Iron Guide (In Training)

Uncle (or, My Last Post)

2008-10-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

OK. So, clearly, I'm dead. This blog, at the very least, is. I cry uncle.

In the past several months, much has changed. Lester has grown up and gone out on his own, back at advanced training in Boring. I finished the Ironman. My start-up is very much in all-systems-go mode. I have a new puppy: Dusky. There's a new blog. (I won't be uploading pictures of Dusky or Lester to my blog. Instead, they'll go to on my Facebook. If you want to see them, add me -- Kushal Chakrabarti, I'm obviously pretty easy to find.)

And, most importantly? Lester is graduating. He'd been steadily working through the ranks and phases back at Boring, and I just heart last week that he'd been matched with a partner and was graduating October 18th. I haven't met or spoken with his partner yet, but I'm sure he and Lester are getting along like peanut butter and jelly. (Lester always was quite the schmoozer.) They're graduating together next Saturday, exactly a week from today.

I, sadly, will be on the other side of country, presenting at Pop!Tech 2008 and launching Vittana. I'm actually really sad -- I was actually considering flying back to Oregon for a day to see them graduate, but there's just no feasible way to make it work. Hopefully, one of these days, I'll get to see my old boy one more time. It's decidedly bittersweet: on the one hand, it's a huge honor to be invited to Pop!Tech and it's incredibly exciting to see things taking off for Vittana, but, on the other hand, I was really looking forward to seeing Lester again.

The last picture I have of my boy, taken the morning before we drove him back to Portland:

He looks so grown up, doesn't he?

This is will be my last post on Little Lester Pester / Iron Guide. I've made a lot of new friends writing here and it's been a great story. I've been (and will keep) following everyone in guide dog world, albeit a bit more silently. Though it's about some of the newer things I'm doing in life, I'll still occasionally write about Louie, Lester, and now Dusky too. If you want to follow along about the boys -- old and new -- I'd love it if you came along.

It's time I crossed out "In Training", isn't it? Lester is graduating in 7 days and I finished my (first) Ironman just over a month ago. So, in death, this blog will now be known as Iron Guide ~~(In Training)~~. It's almost poetic, in a way.

Ride Ataxia

2008-03-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

I'm alive! Really, I'm alive! I've been traveling a lot these past few weeks and, between the 4 cities in 11 days, the startup and the Ironman training and -- well, you get the picture -- I just haven't been able to post. I wasn't even going to post today, really, but I was going through my email and I knew I had to write about this.

I met Amy, Tom and their 16-year-old son Sam when I first joined the Seattle chapter for Guide Dogs back in September 2005. They were raising Sadler, a gentle giant of a yellow Lab with the biggest, most massive head you never did see. Sadler was just awesome: I remember talking to Tom at the Guide Dogs Christmas Party with Sadler sitting quietly and resting his (massive) head on Tom's knee, happily ignoring all kinds of food whizzing by and humans of different shapes and sizes walking around, over, and sometimes into him. Sadler unfortunately didn't quite make it through college and was career changed in phase 8, but I'm sure doesn't mind his current living arrangement. ;)

In August 2006, Sam was diagnosed with a rare genetic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder called Friedreich's Ataxia. Although symptoms vary, most patients lose muscle strength and coordination over time and suffer from vision impairment, heart disease, slurred speech, and are ultimately forced to use a wheelchair. Despite active research in the field and the discovery in 1996 of the gene causing Friedreich's Ataxia, there is no known cure or treatment. An active athlete and high school baseball player, Sam is not one to take this lying down: although he is no longer able to play baseball or rollerblade or play his favorite sports anymore, Sam and his entire family are cycling with the Ride Ataxia II team from Sacramento to Las Vegas to raise funds for Friedreich's Ataxia research and make their presence known at the Friedreich's Ataxia Foundation Annual Convention. They will be finishing the 540-mile ride today and will arrive just in time for the start of the convention tomorrow.

Now, that's an Ironman.

Seattle Freeze

2008-02-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

Despite the recent spate of astoundingly gorgeous weather in Seattle, it was freezing here in Seattle yesterday. In Westlake Center, at least. At 3:15pm, specifically.

Fifty secret agents. (And 1 canine secret agent, appearing at ~1:20.) Five minutes. Completely frozen. Much amusement.

Oh, the things that guide dog training is useful for. :)

Rest in Peace, Steve Fossett

2008-02-15T23:42:00.000-08:00

Nearly six months ago, on September 3rd 2007, entrepreneur-adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared while piloting his single-engine plane over the desert mountains of rural western Nevada. Despite thousands of volunteers, hundreds of officials, dozens of aircraft, high-resolution satellites, and even Internet companies involved in a month-long search, he has never been found.

Yesterday, after emotional testimony from his wife Peggy in a Nevada court, he was declared legally dead.

His interest in adventure started early. As a Boy Scout, he grew up climbing the mountains of California.

"When I was 12 years old, I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects," he told CNN in a 2006 interview.

...

According to his Web site, Fossett swam the English Channel in 1985, finished 47th in the Iditarod dogsled race in 1992, competed in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii in 1996 and drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race in 1993 and 1996.

He holds 14 world records in airplane flight, two in ballooning, 11 in sailing, six in glider flight, and one each in airship flight and cross-country skiing. He set numerous other records that have since been broken by other adventurers.

[More specifically, from TIME: "Fossett has held 116 world records, in five different disciplines, 60 of which still stand."]

In 2004, he peeled six days off the record for sailing around the world, finishing the job in 58 days, 9 hour 32 minutes and 45 seconds. That record was broken by Bruno Preyon in 2005.

His flights aboard the jet aircraft Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer and the balloon Bud Light Spirit of Freedom gained him worldwide fame. Fossett took the GlobalFlyer around the world in 2005, starting off from and returning to Salinas, Kansas, in three days, covering 22,936 miles, making him the first person to fly solo around the globe without refueling.

...

And he had a vision for his future.

"I imagine that when I'm 80 years old and sitting in a wheelchair that I might do something like take a remote-control airplane and try and fly it around the world," he said. "I plan to be setting and breaking records indefinitely."

Rest in peace, Mr. Fossett. You ~~were~~ are an inspiration to us all.

Cozy

2008-02-09T18:36:00.001-08:00

KC: That looks very cozy, Lester. How'd you get so nice and cozy?
LC: Oh, it's no big deal really.
KC: No no, really. You look very comfortable. I want to know.
LC: Well, since you insist... I just tossed together some shirts, some socks, and some boxers and made myself a nice little den here. Don't mind me. Really.
KC: Huh. Well, that's interesting. You know, that's really interesting, actually. I'm missing some shirts, socks, and boxers now that you mention it. Any idea where they might have run off to?
LC: No clue. I just found these right over here. I'm sure they're someone's. But don't worry about it, really.
KC: You mean, right over here? Right here? Somewhere in my closet, maybe?
LC: *snore*
KC: Lester?
LC: *SNORE*

Lester's bed is out for a wash. Far be it for Lester to sleep on the floor, he decided to show some initiative and make his own little bed. Unfortunately, said bed was made from my (formerly clean) shirts, socks, and boxers. He looks a little too cute and cozy to move though, huh? Sigh.

Caution: Keep Electrical Cords 3 Feet Away

2008-01-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

And dogs.

Lester, trying to cuddle up to my feet and next to the warm heater, really did fall asleep and get burned to a crisp this time. Not that he really cares. You can't tell from the picture, but he kept prodding me with his ring toy the entire time I was trying to snap off a half-decent photo.

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post. A certain puppy may gotten his fur singed because of his love of warm, cozy cuddling spots, but fur is all that was singed. And said puppy could honestly care less.

To the Ends of the World

2008-01-24T22:41:00.001-08:00


	Or, to Carnation at least, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the end of the known world. Might as well fall off the edge afterwards. 22 miles, 4 hours and 2500 calories. Oh, and 135 pictures. ;) Slow but not so bad considering the billion and one times I stopped to take a picture.

Who wants to come run with me? :)

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed... Puppy?

2008-01-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

Lester Begins Ironman Training

2008-01-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

You know, in all of this, throughout my thousands of meters of swimming, hundreds of miles of biking, and (fewer) hundreds of miles of running, Lester doesn't contribute one bit. He just stays at home through all my training... sleeping, playing, sleeping, playing. Well, this has to change. No more of this one-way relationship. Lester, you hear? This has to change.

So, today, Lester came to the pool. On deck were 2400 meters: 400m warm-up, 1600m main set, 400m cool-down. I jumped in the pool, Lester whimpered like a little baby. I did the warm-up, Lester whined about how much he didn't want to be there. I did the mile-long main set, but Lester just went round and round, dragging his feet, moping the entire time. By the time I had gotten to the cool-down, Lester had... er, well, Lester had actually fallen asleep.

No, not in the water -- although that'd be kinda cool -- under the bleachers, where I left him. RIght there, under the bleachers. Can't you see him? That little green and white blob under the bleachers. Next time, I'll paint red stripes on Lester and we'll play a game of Where's Waldo Lester.

Fine, so maybe Lester didn't actually do the actual swim workout with me. Details schmetails.

Of all I do and everywhere Lester goes, I've never been brave enough to take Lester to the pool or the gym. I'm still not brave enough to take him to the gym -- I have nightmares of some kid trying to impress a girl, a set of flying bench press weights, and a smushed Lester -- but, from now on, I will be taking Lester to the pool. For a first-timer, he did fantastic. I can't blame him for the whimpering and whining: if my favorite-bestest-buddy-person-in-the-world jumped into a 12-foot-deep empty hole filled wet, bad-fur-day icky pee-water [*] and then started wildly flailing his arms and legs like he was being gobbled up by the humongous blue pool monster, I'm sure I would whine and whimper too. (Wouldn't you? No? Clearly, you don't have a favorite-bestest-buddy-person-in-the-world.) That he settled down pretty quickly after seeing that, no, Kushal isn't being gobbled up by said blue pool monster was just perfect and is exactly the idea.

[* Is it just me or does chlorine smell like pee? Maybe I've been hanging around puppies a little too long.]

So, Lester, no more slacking. Off to the pool we must go.

"Already?

But I'm so tired from my huge workout today! It was hard work watching you do all that work!"

"God Made Me Blind - Big Deal"

2008-01-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

The things that the human body and mind can accomplish are sometimes truly extraordinary. This morning, I found this in my inbox:

"I mean, God made me blind and didn't give me the ability to walk. I mean, big deal." Patrick said, smiling. "He gave me the talent to play piano and trumpet and all that good stuff."

This is Patrick's philosophy in life, and he wants people to know it. He isn't fazed by what many of us would consider insurmountable obstacles.

"I'm the kind of person that's always going to fight till I win," he said. "That's my main objective. I'm gonna fight till I win.

Extraordinary, truly so. But that's not the half of it. Read the original story and you'll find that Patrick's talents in piano and trumpet have taken him to the University of Louisville, where he is now part of their marching band. Yes sir, you read that right -- blind, in a wheelchair, and part of the marching band. "And this is no sit-still-in-the-wheelchair-while-the-band-marches-around-you routine: Patrick and his father are right in the thick of it, with the wheelchair sprinting and spinning in formation and Patrick hanging on and playing his heart out." His father? Yup. Read the story.

For the triathletes and Ironmen in the audience, this will no doubt remind you of Team Hoyt. Rick, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, and his father, Dick, have competed in nearly a thousand events -- 65 marathons, 25 consecutive Boston Marathons, 20 duathlons, and 200+ triathlons, including 6 Ironman competitions.

When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

Sure, the Ironman is tough for all of us. But if you're legally blind? 58-year-old Richard Holcomb. Or, if you're also pushing your 45-year-old son for the entire 140.6 miles? Or -- in a different but somehow still the same fight -- blind, in a wheelchair, and part of the Louisville marching band?

The things that the human body and mind can accomplish are sometimes truly extraordinary.

Is That a New Tan?

2008-01-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

Lester and I headed off to the raiser meeting at REI earlier today. He was, as usual, fantastic on the bus. I sat there typing away on my laptop for nearly an hour and Lester kind of just chilled, looking over occasionally to see what was so interesting. "Little white boxes, squiggly lines, and blinking lights, riiiight. Humans. And people worry about me distracted by weird things. Ring toys, baby, that's where it's at."

On the way back, I noticed something a little odd. "Lester, um, is that a new tan?" I know REI is all about the outdoors and all, but, you know, for January, this is a little odd. I mean, really. How much of a tan can you get in an hour? And, uh, Lester? I think you stuck around in there for a little too long -- you're burned to a black crisp here. Well, Lester was mentioning the other day how he thought he was looking a little extra pale these days, what with it being winter and all. I guess we've solved that problem.

No? Not buying it? You sure?

OK. Fine. So, it's not Lester and Lester didn't get a mazungo, instant-melanoma, good-for-the-next-century tan at REI. This is Willy, Heidi's dog. Willy is as sweet as apple pie, very gentle, and super-mellow. Does he remind you of someone? Yes sir, I'm talking about Louie. Even though Willy is seeing all sorts of new stuff today ("Er, what's all these wires and all this weird-looking, funny-smelling sports gear?"), he's taking it all in stride and is as calm as calm could be. Louie was just like that -- no matter how crazy or how new a situation you put him in, he remained purely serene. Think Zen master. Louie graduated with flying colors, so I'm hoping that means great things for Willy.

Heidi and I are trading dogs for a few days, to give each others' dogs some new experiences and also maybe glean some fresh insight into Lester's dog distraction. Lester has come a long way and he's fantastic at work and at home (see above), but we've still got a few kinks to work out when other dogs are in the picture.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to come up with as many nicknames as I can for Willy over the next three days. Suggestions? Heidi's got me started with Will, Willy, and William. I'm adding "Wittle Willy" for today. Comments are open. I expect lots of embarrassing names for Willy.

I Bet Your Dog Can't Do This

2008-01-11T00:01:00.001-08:00

You thought I forgot, didn't you? Didn't you? But, no, no, here's Lester making his mighty comeback. I bet your dog can't do this. ;)

Look at him looking away bashfully at the end. "Aw, shucks Dad, it's nothing, really. Can you please put the video camera away now and stop embarrassing me?"

What with my penchant for taking orientationally-challenged video and all, I've been looking for some good video editing software for awhile now. I finally found a good -- free is always good -- one, BitPlayer. Now, you won't have to rotate your monitor or buy that gosh-darned expensive pair of fancy micro-fiber shoes to hang sideways onto the wall just to watch my videos.

Sorry Lester, little pal, that just means more embarrassing videos of you.

Train Slow, Race Fast

2008-01-10T22:17:00.000-08:00

Train slow to race fast. Or so everyone tells me. But, oh my God, on some days it just drives me insane. On Sunday, I couldn't find my heart rate monitor and so just went out without it. The result? 13 miles at ~8:40 pace. Not too shabby. Nice and steady mostly, not too hard, not too easy, and hopefully right where I needed to be. Yesterday, I had my easy run, and, having re-found my old but somehow-still-functional Timex HRM, forced myself to stick to my training zones. (See below.) OH. MY. GOD. For the life of me, I couldn't hold a proper pace. I had to stop running and walk so many times to keep my heart rate below 160 that I was going absolutely bonkers. Yeegh. I go from 7:40 pace to 11:40 pace (!) to 7:08 pace to -- well, you get the idea. Consistent? Not me, apparently.

Note to self: big hills + consistent heart rate, BAD. Go figure.

So, in either case, base training. From trifuel,

There are two basic energy systems you use when training; anaerobic and aerobic. Unfortunately, you can not build both your aerobic and anaerobic systems at the same time very well. The idea behind base training is to train your aerobic energy system specifically and solely. Why is this important? [...]

Fat is a primary fuel source for the aerobic energy system. Over the course of a base period your body learns to more readily break down and utilize fat as an energy source. As an added bonus this adaptation helps post exercise fat metabolism as well. This is an important factor, especially for long distance athletes. The fat we have in our bodies could provide enough energy to perform many distance events back to back, whereas muscle glycogen depletion can occur in as little as one hour. The less muscle glycogen you utilize, the more efficient you are. Contrary to the aerobic system, the anaerobic system consumes carbohydrate rapidly and the byproduct is lactic acid.

Makes sense. Endurance events are about testing your mind and body's ability to endure. Base training is about teaching your body to endure. But here's the kicker:

Over the course of base I progress from the low end of the aerobic energy system and gradually proceed in steps to the high end. The heart rate zones I use fall into the 71-90% range of lactate threshold or 61-80% of max heart rate. [...]

The hard part of base training is having the discipline to train at these low intensities. It may mean running very slowly or even walking. It may mean separating from your training group in order to pursue your individual goals. It also means avoiding the contest of egos that group training often turns into. If you can find a training partner with similar goals and fitness level you may be able to train with them, but more often than not what I see is a base work gone awry.

Yup. That's me. Yesterday at least, base training gone completely awry, lost, off-course, and somewhere out past Bugtussle, Tennessee without a gas station in sight to ask directions. Not that I would've asked anyways.

Swim, Bike, Run

2008-01-08T21:47:00.000-08:00

Dinner, a few days ago. Ironman training is in full swing. A little obvious, you think?

I swim, bike or run (basically) every day. On Sunday, I had my weekly long run: 13 miles around Woodinville, Redmond, and Kirkland. Today, I put in a 2x400m + 1600m (one mile) swim workout. On Friday, I'll do a medium-intensity long-distance bike workout -- 50 miles or so, I'm guessing. I burn more calories on some of these workouts than most people do in an entire day.

Hence the heaping plate of vegetables. Three frozen bags worth. 15 servings.

See Mom, I do eat my veggies. =P

Iron Guide

2007-12-31T18:41:00.000-08:00

Little Lester Pester, the blog, will be going through some changes in the New Year. Lester, the dog, I imagine will be headed back to San Rafael or Boring in a couple months and, although I'm fairly certain I'm going to take another new puppy, I'm also fairly certain that the new puppy won't be named Lester.

Let's say she's named Vixen. If you were named Vixen and your beloved owner wrote about you in a blog named after another dog, wouldn't you get some sort of a complex? Some complex that, festering inside of you for months and months, would, oh, I don't know, make you lash out one day and tear the heads off cute little stuffed dogs? Oh wait. Hm.

