New guide dog journals Day 4

Last Updated on: 29th March 2013, 07:02 am

I’m up obscenely early. Hope it doesn’t come back to bite me.

I think I forgot to mention that the new handle I got was extra short but also urgo. I haven’t noticed a massive difference but I do feel little things.

Another thing about Tansy. When she’s done relieving, she will not let you move her around. She’s done and that’s it. She also is hilariously full of beans. Her heeling is getting better.

It’s hard to shake the habits you have from your old dog. In your head you know you have to but it’s hard to actually do it.

Tansy’s so funny when she’s in the crate. She climbs right in with gusto, and when I come to get her, as I get closer to the crate, she wags harder and harder.

We learn about playing with the pooches today. I hope that means I get to select a second toy. Tug ring or goughnut stick I think. I’ll buy a kong anyway but I want to know if she’s a tugger.

I need to stop answering all the questions in lecture. Now that they don’t want to do standard lectures, they just basically ask us questions and stimulate discussion…or in my case, the spewage of my blabber mouth. I hope my classmates don’t think I’m a know it all. Oh hell no.

So today we do grooming and get toys. It’s a good day for Tanseroos.

Another note about Tansy’s name. When dad finally figured out what I was trying to say over Skype, his comment was “Tansy? That’s a brash kind of weed!” Oh dear. Poor Tansy is named after an invasive plant. Oh well. I know she could be named far worse things.

Two more things I want to write down: I keep trying to do things we haven’t covered yet. Oops. And the hotel food isn’t bad. Just sometimes they take forever to bring it which throws off our schedule. At least Rose makes our lunches in the lounge.

Ok time to get movin’. And this time, I’ll bring money. Hello goofhead.

Well I’m finishing day 4 on day 5. Oops. That’s what happens when you keel over on top of the bed in your clothes. Let’s see. We did a lecture on street crossings and then we took turns going out. The other thing they do a lot more of is you put your dog in the crate and then you do a little work with the empty and an instructor. They call that Juno. Then you come back for the dog and do the route.

While I was waiting, I got on the computer and tried to get the voice memo off the iPhone, but they didn’t have iTunes so all the computer would show me was the photos. Then I managed to drop the 20 bucks I brought. Thankfully lost was found.

Oh. One of the dogs was holding his poop and finally went. Only at guide dog training school would we celebrate dog ddoodoo.
Tansy pooped 3 times yesterday. Go doggers.

Routes were good. I just have to let her lead me straight to the curb and let her lead out when I say forward. I’m getting better at keeping her at my side when giving her food rewards.

So we did the lecture on reworking errors. Then Juno got mean and intentionally slamming us into stuff so we can practice saying “careful!” Oh. in the morning Adam waited for us to distract our dogs on route.

One thing they can’t do while we’re in the hotel is have our instructors bring in their pet dogs to use as distractions. We also don’t do formal obedience.

In the afternoon, Tansy went crazy. She tried to chew on a couple of dogs and tried to make friends with Visa.
We’re really starting to help each other out as classmates. I helped a couple people send pictures of their pooches. Then I showed them the trust me baby video. Also after the second route, we sat outside together and talked, and I think I heard Tansy’s first bark. It was deep like Trix’s but it had a little squeak in it. Then we had dinner and got our grooming supplies, except they forgot our combs. The slicker brush is different now. It has soft bristles on one side and hard ones on the other. Tansy liked being groomed, only tried to bite the brush a couple times. She was all chilled at the end.

After grooming and the final relieve, I unintentionally hit the hay. I woke up a bit at 4 but not too long.