Graduation Trip Part 3: Graduation

Meade!

Meade in his Harness! He wasn't very happy because Rob
had just left...

When we got to the GDB campus we went to the visitor center and everyone there instantly knew who we were. We had called ahead and told them our situation. They were all glad to hear that we were ok. Someone took Julimae to the kennel and another person took us to the dorms! We got to wait in the library while someone else got to go get Rob (Meade's partner) and Meade. While we were waiting we talked to Meade's trainer. She said that he was a great dog and once she got some of the stuff through Meade's thick skull he was perfect. Then Rob and Meade came in. Meade walked in and didn't see us. Then he walked up to my step dad and sniffed him and started jumping and wagging (Meade was never a big wagger) Then he turned and saw me and practically jumped in my lap. Then he turned to my mom and went over to give her kisses (She was the only one he was allowed to lick because I hate dog kisses. Julimae is being trained the same way) then he came back to me. After he settled down we introduced ourselves to Rob. He is a great guy and in his 50s or 60s. He is the perfect match for Meade and Meade already loves him! Since we got there so late we only had time to tell him that we did get him and Meade a present but we left it at the hotel because of the whole hostage situation, before we had to go and take pictures. During the pictures it took some work to get Meade to look at the camera. We eventually ended up saying BZZT to make him look. He recognized the word but didn't howl. But he did look at the camera and our pictures look great!

Meade's class on the training board!

After our pictures we got ready for the graduation ceremony. Rob went with the other students to go wait in the visitor center and I got Meade. Meade was not too happy when Rob left though. We went into a little waiting room once they were ready and graduation started. They showed some videos and then we got to start presenting dogs. Meado was first and when we were offstage and he saw Rob go on stage he got really excited. I went up and gave the leash to Rob and Rob talked about how grateful he was for me and Meade and how wonderful Meade was and then I talked about... Well I don't know. I think I was babbling about what an amazing dog he is.... Not the greatest speech ever but I think I got my point across.
We went to sit down and watched the rest of the graduation! There were some pretty good looking dogs in Meade's class.
After graduation one of the GDB employees came up to us and said she looked online and the whole hostage situation was a hoax. :-P How wonderful. Then we took a tour of the campus. It was so cool! After the tour we got Julimae out of the kennel and went to introduce her to Meade. Meade was jealous when he realized she was his "replacement" and didn't like her very much. When we decided to take Rob out to lunch because we didn't get much visiting time before, we put Julimae back in the kennels because we hadn't grabbed her jacket on the way out of the hotel. We went to lunch and discussed stories about Meade and our personal lives. And had a lot of fun. After lunch we went to the hotel room, which was pleasantly void of police, to pack up our car and get Rob and Meade's presents.
We went back to GDB and went to Rob's dorms to give them the presents. We gave Rob his first, we got him a green leather leash with Meade's name stamped on it! He thought it was great! (Thank you, Megan, for making it for us!) Then we gave Meade a couple of ropes and a brand new Goughnut Stick! He thought that the Goughnut was the best thing ever and stopped paying attention to us to chew on it. Right then I remembered that I wanted to try his BZZT thing so I took the Goughnut (he was not happy) and I attempted it. He was confused at first but when he realized he wouldn't get his Goughnut until he howled he howled for us! Rob thought it was really funny and told us he would go home and show his wife. Then, we said our goodbyes and departed...