So, the name is changing and we're moving.

To Iron Guide.

Iron Guide? Yup. So here's the other bit of news. On August 24th 2008, I'll be running the Ironman. Having done something like 6 marathons and triathlons this past year, I'm setting my sights on something a little bigger and more exciting. For those of you who haven't heard about it, the Ironman is basically a very, very long triathlon. (And if you don't know what a triathlon is, try Wikipedia.) You swim, bike, and run, just like a normal triathlon; unlike any standard triathlon, however, the Ironman is the longest, toughest triathlon in existence. Over the course of 17 hours, you traverse 140.6 miles: first a 2.4-mile swim in open water, then a 112-mile bike ride through climbs with names like "Heartbreak Hill" and "The Beast", with a final 26.2-mile run -- a full marathon -- to chase it all down. The pros take about 8 hours, the best amateurs take 10-11 hours, but, ultimately, if you survive and finish it all under 17 hours, you go to sleep that night an Ironman. The things that the human body and mind can accomplish are sometimes truly extraordinary.

As part of the Ironman, many athletes fund-raise for causes near and dear to their heart. As part of my Ironman, I will be raising for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I'm already raising dogs for them -- now, I'll also be raising dollars. There are incredible stories of people raising millions of dollars for their causes, and, although I don't expect to get anywhere near that, I'm hoping to be able to do something significant for Guide Dogs. It's an amazing organization: from the people who work and volunteer there, to the work they do in giving the gift of freedom, to how they do it without charging anyone a single penny, I've been absolutely blown away. So, I'm dedicating my Ironman to Guide Dogs.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be putting together something on Facebook and on this blog to begin spinning things up. I'm going to keep writing about Lester (and any puppy that follows him) but I'll also spend some time talking about the Ironman and my training since, ultimately, that'll also be closely intertwined with the work I'm doing for Guide Dogs. It'll be a tough journey, no doubt, but I think it'll be worth it. I'll definitely need your support and everything -- moral support after a bad training day, a donation to Guide Dogs, anything -- will be deeply appreciated. Wish me luck!

Appropriately enough, I'm off to run a few miles to loosen up for a 5K tomorrow to ring in the New Year! :) Afterwards, Lester and I are heading downtown to meet up with friends for some New Year's Eve partying.

I hope everyone has a fantastic night and a Happy New Year!

Dog Distractions

2007-12-30T23:26:00.000-08:00

Lester has always been a little distracted around dogs, and so we've been working pretty hard at it for the last few months. We put him on food rewards a little while ago, and, combined with two weeks of intensive, 24-7 training with Koji in LA, he's been improving.

So, food rewards. Basically, it's exactly what it sounds like: be good, get food. Whenever Lester is around another dog and behaves, listens to my commands, doesn't cry or whine, or otherwise generally contains his excitement, he gets a bit of kibble. There are some tricks to timing it properly and making sure he doesn't figure out how to game the system, but, really that's it. Guide Dogs will approve food rewards for specific problems where strong, instinctual positive reinforcement -- stronger and more instinctual than the strongest praise -- is necessary to counteract an equally strong and instinctive tendency, e.g. fear of traffic, dog distractions. Lester loves his food, and saying food is rewarding is like saying Britney Spears has a flair for drama -- an understatement of the most ridiculous proportions. Put another way, as soon as the connection of "be good, get food" is made, it's very powerful motivation to be good.

But, for handlers, food rewards is a little annoying. You carry the food in a little pouch that bulges out of your back pocket and has a tendency to spill all over the place at the most inopportune moments. Dog slobber, while an understood occupational hazard in general, reaches entirely new levels when you're stuffing food into your dog's mouth every other minute.

Random dogs come up sniffing to you in the park; you smell an awful lot like their dinner, after all. Yup, all sorts fun.

Still, we handlers selflessly and nobly -- ahem :) -- do everything we can for our dogs.

Sometimes, it works. Check out Lester and Koji -- or, more precisely, Koji's tail -- from a few days ago. Two weeks of having another dog in the house, food rewards, and 24-7 training made something click in Lester's energetic little head. I've never seen Lester so calm around another dog, certainly not so close and most certainly not with a tail repeatedly whacking him in the face. Blink, blink, blink.

The Airport Drill

2007-12-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

I've been traveling a lot these past few weeks. Although not quite as much as some jet-setting friends at Amazon and Microsoft, I think I've spent at least 5 out of the last 8 weeks out of town. I just landed back in Seattle earlier today after spending Christmas with family in Los Angeles, and it's nice to settle back in home after so much time away from home. Lester, quite the jet-setter for a little pooch, has gone pretty much everywhere with me and has been just fantastic. I joke that he's basically my carry-on... but, well, he sort of is. :) A lot of people have asked me to write about how it all works, so, today, I will.

I've pretty much got it down to a routine. Here's the morning drill.

Flight at 6:45am.

5:00: Alarm goes off. It's all about the snooze button, baby!

5:10: Grumble, wake up, grumble grumble. Take Koji and Lester out to the dog run. Keep grumbling about freezing, waking up too early, and the fifteen million rounds Lester needs to circle around before actually doing anything. (It was more like 5, but it was cold!) Push Koji away when he tries to pee on Lester. Sibling rivalry gone awry. They're still at it. :P Sigh.

5:16am: Feed Lester. (Koji only eats only once a day.)

5:16am + 15 seconds: After Lester has finished snarfing down his food and water, brush (my) teeth, change clothes, finish packing. Wallet, check. Cell, check. Keys, che -- CRAP. Where are my keys? Keys keys keys keys, oh, where art thou?

5:35: Oh right. In my duffel bag. Note to self: catch up on sleep on plane. Lester, check. Lester's guide dog training jacket, check. OK, let's roll.

5:40: Leave for airport. It's still dark out! People aren't meant to be awake at this hour. Bats and raccoons, maybe. Humans, no.

6:05: Arrive at airport. Make sure that seat is either aisle or window and that -- very, very important -- that we're far away from the engines. Try to check in at self-serve Alaska electronic check-in booth but instead get print-out saying "Please see agent. Multiple requests." Hm. This is a first.

6:10: What's the deal? Still not quite sure why, but Alaska flagged my itinerary this time. I've flown both out of this airport and with Alaska multiple times with Lester and they've always been the best and most understanding of airlines. In either case, the gate agent took one look at Lester, let me get about a sentence into the usual "He's a guide dog in training" spiel, smiled and handed me the boarding pass. No checked luggage, just one duffel bag carry-on, one Lester carry-on and we're good to go.

6:14: Relieve Lester. We specifically train our dogs to be able to hold their potty and it technically isn't his next scheduled relieving time, but, trust me, you want to relieve your dog before getting into the airport. Just trust me.

6:15: Security. Oh, what fun. It doesn't get much more fun than this: technology-geeking, guide-dog-training, Indian-food-loving Internet entrepreneur. Let's see: the usual one laptop and sometimes two, my favorite, mouth-watering lamb curry home food packed lovingly by parents into suspiciously taped and wrapped yogurt container, butt-sniffing guide dog in training, and said butt-sniffing guide dog in training with enough metal to set off twenty metal detectors. Yippee.

6:19: Explain to grumpy -- and who wouldn't be grumpy at 6:19am? -- TSA agent the procedure. Yes, I'm the one explaining. I go first through the metal detector, the dog stays behind. I won't set off the metal detector, my shoes are off, my belt's off, and I'm not wearing jeans (they have metal rivets), so you won't need to pat me down. But, between the leash, the chain collar, the normal collar, the dog's got enough metal to set off all metal detectors here. You're going to need to call for a puppy patdown. Cool. You've got a lady who's not afraid of dogs? All right, here we go.

6:30: A sit-stay, a puppy pat-down, and some bribing licks later, the two TSA agents doing my security waved us through. Put on shoes, put on belt, pack up laptop again, find boarding pass, keep Lester away from baby-talking lady who should know better, give thirty-second elevator pitch about guide dogs, and get to gate.

6:35: Board. Fifth to last passenger. Perfect timing. Sweet! :) Joke with crew about their four-legged passenger. They like dogs. This should be a breeze.

6:45: As plane pushes back from jetway, re-assure neighbors that Lester does this all the time and, minus his adorable cuteness, they won't even know he's there. When Lester plops down, tucks himself under the front seat and curls up on my feet, I think they finally believe me. You thought I was kidding? He really is my carry-on! :) Compare my living, breathing carry-on to that my less adorable but battle-proven duffel bag carry-on. If you ignore the fact that, you know, one of them has a head, two floppy ears, and snores on occasion, you couldn't tell the difference.

6:46: Pass out. Lester's already beat me to it.

The plane touched down in Seattle at 9:52. It seemed like they were having trouble getting the jetway hooked up -- this is why you always, always relieve just before entering security -- and, between the packed flight and the holiday rush outside, I didn't get out into the terminal until 10:30 or so. The Seattle airport has a little urban sprawl going on and has a train connecting four different terminals, so we had to catch that and get to the main terminal. Although Lester has never had an accident, I always worry a little about one. After being cooped up for four hours, the stress of landing -- despite his many flights, Lester always seems to have a mini-heart attack every time the reverse thrusters come on -- the excitement of the airport, etc., I'm not one to take chances. As soon as I get my bearings, we make a beeline for the nearest exit and Lester gets a chance to take care of his business outside.

All in all, I haven't ever had a bad experience flying with my dogs. Everyone is very understanding, my seat's been upgraded more than once, and it always makes for some great conversations. At restaurants, the best compliment a waiter can give me is to exclaim, "OH! I didn't even know there was a dog here!" when Lester pokes his nose out after a meal, and the same applies to flying. Today, I had a stewardess come up to me afterwards and tell me just that. It made my day. :) I'm not sure if Lester and I will be flying again since it won't be long before he has to go back to San Rafael, so it was a nice way to round out our travels for the year.

Wishing you had a very merry Christmas!

So Close, But, Oh, So Far

2007-11-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

Lester discovers the friendly neighborhood cat.

And then... then, well, what started out as a good training exercise -- you haven't really tested "stay" until there's a cat three inches from your dog's nose -- turned into an amusing photo-op. I think Lester and the feline have been having an illicit affair without my knowing.

They can't take their eyes off each other.

Taunting Lester. That's her hind leg up in the air, mind you.

The intrepid cat, swatting at Lester. Feisty little lady, isn't she?

Having a fight. Any relationship has its ups and downs, I guess.

Taken literally minutes ago. I think Ms. Smitten Feline is still out there, still waiting for her canine soulmate. Lester, unfortunately for her, has been enticed away by other things ("rubber toy? oooh, me! me! me!") and is now asleep in my bedroom.

Eloping with another species aside, Lester has had an adventurous few weeks. I'll write about it soon. Of course, you faithful readers know that means in a century and a half. :P

Peering Over the Edge

2007-10-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

Lester very suspiciously peering over the edge from the 10th floor of the Seattle Public Library:

"I'm bored. Can we go home now?"

Cruising Along

2007-10-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

I submitted the monthly report for Lester a couple days and it's amazing to see the progress he's making month over month. At this point, we're basically just cruising along: he knows what's expected him, and just does it. Not only does he listen to me without much ado, but he's so in tune with my habits that he sometimes does things without my even asking! As I write this, I'm sitting in Tully's and Lester is just laying down underneath my chair, mostly just quietly sleeping, occasionally getting up to people-watch, and being the model of all-around guide dog behavior.

He's been getting a lot of experience lately, attending the usual meetings, hiking up mountains, hanging out at coffee shops and libraries, and, last but definitely not least, being the social butterfly at parties. He's fantastic at work and at home and, minus dog and very occasional people distractibility, is doing just perfectly.

Dog distractions are really the only thing I'm worried about at this point. It's a little expected, what with him going through the teenage months right now. At the same time, he's posting definite, noticeable improvements every month and usually knows to control himself at this point, so I'm quite happy. Although Lester is officially on food rewards, I haven't been using it them frequently. Instead, I'm sticking to what's working right now. I've been intensively working him around other dogs, just going back and forth trying to keep his focus on me. That's involved a lot of crouching, some high-pitched baby talk, and a couple mildly embarassing conversations... but it seems to be working. :) At this point, Lester can usually walk by other dogs -- crossing in opposite directions, or even walking past in the same direction -- and still retain most of his composure. He had a mild fit at a party a couple days ago, but that was because another dog very unexpectedly showed up, kept sniffing around his private parts, and the general excitement of the packed house. We'll save that for advanced placement stage in a couple months.

Even Louie was a little dog distracted at this age and he obviously worked out wonderfully. An excerpt from my September report a year ago:

Louie is still dog distracted and garbage-mouthing as before. He can control the former most of the time, and has only garbage-mouthed once the past month, so they're getting better but still there. [...] What's impressed me about Louie this month is that his dog distractability is noticeably less than before -- he'll still show an interest in dogs, but he knows to control it even without a correction. Sometimes he'll need a gentle reminder, i.e. a tug on his leash or my softly speaking to him, but he's getting better!

Lester is a little further behind, but he's catching up to his big brother. And, on the flip side, Lester hasn't garbage mouthed at all in weeks! :)

Babies!

2007-10-02T22:15:00.001-07:00

A few people have gotten sneak previews, but, today, I'm happy to show everyone. Folks, I present to you Louie and Gail's five babies: Padma, Patrice, Pecos, Polo, and Pran.

I just love how the little yellows sleep against each other with their head squished up on the other. Here's the funniest thing: that's apparently normal! It's on two different days!

Gail had two black females, two black males, and 1 yellow female (little "Pran"). If you're wondering why there are 3 yellows in the pictures, it's because Guide Dogs sometimes combines litters if they're small. Brothers, sisters, step-sisters, and step-brothers are all doing well and have now been matched up with puppy raisers all along the West Coast.

Guide Dogs mailed me the pictures and letter a couple weeks ago, but I just hadn't had the time to get them scanned and posted. (I got physical prints and it turned out that Guide Dogs didn't actually have digital copies.) I finally got around to dragging myself over to Kinko's and getting them scanned today.

Out of the 151 (!) suggestions, I picked the following five:

Parker
Patience
Pari
Parvati
Pran

It being that I haven't heard of -- let alone met -- another Indian raiser, Judy suggested and I agreed that an Indian twist would be nice. Both my mom and Judy suggested Pran [*], which roughly translates into "life" but has a somewhat deeper meaning of spirit and lifeblood that I can't easily put into English. I think my mom put it best, however, saying that these dogs bring life to their owners. Parvati got 3 votes and had a fun Harry Potter angle (that one's for you, Kim! :P). Parker was the clear favorite with 5 different votes, so that one was a no-brainer. And Patience just cracked me up, which Hobbes Dogs suggested because, you know, every raiser and handler "needs to be reminded to have some patience from time to time."

[* Pran is pronounced "pr-AH-n". The "a" is like the "a" in "Pa", as in what you'd call your dad. It does not, I repeat, not, rhyme with Fran.]

Combined with the other raiser's suggestions, ensuring that no other puppy or working dog has the same name, only one ended up making it through. It sucks a little, but I'm happy there's at least some Indian masala in the mix now.

Boooinnng! Booing Boooinng!

2007-09-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

Recorded last night at 4am, when we were both a little delirious, Lester apparently more so than me.

You might not be able to tell from the video, but the object of Lester's affection is a springy doorstop. Say it with me: boooinnng! booing boooinng!

Seattle Oyster Race

2007-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

Warning: Contains shameless plug.

I'm developing some kind of a strange addiction to running marathons, triathlons and endurance races on a couple days' notice. Last week, I did the Kirkland triathlon, which was a total and complete hoot. I'll spare you the details of the swim, bike and run except to say that Lester didn't do them with me. I'm starting a tradition of giving my medals to Lester to wear after my races, and the pictures of that will be posted as soon as I get them. In the meantime, we can all wonder about why Lester tried to spend the hours before the race trying to lick the permanent marker off my calf.

This weekend, I'm doing this random, crazy 8-hour adventure race. We don't actually know what it involves -- it's a secret, revealed only after the race starts -- but it'll be some combination of running, biking, kayaking, swimming, climbing, rollerblading, and who only knows what over a course of 50 miles. I don't even really know what the name is supposed to mean: the Seattle Oyster Race? Among other things, I need to learn to skate in exactly two days. :P I just bought my first pair of rollerblades three days ago. Last time I tried to ice skate... yeah, well, let's just say my friends found it amusing enough to record video of it. It's floating around on the web somewhere.

Warning: Shameless plug imminent!

And now, for the shameless plug. We're raising money for the Arthritis Foundation. To the tune of $500, actually. Because of, uh, yeah, last-minute registrations... the 6 of us have until tomorrow noon to come up with it. I, of course, thought you compassionate, generous, guide-dog-raising folks might be willing to pitch in. :)

All kidding aside, I'd certainly appreciate any donation you could make. Any amount helps and it's for a good cause. You can find our team called "SEA6" after selecting Seattle for the city. It's a horrible, horrible pun that current and past Amazonians will unfortunately understand. If you don't get it, thank your lucky stars and donate!

Pretty please, with sugar on top?

The Sillies

2007-09-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Matt and Amy from Growin' Up Guide inspired me to record "the sillies" over at the tennis courts.

Lester, we're gonna have to talk. Paige was way more fun and so much more entertaining. Paige has you so beat, paws down. A girl! Beaten by a girl! Sigh.

*ducks*

... remembering the 90% female readership of this blog. :P

Grr

2007-09-14T17:31:00.001-07:00

These last couple weeks have been a little odd. I've been refused entry to three restaurants. Another asked me to sit outside and a final one asked me to enter through the back. Today, just a few minutes ago, I got into an argument with the driver of the bus I've been taking for the past two years.

Why?

Well, basically: Lester.

We all know the uneasy, is-that-dog-going-to-pee-on-my-carpet look we sometimes get at restaurants. It's usually not a big deal. I just put Lester in his most proper, dignified sit position possible and cheerfully ask if I can bring in "this little puppy I'm training to be a guide dog for the blind." Most hostesses take one look at cute ol' Lester and that's that. Places that don't, well, I've come up with a pretty heuristic for them: if someone can understand the difference between pet and guide dog, they can usually make the mental leap to guide dog in training. If they don't understand the subtleties of the English language well enough to make that first distinction, well, you're probably not going to get in. Thankfully, even though I go to a lot of "ethnic" restaurants, I have my favorites that I regularly hit up, all of whom now recognize me and my dogs, and I can once again get all my favorite foods.

