worked out.

Here is our latest:

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 41 - Ricki Chat

We are always getting great questions from our fans on youtube. Although we answer many of the questions on there, we have always wanted to provide more for our audience. This has been a big struggle for us in the past. We have squeezed a question in every few episodes, but it has never really been enough in our opinion.

This week we thought we would experiment and dedicate a whole episode to just answering questions. The idea I had was to just show Amie, Ricki, and Eli as themselves. Keep the production and editing to a minimum and give a sneek peek into our lives that feels different that the other videos. Hence the birth of "Ricki Chat". It is a ever evolving thing, and more work needs to be done with it, but our first attempt is below.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 40 - Squirrel Distractions

Amie nailed it on the head when we shot the main this week. We have 4-6 more months before Ricki will either go back to school for formal training or not. We are doing what we can to prepare her, but right now it's a guess with whether or not she will be ready. Guide Dogs For the Blind will ultimately make that determination, and also decide whether she will go back for training at all. We think she has a good chance because she has that quality inside of her that aims to please. That is something you cannot teach a dog. They either have a personality like that, or they don't. Eli doesn't have that quality. He wants to do what he wants when he wants and he doesn't care if he is pleasing us. In fact, he enjoys doing just the opposite so he can get a rise out of us.

Our new episode was shot at central park in San Mateo. It is a great place for training. We wanted to take Ricki to the Japanese
Garden over there, but they were closing the doors right when we arrived. Maybe we will show it in a future episode. Thanks to everyone for your continual support.

Growing up Guide Pup - Week 39 - Film Festival

This week was really cool. We were able to go to a film festival, and represent what we do as puppy raisers. Everyone wanted to know about Ricki, and had lots of questions. The most common question I got was "How do you give them up?". Ricki is our 10th dog now, and I really feel like you need to raise several before things can be put into perspective. Answering such a question is really easy for me now. When you see how much guide dogs can change the lives of their visually impaired partners, it really is not even a question how do you give them up, but how can you not give them up. It is very rewarding to do something nice for humanity, and I really like that our series also can demonstrate that giving back is cool. I personally feel that we should see more of this sort of thing in our county because it would make it a better place to live. We can all be so wrapped up in our own lives sometimes.

Our series was in the web series category at the festival. We didn't win first prize, but it really doesn't matter. I feel like we were winners getting to spread the message and meet some great people from the entertainment industry. Thanks for showing your support.