A walk in the rain

For our March meeting, we went to ride the light rail uptown and do a city walk in uptown Charlotte. It started out with just a drizzle, but soon, the rain came pouring down. To start the meeting, we met inside a puppy raiser’s office to do some business and learned about fun games to play with the puppies. Sherman’s favorite game was “controlled retrieve”. He has been practicing in the backyard with his wubba. It is one of his favorite things. The pups were extremely patient waiting for the train. Once on board, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. Sherman managed to scrunch himself into a tiny opening in front of a seat. He did extremely well on the light rail. Riding it brought back memories of when we went uptown with him for Christmas when he was only 4 months old. He did such a great job then too. He is a great traveler. Once we got off the train, we went through some of the buildings uptown, working on finding the door, switch, and the straight line concept. After we came out of the first building, it was raining harder and the dogs could have cared less about the rain. Sherman looked so sad being all wet, but I know he loved working in the rain. That is one thing I don’t have to worry about with him. He is a bit of a mudpuppy! After walking around some more, we continued back to the light rail. All of the pups did a great job with the new sights and sounds. Sherman waiting on the light rail

Sherman on the light rail

Sherman makes a friend (literally)

For my birthday, I got a gift card to Build a Bear for a free animal. We had been to build a bear a few months ago when we were out with some friends and their pups and had built a little black lab to represent Sherman. (I have a stuffed puppy to represent all of my puppies.) Since I had already made an animal, I let Sherman pick out an animal to build. He picked out a really soft lamb (with the help of his Aunt Jessica). He then got to stuff it. With a little encouraging, he put his paw on the peddle to pump the stuffing into the lamb. He then did the heart ceremony (where every heart has to be loved before going into a build a bear. Sherman gave it lots of kisses and it was a damp heart that went into the lamb. It was sown up and the lady who helped us said that he was the first dog to build an animal there. We named it Lambie in honor of Ely’s lamb toy. I do believe Sherman thought it to be quite boring, but he was a little trooper.

Sherman with Lambie (he did a great job leaving it alone in the picture. He knows he is not supposed to play with stuffed animals. He is a great little model)

Therapy Dogs

Back in November, I took Ely to take his therapy dog test. The day of the test I decided to test Sherman as well. We got to the testing site 2 hours early and were numbers 12 and 13. There were around 150 dogs being tested that night. Ely went first and did a great job; passed with flying colors. Sherman went next and was a natural around all of the medical equipment. The medical equipment testers kept on closing in on both Ely and I and he did a great job - just wagging his tail and giving out kisses. Sherman also passed with flying colors. All in all it was a fun night. After waiting a long time, I finally got their therapy dog stuff. Their little ID’s are so cute. I am super proud of both of my little boys. I can’t wait to start back up their reading dog program at our library. The boys loved hearing all of the stories and of course seeing all of the kids! (The library staff misses seeing them every week; they say they need a dog fix!) Ely leaving the food on the floor Ely around the medical equipment

Sherman around the medical equipment

Sherman doing a down stay

Sherman during the supervised separation test

Ely and Shermans's id cards and tags

Its official

I got the dreaded letter today. Sherman heads off to college the week of April 13th. As much as I hate to give up my little boy, I know that he will be a great guide dog. Hopefully whoever gets him will love to get lots of kisses and like to rub a sweet puppy head. He loves to go new places and one of his favorite things to do is to be out working. Sherman has been a true blessing to raise and I am honored to have had such a special puppy in my life.

A day full of Snow

The snow started at about 6:00 pm on Sunday night and continued throughout the next morning. Sherman loved playing and eating the snow. He walked out onto our deck and was like “what is this stuff?” He tried to run around, but it had been raining for 3 days straight and now all the water was ice and he kept on sliding. The next morning he got all excited when he went outside and there was even more of that white stuff. He loved just running around eating it. He loved to kill the snowmen by knocking them down. He enjoyed walking around and sniffing all of the new white round friends in the neighborhood. There was even a doggy friend in the front yard that stuck around for about 3 days. He really enjoyed catching snowballs. He was so cute trying to find the snowballs when they landed in the snow. He would have been happy to stay all day outside. After playing in the snow all day, he was one tired puppy. Sherman in the snow

SEGDI license plate with some snow

Mr. Ely and I in the snow

The Sherminator and I in the snow

Sherm playing in the snow

A Chance of a lifetime

Last week, a very sweet puppy friend gave us 4 tickets to the Charlotte Bobcat’s game. I went with my dad, sister, Chelsea and her puppy JJ and of course, Sherman. Our seats were on the 5th row behind the hoop. There really was not much room for 2 puppies, so Chelsea and I got called down by one of the security guards. Thankfully it was just to give us new seats, which turned out to be even better. They escorted us to the handicap area and JJ and Sherman had a lot more space and we had a better view. The Bobcats were playing the Orlando Magic whose uniforms were blue, black and white. JJ and Sherman were rooting for their home team without even realizing it. At half time we went and walked around. A guy came up and wanted to know if he could shoot our dogs and pointed to a camera. We said sure and they filmed them for a few minutes, while other people were coming up to take pictures of JJ and Sherman. It turns out that the clip of Sherman and JJ was on national TV. They were on Fox Sports. After halftime Sherman snuggled up next to JJ and went to sleep. They were both so good. We were offered to train several other people’s dogs. The noise, people, or food all over the ground didn’t seem to bother them at all. We could not have asked for better puppies. It was definitely an experience that neither of us will ever forget. I know that I was extremely honored to share it with two special pups, a good friend, and family.

They love being with each other

they had to be touching

Mr. JJ

The game

Time out

Got to keep a paw on him