So what's up with these few other restaurants? Not sure. Even though I live outside the city, most of my friends still live in downtown and so I usually eat there. The one common thing, however, among these restaurants is that, out of the five, 3 were in Kirkland. Maybe they just don't see guide dogs very much? That's a little surprising, since I think there actually is a dedicated Kirkland raising group. Regardless, they were all pretty small restaurants, and two seemed genuinely apologetic and trying to be helpful, so I didn't make a fuss.

But this bus incident is different. More so, because I once actually got kicked off a bus with Louie. The issue in both cases was that the bus drivers didn't know official county policy. Service animals obviously ride free under the ADA but King County also allows service animals in training to not only ride but also ride free:

Must a government office let in the service animal that I am training?

No. The ADA and Washington state nondiscrimination laws do not address service animals that are not yet trained. While they might choose to allow these animals entry, they do not have a legal obligation to do so. However, King County policy allows individuals and their service animals-in-training equal access to facilities, "subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to individuals with disabilities and their service animals."

So, what's the problem? Sounds perfect, right?

The last time, after getting on the bus, scanning my bus pass, and heading back to find a seat, Louie and I were stopped by the bus driver: "What about for the dog?" I laughed -- thinking it was a joke -- and made some kind of a witty retort. Turned out he wasn't joking. A couple blocks down, he stopped the bus, got up from his seat, and walked back to demand Louie's fare. I didn't have any change (I use a bus pass, exactly so I don't have to carry change), was a little taken aback (this guy wasn't exactly the nicest guy), and wasn't sure of King County policy myself, so I just got off and walked the rest of the way.

This time, after we had reached my stop and I had paid and was about to get off, the bus driver stopped me.

"What about the dog? I need full adult fare."

Huh? He's a guide dog in training. I'm training him for the blind.

"So?"

I've been taking this exact bus for the past two years and I've never once been asked for fare for these dogs.

"So? That doesn't make it right."

To make a long story short, the driver and I spent a good two minutes going back and forth. At one point, a passenger even jumped in: "He's a guide dog!" But, the driver and I weren't getting anywhere, and he seemed grumpy enough to actually want to make a point of things. I could just see it in my head: "Next on the 6 o' clock news! Kirkland resident arrested for refusing to pay bus fare... for guide dog he's training for the blind!" I happened to have the few dollars in change, so I just paid the fare and walked off. The driver wouldn't give me his name but I did get the bus number.

So, now, here I am, firing off an email to King County Transit asking that they please send a memo clarifying the issue with their drivers. I'm willing to forgive some small, mom-and-pop restaurant... but, really, this is just getting ridiculous. I take the bus several times a week and, next time, I won't have fare and it'll just devolve into some nasty situation.

Lester is No More

2007-09-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

... because he shed the other half in fur today. And, well, if both halves of Lester are gone, there isn't much left is there?

Oh, and to answer everyone's questions: No, I didn't collect it over time. It's just one day's worth. Nothing fancy, just Lester and I spending some quality time with his favorite shedding blade. (Although he doesn't mind the comb, Lester hates the shedding blade. But it's handy when spring and fall roll around. Sorry bud.) I do, however, take the 5th on creative photo angles. :)

Judy was telling me about the FURminator yesterday. Now that's some scary stuff.

Lester is Half the Dog He Used To Be

2007-09-09T04:24:00.000-07:00

... because he's shed the other half in fur. It's that time of year again, when Labs, little and big alike, blow their coat. Fun times.

To Love and Let Go

2007-08-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

Louie graduated Saturday. A bunch of us, 8 humans and 2 dogs, drove down to the Oregon Guide Dogs campus to see Louie and his new partner, Don, finish training and start their life together.

It was a deeply bittersweet experience. On the one hand, I'm incredibly proud of Louie and Don and it's quite amazing to see how they already get along and work together. It's like they've been a team for ages, not just two weeks. Louie is quite the handsome dog now, having filled out and bulked up to look like a real man, not the lanky, awkward teenager of a puppy he was when he went back to school. Mature, careful about where he was leading Don, just a little aloof around strangers as he should be, he wasn't my little, smelly-ears Louie any more. (He had an ear infection when he was younger. The infection went away. The name stuck.) He was a real guide dog now. People kept telling me how fantastic he was during training and how proud of him I should be, but I really didn't need much prodding: I was already very, very proud of Louie. Anymore and I'd need to go out and buy a "My dog is a honor student" bumper sticker and stick it on my forehead.

On the other hand, it broke my heart to see him again. He was happy to see me, no doubt, tail wagging, climbing up into my lap and trying to give me sloppy wet kisses, toppling me over into the wall... but... no, not quite as happy as before. No bunny hops. No butt wags. No squirming and wriggling with joy. He was worried, concerned about being separated from Don and wondering if Don was alright.

And there it was. When we walked up to the stage, just before I was to formally present Louie to Don, Louie saw Don on the opposite end, waiting off to the side just as we were. That was it. Louie zeroed in, craning his neck around to make sure he didn't lose sight of Don, and never once took his eyes off him. We walked up to the stage, I released him and handed over the leash to Don. There it all was. The Louie bunny hop: all four paws off the ground, bounce, bounce bounce bounce, hopping circles around Don. The squirming and wriggling. The butt swinging every which way. He wasn't my little puppy anymore. He was Don's dog now.

The audience loved it, cheering and laughing with every squirm and wag. I kept up a smile and laughed too, but even that was tough. It felt like someone had punched me full force in the gut. I could actually physically feel the heavy pit in my stomach.

It wasn't a matter of jealousy. Not in the least. Sure, there was that little selfish part of me that wished Louie had been as excited and ecstatic to see me, but... everything else in me knew that it was so much more important, indescribably so, that Louie bond with Don and that he be Don's dog and only his dog. Had Louie been just as excited to see me as when he was my puppy, well... wouldn't that exactly be the problem? He'd still be my puppy. He wouldn't be Don's dog. And that would defeat the purpose of everything. Sure, there is that selfish part of me that wants to keep Louie for myself, but then there is everything else in me that knows it's so much more important to let him go.

To love and let go. That's what it really comes down to, doesn't it? Pouring in your heart to them, giving them all the love you can muster up, taking as much care of them as you can... but then letting them go when the time comes. And, perhaps more painfully, seeing them let go of you and pass that love onto someone else.

Judy was right. Family and dear friends aside, it's about as close to a direct gift of love one human being can give another. I really see it now.

It's the right thing to do. I'll just keep telling myself that.

As tough as it was, I still wouldn't have it any other way. I think I'll be doing this for as long as I can.

Don, Louie, Nancy (Don's wife), Brady (Nancy's guide), and Lester and I at graduation.

To Oregon, California and Back (and Then Back Again)

2007-08-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy, busy month and I've been just awful about updating this blog. I've (again) been yelled at (multiple times!) for not writing in such a long time, so here I am. What with 14-hour days being the norm now and 18-hour days considered long, I simply don't have the time to write as much as before, but I'll try to post at least once or twice a week going ahead. Not that any of you will complain, but I think it'll be more pictures than text. :P But seriously, if I slack again, just yell at me... that seems to work!

So, here's the thirty-second summary of everything Lester and I have done in the past thirty days in thirty pictures. I've, uh, taken some creative license with the story. :)

OK, here goes.

Lester and I went on a road trip down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles. We stopped at the beach, where Lester (was made to) pose for a picture,

after which he proceeded to lick (what was left of) his manhood,

but then tried to eat some seaweed,

and instead got a mouthful of sand. "Who me? I didn't try to eat nothin'." Sure.

I climbed up a (very tall) lighthouse that wouldn't let Lester up with me, so I left Lester at the bottom and made the gate lady watch him. If you look closely, you can see his foot.

Lester cried like a little baby (many times) when I jumped off a cliff (many times),

but then forgot all about his angst and slept ...

... switched positions, and then slept some more,

while I drove

and drove and drove.

At some point, I stuck Lester in a very big tree

and then another

but, finally, he got even with me by getting Koji to convince me that, sure, it'd be fun take them both on a walk at the same time. Never again.

A little wiser but with a couple more white hairs, Lester and I flew back from LA on Alaska Airlines,

passing not only the official security with flying colors

but also this random dude's impromptu up-close-and-personal check-up,

with Lester curling up into a nice little ball under the seat in front of me. See, I told you they fit. :P

Missing Koji, Lester found this crazy-looking pig in Seattle, became the best of friends, and begged me to take a picture of them together so he could remember him forever ...

... but their fate was not to be, as I had to run off to one of many meetings with lawyers, designers, CTOs, CEOs, and just all sorts of CXOs, and Lester was sad. But, then he went and found another pig

and another

but then got bored of the whole pig thing and went out and ran a triathlon. Where'd that come from? Who knows.

As a reward, we all pitched in and got him... an orange juice container, but Lester was a little confused initially

and wanted a GoughNuts toy instead like all the other cool kids,

so he got that too and now carries it around everywhere like it's his favorite blankie.

Still, once or twice he gets into things he really shouldn't

or gets himself stuck in places he knows he shouldn't be,

and finds himself in big trouble,

but, all in all, he's coming along pretty well and his big brother Louie is rooting for him to make it through.

Crap. Only 29 pictures. OK. Bubbles!

Phase 10!

2007-07-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

We just got the July 25th phase report. Louie is in phase 10! That means he's passed the slew of evaluations in phase 9 and has just one more evaluation to go in phase 10. Wow. He's almost done!

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I Take It All Back

2007-07-25T03:19:00.001-07:00

I take it back. I take it all back.

Pissing Contests

2007-07-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Koji is very, very jealous. Whenever my mom, dad or I try to pet Lester, Koji actually starts scolding us! WOOF woof woof WOOOF WWWWOOOOF. (Translation: "Hey! Why is this kid getting all the love?! What about ME?") Failing that, he tries to nuzzle up to someone to try and steal the attention. Funnier still, sometimes, he trudges off to his favorite spot (seventh step on the staircase) and sulks until someone goes and brings him back.

What a big baby. He's now nine years old.

Lester just wants to be friends. More than anything else, he just really wants to be friends with Koji. Around the house, Koji is the big dog, the cool kid, the hipster. Who wouldn't want to be his friend? Lester sure would. Whenever he can, Lester tries to go steal a lick -- or, if Koji is asleep, maybe even a couple. Clever, perhaps; brave, no. =P Often, with Koji laying on the bed, Lester tries to push up against it, leaning as hard as he can, stretching as far as he can, simply trying to say hello. Koji just looks on, seemingly wondering why the little kid just can't take a hint. Usually, Lester can't quite reach far enough; when he can, Koji lets out this exasperated sigh -- not kidding -- gets up, and shifts himself over a few inches, again just out of reach. When Koji doesn't have the advantage of higher ground, he tries to hide in his other favorite spot: under the coffee table. That usually doesn't work too well.

But here's the kicker. Sure, Lester and Koji have a bit of sibling rivalry. Lots of dogs do, I'm sure. Sure, the energetic little upstart that is Lester irritates Koji, who is quite happily settled in his routine and ways. Happens everywhere. No, the funny thing here is the pissing contest. You know, the metaphorical pissing contest? Two guys trying to out-do the other just to impress someone? At work, in politics, hell, on the street, it's not really hard to find examples. But, excluding drunk frat guys, it doesn't usually involve, you know, pissing. No sir, not here. Koji and Lester engage in real pissing contests. When I take Lester out to the backyard to relieve in the morning, Koji follows right behind. Lester, on leash, circles and sniffs (and circles and sniffs) around me and Koji looks on, observing every move. At some point, Lester lets it rip and that's when Koji springs into action. As soon as Lester finishes up, Koji moves in and pees right over it. Every time. In the morning, after lunch, late at night. Even if it's just two drops, Koji will make sure business is handled. Nothing metaphorical about it.

Lester Goes to the Airport

2007-07-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, my mom flew out to India. My dad and I saw her off at the airport, which -- really, let's not kid ourselves -- means that my dad, Lester, and I saw her off at the airport. Airports are tough in general -- tons of stressed-out people, police with some mean-looking dogs, odd-sounding oddly-timed voices over the loudspeaker, heavy luggage carts that sometimes don't look where they're going -- but the international terminal at LAX is just obscene. You could hardly see through the crowds at times!

Lester did just marvelously. In line, where we waited for more than an hour, Lester stayed perfectly by my side, laying down waiting most of the time, getting up and walking the few steps with me when the people ahead moved a little. Thirteen compliments! I counted. =) Six people wanted to know more: How old is he? How long is the training? Isn't it hard to give them up? Do they charge the people getting them? One even seemed interested in raising. He did, however, seem most interested in the fact that the other five people talking to me were all women. =P Wading through the crowds, Lester played it totally cool, ignoring the huge, overloaded carts of luggage, not at all perturbed by all the people swarming around him. Looking at the crowd from his height [picture at right], how you can barely see through it, it's actually a bit scary.

I was very, very impressed. Lester got insane amounts of praise. His tail was in overdrive the whole night.

Shows Great Potential

2007-07-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

I post a lot of funny little Lester escapades: some just funny, others a little crazy, occasionally downright disgusting, and often not very guide-dog-like. But, even though little Lester supplies me with lots of amusing blog material, in reality, Lester is starting to grow up and show his potential as a proper working dog. I really realized how far Lester has come while writing last month's report:

Outside of dog distractability, Lester is doing very well while on duty. He's been keeping very long hours with me at work, taking the bus across town for meetings, working from cafes, going into loud, heavy crowds, attending parties with food and other toys strewn over the place, and generally being an example of good working dog behavior. One particular time a couple weeks ago at a friend's July 4th party comes to mind: in a small apartment filled with more than twenty people, I had to leave him in a down-stay for about half an hour while I was in another room. When I came back, Lester was in same spot, awake, worried, and scanning the room for me, but still exactly where I had left him. Considering all the people, everyone's general excitement and interest in Lester, the food on the tables and crumbs falling to the floor, the fireworks, and the loud music that was very, very impressive. All in all, I think that when we solve this dog distraction problem, Lester will be a very strong working guide.

He may not be the perfect-4.0, student-government-president, soccer-team-captain student that Louie was, but he's still a very promising young puppy. Lester is averaging something more like a B- and might be more interested in the ladies than making the debate team, but he's got his moments of brilliance. He's getting A-pluses in some things... it's just that he's getting Ds in others. You know how all good Indian boys are supposed to grow up to be doctors, i-bankers, or engineers? Kaushal and Karan were teasing me that, you know, not everyone has to become -- the guide dog equivalent of -- a doctor. Maybe we should look into some kind of other career for Lester? Acting, perhaps? "Kushal, you're just perpetuating the stereotype."

=P

Lester has a lot of potential. While on duty in restaurants, at work, in the car, on the bus, wherever, he's practically a model of good behavior. You forget that he's even there! (As it turns out, that's actually my test to know when we've properly trained these boys. If they're so well behaved that no one else at, say, a restaurant or movie theater even knows he's there, well, that's about all we can ask for.) He knows all his commands, usually listens on the first time, walks alongside me without pulling, checks back up on me every few seconds, ignores everything from flying leaves to backfiring pickups to heavy traffic... the problem is that, at home, sometimes he tries to race through the house and, elsewhere, is very interested in other dogs. We just need to iron those issues out.

You know, come to think of it, that's exactly how they referred to me back in school: "shows great potential". Oh, the memories. :) "Needs to turn in his homework in on time." "Needs to sleep less in class." "Needs to follow directions."

But, I turned out OK. Here's hoping the same for Lester.

Road Trippin'

2007-07-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

Lester and I are road tripping it down to LA. So far, we've come down the Oregon Coast on 101 and, yesterday, we swung over to Crater Lake yesterday. Today, we're going to hit up the California redwood forests and, the day after, arrive at home in Cerritos.

I'll post a more in-depth summary later, but here are two favorite pictures so far: Lester and I at Crater Lake, and the Yaquina Head lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.

Getting the Crater Lake shot took more than a few tries. Here's a few snapshots from the spoof reel. Feel free to add your own commentary. :)

Dr. Lester

2007-07-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

Lester just loves his cone. He loves it so much, he could just eat it.

In fact, he did eat it. Not all of it, but enough to make it obvious that, given another couple nights alone with it, there wouldn't be much left. He really does love his cone -- just... in his stomach and not around his head.

So, for the past two nights, I've taken off his cone just before bedtime. Much happier and way more comfortable, he passes out in seconds instead of fidgeting and squirming around for minutes in the cone. I finished up work around 4am and, like I do every night and every morning, took a quick look at his belly to make sure there wasn't any redness or swelling or whatever. Two more days, his stitches come out and I can stop being the stereotypical over-protective dad, I think. In either case, so far, so good.

Around 6am, I wake up to the sounds of a puppy heaving his guts out. On the hair-trigger response anyone with a puppy understands, I scoop up Lester, run to the bathroom and let him barf to his heart's content. Barf handled, Lester prancing around ready to play, I then go back to the room to find the culprit behind my rude awakening.

Wires? All there.
Blankets? Intact.
Closet? Still closed.
Puppy toys? Still in one piece.
Books? Papers? No shredded paper.
Pens? Pencils? No plastic around.

Hm. That's odd. Random barf? Unlikely. What else?

Cell phone? Wallet? Keys?

All there.

Cone? No more chewed than before.

Oddness. I didn't go out anywhere, nothing's missing from the house, Lester hasn't gone on any walks, what with getting neutered and all. Ah, well, I give up on the barf. I might as well just re-check his stitches and then go back to bed. Still time to rack in a few more hours.

UH.

WHERE'D YOUR STITCHES GO?

...

Yup. Lester ate his stitches.

Much yelping, a frantic call to the vet, and a resurrected cone later, Lester is doing just fine. The receptionist at the vet sounded more amused than worried, so I imagine this happens more than I think. Still, I'm speechless. Eating your own stitches? I didn't even know that was possible! Don't you need... I don't know... something involving a medically-trained professional?

OK. So I checked it out. Here it is, ten-page stitch-removal procedure involving everything from sterile forceps to antibiotics to adhesive strips. Psh. Amateurs. Dr. Lester only needs his teeth.

Lampshade in Ass

2007-07-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

I never quite realized just how much Lester follows me around in the apartment. It's one thing to have a cute little puppy follow you around from room to room and give you an occasional nudge or lick, but... a cute little puppy with a huge lampshade stuck to his head is an entirely another matter. He doesn't quite realize that, you know, with your head encased in a big lampshade, you occupy a little bit more space. He keeps running into me and poking me in the butt with his lampshade. Amusing but... odd.

Haaappppy Louie

2007-07-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is incredible. Emily was in Oregon for graduation, and, upon seeing Louie working as a demonstration dog [!], remembered that I raised Louie as a puppy, pulled out her digital camera, and took video of him just for me. This totally made my day when I first saw it yesterday -- thank you so much again, Emily.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

Seeing the old fellow again is great but what especially made my day is seeing how happy he is. You can't see much of Louie in the beginning but one thing you can see is his tail. Wagging. The entire time. Back and forth, from one side to the other. :) Another old friend from our raiser group saw him at graduation and also remarked just how happy a dog he was.

A lot of people have asked me over the years that isn't it a sad thing to make this dog work for his entire life? The craziest version I ever got went something like "Don't you feel bad enslaving this beautiful dog?" from this lady with a little chihuahua perched in her handbag.

Are you kidding? =P I feel bad for your chihuahua.

My usual response is that, no, it's not a sad thing at all. These dogs actually enjoy work. They're called working dogs for a reason. What makes them tick, at their very deepest core, is their incredibly tight bond with their owner: being with them every minute of their day, guiding them through challenging situations, loving them and being loved in return. Guide work is so intricate and demanding that, really, a dog simply wouldn't be able to do it if he weren't completely in sync with his handler. It's the same with other working dogs: rescue dogs, police dogs, even sled dogs I imagine. Making you happy makes them happy. Louie? Louie was happiest when he knew he did something right and got a big hug and praise from me. And when Louie was happy, you knew he was happy: he didn't just wag his tail, he whipped it around. His whole butt moved. If he were near a wall or table, you could hear his tail thwacking against it three rooms down. That boy had a strong tail.

Now, I saw that day in and day out and my friends saw that, but explaining that to someone who's convinced otherwise? It's a bit... tough. Here, though, in Emily's video, you can see what I saw every day. He's working, sure, he definitely is -- but he's happy working. His tail's up in the air the entire time, waving back and forth, but there's this burst of excited wagging when he (correctly) disobeys his handler at the overhead barricade, and he's practically prancing out at the end.

I'm really happy to see Louie so happy. Whoever thought a 25-second video clip could be so wonderful?

Conehead

2007-06-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

I can't stop laughing. :) I picked up Lester from the vet today. Guess what they'd stuck on him?

An "Elizabethan collar". Right. That sounds way too dignified. It's glorified funnel. But it's a funny ..er.. funnel! Coming home, Lester got stuck on -- I counted :) -- six doors, three staircases, and stumbled over his head once. I tried to not laugh... really! Get this: it's loud, too. Loud? Yup. Ever seen a Labrador try to get at his favorite chew toy but keep getting thwarted by a big funnel wrapped around his head? For every minute of chewing, there's a good five minutes of scraping the cone around the floor, somehow managing to stick the whole open side on the floor and then pushing around the kong across the living room, wondering why the kong keeps staying just a few inches ahead, finally figuring it out and picking up the kong, trying to get a paw on it -- but instead pawing the cone -- and then giving up on the paw, forgetting, and then trying to paw at it again, taking a break for a second [chewing a kong is hard work!], watching the kong roll off... rinse, repeat for a good, oh, I don't know ten times or until benevolent master takes pity and just hands it to him directly. :) It reminds me of his more amusing younger days for some reason.

Lester's a conehead. Just a big, loud, awkward conehead. This is going to be an amusing week. :)

On a more serious note though, I'm not quite sure how the doctors' orders to avoid walking and keep him calm and rested are going to work with my meetings and other things. It pretty much means I can't take him anywhere. I'm not even quite sure how I'm going to leave him in his crate: without the cone, he's going to lick and bite at his stitches, which means they're going to get infected; with the cone, I can't imagine it's very comfortable and, really, I'm not even sure if he's going to fit. =P I was planning on traveling later this week but I'll probably have to push that back a few days. Anyways, the group meeting is tomorrow, so I'll just talk to Heidi and Betsy tomorrow and see what they think. Wish me luck.

Papa Louie

2007-06-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Louie is officially a dad! [!!!] Gail, the little lady that he had a "date" with some weeks ago, just gave birth on Monday. I'm a little short on details right now, but it's a litter of five puppies starting with P. I'd called Carol in breeding at Guide Dogs, mainly to just get an update on how things were coming along, but, yeah, wow, did she have a surprise for me. :) Both mother and her pups are doing well from all I've heard and Louie has been returned to Oregon to continue training and is progressing along in phase 8.

I'm working on getting pictures. Breeding is going to try and put me in touch with Gail's breeder-keeper. Lester may no longer be a cute-as-balls puppy [Quincy said he's starting to become "handsome" instead], but, shoot, I'll still be getting you guys some cute puppy pictures. :)

Eek! I'm so excited! I think I'm actually giddy.

Here's the best part: I get to name a couple of the puppies! What I'm actually going to do though is let you guys pick. What's your favorite puppy name starting with a P [*]? Either email me directly or post in the comments. In a few weeks, I'll gather up all the suggestions, pick the best ones and send them over to Guide Dogs. Tentatively, I have until about the middle of July to suggest names, so, there isn't a whole lot of time. Again, I don't yet know all the details like how many males and females or how many I'll get to name, but as I hear more, I'll update here.

[* For my non-raiser readers: the Guide Dogs tradition is that all the puppies in a litter have names starting with the same initial. When you first start out and go to get your puppy, all you know arriving at the airport or the puppy truck is that initial and whether or not your puppy is a boy or a girl. Finding out the name is supposed to be a surprise. :) But, to be honest, tradition aside, I don't know if there's a deeper reason that all the puppies in a litter have the same initial. Anyone know?]

The irony of the day, however, is that I just dropped Lester off at the vet to get neutered. He's probably being anesthetized and going under as I write this. He had his first evaluation a few weeks ago and, ultimately, he was just too dog distracted. It's been a known issue for awhile and he's been making steady progress, but the feeling was just that, you know, if he's this bad before his hormones have kicked in, what are his teenage years going to be like? Scary. In either case, I'll be getting the now-not-so-little Lester [he weighed in at 49lbs] back tomorrow morning. It'll still be the same, good ol' Lester... just, you know, with a couple things missing.

Louie is a dad!!!

If anyone even thinks of calling me grandpa, they die.

Catching Up, Part III: The New Job

2007-06-11T02:53:00.000-07:00

Finishing up the series on catching up. I think I'm finally caught up. Phew.

As some of you know, I'm leaving Amazon. Friday was my last day. I'll be venturing out on my own, starting my own company and pursuing a couple projects I'm very excited about. I obviously shouldn't talk about it too much, but hopefully there'll be something to see soon enough.

What does all this mean for Lester?

Hopefully not very much.

There's a chance I'll have to move to be (geographically) closer to investors. As long as I stay on the West Coast, where Guide Dogs for the Blind has a presence, this shouldn't be a very big deal.

Lester obviously won't be going to the office anymore. I won't be either, for that matter. :) Why? Well, we won't really have an office... at least for now. So, instead of sitting (and sleeping) obediently by my feet all day, Lester will be able to play at home, romp around with his toys, and, well... still sleep, but maybe just a bit more comfortably.

On the flip side, it also means he won't get the exposure to all the dogs, people, and random crazy things that happen at work. But, I figure, with the accident and my re-discovered love of public transit, Lester will still see all sorts of new people and random crazy things... shoot, now, he'll probably just be meeting random crazy people instead.

But, unfortunately for Lester, here is one little lady he won't be seeing much of anymore: Sadie, one of the coolest dogs at Amazon. Not that Sadie will mind. Lester totally, totally has a crush on her... but, you know, Sadie's just a little too hip for his hyper little puppy antics. Sorry pal, but I just don't think it's gonna work out.

Quincy took an awesome picture of Lester stealing a kiss from Sadie [just a few seconds after this one], but I accidentally deleted it, thinking I'd already saved it elsewhere. :( Somehow this one survived. Sorry folks.

All in all, exciting times for both Lester and I ahead.

Teeny-Tiny Puppies

2007-06-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

Guide Dogs just sent out their monthly newsletter. Whatever, right? Except they have pictures of the tiniest, cutest little puppies.

Best of all, they have pictures of puppies born to Alanis, a dog from our raising group who went back a couple months ago. I puppy-sat her for a few days when I was starting out, so it's nice to see that I wasn't too much of a bad influence. :)

But, you know, here's my favorite little puppy. As much as I love Lester and Louie, as much as Labs have grown on me, I think I'm still a German Shepherd guy at heart. I mean, really, in terms of cuteness, is there really any contest at all? Yeah, sure, they're a little more stubborn and sometimes too smart for their own good, but they're incredibly loyal and loving. Along with the little fellow, here's my not-so-little boy, Koji.

Semi-Famous Lester

2007-06-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I was randomly stopped in the elevator by a stranger wondering if I had run the Vancouver marathon. Why, yes, yes I had. What gave it away? Even before I finished asking, I knew the answer. Lester. The lady -- she works in another department at Amazon -- and I talked for a bit and it turned out that she had noticed green-jacketed Lester in the runner recovery area and recognized him.

Heidi totally hit it on the head. Lester really is semi-famous.

Catching Up, Part II: The Marathons

2007-06-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Continuing the series on catching up.

A few weeks ago, a bunch of us drove up to Vancouver to run their half-marathon. In all, nine people we knew were up at the race. Of those, three -- Karan, Brett, and I -- people ran the half-marathon and another -- Stephanie -- ran the full marathon. Black nails, dehydration, and some cramps aside, everyone finished their 13.1 or 26.2 miles and came back in one piece. =P

OK. So what about the cute puppy? Lester obviously wasn't going to run the half-marathon with me. I've tried taking him on very short runs before and, yeah, despite all his usual energy, he's a total wuss. He can't even get past a mile! Out of the blocks, he's like a little bunny, prancing, hopping around, tangling me up with his leash and just being a general nuisance. After about half a mile, he starts dragging behind and looking up at me with big, sad eyes. To make matters even more pathetic, he starts poking me in the hand, as if saying "Why? Oh why do you make me exercise?" I'd love to be able to speak puppy and respond, "Because you try to run laps around my living room."

In either case, even if he could run thirteen miles, I wouldn't want him on the course, the race organizers wouldn't wouldn't let him, and Guide Dogs would crucify me if I even suggested it. So, what to do about the dog for the two or so hours of the race? Normally, a family member would just be able to watch him. Because that obviously doesn't apply to me and none of my friends are approved by Guide Dogs, we faced a bit of a dilemma. Michele (our Guide Dogs adviser), Betsy (another lead for our group) and I talked and decided it'd be OK to fudge the rules a bit: we figured that, even though no one was officially approved, Kaushal and Paavany had seen me with Lester [and Louie before him] long enough and worked with him enough to manage for the race. Not strictly proper, but whatever, gotta do what you gotta do.

So, on race day, Lester and I woke up extra early [5am!] and went over to Paavany's room. I lay Lester down by Paavany and had him settle back to sleep, after which I tiptoed out of the room and went back to preparing for the race. All told, Lester was with Kaushal and Paavany for about four hours, two of which was spent sleeping. My dad-like paranoia aside -- Brett was teasing me, since I started worrying right after I crossed the finish line -- they did just fine. No misbehaving. No accidents. No nothing. They were even able to explain to the race organizers that Lester was a guide dog in training, pointing to the green jacket, apparently perfectly on cue, and so could enter the runner recovery area even though pets weren't generally allowed. Woo! Go Paavany! Go Kaushal!

Coming off the high of running one half-marathon, another buddy (Wes) and I decided to run another half-marathon. Which one? We just looked around for something that weekend and found one in Olympia. A little overconfident from Vancouver, we hopped in my rental car [my car being semi-totaled and all], threw in Lester and his crate, and drove to Olympia. (As crazy as this sounds, it's really not all that crazy. Last summer, Wes, Quincy, and I -- and Louie -- decided one day that it was just to nice to stay at work. We took the day off, drove to the coast and surfed for two days.) Overconfident? Yeah. Thinking that Lester would be fine, since he now sleeps loose in my bedroom and has stayed in the car a couple times without incident, I thought I'd let him relax in the car for the the race. So, a few minutes before the race, I went back to the car, rolled down the windows a bit, and had Lester settle down into the rear floorboards to sleep.

When we returned, about two hours later, Lester was no longer sleeping. Or in the rear floorboards. Nowhere near. He was in the driver's seat. And that wasn't all. Lester had apparently had a bout of diarrhea. Explosive diarrhea. He'd pooped all over the driver and passenger seats. Not his spot, mind you, there wasn't a single drop anywhere on the back seats or on the floorboards. It was all in the front and almost entirely on the driver's -- my -- seat. You thought I was kidding when I said that dogs won't ever poop in their den? Nope. Definitely not kidding.

Disgusting. But I guess I deserved it. I really shouldn't have left him in the car for so many reasons. That was totally stupid.

Two hours, three-fourths of a bottle of 409, half a roll of paper towels, and lots of stain remover later, we finally had a car that looked somewhat sanitary. To prevent our butts from getting wet from all that 409, we put some big ol' Safeway paper bags over the seats. We must've been quite a sight driving home. =P

Although that was enough to bring the car home, I would've felt extremely, extremely bad giving back that car in the shape it was. So, I spent some three hours yesterday doing a second pass: vacuuming up all the fur, going a little crazy with Nature's Miracle, and even cleaning out hard-to-reach areas with a toothbrush. Ultimately, after everything was done, I was pretty proud of my clean-up job. By looking at it (or, for that matter, smelling it), you wouldn't be able to tell that anything had happened. The rental company did a full check, gave me a thumbs up, and took it back without a word.

But, still... if you're offered a gray Ford Focus rental with California plates, you might want to consider upgrading. =P

Oh, I almost forgot. As much as I deserved to clean up Lester's poop, Lester deserved -- and got -- a very thorough bath. Here he is looking quite pathetic in the tub after we got home.

Lake Serene

2007-06-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

Summer's here! Well, mostly. Just ignore the little downpour a few hours ago. You don't understand: in Seattle, after nine months of gray skies, walking around in hoodies "just in case," and rain that just makes your car dirtier instead of washing it, we start counting down the days to summer. You would too.

But, the three months of summer more than make up for it. Summers in Seattle are absolutely incredible. If you like the outdoors, you'll be in love here. I'm totally smitten.

So, on Saturday, we gathered up the gang and hiked up to Lake Serene. Amazing. Mountain springs. Hundred-foot waterfalls. The twin peaks of Mt. Index towering above a (freezing) snow-lined Alpine lake. Absolutely amazing.

At right, you can see me trying to convince Lester that the waterfall really isn't so scary. Lester doesn't like water so much. Yes, yes, I know, he's a Lab. No, no, it's not a sign of the Apocalypse: Louie, also a Lab, didn't like water either but we're all still alive, the world hasn't come to a fiery end and he's doing just fine now. We'll work on it. A few dunkings in Green Lake should cure him.

Lester Tried to Eat a Thumbtack!

2007-05-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Frank sits one desk over from me. Frank (or someone near him) dropped a thumbtack on the floor. Lester decided it looked very tasty. And then he tried to eat it.

Sigh.

I got it out in time, I think. I looked and poked around in his mouth for a full minute and I didn't see any blood or anything. I didn't see him pick it up since all this happened in the two seconds I stepped away to fill his food bowl. Occasionally, I just concede defeat on his picking something off the ground -- a leaf or feather -- if I can't get to it in time. Thank God I didn't this time.

You'd think something about chewing on a thumbtack -- something, anything? -- would tell you that it really wasn't so tasty. You'd think.

This was five minutes ago. Gah.

Catching Up, Part I: The Accident

2007-05-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy, crazy month: one [nearly] totaled car, two half-marathons [with a very sick puppy], and a brand new job [sort of]. Needless to say, I haven't been very good about keeping this blog updated. People have actually scolded me for not updating. I'm sorry! Really! It won't happen again! =P

So, yeah, the car. I just got it back from the shop yesterday and, all told, repairs on the car cost the insurance company $10,900 and took more than three weeks. Fun stuff. What happened? Going home from a friend's place a few weeks ago, I was driving along the highway in the rightmost lane, waiting to get out a few exits ahead. Traffic was pretty light, with an SUV a few car-lengths ahead of me in the left lane and a couple other cars trailing behind somewhere. We were approaching an intersection, a pretty small one without any stoplights or anything, when, with just a few dozen yards remaining, the SUV driver decided to try and make a right turn... which, you know, doesn't work so well when you need to cross three lanes of traffic and have a car between you and the intersection. To make a long story short, I ended up slamming straight into his passenger compartment, which completely smashed my fender, caused my bumper and underbody to basically fall off, popped up the hood six inches, and shifted the entire engine compartment to the right by two inches. I had to kick the door open to get Lester and I out.

The best part? After the impact, before I even had a chance to glance back, I felt a little lick at my neck. "What was that all about? That was fun! Let's do it again!" Lester was just looking up me, looking a little puzzled but happily wagging his tail and nonchalantly stretching as if he'd just gotten up from a mid-afternoon nap. I've been watching Lester like a hawk for car-riding issues since then, and, as far as I can tell, he could care less. It's a bit like when I slept through the Northridge earthquake, I think -- I thought it was fun, a little like a roller coaster. :P In either case, it must be a Lab thing. When we first got Koji many years ago, we discovered that he'd been somehow traumatized by the car and spent the first year coaxing him in and out of the car.

