Last Updated on: 8th May 2023, 10:51 am
I’m writing this at the end of the day. Tired.
My day got off to a bit of a bad start. I was in the bathroom for longer than I planned, which set everything back, and the schedule is such that once you’re behind, it creates a domino effect. So I ran around to catch up and made it to breakfast on time. Woo!
Breakfast for me was yogurt, granola and fruit.
Then we had a lecture on street crossings. