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Author Archives: Donna Black-Sword

Oxymorons and other oddities

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword

There was some buzz this past week in one of the CCI social networks about the logic behind puppy naming. Since the moose I’m raising is tagged with the moniker of Micron (irony, anyone?), I found this a pretty interesting conversation string.  Some highlights I think worth sharing . . .

Each litter from Canine Companions for Independence’s exceptional breeding program is assigned an alphabetic letter. Micron is from the “M” litter of nine pups: Mars, Madden, Marlena, Marco, Madias, Miwa, Meryl, Molina. Because of the number of successful litters, it can present a challenge to come up with unique names. Our last pup, Inga, is is fourth pup to be named such, making her official CCI name Inga IV.

Name suggestions are submitted by puppy raisers, breeder caretakers, donors and others within the CCI community. Some lucky folk are honored by having a dog named after them. Micron’s brother Madias is named after the breeder caretaker of their litter. Of course I think it would be amazing to have a super intelligent service dog strutting around with my name, but I do admit to mixed emotions on that one. I kinda cringe at the thought of my name associated with a puppy puddle on the kitchen floor, you know?  Oh, Donna. Baaad girl . . .

We’ve all heard this bit of advice: before naming your baby, try yelling the name out the back door a few times. A name might look good on paper, but maybe not as great when screaming at your kid to “get your butt outta the neighbor’s tree, Kal-el!” (Earth calling Nicholas Cage. Time to come back from Kryton and name your kids something that won’t get them beat up in middle school.)

Ok, reality check. We’re not talking about naming kids something hippy dippy like a comic book character. These are future service dogs; professionally trained and highly skilled. Not only is it ok to tag them with unique names, it’s appropriate. These dogs stand levels above the average pet; their names should reflect this as well. 

Some of the CCI pups I’ve encountered in my circle of activity have been Wallaby, Kel, Naoko, Dreamer, Yahtzee, Karsen, Harvey, Yaz, Inez and the newest one I’ll be meeting in a couple of weeks – a little black pup named Red.

Some other notable names of recent pups are Beatrix, Pavlov (got drool?), Patina, Fonzi, Jango, Bliss, Wasabi, Truman, and Bogie. As a long-time owner of labs, I love the pup names of Hoover and Chewy.
To paraphrase a CCI graduate, it doesn’t matter to her what her dog’s name is. She loves the dog and he loves her. She would proudly call the dog Doo Doo if that were his given name. And after meeting her service dog, people would want to name their own dogs Doo Too. Along that same line of thinking, another fellow said if his dog were named Poophead, he would call him Poopy or Heddy with apologies to no one. Sounds like a healthy attitude to me.

What’s that old one-liner — I don’t care what you call me, so long as you don’t call me late for dinner? Yeah, that’s pretty much the take on puppy names. Guess what the dog really cares about. A clue? It ain’t that their name might sound like a body function. (Enunciate now when you say Wizzard.)
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I’m including a handful of photos of Micron’s busy week. The top shot is when he went with me to the polls on Tuesday to vote on our local issues. Micron was so well-behaved and impressive that a helpful lady thought he was my service dog and asked if I wanted to use the large screen voting monitor. She would even have one of the workers escort me. Micron must have been looking pretty darn good and I probably should have had that third cup of coffee before I left the house.

Lunch hour on Wednesday was a trip to the scrapbook store with my croppin’ buddy, Renee.  Here’s Micron doing a wonderful down-stay while we shopped. No, I don’t think he looks depressed about being there. 
This next shot is Micron trying to get his head around why that box is making such a racket. It’s a box o’chicks. Fifty chicks, so I was told. Noisy little buggers. 
Last couple of photos are from Saturday’s Furry Skurry in Dayton,OH. Micron was the spokesdog at the Iams booth. He did a fine job showing off his healthy Eukanuba skin and coat.