On the bright side, not having a car [and electing not to get a rental for awhile] has encouraged me to start taking the bus again, which means that Lester has gotten all sorts of experience with odd smells [and odd people], riding in rackety, noisy compartments, dealing with crowded spaces, and [unsuccessfully] not eating every crumb in sight. Minus the garbage-mouthing, Lester has become quite the savvy public transit rider. The drivers on my route know him on sight now. =P

To tide you, my gentle but impatient reader, over until the next set of Lester pictures, here is Lester putting on his most innocent face, trying to convince me that he's not really "on" the bed. I mean, really, what does it really mean to be "on" the bed anyways?

Janine Prindle (and Cranberry)

2007-04-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

Unlike everyone else on this blog, Janine Prindle is a human. She is a long-time raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind, having raised some 27 (!) puppies with her family over the years. At the same time, ironically, her own vision has been progressively deteriorating. She is now legally blind and currently staying at the Boring campus, in class to get her own guide dog. She has been there for about a week and is writing an incredible day-to-day journal about her experiences there.

She has been paired with Cranberry, an eighteen-month-old yellow female Labrador. Apparently, her noise is a perfectly appropriate cranberry color. :) They seem to be getting along just wonderfully.

I can't imagine what it must be to be in her shoes and on the other side of the training. I don't know that I would have the courage that she does.

Bucky

2007-04-17T01:42:00.000-07:00

A friend's girlfriend has a six-month-old Bengal kitten, Starbucks, that knows how to use the toilet. The real, people toilet. Really. No joke. This blows our whole poop-on-command trick out of the water. Lester, why can't you poop in the toilet?

Stay

2007-04-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

Lester and I were practicing stay on the long-line on our morning walk yesterday. Here he is with his whole head buried in the grass. That's his not-so-subtle way of saying to me, "I'm bored. B-O-R-E-D. BORED." I imagine he's dreaming about running around and eating all the tasty dandelions.

He did perfectly: he held his stay for an entire minute, 30+ feet away from me, all in that big, delicious field of dandelions. And he did this multiple times! Of course, what he did after he got the release command is an entirely different story... :)

Hike up Rattlesnake Mountain

2007-04-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Phew. The last couple weeks have been total blur. Sorry for not updating more frequently.

The first blushes of spring are arriving in Seattle and a bunch of us have been just dying to re-start our weekly hikes. Although several other people flaked out [ahem: TAXES? what kind of excuse is that?], on Sunday, Quincy, Brett and I hiked up Rattlesnake Mountain. It started raining halfway through, so we wussed out and turned back at about two miles out and a quarter mile up.

Here we are near Rattlesnake Ledge. It's not quite the Ledge -- that's a few hundred yards to the west. We either can't quite or didn't want to follow directions. :)

Although I brought water specifically for Lester, I forgot his water bowl. So, we improvised: I cupped my hands, Quincy poured water into them, and Lester lapped up as much as he could before it all leaked out. It was all kind of funny, but, thankfully, Brett didn't have the camera. =P

We probably totaled out at around four miles. Although Lester has gone on longer walks with me, that's not bad at all.

Keep Away

2007-04-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Just got back from our morning walk. Unfortunately, it looks Lester has picked up a very bad habit.

Off leash in the tennis court, I asked him to sit, which he very begrudgingly did, but, when I asked him to lay down, he just stood there, looking back at me. He mostly knows the core commands at this point, but he's definitely not totally reliable yet, so that's not terribly unexpected. I started walking over to hand-place his down, but, as soon as he saw me coming toward him, he startled, looked at me, and took off on a full sprint in the other direction.

Oh boy. Not good. Having outgrown his puppy waddle, Lester is now fast enough that he can outrun me. I couldn't catch him if I wanted. Not good at all. Still sprinting. Now on the other side of the tennis court.

"That's enough!", I yelled out. That brought him to a screeching halt. Well, momentarily, at least. As soon as he saw me walking toward him again, he took off again. This kid knows he's in trouble. Deep, deep trouble. He so knows it.

I hadn't ever had this problem with Louie, but I remembered Heidi talking with a family about their dog trying to play keep away at a meeting long ago. Basically, the last thing you want to do in a situation like this is chase after the dog. That's just the funnest game they can ever imagine. Playing keep-away (and winning!) with the alpha-male. I mean, really, how does life get any better than that? Instead, you're supposed to just very calmly and quietly walk the dog down, correct him, and then bring him back to where he was supposed to be.

I was (mostly) successful at that. To make a long story short, after a few minutes, Lester either got tired or realized he was finished either way, and I finally got ahold of him. I don't think I was too hard on him (see below), but hopefully he got the point.

Thinking about it now, I think I know why he did it. Lester knows his manners well enough that I feel comfortable letting him freely roam the room while I'm doing something else. Most of the time he's good about it, but, obviously, occasionally he'll do something stupid and -- here's the crucial part -- I walk up to him to correct him. I also walk up to him to praise him, but, putting two and two together, I've definitely sometimes seen him appear apprehensive (ears drooped, head lowered) when I've approached him in the past. If I praise him, he immediately perks up and starts wagging his whole body, but, still, until he knows which way it's going to go, he's apprehensive. In this case, it was just a step further.

What's funny is that he really does know when he's in trouble: he's usually worried only when he really has done something wrong. Occasionally, he'll worry even if he's doing great, but that's pretty rare and short-lived until the moment he hears "good boy!"

In either case, not quite sure about the best solution here, but I'm going to (a) consciously try to praise Lester much more so that he's less apprehensive and (b) keep him on leash, closer to me when I think I might need to correct him.

Yum. Paw. Tasty.

2007-04-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

Upside down and trying to eat his paw. That's my goofball Lester for you.

T.V. Raman and Hubbell

2007-03-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Turns out one of the research scientists at Google, T. V. Raman, is blind and has a guide dog, Hubbell. A bit like this blog, T. V. wrote up a daily log of his experiences at guide school with Hubbell and the remarkable story of Aster, his first guide dog.

I haven't met any blind engineers at Amazon, so I think we'll have to settle for me and my guide puppy in training.

Who knew? Small world.

De-Stinkify Your Car (or Room or Office or ...)

2007-03-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

From lifehacker. Does your house smell like dog? I know my car does. I've tried everything from the standard $1.99 air freshener to a total, inside-out vacuuming-detailing and it still smells like a wet Lester. Lifehacker suggests soaking a cotton ball peppermint, putting it in a plastic container with holes and then leaving it in the smelly room. I'm going to go buy some peppermint and try this first thing when I get back to Seattle.

Puppy Sitters to the Rescue

2007-03-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

In Stanford at Startup School. At this moment, I'm listening to Mitch Kapor speak. Lester is staying with the Rohrers. He's a happy little puppy generally, but hopefully he'll keep his whining and solicitousness under control. Mary Ann knows to not let Lester get away with anything, since he occasionally tries to probe just how much he can get away with if he's with people he doesn't know.

One of the incredible things about Guide Dogs is the puppy sitting option. I travel frequently, once or so a month. While Marina and I were still together, I was traveling even more and it was an even bigger issue. This isn't a problem just for us as raisers for Guide Dogs, but for anyone with a dog in general. If you're single, and even occasionally go away on business or pleasure, it's almost a total show-stopper. Yeah, you can board your dog, but that becomes very expensive very quickly. Yeah, you can have your friend or neighbor watch them, but, unless you have, say, a co-worker who not just loves dogs, but loves your dog, you're going to run out of people pretty quickly.

Really, without the Pringles, the Rohrers and all our other puppy sitters, I wouldn't be able to do this. Let's hear one for them.

UPDATE 2007-03-25: I decided that the name of this post ["Puppy Sitting (Again)"] didn't quite capture how much I appreciated our puppy sitters. So, now, it's "Puppy Sitters to the Rescue".

Kibble-Baked Track Pants

2007-03-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

Sigh. I just baked doggie treats into my track pants.

As normal, Lester and I went out for our morning walk. Hoping to practice food-induced recall/come on a long line (basically a twenty-five foot leash) in a more challenging area, I pocketed a couple dozen pieces of kibble. The usual tennis court romp and walk went well, and even food-recall practice went well. Lester ignored a huge flock of honking geese and came running, straight to me. Twice. We had practiced "come" a few times before that, so, wanting to end on a positive note, we went home after the geese.

It was raining (surprise surprise), so, at home, I toweled off Lester, peeled off my drenched clothes and tossed them in the dryer.

Twenty minutes later, something clicked. I. FORGOT. THE. KIBBLE. I ran to the dryer and yanked out my track pants. Where's the kibble? Peering into the dryer, I saw that it had all fallen out and been rolling around in the dryer the whole time. Sigh. The whole thing reeked of kibble. The pants. The sweatshirt. Even my boxers! And the dryer!

Getting out of my laundry room, looking back, I saw Lester nervously licking my pants. "It looks like kibble... it even tastes like kibble, but... it doesn't look like kibble. It looks like Kushal's pants. I'm supposed to eat kibble. Definitely not supposed to eat Kushal's pants. Am I supposed to eat this? I'M SO CONFUSED!" Normally, even thinking of eating the alpha male's clothes is a crime punishable by immediate banishment to the tie-down, but his confused expression looked so funny I couldn't stop laughing.

A normal wash should get the smell out, I figure. Of course, I imagine this is a bit of a first. I mean, what, someone baked a lemon tart into their dress shirt and now wants to wash it out? I can't exactly imagine this being a common problem. =P

Not quite sure what to do about the dryer though. No matter how well I wash them, if my dryer smells like kibble, it gets the last laugh. Hell, if it sticks around, all my laundry will smell like kibble. I'm just hoping the smell goes away on its own.

If your dog really likes me next time we're in the elevator, you'll know why.

BLINK

2007-03-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

Lester Being Social

2007-03-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Lester has had a very social week.

On Thursday, after work, George, Jim, Brett, Yogesh and I went to go watch 300. Despite the hundreds of half-naked men charging around in togas for two hours, it was actually a pretty good movie. (Possibly an acquired taste, however. If you liked Sin City, you'll probably like 300. Same creator. Similar surreal, rotoscoped filming technique. The truckloads of corn syrup needed to make all the fake blood also probably numbers in the same ballpark.) Given all the screaming, blood spatters, explosions, and general excitement of the movie, you'd think Lester would totally misbehave. He didn't. Well, no more than normal, at least. He kept trying to eat all the spilled popcorn around him (which he successfully did, ultimately) and whimpered 5-6 times, but, all in all, was OK. Hardly anyone even heard him whimpering: the guys only heard it twice. As Brett put it, the idiot a few rows down whose cell phone rang not once but twice was a thousand times more annoying. At least Lester's cuteness makes up for his vocal indiscretions.

We all had gone to Mexico before that for dinner. The hostess and her friend, as usual, went totally gaga over Lester. George thought one of them was cute, which led into a conversation about cuteness I won't repeat here for obvious reasons. (The conclusion? Decidedly not cute. It's all about the smile for me. And nothing stood out in that department.) These dogs are a serious chick magnet for guy raisers, though. Hm. Maybe that's how we can recruit more guys? I mean, really. Chick magnets? 17-year-old guys? It's foolproof. How could that possibly fail? =P

In either case, Lester just wouldn't settle down during dinner. I kept re-arranging him and giving corrections to bring him back under me, but he just wouldn't stop. As far as I could figure, he kept trying to eat Jim's foot. During one last correction, I whispered "that's enough" into his ear, and Lester -- amazingly -- instantly and perfectly settled down and went to sleep, stretched out over my feet. Wow. I guess he really does know his commands.

On Wednesday, Quincy and I went to Delfino's, where Lester (and Louie before him) is practically a regular customer. He was introduced to the waitress and was an all-around charmer there.

On Friday, Lester hung out with Kaushal, Gita, Pawani, and Balaji and Karan's apartment. Lester did well there too, except I had to break the news to Karan (and Pawani) that they wouldn't be able to pet Lester for awhile. He's been acting rather solicitous recently and I worry that he's coming to expect attention from everyone he meets. So, he's on restriction for the next few weeks. I think it'll be harder on the humans -- Karan, Sagarika, Brett, Stephanie, Sung -- than Lester. =P

Yes, I still get to pet and play with him. Yes, I know it's a double standard. Yes, I know it's unfair. He's my dog. I pick up his poop every day. You pick up his poop and then maybe I'll reconsider.

Faceplant

2007-03-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

Now that Lester has all his vaccinations, he's been getting to go out and play more. At the same time, Lester knows enough standard obedience that we can start work on some training specific to Guide Dogs. But, really, for now, we're happy to just go out and play more. =)

After work today, back in Kirkland, I took him out to the tennis courts and cut him loose. The courts are enclosed to prevent tennis balls from escaping, but, as far as I'm concerned, they're enclosed to prevent hyper little puppies from escaping. That means they're perfect for said little puppies to get out their sillies. (And not take it out on my poor apartment.) For a puppy who sleeps as much as Lester... well, let's just say he's taken to doing laps around my living room as a way of telling me when he hasn't gotten enough exercise.

Officially, I don't think Guide Dogs wants us to do this, but, mreh. You do what you gotta do. It's intense enough to have these dogs around you for 23 of 24 hours and sometimes you just have to bend the rules a bit to get the job done. I learned it from -- er, well, maybe I shouldn't mention that, lest she get in trouble. It's a wonderful, life-saver of a trick, person who shall remain nameless. =)

Anyways, a few warm-up laps around the courts, a dozen wind-sprints from leaf-pile to leaf-pile (and dead worm to dead worm, and ...), and many puddle hurdles later, the boy looked ready to pass out. Panting, tongue flapping wildly in the wind, it was a sight to behold: a tired puppy! (They're a rare species; you've probably never seen one.) Mission accomplished.

Well, mostly. Time for training. What with all the leaves, worms, and random stuff only puppies can find, "that's enough!" had gotten more than enough practice. Some trials of "sit," "stay," and "come" later, we went for a walk to practice loose leash handling and, well, go for a walk.

Loose leash handling is basically the idea that, no matter what, whenever the dog is with you, he should always be on a loose leash. It's important for several reasons, some specific to Guide Dogs, but the general idea is that, on a taut leash, (a) dogs learn to pull (and you really don't want your full-grown, eighty-pound Labrador pulling you anywhere) and (b) you can't give proper leash corrections. So, loose leash, always.

Turns out puppy wasn't so tired at all. Two steps into our walk, he decided that a wriggling, dying worm was the most exciting thing in the world since... the last most exciting thing in the world five minutes ago. Of course, this wasn't just any worm. (How could it be? It's the most exciting thing in the world! I mean, really.) It was the worm wriggling right where my shoe was about to land. Of course, now that it was officially the most exciting thing in the world, it was going to be worm + Lester's nose under my shoe. And that'd be bad.

To make a short story even shorter, both Lester and I ended up planting our (previously clean) faces straight in the mud.

We're going to need to work on distractions. Dirt doesn't taste so good.

BREEDER!

2007-03-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

Louie made breeder! [!!!] We just got official word from Michele, our advisor from Guide Dogs. Along with Nyland, he will go to San Rafael to sire 2-3 litters and then return to Oregon for the remainder of his training.

Puppy Cam

2007-03-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Need your regular cuteness fix? Here you go.

Dozens and dozens of little month-old furballs rolling and romping around at Guide Dogs. They're uploading movies once a month to here.

Come, Sit, That's Enough, Down, Stay, OK

2007-03-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

Lester knows sit pretty well. A couple days ago, he even started sitting up on command (i.e. from laying down on the floor).

We've been working on come, that's enough, down, stay, and OK for the past few weeks. Every day in the morning and after I get home from work, we play and work on these basic obedience commands. I started out doing the training separately with Louie, but it just got too boring. It's easy enough -- and not much of a stretch at all -- to do it during play-time.

Say Lester is playing with his favorite chew toy. One command that all puppies need to learn is "that's enough," which just means to stop what they're doing. It's not intended to be a bad thing. For example, if you're playing tug with your dog and see blood all over, you'd say "that's enough". The dog didn't do anything wrong, you just want him to stop because you're worried about him. How do you teach him to stop without making it a negative thing?

Well, you randomly stop and re-start play. Because you don't correct the puppy, he has no reason to believe he did anything wrong; because you re-start play, he figures out that it just means to stop for right now. How do you re-start play? "OK!" Said in a high enough and encouraging enough voice, this isn't exactly rocket science for Lester. And, really, he's more than happy to listen in this case. =P

To make it a little tougher, you can add "stay" into the mix. After "that's enough", you can take away their toy and put them into a sit-stay. Or, initially at least, you try to put them into a sit-stay. You keep their leash and walk a few steps back or to the side, and try to keep him in the same spot with gentle leash corrections or just simple man-handling. Having said "stay" and repositioned them enough times, they get the picture pretty quickly. To make it even more challenging, you can roll around their toys in front of them or make funny noises or something. Eventually, we actually put them into a sit-stay and walk across the room, but Lester is nowhere near that yet.

What about "come?" Well, first, it's more like "Lester, COME!" instead of "come." And it's kind of fancy.

We do something called food-induced recall training, which is really just a glorified, ten-step process of food rewards to hard-wire "COME!" into our puppies' little heads. Initially, when they're tiny babies with tiny attention spans, we actually walk backwards holding a single piece of kibble right in front of their noses to get them to follow us. (They get the piece of kibble each time. We're not that cruel. =P) As they grow older and associate "COME!" with food, we still walk backwards but without the explicit lure and just give them a reward at the end. Eventually, they only get the reward some randomly chosen times and, later still, only in really tough cases. After all is said and done, the training produces dogs that very enthusiastically and immediately respond to the come command. And, if you're blind and need your dog, that is exactly what you want.

With Lester, this is best done at work where we have lots of long hallways. He's progressed now to step three, which means I can put him in a sit-stay and then have him come to me for a food reward on an extended leash. He still gets the food every time and is pretty good about enthusiastically coming each time, so the next steps are going to involve more distracting locations and random rewards. If you see me walking backwards in PacMed and Lester bounding towards me, that's why.

I've been slacking on down, which is why he doesn't know the command yet. Oddly enough, however, he's figured out he needs to lay down and stay down during car rides. So, all I really need to do now is just get him to make the connection between the word "down" and the action of laying down.

