Thursday September 27th 2012
I definitely slept better on this night. I didn’t realize how tired I was
until I fell asleep at the computer. Pup, was very good, no whining, no crying,
nothing really usual. The way my room is set up, the tie-down is on the other
side of the bed from the door. So when I lay down to go to sleep, missy, put
her face up on the bed. She gave me big licks and then lay down. New routine is
to wake up at 6am. But what did my body tell me to do? Wake up at 5. *groan*
But this did give me enough time to get up, get dressed, take a shower, do all
my normal morning routine things, and then feed, water and take missy out.
My pups name is not really missy; I am just using it for now. She stayed
very calm until it was time to feed. Let’s just say that Missy inhales her
food. Emma chews every single kibble one at a time. It can take up to 20
minutes for her to finish a cup of food. Missy is fast! It’s going to save me
like 20 minutes a day.
Break time went well, were able to get a #2. With no accidents overnight.
Breakfast was about the same as other mornings, oatmeal, my eggless scones, and
fruit. We met in the leather lunge, to go over what we were doing for the day.
Instructors split us into their students. One group worked inside and one
worked out. The group inside would work on learning how to go up and down
stairs and to use the elevator. We worked in the grooming room, and how to get
the dogs up on the benches so that when we groom them, they will be familiar
with it.
Now remember we did not have the harnesses on, and were only doing these
things by the leash guiding. The normal way of going up and down stairs, is
that a person would hold on to the leash. Going down alternating feet. The way
I go down the stairs with a balance issue is one step at a time. I move one
foot, then she goes forward, I say “brace” and I use my hand on her back. When
we start using the harnesses, my will be a special one for balance. It’s very
similar to go down as it is to go up.
After my training session, I had free time. A few calls to make to family
and emails to answer. I put them off, or in my case, fall asleep and don’t do
that stuff. I have a paper due today, so I needed to review the chapter. I got
that done, so that this afternoon I can start working on that paper further.
One cute thing was after Missy and I got back to my room. I gave her a
NyloNA bone. She started to chew. And then started to growl, not a aggressive
growl, but a happy playful growl. So I go over to see what she is going, and
she has the bone in her mouth in such a way that she wants me to play. She
wants to play tug. We do this for a minute or two, as we were told not to as of
just yet. I love love that I have an outwardly playful pup. She doesn’t play
while working, but when we get back to our room. It’s good for her. And she
just loves licking me all over.
Lunch was delicious of course. Turkey melts, with French Onion soup. After
lunch it was much of the same, we waited to be pulled for our time with the
instructor. The way its going is that either my instructor will take me first
or last in the lineup of 4 students, and then in the afternoon, take me first
or last. That way she is not interrupting me in the middle of my school work.
We walked around the grounds of the GDF using the leash guiding. It was a
bit nerve wrecking as this takes a lot of trust. They are not in harness, yes you’re
with an instructor but it’s still using all the guiding commands. While outside
we worked on our daily obedience.
It is recommended that we do obedience every single day. This obedience is
that we do several tasks for the dogs. These tasks can be put in different
orders so that the dogs don’t get into the routine of obedience being one way.
We put the dogs on a “sit, stay”. We make the leash from a short leash to a
long leash. Then we walk away from them, one step at a time, asking them to “stay”.
We also use a hand signal. Its palm towards the dog, with fingers together. It’s
like telling someone to stop. We do the same with a “down, stay”, on this
particular day I was able to walk all the way around her. She did not move a
inche. I am holding on to the leash of course. It has been told to me by her
trainer, and my instructor, same person, that they do this “recall command in
that building. Where they leave the room with the dog on a sit or down, stay.
Then they come back and the dog is still sitting there. We also do heel sort of
obedience.
The weather has been great for these first few days. It has rained but only
at night not when we are outside trying to work the dogs.
Dinner was delicious, but as I am writing this a day or so behind, I can’t
remember what it was. Oooops LOL
After dinner were lectures. One lecture was for us handlers who have had
guides before. It was to talk about giving up that guide, retiring them, or
putting them down, if they were sick or old. It talked about the grieving
process. Of course the girls, all cried, and the men left quickly. After that
we had a lecture on the straight line theory. This was a lecture to talk about
why we ask the dogs to go in a straight line. Some in the class think we as
blind people can’t walk a straight line. At this pint can’t remember why we ask
the dogs to do this, but we quickly diverged from the original topic. All of
the lectures that are given here are given by instructors, so they do know what
they have been talking about.
After the lecture, I “tried” to work on school work, but fell asleep in front
of the computer again. On this night I did not remember going to sleep, but
didn’t realize this until the next morning.
That is all for now, until next time……
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