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.

Growing up Guide Pup - Week 38 - Dog Park

We love thinking of creative ways to help train Ricki. This episode is a perfect example of that. We have not found a better way to expose our dogs to lots of dogs in a controlled environment. Luckily we have lots of dog parks in the Bay Area. I don't know if it is like this everywhere, but it should be. We went to Seal Point Park in San Mateo. They did a great job of converting what was once a landfill to something great for the community. The views are amongst the best in the Bay Area too.

Please continue showing us your support by subscribing on youtube, becoming a fan on face book, and telling everyone about what we are doing.
Thanks

Growing up Guide Pup - Week 37 - Halloween Party

It seems like such a long time ago since we started this series. I was confident that we would be able to pull this off, but never could be sure. When we first started, I told Amie to be prepared to go the long haul on this project. We have been raising dogs for over eight years now, and we were not nervous about our knowledge of the subject and how it would reflect. However, we were nervous about creating a format that could keep the subject interesting and have longevity. I feel pretty strong that our episodic approach on the internet was the perfect medium for such a idea. Short form content with a weekly release seemed smart. Well I can happily report that we are now on the radar of the entertainment industry. Our world premiere is on November 6th, and the festival director chose Week 29 as the episode to screen. This is the episode where we went to Pier 39 and introduced Seth and Bamboo. It is one of my personal favorites and a great episode because it has it all. Information, training, Bay Area personality, and amazing partnership between guide and partner. Fingers crossed for good things to come. Below our latest week is a encore of week 29.

Week 37:


Week 29:

Growing up Guide Pup - Week 36 - Pumpkin Festival

This week turned into a dog distraction episode. It was weird. Even though there were posters that said "No Dogs Allowed" everywhere, no one was listening. People had dogs everywhere. The police were all around and they were not doing anything about it? Go figure? It certainly made for a good training session for Ricki.

This episode is shorter than normal because we didn't do very much filming. Ricki just had surgery the other day and we have been letting her rest. Enjoy our latest.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 35 - Paramount Great America

This week was a lot of fun. How many people get to bring their dog to an amusement park? It was hearing about outings like this one which we found so appealing when we first starting raising dogs. All the cool places you get to take these dogs can't be beat. We pretty much take Ricki everywhere we can and jumped at the opportunity to take her to Great America.

Our audience is growing at a snail pace, people keep asking us if we are going to take on another dog after Ricki for a Season 2. My heart says yes, but my mind says no. We have been trying really hard to build an audience so that we can get the show to sustain itself with sponsors some day. Our viewership and subscribers have a lot to be desired and are not nearly enough. We have to put three days a week into each episode. From planning, to filming, to editing, to distribution...it is a lot of work. We are not looking to break the bank, but we are going to need to figure out a way to make some money to pay for all the work eventually. So please encourage people to watch, and subscribe to our youtube channel as well as become a fan on facebook. Hopefully this will get much better in the future, as it is crucial for us to be able to continue.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 34 - Guide Dog Reunion

This week we actually shot a episode without Ricki. I feel kinda bad because we forgot to mention what happened to her while we were in Canada. She stayed with our co-raiser Elizabeth for the weekend which was great for her. Mixing up her schedule will only help her be better prepared for the day when she will go back to Guide Dogs for her formal training.

This episode was all about Prudy. Prudy was our eighth dog and one of my favorites. She is gentle but confident. On a typical day at our house she could hold her own with Eli while playing tug a war, and then turn around and cuddle with Amie. Prudy holds the trophy for most cuddly guide dog. She is such a sweet dog and we are really happy she is with such a great family. Our North American brethren were well represented by Donna and the rest of the Hudon family. They showed us great hospitality, and I'm sure we will be more than just facebook buddies from now on.

Enjoy our latest episode and I promise Ricki will be back in our next episode.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 33 - Puppy Pool Party

This week I really don't have a topic or theme. So I thought I would just write. Ricki is chewing on a nylabone as usual as i ping away here. She seems to absolutely love those things. She also loves her ice cubes with dog treats frozen inside of them. We made a whole bunch of the them for the pool party and i totally didn't film any of it. Next time i guess.

Amie just smelled a dog fart. She just preached it out in disgust; as she always does while she surfs the web beside me. It never becomes ok with her even though it is as normal as a furball from one of our cats. Now she is embarrassed and mad that i am writing this. haha!

Big thanks to everyone out there for supporting our series. Until next week, I bid farewell.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 32 - Duck Pond

Sometimes we need to pinch ourselves. Ricki is such a great dog. She is chilling between Amie and I right now sleeping on the floor after a long day away from home. I am still in awe of how quickly Ricki is adjusting to everything we throw at her. After her reaction to the pigeons in week 29, I was sure she was going to be losing focus and making for another entertaining episode of mistakes. She sure showed me wrong. She didn't lunge on the leash, and miraculously turned into a bird distraction pro. it was as if she had been to the Palo Alto Baylands a million times. What in the heck brought on the dramatic improvement? It really is beyond me actually. We threw the kitchen sink at her with this episode. There must of been a thousand birds around the pond. The aviary mosh pit we exposed her to was nothing more than a yawn for her. I guess we can move on cautiously and focus on other issues now? What?

Enjoy our latest episode!