All in all, Lester is progressing pretty well. He knows most of his commands at this point. That's not to say that he'll actually execute on a command, however. =P That depends on all sorts of other things. It's complicated. At this point, on average, there's probably a 30% chance he'll listen to a random handler and a 60% chance he'll listen to me. We're working on it.

Obligatory Cuteness VI: Puppy Headlock

2007-03-05T00:39:00.000-08:00

My shiny bald head may disqualify this as an obligatory cuteness entry. But, meh, here it is anyways. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the puppy headlock.

Perfect for keeping your adorable but perhaps not totally potty trained puppy near you while you nap. Works even when your puppy throws up all over his crate.

YMMV.

The Mystery of the Missing Half-Sock: Part III

2007-03-04T03:33:00.000-08:00

Ten hours later, we still don't know where the rest of my sock is or what happened to it. (Of course, the answer to the first question would also provide the answer to the second one.) For that matter, we don't even know where my mom's sock is. All we know is that Lester threw up half of mine. And that, despite that, Lester will probably be OK as long as he doesn't get diarrhea.

Just to be safe, I'm going to take Lester to his (regular) vet on Monday to get him x-rayed, the special food to flush his system, and/or get him checked by an actual doctor. Best to be safe.

That said, Lester seems just fine. We had dinner with Rob and Kaushal at Cafe Flora, an amazing vegetarian restaurant in Capitol Hill [*], and this was the one time I was happy to see Lester hunting around for scraps. At the moment, he's curled up on my blanket, fast asleep. He's annoyed because I keep poking and prodding him every so often to make sure he's OK.

At least he's OK.

[* Quincy, this is all you.]

The Mystery of the Missing Half-Sock: Part II

2007-03-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

At lunch with my mom, while catching up on lots of random things, we happened to end up talking about Koji and Louie and how Lester had vomited this morning. I was musing about what he could have possibly eaten when my mom happened to mention that she was missing a purple sock.

Oddness. There was this little purple thing in the indescribable mass.

Oh. Wait. NO. He couldn't have. There's no way. There's just no way.

Crap. We finished up lunch, packed up the rest to go, threw Lester in the car and raced off home. At home, I finally worked up the stomach to go into the garbage and dig it back up. Nasty, nasty stuff.

And, in all the nasty, nasty stuff, there it was. A sock. Not a purple one, though. The purple blob was something completely else. (We don't actually know exactly what else, though.) But, nonetheless, a sock. Or at least part of one.

Lester had seemed fine all day, eating and pooping just fine, playful as ever, just as mischievous as normal, so I hadn't worried about the early morning vomit too much. But eating a sock is something completely different. And then there was the matter of where the rest of the sock was. Did he just tear off a chunk and eat the chunk? If so, where was the rest of the sock? Or did he eat the whole thing and only vomit up half of it? Or was the rest unrecognizable and actually in there somewhere?

I called up Heidi and asked her for advice. Hearing about the unaccounted-for half-sock, she suggested calling up the vet and having them check him over. Apparently, Bernie had eaten something a couple weeks before and the vet had given him this special food that totally flushes their system. It also apparently produces huge mountains of poop. With that lovely picture in mind, I called up the vet. The vet, hearing about the unaccounted-for half-sock, strongly recommended I immediately take Lester to the ER.

I was growing progressively worried with each call. Lester seemed perfectly happy. Puppies throw up all the time. I hadn't given the incident a second thought initially. But the ER? Had I totally screwed up? Crap. My mom was freaking out about the ER, telling me how some shady ER in LA had tried to con my dad out of $500 when Koji got sick, and not exactly helping the situation. I pulled Lester into my room, closed the door, and checked him over once more. I made a judgment call to follow whatever the ER suggested as long as they didn't want some exorbitant amount. Obviously, I'd pay whatever if Lester was in trouble, but... having just checked him over, it didn't look like that big a deal.

Rather worried now, I called up my emergency clinic. Within a few minutes, it was clear that they were decidedly less worried about the whole thing. They asked a few questions and were particularly curious about his appetite and stool. I explained that he seemed perfectly normal: playing with his toys, eating normally, pooping normally, etc. They said I could bring him in if I wanted, but that it'd probably be fine to just watch him for a few days. The big indicator, they were saying, was diarrhea: ultimately, the real issue here is an intestinal blockage and diarrhea would flag that. If he started having diarrhea, that would be an immediate emergency. Otherwise, they said to not feed him anything for the next 24 hours, start him back up the next morning with something bland, and not too worry about it too much.

No diarrhea. Check. No food for the next 24 hours. Check. Watch poop like hawk for next 3-5 days. Check. One huge karma point for my favorite emergency clinic. Check.

The Mystery of the Missing Half-Sock: Part I

2007-03-04T03:16:00.000-08:00

My mom's visiting for a few days, so I'm sleeping out in the living room with Lester. I often sleep on the floor anyways, so I'm as happy as a clam with a pillow and a blanket. Lester sleeps in his crate -- sprawled out on his back, paws flopping around in the air no less -- just a few feet next to me.

Four in the morning, half-asleep, I hear this kind of deep burping sound. Imagine the loudest, most obnoxious, belly-lurching burp you've heard and then triple it. (And then imagine that big nasty thing coming from this cute little puppy.) It's a bit hard to explain, but, if you have a dog, you know it: it's what happens right before they spew up everything they've eaten in the last six hours. If you don't have a dog, trust me, you'll know it if you hear it.

Within half a second, I'd shaken myself awake, opened the Lester's crate, and reached inside to pull him out. Too late. Already vomiting. I let him finish, pulled him out, cleaned him up and checked him over. Seeing that he was OK and it being 4am, I figured I'd just sleep with him in a headlock -- er, I mean, cuddling -- next to me and clean the crate in the morning.

Come morning, I see this disgusting, indescribable, surprisingly heavy mass of ... stuff. (Well. It's not that I can't describe it. I just don't think you want me to describe it.) I gingerly pick it up and and go throw it in the trash. I 409 the crate into oblivion and figure that's the end of it.

Louie: ... Breeder?

2007-03-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

We're all a bit confused. It seemed like Louie had made breeder or was just about to make breeder, but now we just don't know. We have a spy inside Guide Dogs (more on that later) and we still don't know. The weekly status report, as far as Heidi (my group lead) and Michele (our advisor from Guide Dogs) can tell, says that he's just been pulled for breeding evaluation. We think he's down in San Rafael for additional evaluation now.

I forgot to post the update from last week, so here are the updates from the last two weeks.

February 21st:

Puppy	Breed	Phase	Breeder Watch	Group
Artemis	Lab	2		GPS
Beethoven	Lab	2
Binny	Lab	3
Brewster	Lab	3		GPS
Fresca	Lab	2
Frontier	Lab	3
Louie	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes	GPS
Naoka	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes
Nyland	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes
Rae	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes
Silvana	Lab	3
Sport	Lab	3

February 28th:

Puppy	Breed	Phase	Breeder Watch	Group
Artemis	Lab	3		GPS
Beethoven	Lab	3
Binny	Lab	3
Brewster	Lab	3		GPS
Fresca	Lab	3
Frontier	Lab	4
Louie	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes	GPS
Naoka	Lab	3/BRDEVL	yes
Nyland	Lab	4
Rae	Lab	4
Silvana	Lab	7
Sport	Lab	4

Woah. Lots of stuff happening -- I didn't even realize. Artemis (and Beethoven and Fresca) re-join Brewster and their old buddies in phase 3 on February 28th, after staying in phase 2 an extra couple weeks. Brewster and Binny got dropped from the breeder program on February 21st and are continuing along as normal. Nyland and Sport also got dropped from the breeder program (although from the more official sounding "BRDEVL" phase) but were bumped up to phase 4.

But here's the kicker. Silvana, the pup that had been held back in phase 3, jumped in one week all the way from phase 3 to phase 7. Damn.

Growing Like a Weed

2007-03-03T01:50:00.000-08:00

Long ago, Cory suggested I keep track of Lester's weight. (Kind of like notches in the doorframe, except for dogs.) So, I've been doing that -- well, trying at least. Right now, Lester is gaining something like a quarter-pound every day on average. In other words, every week, he adds a full 10% of his weight.

I had him at one cup of kibble per meal for three meals a day, but Heidi and Diane upped him to a cup and a quarter, and now I've got him at a cup and a third. Four cups of kibble a day.

So Lester weighs ~30 pounds and I weigh something like 150. Multiplying out, that'd work out to twenty cups of, say, pasta for me. (Sorry. Kibble just ain't my thing.) Without any sauce or anything else, each cup has ~200 calories. With sauce, if I ate in proportion to Lester, I'd be eating something like 5400 calories a day.

Craziness.

Fellow Raiser-Bloggers

2007-03-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

Turns out there's a whole bunch of raisers all over the country writing blogs. Who knew?

In Carson City, there's middle-schooler Princess Dova writing about Cordova. Ever seen a dog in a sexy little diaper? Here you go. [Cordova went into heat a few days ago. Good reminder to self of why I stick with males.] Highschooler Kelsey, also in Carson City, has Chappelle. Chappelle apparently has this as a backyard. Here's my snow-covered backyard. I feel so inadequate.

Elsewhere, there's four-time raiser Joanna with Guide Dogs of America. And MK and Edgar in New Jersey -- although, occasionally, a cute little puppy comes by and confuses Edgar. There's Natalie in Toronto and high-schooler Sarah in New York. From mom Angie in Maine, we get an "optimistic meditation on puppy raising".

See a trend? Yeesh. I need to recruit more guys for this thing. Or maybe it'll balance out my choice of a career. =P Oh well.

Barking... Again

2007-02-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

I got Lester back from the Pringles on Friday. Heidi mentioned that he'd been barking up a storm both in his crate and on tie-down, which rather worried me since he hasn't barked in weeks. But, he didn't bark at all with me, so I was hoping it was going to be a false alarm.

Well, that is, he didn't bark at all until today. When I went to go take a shower and left him crated, he barked and cried for a good straight forty-five minutes.

Heidi thinks he just regressed in a new situation.

Sigh.

In Berkeley

2007-02-21T02:59:00.000-08:00

I'm in Berkeley giving a talk for Amazon. We're here for recruiting and it's just a total blast: talking to smart young engineers, meeting up with old friends, giving a fun little talk, etc.

Lester is of course far too young to come with me. Depending on their progress, they can fly after 5-6 months -- but Lester isn't even four months yet and still has a ways to go. Louie, for example, flew with me a couple times to Los Angeles when he was ~8 and ~10 months old and got rave reviews from everyone: stewardesses, fellow passengers, and even airport security.

Security, however, did require some fancy acrobatics: I'd have Louie walk through the metal detectors first, put him into a sit-stay -- pretty tough if you consider all the fuss in the security lines -- and then walk in after him. Because he'd inevitably set off the metal detector with his collar, the TSA folks would always have to pat him down. After awhile, they just started calling out for "puppy patdowns." =P

Past security and in the plane, Louie would just curl up under my seat and immediately fall asleep, even through take-off and landing. I joked that he was just like my carry-on, except much cuter. Only once, when I picked a seat too close to the engine, did we have a problem: Louie got scared by all the rumbling and vibrations, and was visibly trembling all through take-off. As soon as we were in the air and the seatbelt sign came off, we moved to the front of the plane and that took care of that.

As soon as the plane landed and passengers in front of me got out, we'd make a beeline for the exit. Being cooped up inside an airport and a plane for five hours without a potty break is just asking for trouble, so I'd head straight out of the airport, have him relieve, and then go back and get my bags and take care of anything else.

All this would obviously be far, far too much for Lester. He doesn't know stay, has only about ~2 hours of bladder control, hasn't even been in buses, and is very much still the wriggly little puppy. That's totally fine for his age and he'll be OK in a few months, but, at the end of the day, airports -- let alone airplanes -- would just have too much going on for him to handle.

So, instead, Lester is staying with puppy sitters, the Pringles, for the week. Especially with me, puppy sitting is actually a really important part of the training: because my dogs only really interact with me, it's important for them to get exposure to other people and their handling techniques; they really need to learn to listen to everyone, not just me. In either case, the Pringles watched Louie at nearly exactly the same age, so I'm actually really anxious to hear what they think of Lester.

Louie: Final Breeder Test

2007-02-21T02:31:00.000-08:00

Just got a message from Heidi. Louie has just one more (final) test to pass before he becomes a breeder! From the sounds of it, he's passed all his temperament and obedience evaluations with flying colors, and now is just waiting on a physical heart examination.

Dogs do sometimes fail this one, unfortunately.

One of the dogs I puppy-sat before I got Louie was Orca, a yellow Labrador raised by Tom and Marilyn. Orca has been by far the model of best behavior I've ever seen in a dog -- she's been my reference point for every other pup I've had since. Instead of WWJD, I have WWOD: hm, Lester, that's no good, Orca wouldn't do that.

Orca did great at everything else back at school and seemed destined for greatness, but this exam ended up surfacing a heart tremor. But, Orca was just so good, Guide Dogs couldn't let her go. So, instead of becoming a guide, Orca now works with a Guide Dogs advisor in Colorado as a "doggie ambassador," showing people what these dogs can do and working to improve awareness and acceptance out there.

I'm so proud of my not-so-little boy. That totally makes my day.

The Accident: The Pictures

2007-02-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

Although I still haven't gotten my PowerBook fully functional yet -- no iPhoto, no pictures -- I was able to get a few uploaded through my work laptop. Here's Lester in the tub, purposely trying to look pathetic to guilt me out of his bath,

and here he is, afterwards, much cleaner and much fluffier.

The Accident: The Story

2007-02-17T03:24:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, Lester gets confused.

No, not about where to go pee or whether my blanket doubles as a pee pad. That was so last week.

This time, it was about whether to go pee, poop, or both.

To make a long story short, today, Lester and I went by Redmond Town Center to pick up a new hard drive for my dying Powerbook. Before we went into the store, I gave him an opportunity to relieve. No big deal, right? He's been getting 6-8 potty breaks a day for the past month. Standard practice. Knows it like the back of his, er.. paw.

So, we get out of the car, walk over to an empty parking spot, and I stand around, yawning and trying hard to not look bored, while he circles around (and around) trying to find an acceptable pee spot. He must have circled around at least ten times before finally deciding on a spot. He leaned forward as if to pee, then, no, changed his mind, and decided he was going to poop instead and crouched down. Nope. Back to peeing. Lean forward. Nothing. Poop? Yes. Crouch down. Really this time.

What's with all the leaning and crouching? You see, if he's crouched down, his butt points down, which means he can poop. If he's leaned forward, his penis points at the ground, which means he can pee without getting it all over himself. If he's crouched down, his penis points straight up.

So, crouching down, all ready to poop. Ready... set... go! Wait, what? Why are you peeing? Woah, woah. You're peeing! Wait a second, you're peeing right into your face! Eeeeewww.

Disgusting. More than you can imagine. But, for you, my readers, there's a silver lining. Why? As soon as we set foot back in the apartment, Lester was thrown into the tub, dunked in water and given a major scrubdown. His efforts to frantically scramble out of the tub being unsuccessful, there are many, many (very cute) pictures of him looking very forlorn and depressed and many more (cuter) pictures of him looking like a big poof-ball of fur afterwards.

They'll be up as soon as I revive my PowerBook. It's currently in a suspended state of major heart surgery. Don't ask.

All Clear

2007-02-17T03:23:00.000-08:00

A few people, including my mom [!], have come up wondering if everything is OK between Frank and I. So, now, I'm worried that my post wasn't sufficiently clear and that people are getting totally the wrong impression.

Really, everything is good. We had a rough couple weeks, but we're back in the green now. Frank and I are and have always been on the same page. (As much as humanly possible for two very passionate, very driven, and very goal-oriented people.) We may not always agree, but we do always respect each others' opinions. My post was just an amusing analogy that had popped into my silly head, and in no way some kind of profound, covert commentary on the state of my team or our managers.

I thought that I'd added enough hints and (bad) jokes to make that clear, but I guess I was wrong. I had, for example, very carefully and very consciously inserted "(understandably)" into "Frank, our manager, went home (understandably) very grumpy." I totally understood his position and my post was in no way intended to reflect on him. I just found the parallel between human behavior and puppy training amusing and wrote an entry on it. Nothing more, nothing less. I guess that wasn't totally clear though. Sorry about that.

All this reminds me of my 10th grade English teacher, Ms. Yamaguchi, from whom I learned more about writing than any other (living) person. (If you allow dead people, that would add Victor Hugo and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Or their translators, at the very least.) Ms. Yamaguchi, summarized in two sentences:

"I don't care how clear you think it is. If it's not clear to me, it's not clear."

Take a moment to internalize that. She's not being mean or self-centered. She's saying, as a writer, your first and only responsibility is to your reader. People write to communicate, and regardless of how well you thought you communicated, if the other person doesn't think you communicated well, you didn't communicate well. Period. If your reader doesn't understand you, then it doesn't matter how beautiful or articulate you thought it was, your supposed masterpiece was a waste of perfectly good trees.

I guess in my case it was a waste of electrons.

Now, all that said, let me return you back to your regularly scheduled programming. Enough talk of these boring humans. Where's Lester? He's sleeping under my chair. My toes are cold, so I've got them stuffed under his (very warm and toasty) belly. The little joys of having a dog. :)

Louie: Phase III [!!!]

2007-02-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

Louie made it to Phase III! And he's still in the breeding program! Brewster and most of his pals are there with him, although it looks like Artemis and a couple others were held back in Phase II. They're meeting up with a new pup, Silvana, who's been in Phase III for four weeks.

Puppy	Breed	Phase	Breeder Watch	Group
Artemis	Lab	2		GPS
Beethoven	Lab	2
Binny	Lab	3	yes
Brewster	Lab	3	yes	GPS
Fresca	Lab	2
Frontier	Lab	3
Louie	Lab	3	yes	GPS
Naoka	Lab	3	yes
Nyland	Lab	3	yes
Rae	Lab	3	yes
Silvana	Lab	3
Sport	Lab	3

I'll post later on what it means to be in Phase III and being held back in a phase. Lots of dogs get held back, and, although it sucks, it really means that Guide Dogs sees real potential and is trying to work through some issue with the dog. If they didn't see potential, the dog would obviously be dropped from the program.

