Southeastern Guide Dogs

Suncoast Puppy Raisers

Meeting Announcement

& Newsletter July 2010

Puppy Saturday Meeting

Date: July 10, 2010

Where: 166 17th

Ave SE

St. Pete, FL 33701

Home of Puppy Raisers

Extraordinaire: Glen & Diane

Anderson

Time: 10:00-12:00pm

Access: Breeder and Career

change dogs welcome

Hi everyone, Remember in January when we were all complaining about the freezing cold? We were all wining, “it’s too cold for Florida weather, I wish it would warm up!” I always say, “be careful what you ask for.” Now, we’re all wishing for it to cool off! How about a nice refreshing pool party? For the last10 years, we have traditionally set aside a summer month to have an excuse to jump in the pool with our puppies. For the last 7 years, this has taken place at the home of our gracious hosts, Glen and Diane Anderson. This is a relaxed venue, but we do try to educate about pool safety and handling the heat with your puppy during the summer months. In the past, we were able to combine our pool party with a walk to and dip in Tampa Bay. Unfortunately, due to other irresponsible pet owners, dogs are no longer allowed on the beach. We do still plan to take our walk, but will have to forgo the popular romp in the bay waters. Our hosts usually provide refreshments, but feel free to bring a snack to share. This event will take place rain or shine. So, bring your suits, towels, sunglasses, hats, suntan lotion, or umbrella as appropriate for weather conditions. Directions: Take 22nd Ave S. towards the bay until it dead ends into Beach Drive. Turn left onto Beach Drive and Left onto 17 Ave SE. Their house is on the left.

Last Month Thank you to Southeastern, Helen Arnold, our tour guides and the gift shop for making our visit a successful one. I was pleased to hear how much you all enjoyed our visit. Chuck and I take it for granted that everyone has had a chance to tour the facilities, but we found out otherwise. I also want to thank Kathy Champion for sharing her experience in receiving her first guide, Angel. Sorry we couldn’t get the CD about Kathy, “Angels and Champions” playing for you because her life story is very compelling. She was a Lieutenant Colonel in the military and had been stationed in Iraq. She returned home to resume her life. She ran several marathons and recovered normally except after one particularly big one, 197 miles. She just could not recover. She was later diagnosed with a virus she had contracted in Iraq. This virus attacked her optic nerve, which left her

Above: Kathy Champion & Angle talking to

our group. Below: Elizabeth Zuniga &

Bernie checking out the Diamond donated

by the Suncoast Puppy Raisers in the

Freedom walk.

permanently blind. After escaping bodily injury in all her military service, she was really thrown for a loop. As she stated, “I lost all hope in myself and humanity.” It took a while but she finally came to Southeastern. She was matched with Angel, also the nickname of her children, and the rest is history. Since then, Kathy has embraced life and actively supports the “Paws for Patriots” program by getting the word out about Southeastern and her life changing experiences. We applaud you Kathy for your military service, your sacrifice and now your new life with us. You’ll have a chance to get to know her better because she lives in Pinellas and actively wants to participate in our group. Remember, Southeastern now has Saturday dates for Open House tours. Check the web sight for the next dates and plan to take your friends and family for a tour.

SEGDI Accounts & Fund Raising As some of you know or don’t know, we have a “Freedom Walk” account under the “Suncoast Puppy Raisers” name. All the funds we raise from demos and yard sales go into this endowment account. We announced at June’s meeting, that we currently have $11,837.36. We also have a “Memorial Garden” account under the name of Suncoast Puppy Raisers, with a current balance of$905.00. Now that you’ve walked the Freedom Walk and saw the Memorial Garden, you’ve seen the types of items you can “purchase” such as bricks, benches, lampposts, etc., with our groups name or logo on it to be placed along the walk. We have no current goal for the Freedom Walk account, but my goal for the Memorial Garden account is to purchase 2 park benches. Each bench costs $700.00 and we can inscribe 20 characters on 3 lines of the bench. I have been compiling the names of our passed beloved pets since last July when we lost Maggie and Kayo. We have enough names already to fill one bench and are already working on the second. We currently have $905.00 in the account so we need to build it to $1400.00 to get the second bench. If you would like your beloved pets named added to the list and or want to make a donation to the fund, email me. “New Puppy Challenge”: How do the puppies get their names? Right now it is through sponsorships. The going amount of funds required to name a puppy is $3500.00 for the public, and $3000.00 for puppy raisers. This amount has gone up significantly since Chuck and I started raising, but it’s a good thing. There were so many people successfully raising the funds that we had more sponsorships than puppies. Many sponsors were waiting over 2 years for their chosen name to be given to a puppy. So SEGDI set the bar higher to keep the sponsorships current with the amount of puppies, but it is much harder to reach the higher amounts. One of our very creative

At last months meeting Mom to be Stacy

Taylor and Guide Dog to be Elma checking

out the campus before Elma heads to Guide

Dog College the first week of July.

