What's Goin' On

Seems like Guide Dogs and Guide Dog puppies (like little Lab Kirkland) are making the scene everywhere these days! Here's just a taste of what's goin' on this summer:



Kirkland's San Diego club also visited visually impaired children.

Music major Chenier Derrick with his yellow Lab guide Galen graduated California State University at Fresno.



The lovely ladies of the Portland Rose Festival Court attended a June graduation at our Oregon campus.



GDB's Colorado Alumni Chapter, area puppy raisers and their dogs and puppies enjoyed a reunion in July.



What are you up to this summer?

Cincinnati Zoo - red panda

Cincinnati Zoo - bactrian camel

Cincinnati Zoo - blue-eyed cormorant

Cincinnati Zoo - white tiger cooling in water

Cincinnati Zoo animals - cooling on hot days

Cheetah challenge

Giant turtle at San Diego Zoo

Cat and crow friendship

Funny animals slideshow

Most intelligent octopus in the world - the Mimic octopus

Kangaroo survival in Australia

American eagle fishing

Breeders Digest, May 2011

Here are the announcements for puppies born and breeder dogs named at GDB during May 2011. Follow the links below to see pictures!

Litter Announcements

Labrador Retrievers

• 5/3/11 Simon x Dream – 1 male – litter letter “B”
• 5/5/11 Denzel x Justina – 3 males, 4 females – litter letter “J”
• 5/5/11 Parson x Sheba – 3 males, 5 females – litter letter “O”
• 5/14/11 Nicasio x Jude – 3 males, 6 females – litter letter “C”
• 5/15/11 Jenkins x Flicker – 5 males, 4 females – litter letter “J”
• 5/18/11 Curt x Noleta – 3 males, 2 females – litter letter “L”
• 5/19/11 Marino x Glorious – 3 males, 5 females – litter letter “P”
• 5/21/11 Nevin x Bloomer – 5 males, 3 females – litter letter “V”
• 5/24/11 David x Aqua – 5 males, 3 females – litter letter “S”
• 5/30/11 Curt x Winter – 5 males, 2 females – litter letter “A”
• 5/31/11 Hurley x Nordica – 1 male, 6 females – litter letter “T”

Labrador/Golden Retriever Crosses

• 5/7/11 Jonathan x Brazil – 5 males, 4 females – litter letter “K”
• 5/15/11 Jenkins x Lamara – 4 males, 5 females – litter letter “M”
• 5/25/11 Jenkins x Petal – 4 males, 2 females – litter letter “R”

We did not pull any new breeders in the month of May.

Beautiful canary song

Cute lion cub playing at Bronx Zoo

Great bear rainforest wilderness

An Experience of a Lifetime

by Miranda Robertson

Only 48 hours after I graduated from high school, I arrived at the GDB Oregon campus with rising anticipation. Although I am a puppy sitter and Guide Dog enthusiast in my home club, I had more curiosity than knowledge as to what I would actually be doing during my two-week Kennel Department internship. Yet here I was, filled with excitement, confident that whatever I found myself doing, I would enjoy it thoroughly.

For those interested in applying for an internship, I am obligated to first warn you of its less glamorous aspects. There is poop. In fact, it becomes astounding the range and variety of feces, so much so that there is a helpful numeric scale of one through seven to help you categorize it. There is also dog hair -- in drains and filters and gutters -- all of which need to be cleaned out. And, last but not least, there is concrete. For me, this meant going home with throbbing feet regularly during my first week. But, while the unpleasant elements are largely predictable, the joys were more often unexpected.

An average day as a GDB intern soon took on a regular tempo. Cleaning, feeding, and vet check schedules were absolute, but in the lulls between punctual appointments there was plenty of time for pleasant, even mundane, dog care. To be honest, there was a lot of puppy cuddling to do. Basically, the job of a Kennel Department intern is to shadow a canine welfare technician or CWT, which means being at the service of trainers, veterinarians and volunteers. Communication is important, but a willingness to drop everything and go help someone else is irreplaceable. This unpredictable agenda soon became one of my favorite aspects of my internship. At a moment’s notice, I could be running dogs to the clinic for eye checks, assisting trainers, evaluating how puppies take food, or best of all, learning to work a guide.