Still very much rooting for Artemis.

Working from Tully's

2007-02-15T18:17:00.003-08:00

Lester and I are working from Tully's in Bellevue Square again. In the past four hours or so, at least seven or eight people have struck up a conversation with me about him. I'm going to be writing that FAQ I've long been joking about soon. =P

Lester was sleeping but has now woken up and is now just keeping tabs on the situation from underneath my chair.

Louie: ... Still in Phase II

2007-02-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

Heidi has been out of town so I just got my Louie update. He still has the family jewels, but is still in Phase II along with all the other pups. I'm a little worried that he's been there for three weeks now, but he's there with all his buddies, so I guess he's not falling behind.

Puppy	Breed	Phase	Breeder Watch	Group
Artemis	Lab	2		GPS
Beethoven	Lab	2
Binny	Lab	2	yes
Brewster	Lab	2	yes	GPS
Fresca	Lab	2
Frontier	Lab	2
Louie	Lab	2	yes	GPS
Naoka	Lab	2	yes
Nyland	Lab	2	yes
Rae	Lab	2	yes
Sport	Lab	2

Unfortunately, it looks like two dogs have been dropped from the breeding program: Fresca, and our own Artemis. Artemis was a great dog, so I'm still very much rooting for him to make it as a guide. Go boys!

Lester Goes ... Everywhere

2007-02-11T17:21:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy weekend for Lester. On Friday night, after work, he went to Palace Kitchen. On Saturday, for dinner, Pagliacci. Today, for lunch, Delfino's and Jamba Juice in University Village. And, after lunch, he went to the Apple Store also there, which was surprisingly dog-friendly. The security guard even offered him a treat! I obviously had to decline on Lester's behalf. It's for his own good, really.

All in all, Delfino's was by far the most interesting. Anil and I were seated outside, and Lester was laying down under my chair (mostly), which meant that he was in plain view of every passerby: in other words, everyone coming out of the nearby Barnes and Noble, the stores next to the restaurant, etc. I'd guess that, out of the 100+ of people that walked by us, you could hear at least 75% oohing and aahing over him. Of that 75%, I'd say a good half asked to pet him. Because Lester was rather excited by all the fuss -- he knows when someone is talking about him -- so I had to decline most of them. I normally make exceptions for small kids (unless Lester's just going absolutely bonkers), so I let two little girls pet him. A thirty-something guy came up right after them and asked if he could pet Lester, but I had to say no -- he went away looking a little jealous. =P

The big thing coming out of today, at University Village, is that I think Lester is wary of people walking alongside him or crowds along a sidewalk. Walking from Delfino's to Jamba and back, he seemed to get worried whenever someone was walking behind him, looking back time and time again, slowing down and sometimes even just stopping. I saw hints of the same thing when we were in downtown going to Palace Kitchen on Friday, so it looks like that's something we'll have to work on.

Anyways, and now, we're off to the Guide Dogs meeting. Busy weekend indeed.

What Are You Really Teaching?

2007-02-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have been rough for my team. Last Thursday was especially bad. Frank, our manager, went home (understandably) very grumpy. After he left, the team got together to make a mailing list, make-frank-happy-again-interest@. Brett and Jim worked late into the night yesterday to finish a couple prototypes they thought would brighten his day. I spent a few hours teasing out a timeline of events and writing up a post-mortem on the whole mess.

On the drive home at 4am, admittedly a bit delirious, I started thinking: if we were all just a bunch of cute little puppies, what exactly just happened?

The big, big thing about training dogs is making sure that what you're actually teaching is what you think you're teaching. Dogs are smart animals, and they'll soak up everything you teach them like a sponge, but they'll soak up everything, for better or for worse. If you try to teach them not to jump up on people, but let them greet you after coming back from work with a big leap, they'll learn that, hm, you clearly didn't really mean that bit about not jumping up on people. Yelling "no! no! no! no!" when you see them trying to chew up your expensive, imported rug? They'll just figure out that they can ignore you unless you repeat something ten times. Repeating a command because you think he didn't hear you? No, you're wrong, he really did hear you -- he's just ignoring you. Without consistency, without enforcing every command you give, he'll learn that he only needs to listen when he wants to. A great example of all this is my mom, who did the "no! no! no!" thing all the time with my family dog. (This was true the last time I was in Los Angeles at least. She now claims to have gotten better.) Koji, who listens just fine to me, would just start eating directly off her plate if she got distracted with the TV or something.

So what happened here? Frank got grumpy. Team pulled together and worked like crazy to try to make him happy. If Frank were a puppy, doesn't that just teach him to get grumpy more often? It's classic positive reinforcement.

Here's proof that something is very much at play here. I'll be the guinea pig and psychoanalyze myself. We did some pretty cool stuff on Thursday. Ignoring the pain of working like crazy for right now, that's just great. Ignoring the pain of my also being there so late, that's especially great for me because, for the past several months, I've been trying to restructure the team to encourage more such cool stuff. (I'm sorry for being so vague, but I obviously can't get into what it means for a project to be "cool" on this blog.) And, subconsciously, something must have clicked. I was joking to Brett that maybe I should just start blowing a gasket, completely randomly, every so often. Maybe that would make people work on cool things, just to calm me down? Brett thought I was joking and just laughed.

So, fine, yeah, I was just joking. That'd be pretty evil, otherwise. And, although I'm not the manager, I suppose there can be such things as pointy-haired tech leads. *shudder*. Regardless, like I said, I'm generally a pretty calm fellow. It takes a lot to make me angry. I don't know if I could throw a fit with no good reason, even if I actually tried. I'd probably just bust up, laughing uncontrollably halfway through.

Anyways, I'm going to hope we're not all just a bunch of cute little puppies in training. For so many reasons.

Although, apparently, if we were all puppies, unnamed persons on the team think that Frank would be a Shih Tzu. Why? Apparently, they normally appear cute and cuddly but can kick your ass when they're mad. And, also, apparently, they start balding early. I don't see the connection. Do you? =P

Obligatory Cuteness V: Huge, Face-Stretching Yawns

2007-02-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

I spent many days trying to get these pictures, so I hope you folks appreciate them.

I see Lester waking up every morning, doing the trademark-Labrador double-stretch -- long stretch of his front legs, then repositioning his torso forward, stretching out his hind legs, and then promptly toppling over, misbalanced -- while letting out a huge, face-stretching yawn, and it just totally makes my day, day after day. Unfortunately, it's damn near impossible to capture on camera: I'm usually half asleep at the time, and, even when I've been ready with a camera, the whole thing lasts all of two seconds. But, I finally got it! Enjoy.

No animals were hurt in the making of this picture, but one dog was made to take many naps over and over again. Like he minded.

Little Red Splotches

2007-02-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

After Starbucks, Lester and I took a much-deserved (and much-needed) play-break. I haven't yet found his all-time favorite toy (like orange juice bottles for Louie), but he definitely likes a good game of tug. He might even like it a little too much.

Anyways, after Starbucks, Lester and I strolled back home for what was supposed to be a half-hour break. A few romps and a couple games of tug later, we were well past forty-five minutes. Ah, well, what can you do: Writing reviews for annual promotions, raises, etc.? Cute puppy? Even if I'd seen the time, you can imagine the mental balance tilting back and forth: cute puppy, or writing reviews, writing reviews, or playing with cute puppy? Playing with cute puppy. But, forty-five minutes in, I noticed a little red splotch on Lester's bed. Hm. That's odd. I didn't stop tugging but I gave Lester a quick once-over, saw that he was still in one piece and everything in its rightful place, and promptly forgot about it. That is, until a few minutes later, when I won that match of tug -- surprise, surprise -- and saw another couple red splotches on the toy. Blood. Crap.

We stopped playing right then and there. I checked him over again, palpating everything, quite thoroughly, and again found nothing. I checked his mouth. Still nothing. Figuring that if the tug toy had blood on it, he might have accidentally bitten his tongue or something, I got his towel and felt around with that in his mouth. Seeing that it did, I flipped him over, opened up his mouth and looked around. I looked for a whole minute and when I was just about to give up, I saw this.

A little hole where is front tooth used to be. Of all things! Of course, I didn't quite see so nice and clean a picture. Despite all the desensitization training we do, Lester isn't happy at all with people poking around in his mouth. (Let alone for a full sixty seconds.) Eventually, he did calm down and I was able to snap off that picture of his mouth. And, just for posterity, that picture of him looking rather grumpy.

It's a little early for him to be losing teeth. I think he'll have that toothless grin for awhile.

All in all, phew.

Lester Goes to Starbucks Tully's

2007-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

Today, instead of going to work, I went to Starbucks. It's been a crazy few weeks, I have huge backlog of reviews I need to write for our annual promotions cycle, so I'm hiding out where no one can find me. I sent out an email titled "Kushal WFS today" and that was that. (It's not nearly as cool as my "Kushal WFBA today" email a year or two ago, but what can you do? That time, Rob and I went to a bowling alley that happened to have Internet and "worked" from there. I'm sure we actually did read a few emails between our games.)

This is Lester's first time in Starbucks, with all its coffee smells, friendly people, and interesting floors. Even before walking in, I could hear people whispering "Ohhh!! He's *sooo* cute!" In line, I had at least two or three people come up to me asking about him. After we sat down, the guy next to me and a couple sitting in front of us struck up a conversation about guide dogs, their training, and so on. After settling down (and licking the floor clean around me), Lester was generally pretty well-behaved except for a couple times when he realized that someone was talking about him and he wanted to go over to say hello.

...

It's a few hours later now. I discovered that you actually had to pay for Internet at Starbucks, and was actually considering it, before I remembered that Tully's had free WiFi. So, here I am now at Tully's. As loyal as I am to the Starbucks Java Chip frappuccino, the drinks here at Tully's aren't half bad. The crowd here is a bit older, and only three people have come up to me so far. Lester's behaving far better.

Obligatory Cuteness IV: So Comfy

2007-02-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of their Lester fix. =P Here's the little fellow, settling down for one of his many naps.

Louie Still Has 'Em: Phase II

2007-02-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'm running out of funny euphemisms to say that Louie is still in one piece. Suggestions?

Anyways, I got my Louie status update on Thursday. He's still in Phase II along with Artemis, who is also intact, ~~but it looks like Brewster has been dropped. The GPS meeting is today, so I'll find out what happened. That sucks.~~ Never mind, Brester is still there. I'm being dumb.

Puppy	Breed	Phase	Breeder Watch	Group
Artemis	Lab	2	yes	GPS
Beethoven	Lab	2
Binny	Lab	2	yes
Brewster	Lab	2	yes	GPS
Fresca	Lab	2	yes
Frontier	Lab	2
Louie	Lab	2	yes	GPS
Naoka	Lab	2	yes
Nyland	Lab	2	yes
Rae	Lab	2	yes
Sport	Lab	2

Guide Dogs for the Blind calls Phase II "A Dog's Introduction to Guide Dog Training." It's primarily about the instructors getting a feel for the puppies -- what makes them tick, how hard they're willing to work, how well they've been already trained -- and the puppies getting a feel for the harnesses and coursework.

Using the reports we send back, notes from the group leaders and advisers, and their own experiences, the instructors back at Guide Dogs try to understand what motivates every individual puppy. Does he appreciate strong, happy praise? Or does that work him into a frenzy? How distracted is he? Hm. He listens to commands but can't even sit straight around overly friendly people. Does he need special collars and handling? I just learned about it right now, but they use something called martingale collars with most dogs.

In addition to the humans getting a feel for the dogs, the dogs also get a feel for what they'll be doing for the next few months. They're introduced to the harness, allowed to sniff and examine it and become accustomed to it on their body. Once they've gotten a feel for it, they're taken in for their first official workout: the treadmill! Here, the instructors identify each dog's gait, guide-work commands are first introduced (e.g. "hopp-up"), and the dogs are trained to walk straight forward at a consistent, steady pace.

After that comes the fun. Obstacle courses! In day-to-day real life, obstacles are everywhere: people, cars, light poles, etc. Ultimately, in a few months, the dogs will learn to alert their partners to an upcoming obstacle and walk around it. I've never seen one of the Guide Dogs obstacle courses, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're something like the ones we used for soccer ball-handling drills.

January Report

2007-02-04T12:16:00.000-08:00

Every month, each raiser submits a status update on their puppy. It contains a checklist of possible (mis)behaviors and summaries of obedience training, socialization training, and general progress. Here is Lester's report for January. You can compare with Louie for the corresponding month, on the right.

UPDATE: To clarify, this is Louie's first month, from last January, compared against Lester's first month. This is not Louie in school right now. I've had several people come up to me, looking very concerned. Everything's totally fine! No worries!

Puppy Name: Lester Raiser Name: Kushal C. Breed Tattoo #: 49L3 Leader Name: Heidi H. Date of Birth: 2006-11-02 Club Name: GPS Age: 3 months County, State: King County, WA CARE Dog food brand and type: Purina Pro Plan Number of 8 oz. cups per meal: 1 Meals per day: 3 Vaccination(s) this month: DA2PP Has your puppy been spayed or neutered? Yes NO Are you using flea control? YES No If other than Frontline/Advantage, please specify _____ Are you giving heartworm medication? YES No If other than Heartgard, please specify: _____ Do you have any concerns about your puppy's health? Yes NO Please describe any concerns: _____ Has your puppy been seen or treated for a medical problem? Yes NO If yes, please list reason and any medication prescribed: _____ HANDLING AND TRAINING Type of collar you are using: FLAT Training Head collar Other _____ # of puppy handling sessions per day: 2 # of training lessons per week: 4 Please rate on the following scale how your puppy is doing each of the following commands : 0=not introduced 1=will not do 2=does occasionally 3=does 1/2 the time 4=does most of the time 5=does all the time Responds to: Name 4, Sit 4, Down 1, Stand 0, Let's go 4, Stay 0, Okay 4, Wait 0, That's enough 4, Kennel 2, Come on leash 0, Come off leash (only in an enclosed area) 0 My puppy will relieve: on command ("Do Your Business") YES No; on any surface YES No; indoors YES No; on walks without my permission YES No SOCIALIZATION: Average number of socialization outings per week 8 Week One 1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ Week Two 1 amazon.com (5x) 2 Grocery (2x) 3 Restaurant (2x) 4 GPS meeting Week Three 1 amazon.com (5x) 2 Grocery (2x) 3 GPS meeting 4 Court Week Four 1 amazon.com (5x) 2 Grocery (2x) 3 Restaurant (2x) 4 Vet Did your puppy participate in puppy sitting or trading this month? Yes NO Puppy Name: _____ Tattoo #: _____ Date: _____ CONCERNS - Please check appropriate box for concerns Physical/Health Issues Weight Appetite Eyes Ears Limping Skin/Coat Fleas/Ticks Dentition concerns Chronic drooling Frequent relieving Vomiting Diarrhea Coughing/Sneezing Itching Internal parasites Other _____ On medication People Reactions Hackling Posturing Growling/Barking Mouthing Nipping/Biting Fearful Submissive Keying x Solicitous Odor Reaction Type _____ Object Reactions Stationary objects x Objects in motion x Strange/Unusual objects Noise Reactions Thunderstorms Fireworks x Loud noises Other _____ Traffic Reactions Type _____ Dog Reactions Hackling Posturing Growling/Barking Fearful Submissive x Dog distracted Fence fighting Rough play Other Animal Reaction Type _____ Surface Reactions Grates Slick Floors Stairs Other _____ Behaviors x Relieves indoors x Relieves on outings Licking/Chewing on self Car-sickness x Barking/Whining Destructive chewing Digging Toy/Ball obsession Food protective Food obsession/Foraging x Garbage mouth Filth eater Poor kennel behavior x Poor crate behavior Poor tie down behavior Excessive sniffing x Mouthing/Grabbing Jumping on people Jumping on furniture Mounting people Mounting objects Chasing cars Charging out doors Pulling/Lunging on leash Poor obedience x Separation anxiety Other Please describe any concerns checked above: * All in all, Lester seems like an active, mischievous but normal puppy. He seems to "prefer" to relieve outside (i.e. even when he really has to go, he'll try to hold it until he gets just outside the door), but will still occasionally relieve indoors. Although much better than before, his crate behavior still leaves something to be desired: he'll occasionally cry and bark, and sometimes try to "dig" himself out of his crate. He's very dog- and people-distracted, and also very curious about moving (flying leaves) or unusual objects (leaves that are, say, rotting) and loud noises. Please list an accomplishment or improvement seen in your puppy this month: * Freezing during walks. Like Louie, Lester sometimes just froze up while walking and refused to budge. Some combination of encouragement and corrections have now pretty much reversed that problem. Now, when he gets excited, he tries to run ahead! It's not that he pulls, but just that he has to walk fairly quickly to keep up with my normal pace, and sometimes when he gets excited, he starts running and forgets that he's on a leash. * Mouthing. Initially, Lester frequently attempted to mouth people and clothing. Now, he at least understands that he shouldn't and generally does not. In the past week, for example, he's only tried to mouth me once. * Stairs. Lester will now go up and down most kinds of stairs! He never really minded going up them, but was a bit scared hopping down (the big, scary) stairs. He no longer minds going down either. Raiser Comments: _____ Current Jacket Size: Small New Jacket Size Requested: N/A Leader Comments: _____ Follow-up by Advisor Requested: Yes No Advisor Comments _____ Puppy Name: Louie Raiser Name: Kushal C. Breed Tattoo #: 462H Leader Name: Heidi H. Date of Birth: 2005-11-15 Club Name: GPS Age: 2.5 months County, State: King County, WA CARE Dog food brand and type: Purina Pro Plan Number of 8 oz. cups per meal: 1 Meals per day: 3 Vaccination(s) this month: Has your puppy been spayed or neutered? Yes NO Are you using flea control? YES No If other than Frontline/Advantage, please specify _____ Are you giving heartworm medication? YES No If other than Heartgard, please specify: _____ Do you have any concerns about your puppy's health? Yes NO Please describe any concerns: _____ Has your puppy been seen or treated for a medical problem? Yes NO If yes, please list reason and any medication prescribed: _____ HANDLING AND TRAINING Type of collar you are using: FLAT Training Head collar Other _____ # of puppy handling sessions per day: 3 # of training lessons per week: 7 Please rate on the following scale how your puppy is doing each of the following commands : 0=not introduced 1=will not do 2=does occasionally 3=does 1/2 the time 4=does most of the time 5=does all the time Responds to: Name 4, Sit 3, Down 2, Stand 2, Let's go 5, Stay 0, Okay 4, Wait 3, That's enough 4, Kennel 4, Come on leash 2, Come off leash (only in an enclosed area) 0 My puppy will relieve: on command ("Do Your Business") YES No; on any surface YES No; indoors YES No; on walks without my permission YES No SOCIALIZATION: Average number of socialization outings per week 4 Week One 1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ Week Two 1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ Week Three 1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ Week Four 1 amazon.com (5x) 2 GPS meeting 3 Fred Meyer 4 _____ Did your puppy participate in puppy sitting or trading this month? Yes NO Puppy Name: _____ Tattoo #: _____ Date: _____ CONCERNS - Please check appropriate box for concerns Physical/Health Issues Weight Appetite Eyes Ears Limping Skin/Coat Fleas/Ticks Dentition concerns Chronic drooling Frequent relieving Vomiting Diarrhea Coughing/Sneezing Itching Internal parasites Other _____ On medication People Reactions Hackling Posturing Growling/Barking Mouthing Nipping/Biting Fearful Submissive Keying Solicitous Odor Reaction Type _____ Object Reactions Stationary objects x Objects in motion Strange/Unusual objects Noise Reactions Thunderstorms Fireworks Loud noises Other _____ Traffic Reactions Type _____ Dog Reactions Hackling Posturing Growling/Barking Fearful Submissive Dog distracted Fence fighting Rough play Other Animal Reaction Type _____ Surface Reactions Grates Slick Floors Stairs Other _____ Behaviors x Relieves indoors x Relieves on outings Licking/Chewing on self Car-sickness Barking/Whining Destructive chewing Digging Toy/Ball obsession Food protective Food obsession/Foraging x Garbage mouth Filth eater Poor kennel behavior Poor crate behavior Poor tie down behavior Excessive sniffing Mouthing/Grabbing Jumping on people Jumping on furniture Mounting people Mounting objects Chasing cars Charging out doors Pulling/Lunging on leash Poor obedience Separation anxiety Other Please describe any concerns checked above: * Objects in motion: Louie seems to get really excited by the wind and especially with flying leaves; I usually just gently correct and keep going. * Relieving indoors and on outings: this has improved dramatically in the past week with only one accident in the past three days, but the current problem is that, on his potty breaks, Louie tries to relieve immediately after getting outside and without command. As far as I can figure, he understands the "do your business" command (since he relieves almost immediately after the command on all surfaces so far) and also has the physical ability to hold it (since he doesn't relieve on the way out), so I just need to get him to wait until he gets the command. I've tried a few things, but right now, I'm trying to correct, put him into a sit to reduce the immediate urge to relieve, and continue walking to his relieving area after a minute or two. * Garbage mouth: this seems to be something Louie has picked up in the last couple days, and something he didn't display before. It doesn't occur very often, but Louie will occasionally pick up various small items either laying around in the house (e.g. feathers from down blanket) or in his relieving area (e.g. pine needles). I allow sniffing in both cases and it's hard to notice when in addition to sniffing he's also picking up an object (especially in the dark while relieving!), but I'm trying to be as vigilant as possible and correct for this. * Mounting people: Louie will try to crawl onto my lap if I call him, but, so far, I only gently reposition him off me and am not otherwise correcting this at all. It seems like a good thing that he's so happy to be around people, and I figure it's something he'll grow out of if he's not rewarded for it. Please list an accomplishment or improvement seen in your puppy this month: * Freezing during walks: initially, Louie would occasionally squat down and refuse to move another step, but this seems to have pretty much gone away. As far as I can figure, this was a combination of worry and stubborness -- he would freeze not only in new situations (and appear very distracted) but also in common situations he didn't like very much (e.g. going on a potty break on a cold night). Ignoring him and just continuing to walk in the latter case, and some standard coaxing (e.g. getting down to his eye level, higher-pitched voice, calling his name) in the former case seems to have solved this problem. Now, Louie nearly always walks alongside me without either pulling or falling behind. * Car riding behavior: Louie would originally constantly cry and fidget while riding in my car, but has for the last few days happily remained in a down position for entire (~20-30 minute) rides. His original crying seems to have been due to sliding around in the crate I was using, but this problem has gone away after I let him ride on the floorboards themselves. While initially riding on the floorboards, however, he would try to sit up and move around the backseat, but consistently enforcing the down position seems to have gotten across to him that he needs to remain in that position all the time while on the road. Raiser Comments: _____ Current Jacket Size: Small New Jacket Size Requested: N/A Leader Comments: _____ Follow-up by Advisor Requested: Yes No Advisor Comments _____