Melisa Reiter & Nancy Simons puppy hugging the

Sara-Gunner litter of lab pups at last months

meeting. Four of the pups in this litter are joining

our group July 1st. Welcome to the Suncoast Puppy

Raisers Elvis, Buster, Cookie & Berkley.

raisers came up with this challenge. Sylvia McChesney has been sewing dog beds to raise money for her sponsorships. She has already funded the puppy she is currently raising, ZZ, and has funds available for the next. She is not sure she can raise enough in time for the September 2010 cut off date. Her idea was to have other raisers that are in the same position, pool their resources. But then who is going to name the puppy? Her idea is, for every $100.00 you donate, you’re entitled to a raffle ticket for the chance to name the puppy. Several of you have already jumped on the band wagon, and I think it is a great idea that we can continue even after this short term goal. If you are interested in participating, contact via email either us or Sylvia. Keep those great ideas coming.

Graduation We are very proud to announce that we have two class matches this month. Going to puppy graduation on July 10th will be, Darlene Bigham to see Brittany graduate, and the Kistemaker family to see Staria with her new partner. Do you think we can give Darlene and excused absence from our Puppy Saturday Meeting on the 10th? I guess, since she’s already told me she had another engagement! Congratulations to both families!

In for Training We have several dogs returning this month to start their guide dog training. We know they are going to be missed, but they can’t graduate if they don’t go back. Going back are: Jim, raised by the Kriseman family; Mike, raised by the Hamilton’s; Bingo, raised by the McClean’s; Elma, raised by Stacey Taylor, who by the time you read this will be a proud new Mom to we hope a healthy happy new born Baby boy! She told us they are going to induce her July 3rd so a big congratulations to Stacy & her son the newest Suncoast Puppy Raiser!

Southeastern named as

Nonprofit of the Year On June 24th, 2010, the Tampa Bay Business Journal, named Southeastern as “Non-profit” of the year 2010, in environment and animals category. Titus Herman, Southeastern’s CEO responds, “We are honored to be recognized for our work, and thank our board, staff, volunteers, and generous donors for enabling us to reach this mile stone.” Congratulations Southeastern!

Training Tip – Separation Anxiety Often when I talk with raisers I hear, “my puppy is so attached to me, or my spouse, that the puppy cries or is anxious whenever they are not in our presence.” This situation is both positive and negative. We want you to have a close relationship with your puppy, and it is natural for them to want to bond with you. What we don’t want is for them to be anxious or act out by wining or barking when they can’t be with you. It is very difficult for a guide dog user to have a guide dog that is destructive or disruptive when they can’t be with their person. This type of behavior on the part of a guide dog actually prevented me from hiring someone because their dog was unable to be separated from them while they were working in the kitchen while the dog was in my office. The dog could not settle down and was constantly wining. Your puppy’s seperation anxiety stems from their lack of confidence and fear of being left alone. There are many things the puppy raiser can do to alleviate their fear and build their confidence. Here are a few tips: 1. Do not accept them wining or barking in the crate. Start right from the beginning letting them know this is

unacceptable behavior by either ignoring them until they quiet down, or correcting them with a verbal correction.

2. You do not have to take your puppy everywhere every day. Randomly pick a time or day to not take them. Start by leaving them short periods of time and then build the time up as they get older.

3. Practice a down stay and slowly increase the time and distance you can walk away from them. Work on this until you can leave the room for a couple of seconds and return to them. This builds their confidence that you’ll be coming back.

4. Let one of your family members hold the leash of your puppy while you leave the room. Distract the puppy so that they do not focus on your absence.

5. Your anxiety about leaving your puppy is transmitted to them. Walk away as it is no big deal and with confidence that you and your puppy will be just fine.

6. Know that your puppy will miss you for a few minutes, but they have very short attention spans. The next fun thing that comes along they will be in the game.

In your puppy’s lifetime, they will build and break bonds a number of times before they settle into their final home. Giving them a secure, loving home helps them transition into wanting to bond with the next person in their next phase of training. Their departure is harder on us than it is on them. Thank you raisers for giving so much of yourselves.

Guide Dog Humor Mary tells Joe, she wants to get a dog and is thinking about getting a Labrador, and Joe says NO WAY! Do you know how many of their owners go blind!!

A couple more pictures from last months meeting enjoy Chuck.