Gary & Gonzo Guide Dog Blog

Oh boy, today we’re off to Toronto.  See what this dog is made of when thrown in the big city.  See what I’m made of too.  In the end there are only four of us gong, Bill, Sarah, Sandra and myself with Courtney and Gloria as our trainers.  We piled in the van at 9:30am and headed into the big smoke.  After parking the van we relieved our dogs in a little park. “Harness up the dogs and let’s get heading out,” said Courtney.  Off we go with Gonzo in the lead, of course.  He zigged and zagged, sometimes to get around people or things and sometimes because he is a poodle.  After a few blocks I offered for the others to go ahead so we weren’t hogging the front role.  However, the next thing I knew the sidewalk had got a little wider and I heard Bill on my left and then Sarah as my dog blew past them to get back in the front again.  A born leader. J We then turned right off the sidewalk to go into the subway station.  He found the door just fine.  I remember doing this route with B

So this morning we are heading off to the mall via transit.  To get as much practice as possible, I will take the bus both ways so I can see how Gonzo acts getting on and off the bus. We caught the bus at 9:52.  Everything went well.  Gonzo hopped on the bus and I just had to rearrange him once he sat to get him between my legs.  We wandered around the mall.  Courtney had us go up some open-backed stairs, stairs that you can see through.  This can freak out some dogs.  Gonzo did fine on that test.  Then we went to Winners.  Gonzo found Sandra and followed her to the washroom for some reason.  Then I asked him to find Courtney and he found her really quickly.  We wandered around the store and he was very cautious getting us around some pillars and did a good job not running into too many clothing racks.  It is hard because the aisles are very narrow.  Then from the very back of the store I asked him to find the way out and he had no issues getting me out of Winners.  (That would be

Today is Sunday and that means no training.  Should be a nice relaxing day.  I had some family visiting me.  Carrol, Michael, Jennifer, Madisun, Kamryn and Oliver showed up around 12:45 pm.  They were as enthusiastic about meeting Gonzo as seeing me again.  Gonzo was living it up as the centre of attention getting his picture taken with everyone.  We put Gonzo back in the room and headed down to the lake.  Lake Ontario is about 10 blocks away.  It was incredible how hot it was even down by the water.  We hung out for about two hours before heading back to the school for a nice surprise—Carrol had brought my favourite, cheese cake, for my birthday tomorrow.  Yummy!  So we all enjoyed a piece of it and then they had to get back on the road to London.  (Okay, I admit it, I ruined my supper by having two pieces of cheese cake!) I enjoyed a relaxing night was well watching football.  Sadly my Seattle Seahawks lost again.  Will have to get home and dig out my good luck #25 Sherman

Well today is going to be a scorcher.  We are going for shorter half hour walks this morning and then in the afternoon it’s off leash recall in the school and then 15 minutes to run around in the courtyard. Our walk was pretty much uneventful.  We weren’t in too many crowded situations, but when we encountered people Gonzo only forced a few them off the sidewalk. J Poodles are pretty pushy.  The funniest thing that happened was there was a child sitting on a patio with his family holding a grilled cheese in his hand right at Gonzo’s level.  We did veer to the sandwich but he didn’t take it or, worse, lick it.  He got a correction for that and we apologized, feeling a little embarrassed. As for the obedience, Gonzo had no problem with recall.  Why not, I had excellent treats in my hand.  One time though, he was running towards me and something floating through the air, or his imagination, must have touched his butt.  He stopped running and curled around to see what happened an

Things are going well with Gonzo.  In the morning Bill and I were paired again for a walk.  Courtney is funny.  She forgot her debit card at home so she decided we’d walk to her place.  The round trip ended up being about 3.6 km.  It was a nice walk, going north on Kerr with the normal sidewalk obstacles of planters, people and patios.  Once we turned off, there were long stretches without even having to cross any roads.  Bill had success in the sense that his dog pooped again in harness but this time he noticed it, got the harness off and was able to pick it up.  He has had luck relieving the dog in the front area on the grass, so hopefully he’ll not have to deal with frequent relieving in harness for much longer.  We also had a long stretch where there were no sidewalks.  I was following Bill and Ziegler at their normal break neck speed.  I was sharing with Courtney that walking on the road makes me nervous, even when I’m walking with people.  So I asked how I could tell if the dog

Today is picture day.  We are all dressed up and meeting at 9 amto get pictures taken in the park.  Amazing weather for the last day of summer.  First we took a group photo of all of us and our dogs.  Next we did an individual pic with us and our dogs sitting on a ledge so the dog is beside us.  Gonzo was doing many poodle head tilts looking ever so cute. Once that is done we went to another part of the park and worked on obedience.  One of the goals is that we want our dogs to sit if we stop to talk to someone.  We had our dogs sit and then go down.  Gonzo’s default position is a sit, but the funny thing he has learned to do is shuffle his sit around to keep watching whatever distraction I might have had him sitting to ignore.  “Hey, I’m sitting,” thinks Gonzo.  Next we were working on the stay command.  For this we are to get the dog to sit/down.  The sit so far seems to be a stable position for Gonzo.  Then we give the stay command and take two steps away while holding the long

I don’t know if I have mentioned this yet but the weather is absolutely amazing.  Today the high will be 28 degrees!  Luckily I was optimistic and brought lots of summer clothes.  Looks like it will be this way for our whole class. So, with that beautiful weather, we are off for a long walk with our substitute trainer, Gloria, to downtown Oakville.  Don’t get too excited—I think downtown Oakville lasts about 5 blocks.  There was a good long stretch to get us going east along Rebecca.  Then we turned towards downtown.  Here I messed up because Bill had stopped on the other side of the road and I didn’t hear him do this.  I think Gonzo stopped but I was probably in mid stride.  I had to really manage my balance to be sure not to fall over any dogs.  I’d rather fall than hurt one of the dogs.  Luckily I stayed on my feet, but I think Gonzo was a bit spooked by his clumsy handler.  In that block he came a little too close to something that felt metallic, so we quickly reworked it with

This morning we’ll walk to Fortino’s, a local grocery store about a six blocks away.  There we’ll be able to practice roaming around, picking up any items we want and doing escalators.  Again Bill and I traveled together.  The walk was pretty uneventful.  The only issues were that Bill’s dog relieved himself in harness again.  Seems to be happening all the time but I’m sure they’ll get that figured out.   Once at the store we headed for the escalators to go upstairs.  Gonzo got on okay but seemed a bit nervous by the way he was looking around, but he jumped off just fine according to the trainer.  Then Courtney took Bill and I around the store.  Gonzo did a great job of avoiding some displays in the middle of the aisle.  We headed off to the chip aisle where Bill and I picked up some junk food for the rooms.  Courtney gave us a good reminder when Bill spun around about three times trying to get the harness handle.  She pointed out that the dogs work for us, not us for them.  That

Today was a good one.  We learned at our 9 am meeting that we would have 3 walks.  Our first would be on the same route as yesterday, except this time I would have full control over the dog, holding both the leash and the harness.  I went out with Courtney for this walk.  As a side note I still haven’t met Gonzo’s trainer.  She became ill on Tuesday last week and had to go to the hospital by ambulance.  Apparently she is feeling better but is not able to continue working with the class. Yesterday it was Greg helping us and today it will be Lori going on the walks with some of the clients.  Gonzo did very well on the first walk with a few small glitches.  On one road crossing he was angling into the road, so I gave him a light correction and asked him to find the curb.  He straightened out immediately and when we got to the curb I gave him some love.  Courtney was saying that Gonzo worries about his mistakes.  He gets that he has done something wrong and looks back at me for reassuranc

Today is our day off, which is too bad since I’d like to get at it.  Slept much better last night except for Gonzo found a way to tell me in the middle of the night that he wasn’t enjoying his kennel.  I checked on him and saw that he was standing, so I let him out.  When you get a dog here you’re supposed to keep them on leash for the first day or two and kenneled for the first few nights and when you do things like go for a shower.  This is because, apparently, a lot of dogs have accidents in the room.  I don’t think this has anything to do with them being house trained.  It’s more to do with them being nervous or making a statement to their new handlers.  I’m a light sleeper so if Gonzo walks around I just listen to where he’s going.  If he gets out of earshot for too long, like in the washroom, I give him a call and he comes back.  After he was out of the kennel he settled and we both slept really well.  Next thing I knew I was rushing to get up, get the dog outside and fed, get m

Today is the big day.  I get to meet my new dog.  Very exciting! At the 9 am meeting in the trainer's room we get our plan for the day.  (I'm glad to see that everything is the same as last time I was here, meaning nothing really starts on time.)  Everyone will go for morning walks while Greg introduces me to my dog.  Greg gives me a brand new leash and collar and takes me down to the courtyard.  I sit down on the first bench then hear a door open around the corner.  A poodle rocket is released! I jumped up and the poodle came whizzing by me with a friendly bump. Greg follows and says, “Here's your new dog.  His name is Gonzo.” Gonzo? Did I hear that correctly?  Now that is a weird name.  On his next brush by I'm able to feel him a bit and he seems really small.  Later, once I get a good feel of him (which is challenging since he’s in constant motion) I realize that he's not as small as I first thought.  His head is about mid-thigh.  It's just that

Here I am at Dog Guides Canada getting ready to get my second guide dog.  It is hard to explain how excited I am. When I came here to get my first dog, I think I was really wondering if this whole guide dog thing would work out and wondering what it was going to be like.  Then I met Bogart and never looked back.  He was an awesome guide dog and became my best buddy in no time.  This time around I’m confident in my dog handling skills and just very excited about meeting my new partner.    I had a 7:30 am flight from Vancouver to Toronto, where I was met by staff from Dog Guides Canada.  A 40-minute drive and we arrived at the school.  As one might imagine, so many memories of my first time here and of Bogart are bubbling around in my head.  It seems like it all happened just last year, not seven years ago!  (I guess I'm starting to experience time like a dog---seven to one!)   On the way in I stopped and paid for the red school hoodie I ordered.  I'm happy to say it’s cu