Normal Saturday beginning. The difference is that everyone is anticipating the departure and returning home. Our route this morning was a bus ride to the Smith Haven mall, and then a walk in Whole foods. We all boarded a bus at 8:37am. I wish I could have seen the bus drivers face when he pulled up to our stop. 6 dogs and 6 blind persons, OMG! LOL We all boarded the bus and had a very short ride to Smith Haven Mall. Once on the bus, we were slightly delayed as there was an accident that had just happened at the intersection we were close to. Once at the mall we all DE boarded the bus, and got back on the school’s bus. Then it was a short rude to the Whole foods. We had a choice to go into the grocery store, or take a venture around outside. I chose to go into Whole Foods. On this particular walk, I put my high heels on. I wanted to see what it was like to walk with my heels and the dog. Never before with all the other pups, did I do this. It was not too different, and Missy did even more balancing of me. Not that I was falling over, but she counter balances me all the time. While in Whole foods, I got a 30 page document of all the foods in the store that are gluten free products. We worked on isle work and navigating the store. We finished up around 10:55am. From there we headed to Starbucks for coffee, while another student picked up their computer from the hospital. It was broken and needed fixing. That was our last route, our last route with our instructors, our last ride in the bus. And the one instructor was proud that he did not break or damage the bus the entire class. It was a bitter sweet moment.

 

Before lunch some of the students ran through the procedures of the airport. We did not go to the airport, like they usually do with classes, but because we were all leaving sooner than normal, there wasn’t time for that. I’ll explain how I go through security and go through the airport, this is not necessarily how all persons with a guide dog do this. There are several rules. Yes guide dogs can go on to the plane, and ride in the passenger cabin with me. TSA cannot ask to take your dog away, nor can they take your harness off of the dog. You can sit in bulk head but there is nothing in the law requiring you to do such. When I make my flight arrangements with the airlines, I will usually say that I have a guide dog, and that I need assistance. Again, there is nothing saying that a person HAS to have assistances. Once I arrive at the airport I go to the ticket counter, or the counter outside of the terminal, the one on the curb. I ask for help through security and to my gate. Now with this said, there are a few airports, I can navigate on my own, thus then do not ask for help. I can safely navigate DFW, Dallas Love Field, and PHL. I don’t usually check my baggage, mainly for the reasons it’s hard to find afterwards, and I would rather not have that hassle. So when I arrive at security, I make it easy to go through. I wear shoes that can be slipped on and off easily, I have all of my stuff away, and an I travel light. With a dog, I leave her harness on, her collar on, and her leash on. It’s pretty obvious that I am blind. I am not picky if I need to wait in line or not. Again this is a personal preference. A dog cannot go through the full body scanner, so I go through the metal detector. If there is anything on the harness, like a pouch, or bag, TSA will require you take this off for scanning.  I will put my pup in a “sit and stay”, walk through the detector with the assistance of a TSA person. The dog will set the alarm off, so this is why I do it this way. I would also say that not all dogs can be trusted to sit and not take off, and furthermore, it takes time to get them to this point of “sitting and staying” for long periods of time. Once I am through the metal detector, I will turn around and say, Insert dogs name here, “come”. The dog will go through the metal detector, set the alarm off, and then a TSA person will pat down the dog. Again the harness, collar, and leash are all on. They will look under the harness and so forth. The dogs usually have no issues with the pat down, they might try to sniff, but a simple “leave it” command will get them from sniffing usually. Once I have all of my belongings, I go my way with or without help. Once at the gate, I usually ask for permission to board the plane early. Again, this is a personal preference. I board early so I can get everything arranged, situated, and I settled. I also do not like bulk head. I will put my pups under the seat in front of me. I take the harness off so that the pup will be relaxed, and yes they are still working. With my previous two guides, I could get them up under the seat in front of me, but with Missy I am not sure she will fit. She is a bigger dog. Usually after takeoff the dogs settle down and go to sleep. If I am seated in bulk head seats, then the dog’s body is usually in the foot area of the person next to me. And the same goes for in a regular row. The difference is how much foot room you will have. I am fairly short, thus need some foot room. But my hubby has big feet, so needs more room. If my flight is long, say more than 3 hours, I will try to give my dog ice chips. I always with hold some food and water the day before. So that there are no accidents. I always take a few pieces of kibble, napkins, wet wipes, and a few baggies on the plane for the puppy. So that is how I deal with airport security and flying on planes.