In the last few days of my internship, I found myself in downtown Gresham, blindfolded, and learning first to command a dummy-dog, affectionately named Juno, before moving on to the real thing: a Guide Dog named Reva.



After alternately cuing and awkwardly praising a piece of rolled up carpet, I advanced to gliding down the street after Reva as she weaved through sidewalk obstacles and took me across busy streets. It was exhilarating!



This post would not be complete without sincerely thanking all the staff and GDB for welcoming, training and encouraging me so generously. I hope to return soon as a proper CWT for more working, learning and laughs.



I had a wonderful time and my puppy club --canine and human members alike -- are also enriched by my new knowledge. Special thanks must go out to Nancy Denier, the trainer I stayed with for two weeks, for her hospitality and humor. Thanks again for making my time at GDB so much fun and so fascinating.

Amazing stealth octopus

The world funniest dogs

American buffalo and rabbit having lunch together

Beautiful animal world

The deadly black mamba

The elephant Beco plays with ball

Beco, named after his mother, Phoebe, and his father, Coco was born 27 March 2009. As of 12 August, he weighed 690 pounds and is averaging a weight gain of about three pounds a day. At not quite five months old, he is precocious and curious about everything – from drain hole covers to sticks in the yard, he wants to explore everything. Phoebe is a wonderful mother – she keeps a close eye on him while he explores and humours a lot of his rumbustious play. Beco was given the Boomer ball about a week or two ago to introduce enrichment play into his routine (and to give Phoebe a break from his high energy play!). The Zoo gives most of its animals different enrichment activities to stimulate play, natural behaviours, and break up the animals’ routines.

Beco recently had his first swimming lesson from the keepers and Phoebe. While the introduction to the pool went slowly, in the end, he went into the deep end of the pool and swam about using his little trunk as a snorkel, much to the delight of the visitors who got to see his first foray into the pool. All in all, Beco is growing up fast and well, just as a baby elephant should.


Due to habitat loss/degradation and poaching, Asian elephants are considered Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Photo and video credits: Grahm Jones / Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Text credits: zooborns.com

The great migration | BBC

Pistol shrimp sonic weapon

Congratulations to Our Puppy Raising Youth Scholarship Winners!

Annually, Guide Dogs for the Blind awards scholarships to puppy raisers in their senior year of high school. This year, 19 raisers submitted applications, all of whom have outstanding scholastic achievements and community service experience within Guide Dogs and their communities.

For 2011, we were pleased to award four $1,000 scholarships totaling $4,000. Congratulations to our winners:


Elizabeth Kaufmann
Elizabeth, a Southern California native, has been raising Guide Dogs since she was 9 years old. She has raised four puppies as well as puppy sat countless others. Throughout her years of service to GDB, Elizabeth has earned the 4-H Golden Clover Ironstone Concours Service Dog Scholarship as well as the Presidential Gold and Lifetime Service Awards. She has served as treasurer, vice president, and president of her puppy raising club. In addition Elizabeth was able to combine her passion for medicine and service to others when she was selected for the two-week, 80-hour internship in the GDB California Campus Veterinary Department. She came home with a new proficiency and the understanding that the impact her work will have on enhancing the independence of people who are blind.

Elizabeth balanced her lifestyle of raising Guide Dogs with a rigorous academic schedule. She participated in California Scholarship Federation, National Honor Society, was an officer in Mu Alpha Theta, and was part of both the Health and Medical Occupations Academy and SOCSA (South Orange County School of the Arts) during her time at Dana Hills High School. She graduated in June as a valedictorian with AP Honors with Distinction. Elizabeth will be attending UCLA to pursue a career in medicine.



Kayla Hufford
Kayla, of Newport Beach, California, started raising puppies when she was 11 years old. Over the past six years, she has raised 5 puppies with her 4-H Paws for Independence Puppy Raising Club. Two of her dogs have become breeders, two are guides and her last puppy was recently career changed.

Kayla has taken on many positions in her puppy-raising club, including: hospitality, secretary, treasurer, vice president, president, and is currently a co-president of her club. Kayla is a part of the National Honor Society and the Invisible Children Club at her school, as well as an Athletic Council Representative for Girls’ Track and Field. Kayla writes letters and sends care packages to soldiers that are in Iraq and Afghanistan, has helped teach disabled kids to ride horses, and spends her free time riding horses and playing with her pet dog. Over the summer of 2010, Kayla was selected to be an intern in the Veterinary Clinic at the Guide Dog campus in San Rafael for two weeks and got to spend her time helping out in the clinic and with all of the dogs.

Kayla will be attending Washington State University in the fall and will major in animal science, with the plan to become a veterinarian. She also plans to continue volunteering with GDB after she graduates.



Taelor Michehl
Taelor, of Sacramento, California, was 8 when she decided she wanted to raise a puppy, though her parents said she had to wait until she was 12. At 12, she began attending the weekly meetings of a puppy club in her area and she was hooked. Over the last six years, Taelor has raised five dogs, started a sixth, and is currently a puppy-sitter, providing “puppy boot camp” for the dogs in her club as she prepares to attend college in the fall.

As a puppy raiser, Taelor participated as a junior leader in her club, organizing events, leading meetings, and sending out weekly emails informing the club of outings as well as including weekly training tips. She was also able to talk frequently about Guide Dogs for the Blind and her puppy raising experience through her participation in competitive speech and debate, and interviews with local news stations.

Taelor has participated in a national speech and debate league, competing at the national level; AWANA ministries, earning her Citation Award; and community service, making heart shaped pillows and blankets for the cardiac patients and premature babies of her local hospitals.

This fall, Taelor will be attending William Jessup University as a freshman, majoring in psychology and music, with a minor in Bible studies and theology with plans to eventually receive her Certificate in Guide Dog Mobility from San Francisco State University.


Devin San Jose
Devin, of Alameda County, California, is currently raising her sixth puppy. Raising puppies has reinforced her passion to serve others. In addition to puppy raising Devin had the opportunity to serve as an intern on the GDB California campus last summer. She was able to narrow her focus of potential careers to working with physically disabled people.

Devin has been privileged to serve as a team member and leader on a Mexico Mission Team for four years and is currently in Malawi, Africa as part of a mission team helping to establish micro-businesses in impoverished areas. She worked as a volunteer on a campaign for a U.S. Representative through Generation Joshua. She was a member of Know Me Service Club and participated for three years in the Homeland Security Institute Leadership Camp sponsored by Sandia National Labs.

As a home-schooled student, Devin was able to take college courses and earn college credits while completing her high school career with 4.69 GPA. Devin plans to spend a year playing soccer at Las Positas College before transferring to San Diego Christian College where she will major in kinesiology.


Honorable Mentions
Alyssa Gagnon
Chelse Bulthuis
Russell Bryan

Skunk handstand and defensive spray

Crazy ant farmers

Rolling salamanders & caterpillars

Dresser crab camouflage

Racoon and cat playing

Tiny little big cats

Australian alpine dingo dog

Australian camel mating rituals

Box turtle eating a strawberry

Thumbelina - World's smallest horse

Standing just 17 inches tall, she is never going to be a champion show-jumper. In fact, the tiny mare is so small she would struggle to leap over a bucket. But such things are of little concern for feisty Thumbelina who has just been officially recognised as the world's smallest horse. The five-year-old received the title from the Guinness Book of Records after her astonished owners realised she was never going to grow any bigger. She was born on a farm in America to a couple who specialise in breeding miniature horses.


These popular show horses usually weigh about 250lb and reach a height of 34 inches when they are fully grown. But when Thumbelina was born, it was immediately clear she would never grow to this size. At birth she weighed 8lb - the weight of many new-born babies - and eventually she grew to a mere 60lb. Thumbelina's extraordinary size has been put down to dwarfism, which makes her a miniature of a miniature.


But despite this massive difference in size, it is feisty Thumbelina who rules the roost over the stallions and racehorses on her 150-acre farm. 'When she was born, she was so small we thought she wasn't going to make it,' said Michael Goessling, whose parents Kay and Paul bred the miniature horses. 'She weighed eight pounds when she came out and she looked very ill. We feared the worst. 'Because her legs are proportionally smaller than her body and her head, she has to wear orthopaedic fittings to straighten them a lot of the time. 'But we love her and wouldn't want her any other way.'

At a mere 17 inches tall (four hands), the mare measures up to the shins of the 'normal' horses in the paddock. The Goessling family have bred miniature horses for the past 15 years on Goessling's Goose Creek Farm in St Louis, and these usually stand at 34 inches at the withers - the ridge between the two shoulder blades. But the owners of the mini horse began to realise they may have bred a record-breaker when she stopped growing after a year.


