Normal beginning of the day. The difference on this morning it was
absolutely cold out. I know I am in NY, and I know its October, but goodness it
was cold. Someone said it was in the upper 30’s at 7am. Brrrrrr
Our work this morning took us to the mall. I was last in the lineup. We all
hung out in the food court until it was our turn. Before it was my turn, I had
gone into the public bathroom in the mall. I went with another female student.
Once we got in there, we realized that we had not gone into a public bathroom
yet. We had a hard time finding the stalls, finding one big enough for us and
the pups, and then finding the sinks and so on. We were both lucky after looking
around a bit, we found the handicapped stalls. And then to top it off, the
stall in went in didn’t have any toilet paper, so the other student had to
bring me some. How embarrassing, because my tummy was upset. While in the
bathroom, I lost the antenna for my FM system. Without the antenna, the range
is only like 2 feet. I stressed about that. I could have gotten a replacement
but it would have made my life a bit harder for the next few days. Luckily
after a very short bit, a few nice ladies, found it somewhere...
When my instructor was ready to take me, we walked down to the Sears. It
was very crowded, as its Columbus Day, and all the schools and people are off.
It was also cool because the K9 assistance dogs were there training with
instructors too. My instructor told me they were in wheelchairs, and were
zooming all over the place. I bet the public thought it was strange, weird, or
interesting. We worked on escalators in Sears. The escalator work is similar to
other schools but a little different.
So when you’re in the mall or where ever the escalator is, you say “find
the escalator”. The pup will bring you up to the escalator and pause. In my
case, Missy was trained to wait for my cues as well as find the hand rail. Once
I find the hand rail, and find the edge. I let go of the harness and say “forward”.
If you’re going down you have one foot on one lower step and other on an upper
step. If you’re going up, it’s about the opposite, one foot on the upper step,
and one on the lower step. You wait until you’re almost at the top or bottom.
And then say “hop-up” in a very excited happy voice. The dog will kind of leap
off. They have to be careful because of the teeth when the step part goes
under. In my case I would not do this part, but for normal students you sort of
left the dog’s front paws with the back strap and say “hop-up”. I can’t do this
part. The difference is that at TSE they want the dogs to run off/leap off.
Also I *think* that TSE also doesn’t mind you holding on to the harness handle,
but I could be mistaken about this. Missy saw this as a game so she wanted to
take me to every escalator. GDF does not recommend that you do them, but will
teach you to. They understand that there are places that you can’t avoid them,
but it’s not safe. I don’t mind escalators, would rather use the elevators, but
its gets me into where I need to go. Those walking moving sidewalks are completely
off limits to guide dog users. There have been too many guide dogs hurt on both
devices. And usually if the dog is hurt, then they are forced to be retired.
I was naughty, and got Starbucks again. For lunch, we had HOT WINGS and a
salad. I put HOT WINGS in all caps, as they were extremely hot. I ate all of
mine but my table mate could only eat one. My poor tongue, lips and throat were
burning because they were hot. He said they were mild, NOT!!!!
The afternoon route we went to Port Jefferson. This time I got to go first,
and went shopping for more goodies. Can’t say what and where, sorry! The
afternoon only got colder and colder. BRRRRRR! We actually finished early so
headed back to campus.
Also today, I started working my pup inside the dorm building. GDF does not
usually allow this. But it’s like when I go to school. My pup has to get used
to wearing the harness all day long. TSE teach a lot on indoor work at least
for the first week your there.
Tonight’s lecture is different types of sitting arrangements. In the snack
room, they have 4 different types of sitting types you will get in a restaurant,
McDonald’s, Diner booth, bar stool, and a regular table. It’s not the getting
my dog use to sitting at different types of tables and arrangements, its
following in a crowded establish, and not being able to hear. We worked on that
too. The only bad thing about the instructor, who gave the lecture, is that he
is very intense, otherwise nice. Thus it
will take place in the snack room. I hope it’s not this cold tomorrow, as we
are out on our first day trip to Huntington. From what I have been told it’s in
the city. Not a whole lot of time the last few days to work on school work.
Until next time…..
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