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It’s a family affair

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword
The mighty Mr. Micron comes from a litter of nine pups; all stinkin’ adorable. Now that these nine cuties have celebrated their seventh month birthday, it seems a good time to take a look at how a couple of them are doing.
The dad, Blaze, is a full golden retriever and mom, Nyrobi, is a lab/golden cross with a black coat. Some of pups sport a fluffy coat and the rest are smooth coated. Some black, some yellow and some, well . . . a little of both. 
Madden
Hey, I’m no geneticist, but I really thought labradors came in just the basic solid colors. Black crossed with yellow makes either black or yellow, you know? I’m glad to be wrong, cuz check out the stunningly handsome Madden.  Is that coat just amazing or what? And as a bonus, his puppy raisers Regina and Dave say he is a wonderful pup to raise. They took this photo on Easter Sunday and noted that he didn’t need any bunny ears to dress up; his gorgeous coat and markings need no adornment.
I would agree.
Marco
Littermate Marco is being raised in Ohio and within driving distance for us. Marco is another black, fluffy coated pup. We met up last month for a CCI puppy raiser event and the two boys made time for a play date. Marco has a bit of brindling in his black fur as well. Yeah, I know he has his eyes closed in this shot on the right. Sincere apologies to puppy raiser Roxanne, but I really liked the wind-in-his-hair look that Micron is sporting.
And here we have Micron offering knot tying advice to puppy Yahtzee as he attempts to hog-tie Marco with the leashes.
Cute puppy alert
It wouldn’t be right to fawn all over the successful M litter without giving heart-felt praise to Marti Madias. Marti cared for the pups from birth until eight weeks. By the time I received Micron to raise, he had been introduced to crate training, early socialization and had learned some fundamental skills. All thanks to Marti. This is cool enough, but realize she did this with nine puppies over two months–as a volunteer for CCI. Talk about a labor of love. Awesome work. 
The young puppy photos are courtesy of Marti. Above we have a newborn Micron ready to be weighed and measured. The shot at the very top of the post is Micron before Marti sent him off to our CCI regional center. Before being named, the puppies are assigned a color to avoid any mixups of who is who. You see that Micron is “neon green.”
This is good to know because now we can identify him in the feeding frenzy below. And there he is bottom center with the neon green spot on his adorable butt. Check out the real estate that body stance is taking up. I’m told he was the biggest of the litter. Kinda makes sense after seeing this.
Here’s a pair of fluffy yellows taking advantage of the California sun.
I’m not sure if this is Micron or not, but based on what’s going on here, I’m willing to make an educated guess.
And how is the mighty Mr. Micron doing these days?  He’s doing great, thanks. Except for when he’s getting the snot beat out of him by smaller puppies.

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Would you rather . . . ?

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword
In a past life I spent a few years as a catechist at my church teaching a faith formation course to seventh graders.  “What?” you’re thinking, “Seventh graders!  A few years?  Are you nuts? Why would you do that?”  I can actually answer that in one word:  penance.
Ah, kidding, kidding. No, actually I’m just an idiot and had no idea what I had signed up for. Although, once I got into the groove of things, it was a great time and I have wonderful memories to take with me to old age. So, you want to know the secret of how to teach morality lessons to 12 year olds without all the eye-rolling and sighing?  News flash . . . you can’t. Disdain just comes with the territory. But I did have a super special secret weapon that got their attention every time. The book of Would You Rather . . .? This little tome peddles itself as “four hundred and sixty-five provocative questions to get teenagers talking.”
Provocative questions, indeed. Want to do a quick morality check on your young ‘un?  Ask question #341:
     Would you rather . . . wear dirty underwear or dirty socks?
Not provocative enough? Then think like a 12-year old for question #148:

     Would you rather . . . eat a hamburger in front of a starving child or destroy a child’s self image?

That one was a little deeper. But to get a rise out of the entire classroom population, this one single question brought the most riotous response. Question #333 asks:

     Would you rather . . . watch Barney or Sesame Street?

There’s something about Barney that just put seventh grade young people on the defensive. If a child psychologist hasn’t written a paper on that subject, well they should.
All interesting stuff, you say. But why am I sharing this with you? Because I received something in the mail that raised a would you rather question for me.  Totally wonderful news, but caused a morality check.
I’m told that my first CCI puppy, Inga, has been selected for team training in May. I’m so jazzed about this, that it’s crowding out any other thoughts. We are so close to seeing her be matched with someone. Cautious optimism; we’re close, but not there yet. If a match isn’t made during this team training, she’ll wait until the next team comes through. But still, she made it this far! I’m doing a happy dance. Just in my mind, though. Otherwise, I’ll just hurt myself.
Now that this is all in-my-face real stuff, no more imagining what to do if she doesn’t make it. This beautiful dog I raised for 14 months, who was my constant companion during that time. This dog I loved and worked so hard with. Would I rather she graduate from CCI and become a service dog or do I want her back in my life? I’ve said all along that I wanted to raise a service dog and I meant it. Now I know that Inga is not ever coming back to my home. How do I feel about that?  Ah, reality smacks me in the face yet again. 
I do love that dog. I loved the time we had together. And I love that I was able to be part of something that could possibly change someone’s life in a profound way. Hey, you know what? I’m ready to share that love. My dog, who is not my dog, is moving on. This is bigger than just me. That’s my morality check and I’m feeling pretty damn good about it. 
Puppy raising for CCI rocks!

