Day 14 - September 28

Well, here we are, unbelievably it’s the last day of my shortened two week program.  It feels like I’ve been here forever and only just got here.

This morning we had our dogs weighed and my little fellow only weighs 46 pounds.  However, Courtney has no problems if he gets into the low 50 lb area.  Next we signed our contracts.  All sounding very daunting but whatever.  Courtney read through the dog guide contract and weight management contracts so we could never argue we hadn’t read them.  Once those were signed and appropriately initialed we were an official team. After that we were basically done for the morning.  

We had now officially graduated and could take the dogs out on a walk by ourselves if we wanted.  We decided to go for a group walk.  They nicely waited for me while I went to do my photo shoot with Pet Value.  Pet Value sponsors several graduating teams and takes photos to put in one of their monthly magazines.  I guess they own stores out west like the Tisol and Bosley stores.  Megan also dropped off an envelope at my room that had Gonzo’s health information for the vet, his last flea pill and rabies tag.  More stuff to come in our grad package and pet value usually gives a nice gift bag.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the coolest item we were given.  There is a couple in Hamilton who make dog collars that light up and they gave one to each graduate of Canine Vision (guide dogs for the blind).  It is usually valued at around $50 and is awesome.  It will be great for walking in the dark rainy winter of Vancouver and keeping us safe.  I wanted something for night time and this thing is perfect.

I also talked to Sandra about my idea of a pouch/holster for a cane that could attach to a harness handle.  Her aunt is a seamstress so Sandra will talk to her about it.  She thinks it is a great idea as well.  Sometimes it is good even to have just an ID cane that you can pull out to figure out something in your surroundings or if, for some reason, your dog stops working.  

So I showed up for the photo shoot hoping to look sharp and Gonzo looking good as well.  (One of the trainers jokingly asked if I was heading off to model for GQ <chuckle>).  When you have a beautiful poodle it is hard to not get outdone in any photo shoot.

As we were now graduates the trainers told us to pick the target for our walk.  Bill picked the Tim Horton’s on the lakeshore, the main drag through town.  After Timmy’s Bill had an appointment and had to head back to the school doing his first complicated real life action, walking with a guide dog while holding/drinking a coffee!  Once Bill left us we walked down to the lake for a nice walk. We even saw a fox on our walk.  Gloria tried to get a picture of it for me.

Today was the coolest weather we had since I arrived, but I was still wearing a t shirt and shorts.  The school’s media person was laughing how I was looking so sharp for the shoot and then only minutes later I was a totally different person again in my Canadian Blind Hockey t-shirt, cargo shorts and sandals.  Hey, it’s almost October, not too many more days where I can where shorts.

Of course, it being the last day, we were all a bit anxious about leaving the safety of our trainers and the school.  Gonzo did some silly things.  One was seeing a dog on the other side of the road, so he thought he’d do a diagonal crossing.  Another time we were crossing a little road, following Sarah, and he was fixed on watching a squirrel.  Also, at Timmy’s, he ran me into Judy.  Poor Judy, the first time I met her was by running into her going into our morning meeting.  I think she has had the roughest go of it during class.  Her dog was a bit of a gong show for the first couple of days but Heidi has really pulled it together.

While we were waiting to go in for the graduation ceremony after supper, Gonzo’s puppy raisers must have walked by because he started going nuts with excitement.  Bogart’s puppy raisers didn’t attend my last grad so I had never experienced this.  It was really weird since it seemed to really upset me.  I think I’m too empathetic and worry about how the dog feels about leaving his foster family.  Of course he has been in the kennels for about 4 or 5 months in the meantime.  I guess the other weird thing that irrationally went through my heart was feeling like we had really made a solid bond and but at that moment I started to doubt its strength.  Throughout the ceremonies I had to spend a lot of energy calming Gonzo down, and in turn, calming myself down too.  I felt so silly sitting there with tears flowing down my cheeks for no obvious reason.  People must have thought I found the ceremony really moving.  We had picked Sandra to speak for our class and she did a really good job.  Once the official ceremonies were over, Gonzo’s moment came where he got to see his puppy raisers again.  Holy leaping poodles was he excited!  I had a nice talk with his good buddies and learned that several times while he was at the kennel they had him home for a few weeks.  I thanked them for the good job they did with him because is a good dog.  I also told them a bit about what I did, so they would feel that Gonzo was going to a good home.  They are outdoorsy people so were happy to hear that Susan and I are as well.  They also offered to send us some puppy pictures, so hopefully you’ll get to see some cute Gonzo baby pictures soon on this blog.  It was an emotional night but I am happy for it.

Once all that was done, I headed back up to the room to make sure that everything that I didn’t need in the morning was packed.  Gonzo played for a while as well, probably ensuring that it will be difficult to find his ball in the morning. J I was heading off to the Moonshine Café for one last time.  They were having another jam session, so I thought a good way to finish my time at Dog Guides Canada was one last visit to the Moonshine, a glass of wine and getting to play some drums.  I got to play for about half an hour and had a blast.  Also, the regulars had accepted me as one of them which was nice.  Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, asking me to come back anytime.

Off home to bed, an early rise tomorrow for Gonzo’s first airplane ride.  That should be interesting.