As well as seeing the wonderful raisers from our puppy group, I was able to meet up with two other puppy raisers that came from out of state for the WAT. I met one though an internet group a couple years ago and the other from the wonderful world of blogging!
This is Rebecca and her puppy-in-training, Rocky (aka the Rock Star!). We puppy-sat Rocky (when he was about 50 pounds lighter :) and Rebecca's career changed dog Ely when Rebecca and her family came down for the graduation of their last puppy they raised! Rebecca was the person who really nudged me into raising puppies.....Thank you so much Rebecca!!
Rebecca has an awesome guide dog blog, check it out.....here
This is Allie and her beatiful puppy-in-training Toby. Toby wasn't wanting his picture taken....he'd much rather sniff Sadie all over :) Allie has a really neat guide dog blog as well! 
It rained during the whole 3 mile walk...every dog was soaking wet and pretty frisky because of the cold weather. The humans were also soaked, but despite the rain, almost every person walked the 3 miles. Sadie stayed in a perfect down under during lunch...
After lunch, Kaitlyn and I did a blind fold walk. Our first ever!SEGDI staff marks off an area where they have dogs in harnesses ready to show you what it feels like to walk in complete darkness with a dog. When you start, you have to put on glasses that are completely black so you can't see anything. The dogs trainers are there, of course, holding the leashes, but you, as the "blind person" have a hold of the harness. The trainers have objects like a chair or safety cone so you and the dog have to go around it. It really shows you how much a blind person depends on the dog to keep them safe. The guide dog that lead me was a Gold-a-dore (Golden Retriever mix Lab) named Sarge and Kaitlyn's guide was a Lab. (Can't remember it's name!)
Right before the WAT was over they had the raffle. The winner of the 1st prize ($10,000 dollars) lives in Texas!Sadie and I posed for a picture right before we left for home. (This was the same spot we took a picture of Eve and I last year *sniff* :)
Thank you for your support! Hope to see you again next year!Love,
Meagan
Toby & I sure had a blast at WAT.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to have met you, best of luck to Eve!
Toby's Raiser
Meagan it was so good to see you today and I am so glad that you guys started raising! Sadie looks so small next to Rocky! The dog that walked Kaitlyn was Hugh who was raised in the other NC group. The blindfolded walk gave a gimps into just how great these dogs are!
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