Day 3 - September 17

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 me in the shower and off to breakfast at 8 am.  Only five minutes late. 

We hung outside after breakfast just chatting with everyone and then went back to the room.  Both of us had a nice long nap which was great.

At lunch I had a real issue of not paying attention to what I was doing.  We had fish and chips and I was told the ketchup was at 12 o’clock.  I thought it was one of those round squeeze bottles for some reason, so I picked it up and proceeded to pour my water all over my meal and me!!  How did I do that?  Obviously I wasn’t paying attention or was tired or something.  Pretty embarrassing when you have to request a cleanup and new food because you poured water all over everything.  It was fish and chips so maybe I thought the fish needed water?  Luckily a lot of people were out with family so it was seen by a limited number of my classmates.  Then one of the staff says “Gary, your dog has gone visiting.”  What?  Oh damn, there is no leash under my leg!  Some serious senior’s moments happening and I’m not even a senior yet!  I think this shows that although it doesn’t seem like much has happened in the last couple of days, there are a lot of emotions and focus being used which might have tired me out more than I expected.

In the afternoon a friend came to visit and meet the new dog.  We just hung out for a few hours.  No issues with my supper and a relaxing night hanging around outside talking with some of the fathers from the autism program.  I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone outside while letting Gonzo sniff around hoping he might have a poo.  (Oh, as an aside, Gonzo had his first #2 with me this morning.  Seems like it shouldn’t be a big deal but sometimes poodles can wait and wait with new handlers before they give in to the forces of nature).  Anyway, we were walking back and forth while I chatted on the phone.  I said goodbye to Susan and then realized I wasn’t standing where I thought I was.  For those in the know, we can say I had “a Kelowna moment.”  Anyway, we figured everything out eventually and found our way back to the door, it just took a bit more thinking than I had expected.

Then off to bed, really excited about doing a bunch of harness walks tomorrow.