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 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 15 - Downtown Disney

This episode is a continuation of last week. We had so much to share while we were in LA that we didn't want to cut things short. Especially cause of the events that occurred while at Downtown Disney in Anaheim. It seemed almost like fate that we ran into a family with a blind child. She was the cutest little girl, and she had so much interest in Ricki. It was at that moment that I was reminded why we make such large sacrifices with giving back our pups.

Please enjoy our latest installment and please subscribe on youtube, rate, favorite, and comment on the videos. It really helps us get more hits.

Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup- Week 9 - Puppy Vaccines

This week shot back to normal after we returned our first guide dog puppy Macklin to his partner. Jeannie was really happy to see Macklin and vice versa. If you like the show, I encourage you to please get involved on youtube. Although we appreciate people watching anywhere they can, we really like to interact with our audience and appreciate comments and questions in the section below our videos. The best place for that interaction is on youtube itself.

If you have any questions or would like to message me directly. Here is my email: moparlee2002@yahoo.com

Growing Up Guide Pup- Week 8 - Macklin Reunion

This week we had a very special guest; our first puppy Macklin. Macklin has been a guide for almost six years now living with his partner Jeannie. We are very fortunate in that we have stayed in contact with Jeannie, and jumped at the opportunity to babysit Macklin for two weeks while she is in Europe.

Raising guide dogs can be very straining emotionally, and having Macklin back stirred up feelings that have been hibernating for a long time. Please forgive us for breaking our regular show format. It was very had for us to film this week, but i am very happy with our candid motif that resulted.

Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup- Week 6 - Head Collar

Ricki didn't put on any weight this week. However, it looks like someone put her in a vice and stretched her legs a few inches. It is pretty weird how this happens. Ricki is already growing up so fast. I can't believe the difference in six weeks.

So this week was a challenging one for Ricki. She and Amie have been training with a head collar. Amie really tries to give all the dogs a chance to work without it, but if the head collar is necessary, she won't hesitate to use it for the dogs benefit. Ricki has shown that she needs it because she is trying to eat everything in sight right now. I know, typical retriever behavior.

Please enjoy our latest episode.

Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 4 - Co-raiser Elizabeth

So our adventures with little Ricki the guide dog in training continue. We are finishing up on our first month raising Ricki and making this series at the same time. It has been crazy.

This week was really hectic cause i also was finishing up on some other video projects. I had Ricki with me a lot of the time. Ricki has started to become my little buddy when i am banging away up in the studio which has been nice. She is getting much better about having accidents in the house which is a relief. Her personality continues to develop.

This week marked the beginning of Amie turning on the training. She has been working hard at getting Ricki to walk on a leash. Ricki is making good progress, but still has a long way to go.

Be sure to rate, and comment our video series on youtube. Leave us questions below the videos so we can answer them on the show. Also, please hit that subscribe button.

cheers,
Matt

Growing Up Guide Pup- Week 2 - Adjustments

We survived another week with our new guide dog puppy Ricki. She is starting to learn how to sleep throughout the night and adjusting well to living with us. Our other dog Eli on the other hand had a bit of a struggle this week. He acted out and ate half of a cake Amie was making for valentines day. 24 hours later he was at the ER clinic.....crazy Eli.

Here is week 2 of our web show. Enjoy!

Raising Guide Dogs For the Blind

Amie and I have been raising Guide Dogs For the Blind for seven years now. We are on our 9th dog. Three have graduated to become guides (Macklin, Rennie, and Prudy), five have not (Clarice, Eli, Piedmont, Dakota, and Lewis), and one is currently in the process of growing up with us (Marianna).

Eli is our third dog, and we were more than happy to keep him when we found out that fateful day that he was not cut out to be a Guide Dog. We think he was too smart, and if he could talk would say that he would have a lot more fun as a pet. Not too mention he has become a pretty good movie dog. His childlike personality also seems to continue to get him into trouble even to this day despite being five years old. John Grogan has so eloquently displayed that all dogs have their pros and cons including our own "Marley".

People ask "how can you give them up? It must be very difficult." I will admit that giving our first dog Macklin back rendered tears out of these dry eyes. That is a small miracle, but it all seems worth it when you see how much your dog can help someone in need. I had the opportunity to film for Guide Dogs For the Blind a few weeks ago. We were able to get Macklin and his partner Jeannie to meet up with us at the campus so I could film them. What a surreal shoot that was. I was so proud of our oldest fur ball as I sat behind the lens of the camera and watched Macklin guide Jeannie around the streets of San Rafeal. It almost seemed like he was showing off; as I could read a big happy smile on his face that was saying "look dad, I'm a guide dog now, and very good at it too!" It was at this moment that any doubts for our charity were kicked to the curb. I will always think back to that moment when I have feelings of doubt for this cause.

Amie and I threw a new video together this week where I let her have some fun in front of the camera. We went out with our Guide Dog group and filmed away.