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Mudpuppy [muhd-puhp-ee] –noun

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword

Mudpuppy [muhd-puhp-ee] –noun; any of several often large mammals of the genus Canis Smelliness of the southwestern Ohio region

It finally stopped snowing here in southwestern Ohio. We know spring is just around the corner because, of course, now it’s raining. And since this is Ohio weather, the rain held up for one day so it could snow again. But that was resolved the next day with more spring rain. They don’t call this Sinus Valley for nothin’.

The dogs were desperate to play outside in the backyard. I’m motivated to keep my beautiful taupe carpet free of muddy pawprints. So who won?  Oh right, as if I had a choice in the matter. After yet another day of the zoomies and overturned dining room furniture, I thought perhaps the backyard was finally dry enough for a hearty frisbee session. But hey big surprise; I lost on that one too. A modest little pond had formed back there, surrounded by a six foot radius of a shoe-sucking mud moat. 
But I’m making too much of things, really. Most of the yard was pretty dry. The two dogs could just let loose and run without me squealing like a caught rabbit every time they wrestled each other to the ground.
Sharing some action shots of Micron and Jager. Note the common theme, though. Jager may be in front of Micron, or behind him. Even nose to nose right next to him.  But not once does the hapless spotted dog get to carry the frisbee. He does look happy though, doesn’t he? In a maniacal sorta way.
Moving on to another topic. I’ve expanded the blog roll over there in the side panel on the right. I’m adding some wonderful blog sites that I’ve recently come across that are written by hearing dog teams. Cathy shares her experiences from Canada with Bosley in Life with a Hearing Dog.  And Hearing Elmo is an amazing blog that shares yet another perspective of a hearing dog team. Insightful stuff; I do hope you can take a few minutes to check these out.

It kinda looks like Micron’s eating the mud doesn’t it? Yeah, well.  He is.

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Oh, the places you’ll go!

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Donna Black-Sword
“Today is your day! You’re off to great places! You’re off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.”  Right, so definitely not shoes.  Many thanks anyway to Dr. Suess for the fun segue. (Notice that rhymes. Dr. Suess would be proud, don’t ya think?)

Micron is five months old and we are so outta here. We got things to do and people to see. He has earned his big boy cape. Because he is only five months, we start off pretty slow with quick in and out trips to the local places.  During Inga’s puppy raising we found certain businesses around town that were supportive of CCI, so we hit those first. Grabbing a latte at the Starbucks kiosk in Kroger was our first stop. Grande vanilla, nonfat with cinnamon sprinkles, in case you felt the need to know. And of course, the Northmont Library where they still don’t know my name, but remember Inga’s. The Wendy’s around the corner is a good stop too.
We did have an interesting thing happen last week that I wanted to share. Micron and I met my mom (Hi Mom!) for lunch at K’s Restaurant in Brookville. K’s is another wonderful supporter of CCI. You ever really notice the floors at restaurants? Sit down with a dog and you will. I love K’s spotless carpet. Anyway, as we walked past a table we heard a growl. “Dang, was that somebody’s stomach?” was my first horrified thought.  But when the barking started from two tables down we saw a service dog under the table. I want to be clear right now that this was not a CCI dog. Micron handled things like a pro. He looked at the dog, looked at me (“play?”), and was given a Down command. Which he did, much to my pride and relief. How utterly and completely perfect of him. As the handler could not get their service dog to settle, Mom, Micron and I moved to another table out of line of sight so they could enjoy their lunch in peace. The moral of this story is this is exactly why CCI demands so much of their service dogs. These dogs must be solid in every situation, regardless of distractions. At five months, I’d say Micron is off to a very good start.
On to another topic, here’s a fun side trip. Micron’s brother, Mars, has a blog on the 7 News Denver Channel website. It’s written from the pup’s point of view and is very clever indeed. Being a widely read blog in Denver, it’s a wonderful way to raise awareness of CCI. Mars had received an email from Micron and here he tells his puppy raiser about it:  Mars.
One more bit of bragging them I’m done here.We just finished puppy classes at Dayton Dog Training. At the end of the course, an evaluator tests the pups for the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program. I’m so proud that Micron is now a card carrying S.T.A.R. dog. He, however, is very humble about the whole thing and only wants to eat the medal.
You know what’s missing from this picture? A puddle of drool.

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