Adventures

who could resist a face like that?

tired puppy

How he's grown!

The life of a puppy raiser is never boring! Dembre and I enjoy adventures big and small! Of course all puppy raisers have stories of public outings to share, but sometimes puppy raising adventures are simply composed of time spent with your precious puppy or fun training sessions that make the puppy that your raising love you and feel close to you. I've had a lot of those. Usually I try to cherish those moments and capture an image of them in my heart. All puppy raisers realize that the time with their puppy is limited and won't last forever! Many veteran puppy raisers say that new puppy raisers need to stop always thinking about how their puppy is coming along and forget the puppy's faults for awhile. Sometimes we just need to spend time with our puppies. Dembre is a very dedicated puppy. He'll do almost anything just to make me happy! I love that about him, how he runs up to me wagging his tail hoping that I'll give him the attention he needs. At the end of it all I'm pretty sure that what you remember forever would be those moments.

Yesterday we got the opportunity to Dembre to have play time extravaganza! In the morning a friend brought his CCI release dog, Dobie II, over. Dembre and Dobie played and played until they were worn out. In the evening my puppy raising friend, Mary Beth, came over for dinner and brought her 5 month old black lab/golden retriever cross, Michael, over to play. Dembre and Michael played and played and played and played and... well you get the point! When they were done they just laid around panting. Michael is an adorable well behaved pup! It's amazing to see him compared to Dembre. Though Michael has a grown up face he's much smaller than Dembre! Dembre is very good at playing with other dogs nicely! It's always fun to watch CCI dogs play, because none of the dogs are allowed to win! CCI dogs take turns being on the top of the playing pile and then the order switches and eventually every dog has had a turn being on the top and on the bottom! With CCI dogs there are no underdogs!

~Elijah & Dembre

CCI NC Staff Appreciation Dinner

Today I went to CCI for a staff appreciation dinner. I got to talk to most of CCI's North Central Region dog trainers/instructors and catch up with my volunteer puppy raiser friends. I had some fun conversations, ate lots of good food, and got to be with some awesome dogs.

As most of you may remember, about a week ago I did a post on Neo, my friends CCI pup that was turning-in. Now Mary Beth has her new puppy, Michael III. He's SO adorable here are some pictures of the dinner and of Michael!

The CCI staff getting food

CCI puppy raisers, volunteers, and staff

Michael III :D

SO cute!

Michael relaxing

Dembre, Michael III, Niles, Excel (the yellow one in the middle) , and Harvey

Michael III

Once again the most adorable puppy I've ever seen except for Dembre that is :D