'My parents have bred hundreds of miniature horses, but we have never had one as small as Thumbelina,' Mr Goessling said. 'She was just a complete fluke and we call her a mini mini. 'When she was young she found the dog kennels and decided she wanted to bed-in with the dogs, rather than with bigger horses. 'She spends all her time playing with the spaniels, but we have to try and stop her grazing on grass, because she is not allowed to eat too much.'

Thumbelina survives on a cup of grain and handful of hay, served twice-a-day. Normal horses lives for about 35 years, but she is only likely to live up to the age of 17 because of her size. She has the ability to become pregnant and give birth to foals, but her owners have decided not to allow this to happen. Mr Goessling, 39, said: 'There could be complications during the pregnancy, so we think it is better to avoid the risks. 'And although we love Thumbelina, we do not think it is right that the gene which creates dwarfism in horses is carried on through future generations.'


The tiny mare has become sometime of a celebrity in her home town in America, but Mr Goessling insists they will never sell her, no matter what price is offered. 'She is too precious to us to sell,' he added. 'I think my parents would sell me before they part with Thumbelina. 'She has that special Wow factor, which you only get when you physically see how small she really is.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-409317/Meet-Thumbelina-worlds-smallest-horse.html

Let Us Be Your Guide

by Liz Montgomery, inspired by Jacinda

“Let us be your guide… to the social sciences,” reads the poster at the entrance to the Social Science section of the Brigham Young University (BYU) Library. The poster was made possible by the one and only—and might I add, the adorable— Jacinda.

Jacinda is my fourth Guide Dog puppy-in-training, and the first I’ve trained by myself. I raised the other three (Dodger, Mayfield, and Unitas) with the help of my family, beginning when I was 12 years old. I took a break in high school because my life became too busy, but when I came out to BYU, I decided to start again. I figured, “Well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be busy all my life. Why not have a pup by my side through it all?” I puppy-sat my freshman year and then got Jacinda as a transfer (from another raiser family) in August 2010.
And so our adventure began. She went everywhere with me: to classes, church, on errands, you name it. And when I got a job in the library in January, she went there with me, too. (I’m pretty sure she’s spent more time in the library than the majority of the student body.)

It felt so good to have a dog with me all the time, even if she wasn’t always the easiest pup. One of the hardest things for me was learning to deal with the social implications of having a dog by my side. It was difficult for me to continue to be enthusiastic about answering the same set of seven or so questions for the umpteenth time, and I didn’t like being seen as merely a “dog trainer” when there was so much more to me. But I’ve worked through those issues, and now I see Jacinda as an excuse to interact with others and hopefully brighten their day.

When I got Jacinda, I didn’t realize how much I would fall in love with her during the ensuing months. Because the responsibilities with my previous three dogs were shared among my family members, I didn’t spend as much time with those pups as I did with Jacinda, who is completely my responsibility. I’ve had her for 9.5 months, somewhere around 27 days a month (calculating in puppy-trading), and roughly 16 waking hours a day. If you do the math, that’s 4,104 hours she and I have spent together. I’m pretty sure you’d fall in love with a pet rock having spent that much time with it, let alone a spunky, super cute black Lab.

Not only do I value the bond that we share, but I feel blessed for the things I have learned from training her, the most important of which is how to treat others. Since Jacinda apparently had quite a wild youth, I felt as though she had many negative judgments passed on to her, which I found hard not to take personally. I felt:(1) you can’t disapprove of my girl without at least in part disapproving of me and (2) if you knew her like I do, I know you’d love her. I know everything there is to know about that dog: I know her personality; I know her strengths and weaknesses. I know her self-control tactics and how hard she tries, and most importantly, I know her potential. Through that experience, I've come to the conclusion that to know someone is to love them, and it has made me want to get to know others more and judge them less. Jacinda is far from perfect, but I love her all the same, and she has made me want to love others all the same as well.

Well, needless to say, Jacinda will be missed come August; giving her up will probably be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And like many other raisers can attest, the only way I will be able to get through it is by thinking about the difference she is going to make in the world as she does exactly what she is meant to do. And if all goes well, some very lucky person is going to be getting an incredibly beautiful pair of brown eyes. And trust me—those eyes see everything.

Interesting animal facts (part 2)