Biff-Burger November 22nd

Marcy led our November Tuesday meeting at Biff-Burger, which was a night full of distractions both planned and serendipitous. I was handling Hunter for this meeting as part of a condensed puppy camp and completely forgot my duties as staff photographer, so I'm afraid there are no pictures. The good news is, it was dark, so they wouldn't have come out anyway.

This meeting was also special for being a night where we welcomed first-time raisers Bill and Amber with their new puppy, a male chocolate Lab named Bobby, and said farewell to Georgie, raised by Jen, Julianne, and Lincoln Nichter, and Hunter, raised by Eileen Mikals-Adachi.

Marcy started things off by tempting the puppies with treats in her hand, and then she had everyone's pup stand for inspection. After that, we walked through the parking lot, where Marcy had placed treats on her car, and we made note of obstacles in our path by tapping them as we went by with our pups. We're not formally teaching our pups to avoid obstacles – that's not our job or something the school wants us to do – but we do want to start making them aware of overhead obstacles as that is something they will be working on in their guide dog training.

Then we circled back to the front of the building, where a mean cornhole tournament was in progress. For anyone not aware, cornhole involves the tossing of beanbags toward a target. Whether your pup is watching the beanbags fly from the side or seeing them come straight at her as she sits behind the target, it's a great exposure – to say nothing of the half-filled beer bottles on the ground left by the cornhole players, blissfully unaware of the lightning-fast agility of a dog's tongue.

Since Biff-Burger is located on a busy six-lane road, we also took the opportunity to sit the pups on the sidewalk, both facing oncoming traffic and turned away from it. Then it was back to the parking lot for a few more distractions in the form of pine cones and socks. There's a world of distractions out there, and we need to get our pups used to as many of them as possible.

Marcy ended the meeting with a brief discussion of holiday hazards (such as turkey bones and Christmas tinsel) and how to keep your pup safe, reminding everyone that it's perfectly OK to just put your pup in his crate for a while, keeping him out of harm's way and allowing you to relax and enjoy the festivities.

A few of us continued the outing with our pups by having dinner at Biff-Burger, which included not only the usual restaurant distractions but also a walk through the noisy bar with live music.

Let me end by saying good luck to Georgie and Hunter as they continue on with their guide dog education!