Day 7 - September 21

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 leash, count to 3 slowly and then step back to the dog and give him lots of praise.  Gonzo did this very well.  We also had lots of distractions going on around us, including an off leash dog, while we were working on all of this.  So our homework tonight is to work on obedience by doing the same thing a few times.  

We are not to do any obedience in our rooms.  The room is the dogs down time retreat.  We can step out into the hallway and do it there but not in our room.  They talked about how long they spend with a dog, 4 weeks, before they start training them to guide.  They need to get to know the dog and gain their confidence/trust.  This is to help us understand that we are only in the beginning stages of our dogs respecting us, and we need to keep working this all the time.  These are not alpha dogs.  Alpha dogs are taken out of all programs as soon as they are discovered.  These dogs are looking for an alpha.  We need to be that for them for them to feel happy, or content perhaps.

Once that was over everyone was heading to the pet store.  I have a few toys I brought with me for Gonzo and have tons at home, so don’t need to go to the store.  I’ve been able to arrange a walk with Greg.  We will go and rework that stair railing situation again.  I headed upstairs and got out of my nice clothes.  (I’ll save those for graduation night.)  Now back in my shorts and t-shirt I meet up with Greg out front.  We head off and soon get to our trouble area.  Greg told me that if he yells stop, I need to stop immediately.  Off we went and I hear “stop!”  I put hand straight out and there is that railing.  I get Gonzo to go over left and we go forward and give a bunch of praise.  We did this three times and the last time he gave clearance, not much, but clearance.  Then we walked around the block and did it again.  He was really hesitant, looking back at me, and at Greg, but I coaxed him forward and he did it with room to spare.  Yippee, good boy Gonzo! 

We headed off to walk down Lakeshore where there are lots of sandwich boards and people.  I’m not sure if it was the heat or his confidence, but he was working really slowly and making all his decisions really slowly.  Greg thinks he has been a bit rattled by that stair railing incident and reworking the problem.  The only time he really got up to speed was when two young women were trying to pass us.  Then he sped up and tried to keep in front of them.  We had another grate to go over where he slowed and looked around for any other route.  To go to the right would put me in danger, so he tippy-toed across it.  Good boy!  On the way back, we went farther north on Kerr past some construction obstacles.  He did a good job.  I had my right foot a bit too close to the curb, like almost off of it, but we made it.

Once back at school it was up to the room for water and then it was already lunch time.  Today was grilled cheese and chicken rice soup.  Yummy.  The afternoon started off with an education session around our rights, travelling and what we will need in our provinces.  Meagan said that BC has the best access legislation, but we have to get an identification card from the government.  Of course we have to get our city tags as well.

In Canada guide dogs over 55 pounds get free seat space on planes and trains.  I just learned that somehow buses, like Greyhound, are exempt in our Canadian Transportation Agency’s regulations.  I find that very bizarre.  She shared some travelling tips with us and then our meeting was over with half an hour to relax in our rooms.

At 3 pm everyone except Judy and myself wanted to go to the gift shop.  So we got to go for a walk.  I asked Courtney for a pretty easy-going walk to try to boost Gonzo’s confidence after all that has happened in the last 24 hours.  We basically walked north on Kerr street for quite a ways.  Lots of construction, planters, people and what not.  Gonzo did great on this walk.  My hand never brushed anything.  We had to work our way through a group of people who all were reaching out to pet the dog.  After I had passed, I asked Courtney if they were people with special needs.  There is a school close to ours for people with brain injuries.  She said no, they were tourists.  They put their child’s hands inside the stroller so he wouldn’t pet the dog but then they must have decided that the dog was friendly so they could pet him.  <Sigh>  The people said they didn’t know, and the trainers said they understood, but it was a good learning moment.

At one point Gonzo found himself behind Judy and Heidi.  He picked his moment and passed her on the right.  All dogs must be in the lead J.  Judy was saying that when Heidi was following Gonzo she was pulling like crazy but when she was in front she was walking so slowly.  I, and hopefully Gonzo, were very happy with this walk.  We’ll see tomorrow if he’s back to his energetic self again.  He was walking with a good pace in our second walk today.

I know we don’t talk about our emotions too much, but I figure I should be real in case anyone is reading this who is thinking about getting a guide dog, especially if their last dog has died.  It was a frustrating walk this morning.  At our obedience session, Courtney said that we are at the point with some dogs where they might like us but now they are going to test us.  We might have a really bad day, but the next day will be better.  I think, I am hoping, my morning walk was my frustrating day.  However, after the obedience, I was talking to Courtney about her comment on not using alpha dogs. I said I think Bogart was pretty close to that alpha dog and she agreed.  I talked with the two trainers about how he died and what we thought was the cause of his demise.  She agreed with our speculation that he probably had a brain tumor and either blew a clot and had a pulmonary embolism or an aneurysm.  Regardless, the kindness was that it was very quick.  Hard for us, but the best thing for him if he was going to have to leave us.  

So after our frustrating walk, I found myself laying on the floor beside Gonzo petting him and just started to cry.  It was kind of weird but I just let it happen since I think it is good to let the emotion out.  Grief is a weird thing and just comes and goes from time to time.  Of course adding being emotionally tired and a bit frustrated with the last two walks all led into this.  Luckily, I didn’t have too much time before lunch to get all depressed but it felt good to let it out.  Then we gathered ourselves up and headed out for lunch.  I think we don’t acknowledge how much it drains us being ever-so-positive with our dogs, while being firm, while also worrying about something going wrong and running into something causing pain.  Lots going on for us and our new dogs.

After our meeting in the afternoon we agreed that Sandra was our leader and would do our graduation speech.  She tried to convince me into doing it but I said that I got to do it last time and I think it is better coming from a new dog handler.  Also, she is pretty bubbly and a good speaker and I think she’ll do a great job.

At the dinner table it got out that my birthday is Monday so it sounds like a birthday cheese cake is on the way.  For sure Bill and I are going to go out for dinner.  Perhaps some of the others will come along too.  We’re looking for a place with good panzerotti.  After Bill and Duncan heard about the cheese cake all of a sudden it was their birthday Tuesday and Wednesday. J

Well another day has come to an end and instead of doing a bunch of shopping I was able to get 2 extra walks in which is great.  We’ll see how tomorrow goes.