New Family member

Today we met our puppy Dixie.  She will one day hopefully be a guide dog for the blind.  We will do our best to prepare her and love her.  She is 15 weeks old and a lot of fun.  She is so obedient.  A credit to the puppy raiser who was handling her before us.  She obeys the commands to sit, stay, heel, [lie] down, come, follow, [go to] kennel, and out [drop]. She is working on "close" which is a command to teach her to get close to the handler [me] and between my legs when I am sitting.  This will be a common position for a guiding dog when riding anywhere or sitting with her blind person.  There is so much to teach her, but mostly we just need to love her.  That is easy with 5 children around.

     Wow! I am a little tired from this rascal and so is she!! She is so friendly and fun.  I am looking forward to learning a lot with her.  The sweetest moment of my day came when all the rest of the family was away in bed.  Dixie desperately wanted to get next to me on the couch.  This is a HUGE no no for a guide dog, absolutely no getting on the furniture.  I  got down on the floor to be with her and the not so little bundle of sweetness got into my lap and fell asleep.  She snored as only a puppy can, and I was grateful to have a dog in my arms again.