Day 12 - September 26

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 Bogart, and as we were looking for the door a bus lowered itself with that really loud hiss of air they make.  Bogart got me inside that door so quickly my head was spinning.  We found the stairs and headed down.  All good.  Gonzo doesn’t go too fast.  Then it was through the gates and down the stairs to the right onto the platform.  Once on the platform the trainers had us follow the wall down to the benches in the area that his monitored by cameras (like most places aren’t monitored by cameras now a days).  The command was over left to get to the left wall, or over right to get to the right wall, depending what side the tracks are on.  Gonzo’s head was spinning around like in the exorcist. 

When the train rolled in I asked him to find the doors.  There was a bit of panic because this train had no visible conductor, so there’d be no one to hold the train up if we didn’t get in.  We had been given directions for if we didn’t make it on the train, or if we didn’t make it off the train, so everything was thought of.  Once on the train I got Gonzo to sit down.  He was watching everything and listening to everything.  My trainer was laughing because when an announcement came on the PA, he tilted his head like he was listening. “Nope, not our stop,” goes Gonzo’s little brain.  We went a few stops and got off the train.  We found our way up the escalator and then went across to take the train back to a station closer to the lunch time restaurant.  Gonzo again was super excited.  After getting off the train, we again hit the escalators, then through the gate and up the stairs to the outside world.  Gonzo handled this all very well with a great deal of energy.  We headed off along Bloor street to go for lunch.

In the restaurant we encountered our first challenge.  I was heading into the washroom and pushed open the first door.  The second door was on a right angle to my right but there was no room to let the first door close without going in.  Gonzo was skeptical if I could hold his leash and all these doors at the same time.  I did and he leaped past me.  I showed him a urinal.  I’m sure a big day in his life.  With my last dog I had taught him to find urinals and then the counter so I could wash my hands.  They don’t teach this at the school but Bogart learned it fast.  I’m sure Gonzo will do the same.  Again, on the way out, he was skeptical about my abilities to keep him safe going through these weird doors but I did.  He was good in the restaurant to the point where I was thinking he had got away from me because the leash was so quiet.

After a very big lunch we hit the streets of Bloor West again.  We decided to go back and ride the subway again.  I’m so glad we did that because Gonzo was already noticeably calmer than on his first trip.  This is not to say he is calm in any way but not as crazy as the first trip.  This time we didn’t seem to leap quite so far to get on the train.

On transit we get our dogs to sit between our legs.  I remembered a trick that I had taught Bogart. Once sitting I’d ask Bogart to back up and he would wiggle backwards to get right between my legs.  I asked Gonzo to back up and gave him a little push with my hands on his chest.  He was “whoa, what the hell?”  Then his front paws were up in the air.  It was pretty funny.  The next time I tried, I was gentler and did get him to move back a bit.

For the rest of our city walks Gonzo took the lead, of course. We had no bumps or had any object hit my right side so I was very pleased with his efforts.  As a reward, we stopped for 15 minutes at the off leash park.  They ran around a bit and pooped but it was pretty hot, around 30 degrees, so they weren’t that interested in doing too much running.  We gave our dogs water twice during our walks to make sure they stayed hydrated.

We decided on the van ride back that Courtney would come in and do a night walk with us at 7:30pm.  This is good because dogs see differently at night, and those with a little bit of vision often have no vision once it’s dark.  I went to my room, got some water for Gonzo and me, and went and lay down on my bed.  Did a few emails but then thought I’d just listen to my book for a bit.  Well, I woke up an hour and 45 minutes later, pretty much missing supper.  I wasn’t feeling hungry anyways so just kept relaxing.  I eventually got up, got Gonzo’s food and grabbed one of those apples I bought to eat myself.

At 7:30 pm we met downstairs, Bill, Sarah, Sandra and Judy.  Courtney asked where we wanted to go, so I suggested we walk downtown.  Everyone agreed and off we went.  Although we started in the back, by the time we had crossed the bridge in three blocks Gonzo and I had made it to the front of the pack again.  I had to be careful passing Judy on the bridge because my foot was pretty close to the curb and the drop-off.  I was aware of this as Courtney yelled a warning.  Later in the walk, Bill almost wiped out as he stepped off a curb.  It was a place where the sidewalk angled off to the left.  He thought his dog was sniffing so continued straight.  He has been fighting his dogs sniffing so it was a mistake that made sense.  I’ve learned to follow my dog no matter what and then deal with the consequences.  If he is going to sniff then we deal with that.  Have to trust that he sees better than I do and that the majority of the time he is actually guiding. 

We had a couple of good dog distractions with the toughest one being a woman with her big black German Sheppard barking crazily at us.  He even had a mussel on him.  It was good practice at getting our dogs by and Gonzo did pretty good.  Overall the walk went really well and, since we were in the lead for the whole walk, it was the closest to having a solo walk.

Today has done wonders to build my confidence and trust of Gonzo’s guiding skills.  I think we’ll do fine in Vancouver, especially since I’ll know most of our routes.

Man, only three more sleeps before we head back home. Unbelievable.  It both seems like I’ve barely been here and also like I’ve been here forever just because of how much we fit into our days.