Viking Pups Training Adventures: We're Back!

THE VIKING PUPS ARE BACK ON CAMPUS!

Well, they have been for a while. Sorry I've been slacking! The past few weeks that the pups have been on campus have been a whirlwind of activity and tons and TONS of stuff has happened for the club!

Our very own prodigy pup, Zorn, just turned a year old! (About 20 days ago, but who's counting? Not the absent mother of this blog...)

What a cutie / handsome young fellow!

We are cracking down on Zorn’s training, and man is he living up to his end of the deal! Zorn’s little girl is very special, and Zorn needs to be in tip top shape for when he gets placed with her. Zorn’s big training goals right now include working on turning lights on and off against a wall:

We practice on these so we don't scratch up our walls!

Holding objects for as long as his handlers would like, as demonstrated by ex-service dog in training Oden:

Jut because he's good at it doesn't mean he has to like it! :D

And doing just about everything that he does with a walking person with a person in a wheelchair. Because his little girl will be in and out of a wheelchair, Zorn has to learn to respond to his tasks, how to respond differently to different commands while in the wheelchair, and even how to navigate differently! Additionally Zorn has started to be introduced to the feel of a bracing harness, which he will wear just like his buddy Bo, to help support his little girl if she wobbles while she walks.

Looking mighty handsome while handler Mary bribes him with treats.

Zorn has also just been neutered! His handlers are going to miss seeing him in class while he takes some well-deserved time off to recover. Get well soon lil man, we miss you!

He does not like the cone of shame.

Miss Emmy is absolutely ruling the roost here at Augie- people see her and they absolutely swoon. Emmy is now almost a whopping 4 months old, and although we love her floppy ear look, we are all SO ready for her ears to point- her handlers are having fits over them flopping back down because she’s teething now!

Rocking the QCCANdana.

Of the crazy Emmy moments we’ve had since back to school, finding out how much Emmy looooooooooves eggs tops the list. Not only does she wait by the refrigerator at dinnertime, she also recognizes the shape of the egg container and the person who gives her the eggs. Emmy also shows off her smarts in a thousand different ways, and all of them mean BIG trouble. In just one day this little gremlin stole her handler’s treat bottle, chewed it up, opened the cap, tilted out a bunch of treats, ate them, and then chewed up the lid so her handler couldn’t close the bottle again!

Success for Emmy, another bottle of treats gone for her handler.

Emmy is showing all of her mobility dog potential, from picking up objects and bringing them to her handlers to learning sit and down with increasing duration and distance, and is already mastering leave it and wait. She’s definitely too smart for her own good.

Sitting like a pro for her handler, look at that German Shepherd focus!

In Viking Pups news, Zorn accompanied our Pres and VP to a discussion about seizure response dogs- one of the goldens we will be receiving in a few short weeks will be exactly this kind of service dogs! Seizure response is unlike any sort of training the Viking Pups have ever done before, and we’re nervous and so excited to be bringing one into our program!

Zorn and Emmy also starred in a new photo shoot by the wonderful and talented Lisa Francescon of the newly titled Francescon Portraiture! These beautiful pictures will be featured in the 2013-2014 Viking Pups calendar and the proceeds of this will be donated to QCCAN and Viking Pups to help us train these wonderful dogs! Lisa also has mentioned us in an incredibly sweet blog post- thanks Lisa! You're amazing.

Here are just a few of many STUNNING pictures Lisa has taken of our babies- they're gorgeous as always!

And in other OTHER news, our wonderful breeder at Iron Hill Retrievers is saving us two wonderful golden retriever puppies, the soon-to-be-picked Carver and Westie! Unfortunately the pup from my previous blog post will not be our Westie, but he will be going to a home to be a beloved pet. Our pups will be picked from one of two litters- we don't know who yet, and the suspense is killing us!

Sophie and Max Pups Zosia and Harry Pups

Just a selection of the cutie patooties we might be getting from Chris! See the Sophie & Max puppies (featured on the left) here and the Zosia & Harry puppies (featured on the right) here.

Carver will be a seizure response dog, paired with the gorgeous little girl featured in the video linked above. From what I’ve heard she’s a total sweetheart and we cannot wait to see how much our very special future boy will help her out. Seizure response is unlike anything the Viking Pups has trained before, and everybody is nervous and excited to see how it goes! Because of just how special this boy will be, he's been assigned to a very small team of just our two top trainers, Mary and Allie, AKA the President and Vice President. We take our jobs seriously here at Viking Pups!

Westie will be a facility dog to a courthouse- as you can tell, both of these babies are going to be a totally different ball game. Westie’s job is going to be to comfort children as they go to testify against other people who might intimidate them- you might recognize this job description from this blog, because originally Cami was going to be placed at this facility. However, our Head Trainers decided that this facility deserved their very own dog, selected for them and trained from puppyhood- Westie is for sure going to be a success here.

This year is already shaping up to be a fantastic year, and all the Viking Pups are ready to get started on some serious training!

A special thanks to:

QCCAN

The Quad Cities Canine Assistant Network is the non-profit organization that makes our program possible. As sister organizations QCCAN is an integral part of the Viking Pups mission, helping us with training, putting us in contact with clients, and most importantly, training service dogs and reaching more people who need the dogs to live better lives.

Iron Hill Retrievers

Christina Clark, our fabulous breeder and owner of Iron Hill Retrievers. All of our Labrador Retrievers and Golden Retrievers have been donated by Christina and they are all spectacular, with wonderful temperaments and absolutely GREAT looks.

Team Huerta Hof

A huge thank you to the Huerta Hof family for donating our German Shepherd girl Emmy! Team Huerta Hof breeds gorgeous German Shepherds, and their dogs are found everywhere, from family homes to the Schutzhund field. We're sure Emmy will be a huge success!

And last but not least:

Lisa Francescon and Francescon Portraiture!!!

Thanks for taking all of your beautiful pictures, Lisa! They're amazing, and you show off our pups so much better than our grainy phone pictures! You're incredibly talented and deserve every bit of business you get!

To learn more / keep up to date about Viking Pups: