I completely forgot to update after Vito's evals.

Well, Vito was career changed during evals. He just was not happy doing guide work, and I saw it. I was stressed out because I knew he was stressed out. It was not a good thing for him, and guide work unfortunately was not in his future.

BUT, I am in his future! I am way too attached to say goodbye to my little man. He is flourishing as a pet. I have taught him a lot of tricks and we work on his manners. He is so food motivated he makes it easy. Plus, he is just so smart. We are working on testing for his CGC, and from there will get involved in agility or rally.

We cuddle every night in my bed and life could not be any better. I wanted to puppy raise again for GDA, but I am attending UC Davis next fall, so a move is in my near future.

Vito says Merry Christmas!

Evals and other things!

I knooow, it has been so long since I updated.

Well, Vito goes in for evaluations on November 4th! Exactly when he turns 9 months. He has to stay at GDA until the 7th. I'm really going to miss him.

We haven't really done much the past month of so. Unfortunately, I've been sick a lot lately which has kept us home. I found out I have a nice sized gall stone and have to have surgery to get my gall bladder removed. Ugh. We scheduled the surgery for the same day Vito goes in for evals, so we know he will be getting all the attention and exercise he needs. Especially since I will not be able to give it to him for at least a week. So, if anyone would like to possibly puppy sit the two weeks after surgery that would be great.

Of course, November 5th is the puppy meeting with the Halloween costume contest. I am VERY sad we won't be able to take part in it!! I was REALLY looking forward to it.

I'll leave you with a picture of Vito I took with my cellphone. He is extremely sad about the Dodgers losing the playoffs...it is obvious right? lol.

Please take a second to pray

This is not doggie related, but I wanted to share about an incident that happened in my life.

I was in a relationship with someone for 4 years of my life, from the time I was 16-20. When you've been with someone that long, it is inevitable that you're involved with their family as well. For 4 years, I had a second family. A family that was welcoming, gracious, and kind. And even though I haven't seen them for 2 years or so, I will always, always care about them.

The father was riding his motorcycle about 1.5 weeks ago when a truck came over into his lane. The truck didn't see him and struck him. He flew off his bike and something happened with his helmet, where he suffered a traumatic blow to his head. He was rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery to release the pressure. He was in an induced coma for the entire 1.5 weeks.

Just yesterday it was discovered he had no brain activity. He would be in a vegetative state, and if he ever came out of it would have the capacity of a 2 year old. Even that chance was slim. After much thought, he was taken off of life support last night.

I just got word of his passing...at 47 years old.

Please pray for his family. He has a wife, and 3 boys...2 of the boys are quite young. This is just so devastating.

Off to Solvang we go and birthday!

Tomorrow Vito is 7 months old. Happy early birthday bubs!! Here are a few pics I took just to show how big he's getting. He's so handsome. :)

This past weekend Vito, my boyfriend and I headed off to Solvang and Santa Barbara for the day! I actually remembered my camera this time so I have pictures.

We walked around a little and ate breakfast at Paula's Pancake House. My mom used to work there a long time ago, so that was fun. Anyways, pictures are more fun!!

Mom! Where are we going?!


Do I look like Gene Simmons?


Pft, it's only fair I get something to eat while YOU eat.


Statue of Hans Christian Anderson



Some door we found.


The best picture! In front of Andersen's Pea Soup! hehe!

Whew! What a crazy month it has been. Classes started on the 18th. I'm attending Moorpark instead of COC and I love it. It is a bit of a drive, but I don't mind. Especially when I'm in...my brand new Yaris!!

I bought a polar white 3 door hatch, and I LOVE it. So does Vito. He gets more room...and I ordered a barrier so it is safer until I decide to put a crate back there. I didn't have the seats all the way down in the pic I posted, so it looks slightly funny.

Besides the car and school things have been well. Vito is doing well, and has been making progress in public. I think he feels more confident and I am proud of him! He hasn't been to classes with me yet, but we went to campus orientation. There was a lot of people there and he did well. Of course, we have been taking our trips to Starbucks for study time, and running other errands. A lot of people tell me he is very behaved...so it is nice to hear that.

GDA switched foods from Canidae to Natural Balance which hasn't completely agreed with Vito, so he is going to GDA tomorrow for that and for a kennel visit! He has gone 2 times now to Camp GDA and everyone says he has a great time! I'm so happy, as I don't want separation anxiety when it is time to leave him for evals or IFT.

Nothing else new going on. I can't believe it is almost September! Where does the time go?

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

This is late (oops!) but Monday was Vito's 6 month birthday. My boy is getting so big.

Vito has been pretty distractable so today Yvonne from GDA came out for a home visit. It went very well. Although Vito and I walk every day, he is on a strict exercise regimen. 2-3 miles per day! We are also starting from square one socialization wise. This will hopefully cut back on his nervousness that results of over stimulation. Yvonne was very positive, and together we think he can do it. :)

Other than that we have been taking it kind of easy. We enjoy our Starbucks trips! Tonight we start a level II obedience class at GDA so that will be fun!

Vito was groomed for his first time today. The fur on his paws was out of control. Doesn't my boy look so handsome?! Don't mind the cheesy bandanna they put on him, lol.

I also added some pics of him sleeping in his new vest. We are still working on getting used to it. :)

Well Vito is back to his crazy self! The hardest part of neutering him was trying to keep him quiet. He was getting cabin fever being locked up in the house all day with no running time.

The silly puppy decided to chew one of the strings off his GDA bib so he got upgraded to the big boy vest yesterday!! It is huge on him, and he keeps trying to rub up against things (people included!!) to get it off. I'm feeding him and walking with it on to get him used to it. Yesterday we also went to our first movie. That was quite an experience. Lets just say Vito is a chow hound. Down stay + yummy popcorn/who knows what on the floor = bad combo. He got something gross and sticky on his head and I had to cut out a little chunk of fur, hehe.

My little kiddo cousins are here and we are going to Seaworld on Saturday, so this morning I dropped him off with Joanna. Her Camry is in for the last part of breeder evals (good luck Camry!!). We are going to meet up at graduation on Sunday, which my whole family and I are excited about. I always cry at these things too!!

Here are a few pictures from this past week. They are from my phone so they aren't the best. Sorry!!

Mr. Conehead himself. We think he looks like Marvin the Martian, ha.


My little cousin playing with Vito in his crate. I love this one. :)


His first outing at the movies in the big boy jacket

Well the good news is, Vito is home! Yaaaay. The bad news? He is pretty miserable. He did great for the first 5 hours or so I picked him up from GDA. Now he is going a little crazy trying to get at his stitches. He does listen to a firm 'leave it' and gives me this sad look. My poor boy.

His e-collar is also a little too small. He can just barely reach the incision so I'm going to have to go out and get a new one. He doesn't seem to really care it is on either. Eats, plays, and drinks as normal. :)

Tammy at GDA did say that he was extremely stressed out being alone for 16 hours. Apparently he was barking a ton and ripped up his bedding. Vito has never ever destroyed bedding, towels, etc. so that was kind of odd. When I picked him up he was hanging out with Sarah in her office. Everyone just loves him and Vito didn't want to leave all the affection!

Before work today I decided to take a first trip to the outdoor part of the mall with Vito. Then we went and had lunch. He had been to the Simi Valley mall before, but our mall has a little more stimulus, I think. We only walked around for a little, it was too hot out. But, he did great! He only pulled a few times...and it was because he heard some sort of weird bird that freaked him out. He went on his first elevator/parking structure trip. He looked a little confused but just looked out the window on the elevator. The elevator in Borders scared him a little bit though. It has no windows and it shakes/creaks a lot. But overall, his confidence is getting better. He didn't want to stay under the table at lunch though, so we fought a bit on that. :)

Tomorrow Vito goes into GDA to get neutered. I've been giving him extra kisses and hugs. I'm going to miss him running around the house for a few days.

Where we goin' mom??


Sit by a statue of a little boy


Whew! It was hot out there!

Working hard? Or Hardly working?

I think Vito really enjoys working with me. Maybe a little too much!

This past weekend I puppy swapped and had Blitz at my home for a visit. It was my first time puppy swapping and it was a lot of fun! Blitz is an awesome dog and it is really cool to see the differences between dogs, especially since Vito is only 5 months old. We took him to Disneyland for a few hours in the morning while it was cool out. He did amazing! Even Cruela liked him.

D-day has been set...

Vito is set to get neutered on July 17th! Well, for now. Only one of his testicles dropped so it has to be checked with the vet first.

I haven't told him the news yet! I wonder how he'll take it...

By the way...if anybody is interested in puppy sitting this cute little bundle of puppy July 26th and 27th please let me know. Thanks!

puppy play

Here are some pics of Gus and Vito from this past weekend. I didn't know Vito even had that much energy in him. 24/7 play time! I'm pretty sure he was bummed to leave. Oh and enjoy my cheesy comments.

Gus: Aarrrrrr, I got your head!


Vito: Oh ya?! Well take this!! That's my arm you butthead!



Gus: I have crazy eyes and I'm coming for you!
Vito: Well I'm going to jump on top of you and get the neck! Ha!



Gus: Ok, well I'm tired..can we sleep now??
Vito: Yummy, your fur in my teeth tastes good!


Vito: Ok...I guess....we....can...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2 months

I haven't updated in awhile (obviously). I was so busy with school I just didn't have a chance. But I had been reading everyone else's blog and thought I should give an update! I know, about time right?

Vito has grown a TON, although he is still smallish for his age. Ever since we had him we were fighting horrible stomach issues. He had (sorry to gross you all out) diarrhea a lot. He was losing weight and it was hard to take him out much. Any little bit of excitement would upset his GI tract. But, after many chicken and rice switches we started putting tylan powder in his food. He has been doing great since then! Vito has a super stomach now. Hopefully he will grow out of it and we can get him off of it.

We went to open house this past weekend at GDA. Vito did great with all the other doggies and distractions there. We competed in the puppy trial...which included walking through his favorite part time snack, mulch (bark)! He did good though! The only thing that was too much to handle was the crumbled up dog biscuits on the floor he had to ignore. Ughhh.

I forgot my camera when we went to the open house. But I took some after pictures. Can you tell he was just pooped?? I woke him up to take the first pic. He wasn't happy.





This weekend we are going to visit my brother, his fiancee, and their GSD puppy Gus in NorCal. I will take tons of pictures and update then! I'm sure Vito will get to do a ton of fun stuff.

What is it about night time?

Our journey began a week and a half ago. I had been anxious for a puppy, but it came so fast. Probably 3 weeks after my home interview with Karen. Vito was with another family who had to relocate after having him a week. Which, honestly, worried me. What if he is a terror?! But that he definitely is not. The call from Louise was unexpected and wonderful. Having only 4 days to plan and I was out of town 3 of those days.
I knew that taking on a puppy would be a lot of work, but Vito seems to have never ending energy. Hence his new nickname, 'Little Monster'. Good thing he knows his name or it may have confused him. :) But what is with the overwhelming energy in the evening?! He's so sweet, calm, and playful during the day. Then Hyde comes out and all hell breaks lose. Maybe he is part werewolf? Who knows.
I am thrilled to post about our journeys throughout the next 1/1.5 years. Here is Vito the first couple days we had him. What a chubbers.