SCLRR was contacted by the Lompoc shelter about Buddie, his owner had passed away, leaving 3 dogs homeless. One is 17, another 12, and Buddie 7. Buddie being the only lab. Karen, an SCLRR volunteer, fostered Buddie, and said he was a dream to have in her home.

Karen was at the Santa Barbara shelter December 22. Christine, another SCLRR volunteer, was with her –she had evaluated Buddie. Talking with the volunteers they discovered Jessica (animal control officer from the Lompoc shelter) was there and she was the one that knew Buddies dad. He was a transient who moved in his motor home from Arizona to Lompoc in 2011 with his dogs. He was a diabetic and alcoholic which ended him in the hospital a few times. Jessica was the one that answered the call the first time this happened. The report was a “vicious” dog was barking inside the motor home…turned out it was Buddie ….who doesn’t even come close to vicious. Jessica took the 3 dogs to the shelter and they stayed there until the owner was released from the hospital–who came immediately to pick them up. This happened every time the owner went to the hospital. Jessica said the dogs were his life and they came first and he probably took better care of the dogs than himself.

Late Sept or early October 2012, the owner checked into a motel. Eventually the authorities were called in, since the owner hadn’t been seen for awhile. They had to get into the motel room via the room next door–connecting door. The owner had been dead for 2 weeks. The dogs were laying by their owner “protecting” him. The dogs only had toilet bowl water to drink and no food–and did go running to the other motel room the authorities had come through straight to the toilet for water. Jessica had been there through all of this and took the dogs into custody and to the shelter. The owner had never been touched by the dogs in any way, even with no food for 2 weeks.

The authorities looked for next of kin to no avail. It then became Cheryl’s (a Lompoc volunteer) mission to find homes for all 3 dogs. The 17 year old went to a senior shelter–who sent her back to the Lompoc Shelter, she yelped and cried constantly missing her canine companions. The families that showed interest in the 12 year old dog never followed through. Then a man from Los Osos adopted both the 12 and 17 year old together—both dogs are doing great and have a pig and several goats as siblings.

After being fostered by Karen, Buddie was adopted by a wonderful family. He has a mom, dad, brother and sister, and a doggie brother around Buddie’s age. His new family had lost a lab to cancer and their other lab was lonely—now the two boys get along wonderfully.

Cheryl, the Lompoc volunteer, told Karen something she won’t forget….”I wish I could have met the man who had these 3 dogs—the dogs are the nicest, sweetest dogs ever.” I’m sure we have two adopting families that agree with her.

We’re running fast today…after jumping, we had to come back to the hotel to get ready for the formal banquet. Oliver looks good in formal wear, but isn’t going with us for this one. Here are the highlights from today..

Today started with a handlers meeting at 8:00 this morning. The corporate group went over rules, regulations, and of course the requirement to have fun (oh ya and pick up the dog poop!) We certainly are having fun…the excitment in the air can be felt. Everybody is happy, sharing travel stories, jump stories, and of course trading cards! It is so much fun to trade the dogs “pawtograph” cards. We have quite the collection already!

Oliver jumped mid-day today. He was in the 2nd of 4 groups for the Junior division. In total there are 32 dogs jumping in his division with the top 6 moving to Sunday finals. We hoped for a big jump today, but weren’t too excited as Oliver always tends to jump best the 2nd day. As expected he jumped a starter jump for his first jump around the 11′ mark. Sue gave him a pep talk, tugged and played in between turns and his second jump was much better at 13’9″. He finished tied for 12th place. We didn’t make it into finals yet, as the top dogs in his division were jumping at the 17′ mark! The top 3 won’t jump tomorrow so now it’s Ollie against the now top 9! Sue promised him steak for dinner if he jumps over 16′. I suspect he’ll get that steak dinner no matter how far he jumps! He’s a pretty special boy and deserves the steak just for trying.

We woke up to a chilly overcast morning in Nebraska. After a few hours of driving, we crossed into Iowa mid-afternoon and made it to Dubuque a little after six. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in just a few days.
As we drove along, we talked about how far we actually were from home. It made us think about Oliver and how far he really has come. Who would have ever thought that the unfixed, scared, and neglected stray walking the streets of Hesperia would be 6 states away competing for a championship DockDiving title?!?! I bet not his former owners whoever they are. I can picture them saying…”he’s a dumb dog who can’t do a thing”! Boy wouldn’t they be surprised to see him now. It doesn’t happen magically, but with work, training, consistency, and most of all lots of love any dog can be a “good dog”. As far as we’re concerned Oliver is a GREAT DOG! We’re very thankful to SCLRR for rescuing him and then allowing us to adopt this special dog who has a heart of gold.

After 3 long but very interesting days of driving…WE FINALLY MADE IT!
It is so very exciting to be here. The handlers area is a buzz with people from all over the country and hundreds of dogs just waiting for their chance to jump, swim, or fly all for their favorite toys and of course the love of the game. The indoor arena area is absolutely amazing with 3 different pools set up for each of the disciplines. Oliver jumps in Big Air which is the category where they measure distance. He is in the junior division and typically jumps in the 12′ to 14′ range. The more senior dogs are expected to jump around 28′ to 32′!

We found out today there are 32 dogs in each division. There will be 2 chances to move from the qualifying rounds to the finals on Sunday. Only the top 6 dogs total will is be given the opportunity to jump in the finals. We’re keeping our paws crossed and giving Oliver a lot of encouragement to jump as far as his labby legs will take him. We don’t know where we’ll wind up (in the finals or watching in the bleachers), but we know that he will like always, jump with all his heart and to us that is all that matters. He is being such a good boy and we are proud of him and what he represents. Give a dog a 2nd chance and who knows where you’ll wind up. Perhaps Iowa???

We’ll keep everybody posted as we go…for tonight it’s time to sleep. Handlers meeting is at 8:00 and Oliver hits the pool for his first jump around 10:30.

So here we are in Lexington Nebraska after a very long day. We were on the road for about 11 hours total today and lost another hour to the time change. We are offically now 2 hours ahead of California. We had planned to get up in Grand Junction this morning and shoot directly over to Denver. Well…we seemed to have overlooked the fact that we would be driving through the beautiful Colorado mountains. We stopped more than once to admire the beautiful scenery and take some pictures of our handsome boy.

Oliver is being such a good boy riding in the car. He’s getting special bones, bully sticks, and treats of course as a reward. He seems pretty happy considering he’s riding in his big crate from home and has plenty of room to spread out. He got to play in the snow for the first time today which he seemed to enjoy. We were able to get some awesome pictures of the handsome boy. He has no idea all the fuss is for him!

Tomorrow we complete our drive arriving in Dubuque Iowa early tomorrow evening. Sue & Oliver check in tomorrow evening and then Friday the real fun starts.

Dream of big jumps Mr. Oliver…dream of big jumps…
See pics of Oliver here.

Day 1: Leaving the homestead…

Let’s start of by saying, it is amazing just how much you really can fit in a suitcase! With the high temperatures on our trip ranging from 30° to 40° we had to pull out the BIG warm winter clothes for both us and Oliver! He’s probably one of the few SoCal dogs who owns an arctic coat! Have to say he’s pretty handsome in it. We’ll post some pictures when we get back east a bit.

We’ve decorated the car hoping to win a ribbon in the “DockDogs” car decorating contest, showing off our pride in our SCLRR rescue dog, our support of Chase Away K9 Cancer, and of course our home dock club SoCal Dock Dogs.

Today is going to be a long one as we are leaving CA and driving across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, with our first nights destination being Grand Junction Co.

So with just about everything we own in the car we loaded up the dog and we’re set for our adventure…Ready…Ready…Ready…YES WE ARE!!

Cali & I passed the therapy dog certification test 2 weeks ago and she just got
her new vest! I’ve done all her training myself (obedience and tricks – verbal and
hand commands), so getting our certification was quite an achievement for me
as she is the first dog I’ve ever trained. Cali loves people and has been highly
socialized in public places so I think her temperament will be perfect for therapy
visits…