FACEBOOK!!! & a movie

Hey Everyone,

Now I have my very own facebook page, thanks to my mom!  Search for me (Name: Sabrina Berg, School: Palo Alto High)!  I am always looking for more friends. 

I went to my first movie, Quantum of Solace, with my girl and her friend Anne.  I didn't really get it...people ran around screaming a shooting and making loud noises.  Plus I had to sit on the sticky floor, yuck!  Though according to my dad it was better than most James Bond movies, apparently they are all very bad.  I like happy movies like Air Bud.

It's My Birthday!

Hi everyone! For my birthday Cally, my girl, allowed me to create my very own e-mail address!! It is: wigglebrina2007 at gmail dot com. Please feel free to ask me questions or give me post ideas!

The other day at Cally's school I met a graduate CCI dog! He works with a boy at her school and he is very handsome.

Cally's Foreign Policy teacher calls me the "second semester senior" because I am so good and calm during his class. He hasn't seen me run around the backyard at 200 mph! I love math, our math teacher gives me dog cookies sometimes!

Cally's English class is kinda scary. Some of the kids in there need to go to puppy class and learn how to behave! They cannot even do a sit, let alone a sit-stay. They are so loud and the teacher, who is always nice to me, yells at them forever!

Lunch is fun too because everyone pets me, but Cally won't let them share their lunch with me. It is so unfair!

My ear hurts

During our trip, it was very hot and very humid. Two things we do not experience in the Bay Area. Sabrina developed a yeast infection in her ears. First we just cleaned her ears twice a day, but that wasn't enough, so we had to go to the vet. Our older Golden has severe allergy problems so we are used to ear infections. Sabrina did the typical things - she was a bit more active than usual, she shook her head, she scratched and pawed at her ears.

College Tour with Sabrina

Part of our vacation on the East Coast was visiting colleges. Sabrina came along and seemed to enjoy the process. We drove through New England in my grandfather's ancient station wagon for hours. We stayed at hotels. We walked around college campuses. Usually Sabrina stayed in the waiting area with my mom during my interviews, but the interviewer at Drew really wanted Sabrina to join us. A collapsible wire crate worked really well for staying at hotels. Sabrina felt very comfortable in her "own bed". One hotel allowed pet dogs, but the other did not. Sabrina was welcome at both in her CCI vest. I had the opportunity to speak to lots of people about CCI and raising a service dog puppy. Sabrina got lots of attention.

Love at First Flight, well actually just first flight

Sabrina took her first plane ride Tuesday night. Everything went smoothly, though I had to help her find a comfortable position under the seat. During take-off I fed her ice to chew on, it distracted her from the rumblings and vibrations.

During the flight my mom, Sabrina, my cat Peary, and I all slept. Since it was the redeye sleep came more easily for Brina. The flight was accident free. She was not so desperate that she needed to use one of the puppy pads in the bathroom, she has a cast-iron bladder.

I think Peary was comfortable with Sabrina laying next to him. He was a lot quieter than he usually is on the six hour flight. Also there was a baby across the aisle from us that made more noise than my row put together.

Now she is enjoying herself at my grandma's house, though at first she was upset that there was no doggy door, she soon realized that she did not want to spend her time in New Jersey's hot and humid weather.

Novi and Sabrina

This picture was taken a while ago when Novelle and Andrea stayed with us. This picture is of Sabrina and Novi. At this point Novi was a few weeks pregnant (her puppies are now two weeks old), but very chipper.

Long time no see

Hey all,

I have been busy with camp and summer school. But Sabrina has been doing well. She came to summer school with me one day and was very good, especially mostly she had to sit or lay down. It was particularly funny when she licked the guy's foot who sat next to me and he jumped quite loudly during an intense part of the film. Other than scaring the poor guy she was very good, no accidents and only a little squeaking.

I am very sorry for not updating for a while, but I had final projects and finals for two weeks, and this past week i was at camp, where there was limited internet access.

This weekend we are puppysitting Devlin. Sabrina and him are now best friends. They are so cute together. And they have been getting very dirty. They run in the dirt and fall in our out of use fish pond (which is pretty much a tub of green goop). Devlin has also found that he can sit on the first step of our pool and cool off, so he and Sabrina are now only allowed in the kitchen, family room and outside. I think our older dogs are happy with this arrangement because the puppies do not bug them.

Hi all. Sabrina is doing well. She was really adorable yesterday, I was sick with a stomach virus and was laying on our family room couch, which she is allowed on, because we have been using it for "up" and "jump," She jumped up (after my mom told her "jump") and curled up at my feet and went to sleep, and stayed with me for a couple hours.

YouTube Video URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxPU9UdLQA

YouTube Video

I am trying to upload a video on to YouTube, but it is taking forever!!! It is of Puppy Class yesterday!!!! I have free time to work with Sabrina finally, we have STAR Testing for two days, luckily it is easy and I can do the majority of my homework at school, which means that I have more time to spend with Brina!!!

Sabrina decided that pebbles were yummy. She was sick over the weekend, but now she is back to normal. Though eating pebbles can create a large vet bill. She had to have x-rays and couldn't hold any food down until Sunday (she was put on a special diet of rice and chicken), but she is better.

It is hot today so all the pets are quiet and mellow.

Mom and Me

Here I am with my mom Rowina. There are 9 of us S puppies from Rowina and BajaII. I am the only one in the South Bay area. We now live all over the country from Maine to California.

My girl goes to the Prom

I didn't get to go, they say I am too young for the Prom. But, my girl went and I had my photo taken with her. Don't I look terrific?

Mountain View Parade

On April 26, 2008 the South Bay CCI Chapter participated in the Mountain View Spring Parade. Sabrina was very well behaved, I think she got scared and went to the bathroom in the middle of the street when we started "marching," but other than that she was perfect she stayed at my knee the entire time, I was so proud of her. After the parade there was a festival for the participants and viewers. There were two police horses there and the Policeman was very nice and let Sabrina say hello to his horse. Sabrina got excited and jumped around a little bit, then she calmed down and sniffed the horse and licked him, I am not so sure that the horse appreciated the lick. While we were at the festival the only thing that distracted her was another dog barking at her, and I nearly got my arm pulled off.

There is a picture slide show in the left hand bar of the parade.

A long needed update

Sorry it has been so long. I have been busy with school and Sabrina. Everything is going fine so far though.

Sabrina is getting naughtier though. She has figured out that if she wriggles sideways she can sometimes get under the baby gate into the cats' room, where she raids their food and litter boxes. My mom has caught her doing this a few times.

Today we are going to a parade in Mountain View. I'm hopping that with the gentle leader she will not pull my arm off. Though she has learned that if she pulls backward on the gentle leader it does not crick her neck.

Questions???

I see that you have been voting in the poll and that you would like to ask a person using a service dog questions. Leave a comment with your question Or if you have a question for any of the other options on the poll.

A more personal touch

I have found that raising a puppy is wonderful, especially if I have had a bad day at school. Only once have I gotten really mad, she chewed one of my shoes, and it was kind of my fault for leaving them out, but she had never had an interest in shoes. She also went for my fuzzy inside shoes that really comfortable, but not too tacky, and my dad's leather shoes were next to mine. But I have gotten over it, I have more than just one pair of shoes.

Puppy Class 4/15

Last night a puppuy class, the community center double booked the basement so we had to work outside, and being Californian we were all freezing! I think Sabrina was cold and distracted because she lost her focus very quickly. Norrmally she can focus for more than a minute, even when we arew training outside. Also she gets really excited about all the other puppies, and sometimes she would rather play with the other puppies than pay attention to me and get a hot dog.

Training has been going well, she normally listens and pays attention, but we are still having problems getting her to lay down. She can do it for other people, just not for my mom or I.

Puppy Class 4/8

Puppy class was last night. All the dogs are improving. Sabrina's core skill is recall or the "here" command. She was very good last night, when we did the recall she came right away when I said "here," but the poor thing slipped on the floor and did a nose plant. But that didn't deter her, she leaped up and kept running.

Play Date

Novelle and Andrea came over for a play date with Sabrina, since we are watching them for two days for Susan and Laurie. They all played very nicely, but Andrea fell in the pool twice, my mom and I were both there and were able to pull her out. But she can swim very well.

Starting up

Hi all,

I am sending out an e-mail to CCI-people about the blog.

Tonight there is no puppy training class, so my mom and I are going to work with Sabrina on the commands "under," "lap," "down," and "visit."

Sabrina has gotten big over the past few months. I will start postinjg pictures soon, I cannot right now because I'm on a school computer. I am also working on a video of her. But iMovie is harder to opperate than it looks.

Sunday she sat with me and six friends at Starbucks for about ten minutes. She was very good she only lunged at one person who walked right by her. We also went to the pet store for her monthly bath. She did vewry well, but got really excited when she saw another dog.

She has not gone out a lot, aside from walks and car rides. We are working with her on walking in busy areas, like parks and downtown Palo Alto.

I met with council and they liked my ideas and we brainstormed some more ideas. I need to make a few adjustments to my plan which I hope to get done with in the next two weeks if possible.

Gold Award Submission

I have now submitted my Gold Award Application and am meeting with the committee today so they can approve my project to raise a service dog puppy. I will make sure to update after meeting with the committee.