That’s true…you never know what will happen. One other thing I’d like to bring up is even though we’ve worked on different surfaces with all of our guide dog puppies they all have a different reaction. I’m always reminded that every puppy and dog are different. Don’t always expect the same reaction from one puppy to the next.

Dublin lives in Arizona and has to wear booties in the summer time. I was surprised he had no problem wearing them. I thought for sure he’d try to pull them off his paws. Thanks for stopping by!

Good point on the sand!

When I was out on a walk with Linus we came across a long strip of the yellow tactile paving. He refused to walk on it. I zig zagged back in forth over the tactile surface. Linus proceeded to jump over the strips like it was hot lava.

How cool you had a furry houseguest! 🙂

Great tip about the hot surfaces, my Mum always tries to make sure we don’t get caught out with those, she even tries to make me wear silly boots, but I won’t go near them! Tee Hee

I hope you’re having a fun day,

Your pal Snoopy 🙂

As a puppy we exposed Sampson to so many things, but one thing we did not was a grate type material that was used on a rail road track bridge. We encountered this one day while hiking and he was so terrified, he trembled and we simply turned around rather than traumatize him. It’s so important whether they are becoming guide dogs or not. You never know when you will encounter something out of the ordinary.

Hi Clare,

That’s a great point. It’s a good idea to take puppies in training up and down different types of stairs. One of the most important types to look for are open stairs (the kind you can see through). You can often times come across these types of stairs at parking structures and a lot of times they are made of metal.

I never really thought about plywood…we’ll have to add that to our list!

Thanks,
Colby

Amanda is an awesome puppy raiser and her parents are so supportive! Her puppy, Penny is almost done with her training and will go to Guide Dog College towards the end of this month.

That’s a great one! We have our puppy kindergartens on slippery linoleum flooring. The linoleum makes teaching some things a bit easier as they easily learn to slide from a sit to a down. Also, when we work on heeling our pup’s have difficulty pulling which is a good thing.