Internship-Day 5

Sorry this post has been delayed a few days-I was very eager to get home on Friday and pick up Alba. I sat in traffic for almost 2 hours and didn't get home until around 9pm. Saturday I had a new leader meeting in Modesto for about four hours. I am becoming a co-leader for my puppy club and had to attend this training meeting. I also took Alba bowling on Saturday afterwards and out to dinner with my family. She was AWESOME. I seriously could go on for hours about how much Alba has improved in the last month and how fun she is to take places. Love that golden girl! Her and Newport are back with their puppysitters. I didn't realize how much I missed Newport until this morning when he hopped up on my bed and curled up with me for about an hour. His morning routine is to wake up, shove his soggy black puppy lips onto my face to wake me up, and then he hops up onto my bed and curls up right next to me (and when I say right next to me, I literally mean it. Imagine a 90 pound black lab smashing you against the wall in a twin bed. He also ALWAYS has to have his head on my pillow). So to sum up, I had a really good weekend. I enjoyed seeing my family and pups again. I'm not really one that likes to be away from home, so this Internship is a pretty big step for me.

So, onto what I did on Friday at GDB. Started off as any other day, dishes, acceling kennels, going to the morning CWT meeting. There was only one CWT in Kennel 1, so after I finished rinsing K3 I headed over to K1 to help her out. I washed, rinshed, acceled, and rinshed the breakfast dishes as well as the enrichment kongs while Jessie and Shannon did the kennels. Most of the dogs in K1 were out on routes with their trainers, so it was pretty quiet. After that I took a short 10 minute break in the lounge, and went back to K3. Jessie, Mitch and I took 3 of the medical walk dogs on a 5 minute walk around campus. Then when we came back we ran some of the dogs in the back east block of K3. We ran almost all of the girls on our side. We pulled out the swimming pool, kiddie play structures, jolly balls and eggs, and a ton of Nyla knots. The dogs had a blast, and most were pretty good. A few had to be put on long lines and one or two put in time out in their kennel. We let them run for about an hour. Then we put them all back and cleaned up the pool and toys.

When we got back inside, Jessie had me do a health check on one of the dogs, and then we took 2 of the dogs for a walk. After the walk it was time for lunch, so we doled out the stuffed kongs, turned of the lights, turned on the classical music, and headed out.

After lunch, we took a working guide that was boarding for a few days to the bathing room for a bath. A couple of tours came through as we were bathing her. The tubs have a non slip mat on the bottom, and are the kind you would see at any pet grooming facility. There are special shampoo's for different coat types and even a special one for black labs who tend to get dandruff (or maybe it just shows up more). They have a hand held dryer as well as the kind that hook onto the cage doors in the bathing room so you can stick a dog in there, set the dryer to 60 minutes and go do something else while the dog dries. They put tags on the doors with the dogs name, what kennel they are from, and what time they were put in there in case they are done and someone walks by and notices and wants to put them away. The dog we bathed wasn't a fan of the dryer, and it was hot out anyway, so we just towel dried her really well and put her back in her kennel.

We then started getting infromation and kennel cards ready for incoming dogs. These being dogs returned from Foster Care, returned from adoptive homes for whatever reason, guides boarding, etc. They get all their info and stuff ready so that when the dog gets there, they just pull their stuff out of their little slot and the dog is ready to go. They do the same thing for dogs leaving. Jessie showed me the data base they use to look up certain things on dogs, like their drop reason or ID number. She put in Alba's name, and up popped Alba's info and my info, as well as a list of every single Alba there has ever been at GDB! It was really, really cool. There must have been at least 15 or 20 Alba's that have gone through GDB so far. The last one before my Alba was a cross I believe.

Once that was all finished, Jessie took me with her and one of the dogs from K2 to the massage room. Now this place was really cool! It looked like a massage room for humans. Complete with a little water fall, soothing music, dim lighting, and scents. She put the dog on the padded table and began working out his muscles. She showed me on one side, and then let me do the other. Most of the dogs in training at GDB get a massage every now and then, especially the ones that become sore from training. They also do Reiki sessions in there, which are supposed to channel the dogs good energy and "vibes" or something like that.

Jessie then took me on a tour of the new student residence building! Boy is that place nice! Especially the fireside lounge. The graduation room is magnificent, too.I think that's where we will be on Saturday for Keith's graduation.

After that we took some dogs for cemetary walks, checked suture sights, did medication, fed dinner and did the dinner dishes, and cleaned the kennels again. Then it was time to hit the road and go home. To my real home!!

I had a wonderful first week at GDB and I can't wait to see what's in store this week!