Rosie's Visit

We have company for a while.

Helping Paw's chocolate lab, Rosie, is staying with us and she is a sweetheart. This morning she brought me my shoes, gave me a kiss and entertained Cammie with her playful nature. Here are some pictures of her and the other dogs playing:

Rossie and Cammie are constant companions.

Toby the has taken on the role of Father and will calm everybody down when there is too much excitement in the air.

Faith and Rosie get along well. They play together but not as much as Rosie and Cammie. It's just that Rosie is younger and Faith believes she needs some mothering.

A Visit From Elsa

Our sweet little Elsa (Peanut) has come to visit. One of the training assignments this week is to expose the puppies to people with different types of hair styles. Including the style that lacks hair.

Since my boss is a dog lover and does not have any hair, I decided that we should stop by the lobby of our office for Elsa to meet him. (Of course, I could not resist showing him the training instructions that instructed to expose the puppies to bald people.) There is nothing like a good laugh at the expense of my Boss.

Here is Elsa posing for a picture.

Transition Pictures

Here are some pictures from last Friday, the day the puppies went to their Foster Homes.

Getting ready for the long car ride.

At the training center

On Saturday Faith was back to her usual behavior. (I sure did miss that part of her. She took her job as Mother very seriously. It was hard for her to lighten up and have fun.) Friday she had a full night of sleep and with the responsibility of the puppies lifted off her shoulders she was back to her playful, athletic, competitive self. There were only two animals who missed the puppies: Cammie and the cat. Here is Cammie sleeping in the puppies pen waiting for them to return. (The cat was so upset the puppies were gone that he stayed away for the day- no pictures provided.)

To the Foster Families

Dear Foster Families,

Thank for to all of you for such a wonderful transition for the puppies, Faith and myself.

It is interesting to see the event from a Caretaker Family’s view. I could feel the anticipation in the room while you were all waiting to find out what puppy you would get. Then as I placed all the puppies into your arms, you would begin to glow. That glow carried over to everybody in the room. What I thought would be a bitter sweet moment was a feeling of accomplishment and joy. At the end of the event the room was filled with one big collective glow.

As I look back on my experiences of training Cammie and Faith, several feelings come to mind: joy, frustration, astonishment, respect, concern, fear, worry, elation, accomplishment, admiration and love. Each with varying degrees of intensity and duration.

As you start this experience with your new Helping Paws puppy I wish for you all of you these feelings and more. Without them the experience would not be complete or as fulfilling.

Sincerely,
Kim

Puppy Testing

Puppy Testing Day and what a day the puppies had! They are completely zonked out and having puppy dreams. Actually, as I look around, the adult canines are zonked out also.

The weather was perfect for the puppies to spend the day outside. They really enjoy the outside when the weather is nice. On days like today, I have a really hard time getting them to come inside the house.

The testing went well. All the puppies passed their tests. Each scored high in reading, math and science. To show the Golden Retrievers' versatility they showed great hunting instincts and service dog skills. They also scored very high in their social skills. All of them scored a perfect 10 on snuggling with the Tester.

Here are some pictures from today: