4 months

Mary turned 4 months old on March 18th. We went to the Big Dog class in Old Sacramento. Mary was the driver for the Big Dog class photo! She definitely knows how to pose.

Her final shots were done this month as well! She was 30.7 lbs on the 15th. 

Mary's Uncle Locke has moved in with us after his owner and long time CCI puppy raiser and breeder caretaker passed away. Locke is Chandra's Grand-Puppy from OMSI III. Oz' mom Omeeka is OMSI's sister. Locke will turn 7 on March 30th (Chandra's birthday too!) 

Pretty girl! Loving her Cupcake Pups collar! 

Half brother Ziggy (Oz puppy) and Mary had fun in the play yard after puppy class! 

Hanging out in the office with Uncle Locke! These dogs are amazing. They love just hanging out during the day. We work on some commands when there is time, but most of the day they are sleeping. Lots of playtime when we get home! 

This is an amazing comparison photo. Chandra on the left and Mary on the right. 

No surface issues here! Mary and Ziggy were rolling around and playing on this! Then we interrupted their fun for this photo! 

We did a demo for the Boy Scouts about Service Dogs. Battier came to show off her skills! Locke was with us and the other pup is Isaacson. 

Play date with Battier

Mary had a wonderful play date with her Aunt Battier today! Mary is 16 weeks old and is doing very well with her commands. She knows: SIT, DOWN, SPEAK, BED, SHAKE, KENNEL, LET's GO, HURRY, OKAY..we introduced UP yesterday on a low surface and she did great! 

A good game of tug!! 

Battier was pretty tired after playing with Mary!

Sacramento Kings!

The Sacramento Kings have been wonderful this season about giving tickets to Canine Companions for Independence through there Kings Community outreach. Before the season started I went to a meeting for non-profits and the Kings, it was about 2 hours and definitely worth it! We have had many opportunities this season to take puppies to games and it's been awesome. Recently the Kings asked if we would like 30 tickets each to 4 upcoming games! I said of course and we would be getting a lot of Gold Rush Chapter puppy raisers and graduates to the event! 

Today I picked up the tickets and took some pictures of Mary in front of Sleep Train Arena. The Kings must have loved the picture too since they shared it on their Instagram! 

Special CCI day

Yesterday I was invited to join my friend who raised Service Dog/Hearing Dog Jane on a day trip to Santa Rosa. Jane graduated with a wonderful woman and her husband graduated the same day with Hearing Dog Natt. They were in the same class as Battier. This week there was a National Board meeting at the NW campus so Battier and Jane's families were in town for the meeting. 

My friend and I both went to KPT puppy class in the morning and then left for Santa Rosa. The weather was supposed to be bad, but it wasn't too bad on the way down. We made it and had a great visit with Battier's family and Jane/Natt's family. Nancy and Battier had to take off to get back to Sacramento. We planned on staying for a few hours....that turned in to dinner and then the rain and terrible storm made the decision easy to stay over night in one of the open dorm rooms. It was so nice visiting late into the night! Mary had so much fun playing with Jane and Natt! They were very tired puppies!! 

Courtney HD, Jane HD/SD, Mary, Battier SD and Natt HD. 

Battier and Jane have been best friends since they were babies! They have the same dad, the amazing Orent!

After running zoomies with Jane! 

Sleeping with Natt! 

Tie down practice while dinner was being cooked! 

The awesome dorm room where we stayed.

Waking up to a beautiful Sunday after the storm! 

Back home in Sacramento...Mary is one tired puppy!! 

First road trip!

Mary is loving her first road trip! We drove to Palm Springs a few days ago and it is 500 miles from Sacramento. We made 2 stops and the drive went by fast. Mary was perfect and slept the whole time. 

When we arrived Mary got to play with my Aunts French Bulldog named Muki! They had so much fun together!! 

We are enjoying the warm weather and I've introduced Mary to the pool. She's not too sure about it yet, but I know she will love it! 

Yesterday was February 29th! So we needed a "Leap Day" photo! 

Grooming day! 

Tonight we went to The River and I let her watch the people that were going to restaurants and the movies. It was a busy night and she was perfect. Just taking everything in. 

3 months

Mary is doing great! She's such a nice puppy. Energy, bold, smart and just wonderful! 

We went to KCRA to visit and pick up a gift pack from my friend Lisa Gonzales, she's an anchor at KCRA. Everyone loved her! 

So many toys!

3 month photo- Februry 2016 - 22 lbs.

Such a cute little bandana made by our friend who has Mary's uncle Trapper, he's a CCI Hearing Dog.

Puppy class with JT...there are over 20 puppies in our KPT class! 

Best photo we could get with the energetic JT!

Puppy Love.

Pupp Love. Bestie Nordic came over for a fun photo shoot today! Both puppies are 12 weeks old and 1 day apart. 

Valentine's Day Kiss!

Here!

Santa Rosa - First Graduation ceremony!

I On Thursday we drove to Santa Rosa for the February 2016 Graduation! The weater was beautiful and we arrived on campus in the late afternoon. We visited with some of our favorite staff on campus and then went back to the hotel.

This was Mary's first hotel experience and she did great! We stay at the Best Western in Rohnert Park before graduations and it's always a lot of fun! They are great with the CCI puppies and there is a free hot breakfast.

We went out to dinner with puppy raisers from the North Central Region and had a great evening. Desty and her puppy raiser stayed with us in the hotel and the NCR puppy raisers brought their last puppy Rupert by, he's now a breeder and was being presented at this graduation.

On Friday we woke up very early! There was some more playtime in the room before going over to Canine Companions. Desty turned in her puppy equipment and received her matriculation cape.

At 11 am there was a small ceremony for Chandra's memorial bench that was presented to CCI. It is outside of the vet clinic and is so beautiful. The names of her breeders and  her Grand-Puppy breeders are on the bench along with her paw print. It is very special and I hope people enjoy it for many years to come!

Mary was pretty exhausted by all the activities and meeting so many people! After lunch we were off to the Wells Fargo Center for graduation. It's always fun to see the dogs meet their puppy raisers again after 6-9 months of Advanced Training!

There was another beautiful class of graduates, 16 new service teams to go with the 7 service teams that were placed in January.

Mary slept the entire graduation ceremony and was such a great puppy. When we were in the reception area she just laid down and checked things out. She's a very smart and confident puppy! Battier is also the cover girl for the 2016 graduation programs!!

We went to Mary's first restaurant after the graduation ceremony. The Gold Rush Chapter puts on a dinner at El Torito after gradautions. Mary slept on the floor with her friend and newest GRC puppy JT named after my friend Jason Thompson. The puppies were so tired from graduation that they slept the entire time. In total there were 40 dogs at dinner.

The waitress dropped some chips and we just left them there for practice, the puppies were so tired that they didn't even care about them. 

It took a little extra time to get home, but Mary was great! JT did cry for a lot of the trip, just thinking it was a little pay back for all of Mary's screaming a few weeks ago!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow marks a month since I picked her up, I sure love this pup!!