Lester Knows Sit

2007-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Despite how badly I've been slacking on his training, Lester has still been learning a few things. On the way to Roti yesterday, Brett was absolutely amazed that Lester sat on command. He even made me make Lester get up, walk him around, and then give him a command to sit, just to see if he really would do it. (He did.) Apparently, it took Brett two years to teach his dog that. =P

Sit is totally not guaranteed yet, but he does sort of know it. Assuming nothing too exciting is going on, Lester probably listens 60% of the time. (Of course, "exciting" currently has a very broad definition. Pebbles count.) He's been slowly transitioning over from hand-placed sit -- where you pull up his head with one hand, tuck in his butt with the other, and say "Sit" at the moment the butt hits the ground -- over the last week or two. According to Guide Dogs raising guidelines, this is right on target: puppies should begin advancing to sit on command anywhere from 3-4 months. Lester turned three (months) yesterday!

He also seems to generally understand "That's enough", "Let's Go", and "OK" to the same degree. I've only recently started with food-induced recall (glorified "Come"), and haven't started at all with "Stand," "Stay," "Wait" or "Kennel." I'll talk more about that later, but, for now, let's just say "That's enough" is the funniest: basically, say, if they're chewing on their favorite toy or playing tug or something, given the command, they're not only supposed to stop everything immediately but also spit out their toy to the floor. It's actually not a negative thing, and, believe it or not, they actually do spit them out. Really!

More on all that later.

Not Actually

2007-02-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Roti in Queen Anne. (One of the best Indian restaurants I know in Seattle. Highly recommended. Try the butter chicken, as spicy as they can make it.) Jim, Brett, Kaushal and I met up with Rob and Sagarika, who were already there.

Coming out afterwards, we were all just standing around talking. We were mostly just admiring Lester, except Kaushal, who hadn't seen Lester in a week or two and dared to wonder whether Lester was losing his cuteness. (The nerve! =P) Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple guys approaching, sounding slightly drunk. I didn't catch it at the time, but one of them was talking about Lester. He came up within a few feet, and bent down to pet Lester.

"Please don't pet him right now."

[Brief pause]

"Not actually," the guy retorted, getting up.

[Long, awkward pause]

"Wait, what? What did you just say?" I think I was wondering. Partly out of shock, partly irritation, I think I just stared the guy down. He didn't back down either, staring right back at me. This continued for a good 10-15 seconds, before Sagarika (or someone, I don't remember) interjected, "He's a service dog. He's training to be a guide dog."

That brought back my better manners. "Yeah, he's in training", I said, pointing to the green jacket. The guy mumbled something and walked off to catch up with his friend.

Who knows what would have happened had Sagarika not said something. Brett was joking that he had my back, but, the guy wasn't much bigger than me -- I could have totally taken him. Anyways.

I'm just being grumpy. I've been averaging 4-5 hours of sleep for the past few weeks. I'm going to concede defeat and just call it a night.

Vaccinations

2007-01-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

Lester went to the vet today. Nothing special, just a general physical exam, fecal sample, vaccinations. Lester was so excited to see the vet that he nearly fell off the exam table! I barely caught him with only his front paws still on the table. Outside of that, it was all routine. For being such a total whiner in general, he didn't make a single peep when they actually stuck him with the needle.

Not Lester, But Cute As Balls

2007-01-31T00:04:00.000-08:00

Now, if you know me, you know that although I love dogs, I'm totally and unabashedly breedist. I just can't bear with the little yippy, ankle-biting, Paris-wannabe dogs that run around some places.

But... this guy is just too cute.

I don't know what breed he is, but, you know, this might be the first (and only) time I ever pay a compliment to a chihuahua.

Lester is Utterly, Completely Passed Out

2007-01-30T23:43:00.000-08:00

Lester is utterly and completely passed out. I hear this cute but very perplexing combination of occasional chomping, whimpers and snoring, and his paws are twitching just a bit, so I figure he must be dreaming about frolicking and running in fields and fields of kibble or something.

If you look closely, you can see a little blur near his left front arm. That's him twitching! I can't believe that actually showed up.

Oh, and that's right now, just this minute. Now that I finally brought a USB cable to work, I'll be able to post real-time updates. There goes my productivity. Oh, don't look all innocent, I know all about you folks reading this blog during work hours! :)

Sigh. Lester != Louie

2007-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Sigh. Repeat after me. Lester is not Louie. Lester is not Louie. One of these days, I'll get it, really, I will. JJ was kind enough to notice and smack me upside the head.

> I'm sure you didn't write "Louie" when you meant to write
> "Lester" in today's blog post.
>
> http://littlelesterpester.blogspot.com/2007_01_29_archive.html
>
> You wouldn't want to give little Lester a complex or anything.
>
> --JJ

I really am going to give the kid a complex.

The Next Einstein?

2007-01-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

Is ~~Louie~~ Lester going to be the first canine machine learning scientist? Here he is, looking very concerned about some fancy 3D MATLAB plots of the optimization hyperspace of a... er, nevermind.

He must be a doggie Einstein in the making. Either that, or all that blue and red must be reminding of his chew toy.

Guide Horses

2007-01-29T15:47:00.000-08:00

Marina sent me this CNN story about Ann Edie and her guide horse. Quoting from the article

When Edie's chocolate Labrador helper Bailey died after 10 years on the job, she tried out two other dogs before learning about guide horses in 2000.

Although she appreciates the attributes that dogs bring to guide work, Edie said she is sold on the mini-horses.

[...]

At home, where she's not working, Panda snuggles, naps on a carpet or plays with toys. If she needs to go out, she rings a small bell that hangs from a doorknob.

I wasn't quite sure how a horse could snuggle, but, they're actually pretty small. From the organization's website,

Who knew?

Is Soap a Puppy Delicacy?

2007-01-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

Did I miss something? Is soap a puppy delicacy?

So far, whenever I go to the bathroom or take a shower, I always leave Lester in his crate. That's caused some amusing situations in and of itself, but this is actually a big problem. How do I go to the restroom when I'm away from home? Most raisers can hand off a puppy to someone else, a mom, a husband or wife, brother, etc. but I really don't have that option: wherever I go, Lester goes, and if Lester can't go somewhere, I can't go there either. This is a problem. I need to go the bathroom!

What's the big deal about public restrooms?

Well, for one, it's very delicate matter. Guys have all sorts of rules about urinal and restroom etiquette.

How do you teach a teach all that to a puppy? Here, among a dozen other men lined up against the wall, each doing their business, is another guy doing his business with a puppy sitting behind him. That puppy is guaranteed to be sniffing around, and, at the very least, trying to figure out what other mischief he can get away with.

Even with a perfectly-mannered puppy, it means putting the puppy into a sit-stay -- no down-stay in a public restroom, thank you very much -- a few feet behind you, walking up to the urinal, doing your business, and all the while praying to dear God that the puppy doesn't do anything stupid. If he does do something, you're totally at his mercy. So, as a big number two, it's thirty seconds of sheer nerves.

Last but certainly not least, all this assumes you already have a well-mannered puppy. There are all sorts of "interesting" smells, noises, people, and things in even a spotless restroom; you can imagine how much worse a run-of-the-mill truck stop can be. As if there weren't enough ways for the bathroom "outing" to go bad already, with a young puppy who hasn't been in too many restrooms, you should probably quadruple that number. If your puppy gets spooked by something and freaks out, it's all over.

Lester hasn't been in very many restrooms. And he's not at all happy about the automatic flush on some urinals. Enough said.

Anyways, I'm sure you're wondering by now, "I thought this entry was supposed to be about soap?" It is, I promise.

So, with the above in mind, I've started taking Lester into the bathroom with me. In the morning, he very politely sat behind me while I brushed my teeth. As a reward, I gave him a very toothpaste-foamy kiss on his nose, which had him running in circles, sneezing and licking at it for a good ten minutes. (OK, fine, so maybe it was more of a reward for me. But it was very cute and amusing!) He went to the bathroom with me another two or three times throughout the day. He once knocked over a can of shaving cream to the bathtub floor, which came down with a loud band and momentarily scared him, but otherwise he was the model of good behavior.

Getting up my courage, I took Lester with me for a shower. Normally, they'll just settle down outside the bathtub and go to sleep. Not so much with Lester: soon, he was up and off circling the bathroom, hunting and sniffing around for who knows what. Eventually, I grabbed ahold of his dragline and had him sit by the tub. That worked for about a minute: he soon figured out that there were far more interesting smells and things inside the bathtub, and although he didn't try to get in, he kept craning his neck over to try get at them. I'd left the shower curtain half open so that he could still see me (and know that I hadn't disappeared), and whenever I'd get within tongue-range, he'd reach out for a quick lick. Trying to be clever, I soaped up my calf extra well, thinking it'd be like the toothpaste and teach him a lesson. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Next time I got within range, not only did he go for one lick, he liked it so much, he kept straining to lick the rest of it off! By the time I figured out that my clever little plan wasn't working, there was a good two- or three-inch patch where all the soap had been licked off my calf.

Dogs.

Lester, 1; Kushal, 2.

Lester Tried Humping My Leg!

2007-01-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

Lester tried humping my leg! He's not even three months yet! I don't know what to say.

I was working at my desk, with Lester chewing on his dinosaur toy by my feet, when I felt Lester's front paws grab onto my calf. I looked down under the desk, and there I saw Lester holding onto my leg, thrusting away. I had to practically shake him off.

As far as I can tell, it's instinctive. If you put anything -- your arm, his chew toy -- on his chest, just below his shoulders, and push gently, he grabs ahold of it and automatically starts thrusting. I don't know how long he'd keep thrusting, but I peeled him off as fast as I could both times I tried this. Ew.

If he were human, he'd be, what, three years old? He's still a baby! He hasn't even fully... developed yet! I think I'm just going to pretend this never happened. Lester's still an innocent, cute, little puppy. Innocent, I tell you.

I'm Such a Slacker

2007-01-28T21:04:00.000-08:00

I've been such a slacker with Lester. I'm supposed to be regularly practicing layovers, obedience commands, and all sorts of other things with Lester like three times a day or something -- instead, I think I'm doing them a total of maybe thrice a week. That's not to say I haven't been doing any training -- Lester has picked up a few commands, learned general manners, and settled into my daily rhythm pretty well -- it's just that I haven't been doing the specific Guide Dogs stuff as I should be. Michele would so kill me if she knew.

First up, I really need to start teaching food-induced recall. Basically, it's a fancy way of teaching a foolproof, instantaneous "Come." More details on that after I actually start doing it. =P

My playing hooky from today's meeting isn't helping either. I forgot it was at 4pm instead of the usual 6pm. Really!

Off His Schedule

2007-01-27T23:49:00.000-08:00

Lester is off his poop schedule. He'd had both his breakfast and lunch, but hasn't pooped after either. I've taken him out every hour according to his schedule, and he's peed every time but, even after circling around for five minutes (and eating, oh, a pound of leaves), he hasn't pooped. Dinner is coming up in just a bit and he hasn't even shown a desire to go poop. That means I'd put the odds of him having an accident in my bedroom at about 99:1. I'm watching him like a hawk.

For context, all our dogs -- puppies in training, working dogs in the field -- follow a rigorous eating and relieving schedule. Because these dogs go to all sorts of different places -- restaurants, offices, movies, airports, really pretty much anywhere and everywhere -- their handlers need to trust them to not have accidents in inappropriate places. The only real way of doing that is to have a very strict schedule for eating and relieving: they eat meals portioned out to exact amounts, they eat them at exact times, and they poop at roughly predictable times. That way, the handler knows the next time the dog will need to relieve and can take them out far earlier to minimize any chance of an accident.

Why don't they poop at exact times? Well, lots of reasons. A dog on a file-mile run is going to need to relieve far sooner than a dog who is just lounging around, even if they ate the same thing at the same time, for example. Again, it's complicated.

Sometimes, the handler knows better than the dog just how much the dog needs to poop. On a number of occasions, I've taken Louie or Lester out, give them the command to relieve, and they'll just immediately sit down and look up at me like, "Why are we standing out here? Why are you looking at me like that? I've got nothing." It might be cold, there might be some interesting person walking by, or, for that matter, some interesting leaf somewhere might have blowing in some interesting way. Except you know they've got to poop. So, you make them get up, make them walk around you in a circle, and hope that they get it out quickly.

Ah. The life of a dog. Eat, sleep, poop, play.

The life of a dog owner? Thinking dogs eating, sleeping, pooping, and playing.

I've Got Your Tongue

2007-01-27T22:58:00.000-08:00

Continuing a tradition. Lester and I played a short game of "I've got your tongue -- what are you going to do about it?" yesterday. Obviously, it was his tongue that I had and not the other way around. =P I was laying on the floor working on one of my projects, and Lester kept coming up to lick my hand. I don't mind an occasional kiss, so I didn't want to correct him, but he kept doing it: he'd come up, give me a couple licks, get distracted, come back and lick some more -- at least ten times. (Odd, yes. But who knows what's going through that puppy's little mind.) At some point, it got just a bit old.

So, what's the next best thing to do after correcting? Brett's suggestion aside, playing a game of "I've got your something-or-other. Whatcha gonna do?" of course! So, the next time he stuck his tongue out to lick me, I grabbed his tongue. Squirmy. And wet. I was probably able to keep it for a second or two at most before he managed to get away. But it worked. After just a few times, he stopped licking me. Lester 0, Kushal 2.