GDB Regional Meeting in Denver

I have been anxiously awaiting today's regional guide dog for the blind meeting for months! I couldn't wait to see all of the puppies together and to see all the new puppies. Colorado got 35 new puppies in total - 16 to the Grand Junction meeting and 19 to our meeting. We spent the morning learning about the history of GDB and doing training exercises with the dogs. Then during the potluck lunch the infamous puppy truck arrived. Alex and I got to be puppy presenters. That means that we were handed a puppy from the truck and we took it inside and gave it to its new raisers. The puppies range from 8 weeks to 10 weeks old and were the cutest things ever! Our Fort Collins club got three new little girls. I tried not to post a hundred pictures but it was difficult. If you want to see all of my pictures from the day check out the link to the event on my website - under the GDB link.

The large room filled with tons of "puppies in training". You can't see most of them because they are laying quietly under the chairs.

Gillian, Gabrina, Gardner and Gilly. They are all litter mates and will all turn one year old this coming week. Most are fairly big, except for Gilly who is very short and stocky.

Tim is helping us learn how to deal with a puppy that has dog distraction problems.

Gabrina and Gardner (litter mates) make out.

Gabrina and Gardner rest calmly like good little puppies.

Two real working guide dogs greeting each other. They do belong to actual blind people - not seen in the picture. It was really cool to see them work.

One of the new little puppies that came to Colorado a few weeks ago.

The infamous PUPPY TRUCK! Filled with 19 of the cutest little bundles I have ever seen. They were all being remarkably quiet. They had an uneventful ride from California to here.

Short video from the inside of the puppy truck.

The puppy truck driver getting ready to hand off a puppy to a puppy presenter.

Handing off the puppy to the presenter.

I get a nice lick from the puppy that I got to present. She was so sweet and covered in newspaper print from the kennel. She was so covered in ink that she actually looked gray.

The raisers and the hand off.

Alex had one of the youngest puppies, eight weeks and two days. He was so soft but very squirmy. Alex presented the last puppy.

Alex tries to calm the squirming puppy.

Alex hands off the puppy to the raisers.

Virginia (raiser of Dusty) gets her new puppy Ashley. Dusty is now back at San Rafael and is in phase two and is on breeder watch.

Shawna gets to hold and cuddle with Ashley.

A close up of Ashley in Alex's arms.

Alex and Ashley.

Another one of the little puppies that is now part of Fort Collins GDB family - Dupree. She checks out her new raiser.

A sleepy Dupree - too much excitement in one day for a such a little puppy. She was so sleepy that she could hardly keep her little eyes open.

Dupree

Alex's raiser - now without Alex as he is in training at San Rafael - hands off a puppy. Doesn't the puppy look tiny in his big arms.

Overall it was a fun day and worth getting up early for. It was sad to watch the recalled dogs saying goodbye to their raisers before getting on the truck to go back to California for training but they will all have great lives. I didn't get any pictures of our other new puppy Eve but we will be acting as day care for their raisers a lot over the next few weeks so I am sure I will get lots of pictures of her.