 

I brought up an interesting subject for discussion and I wish I had thought of this before now. All guide dogs wear harnesses, but it’s not the harness that makes the dog a service animal. It’s what it does for the blind person. As I have mentioned guides can leash guide without a harness. If the puppy has a harness on the pup is usually working. All guide dog users while at home at the harness off, and the pup is a normal dog. A normal dog with normal dog like behaviors. Just because they are highly trained, they can still get into trash, plants, chew things up, make messes, and have accidents inside and a number of other things I am not listing here. My point is that if you see a guide dog with its harness on or even if it’s off, that dog might be working, it might be doing a very important job for that blind person. It’s not appropriate to just pet that dog. It’s not right to assume that blind persons needs help, or that blind person can’t tell that your sneaking pets, or that you’re looking at the dog. All guides dogs are in this special job because they like what they are doing, if they were not meant to be a guide then they would not have made it this far. This is all they know, this is normal for them. They are not pets, they do not need people food, they do not need lots of doggie snacks, nor do they need to be treated like a pet. The blind person and the dog have a working relationship, but with that a bond forms. Never distract a guide dog from its job; it could be dangerous for the blind person. And also please do not try to give directions to over mind the dogs ability to guide. If the blind persons want help, they will ask for it. All guide dog users have either trained their own guides, or received their guides from a program, all of them have spent hours and hours learning how to work with their dogs, and all of them will spend the rest of the dogs working career training with each other. Guide dog handlers must give corrections to the dogs. We are not being mean. Our dogs have done something wrong, perhaps something minor or perhaps something huge. But no matter, the blind persons knows what type of correction to give the dog. There are verbal corrections, leash corrections, and harness corrections. Please do not call the SPCA to report the blind person. If you have a concern, go up to the blind person and ask. I would rather a person ask why I corrected my dog like this or that, rather than calling an agency who does not know me. If we as blind users do not correct for minor things, then the next time there is a need, the dog will feel that they can get away with the major things. Do not look at the dog, do not look at the dog to get its attention, again this could be harmful to the dog and handler. If you want to talk to the blind person, then great. Don’t let the dog be the only thing you talk about. Blind people can have the same interests and experiences in life as you do. Don’t ask a lot of questions. We all ask questions, but doesn’t right off the bat ask why or how the person went blind. Please don’t feel sorry or want to save the blind person. God makes all sorts of people, and if he made me blind he must be doing it for a reason, not because I sinned, or because my parents did. Some dog guide users have different rules about a person petting their dog. This is only for me. We are a new team as of this writing, don’t ask to pet. Don’t look at the dog, yes she is cute. But we have to bond, she gets lots of love. If you will know me a year from now, and you want to pet, ask away. With that said, if I am walking and I am holding on to the harness handle, don’t ask to pet, no matter how long or short you have known me. If I am sitting at a bench, and have some time there, and you want to pet after a while of us being a team, sure go for it. Don’t ask to pet when I am eating, it’s rude. It’s like me asking you to play with your baby while you’re eating. I have given a lot of information, so if your confused, please email me and we can talk about it.

 

Back on track, after lunch I had a sweet couple of volunteers who took me back to Port Jefferson. I had a bit more shopping to do. While I was out, the class took the dogs to a big area to free run the dog. I was planning on doing the same with two dogs that were in this class, but who are staying in the kennels. When I got back at 3, it was too late. I played with Missy a bit in our room. Then I took her down to get groomed. There she played with the K pup. After letting the pups play and grooming Missy, I ran upstairs and took a quick shower. I was done before feed, water and break. I started laundry so I could start the packing process. After dinner there was no lecture schedule, so I worked on packing. At the end of this writing I am 65percent packed. I just hope we can get it all home.

 

Well it’s late, and I am super tired. Tomorrow it’s going to be a long day. I can’t wait to go home!!!!

 

Until tomorrow….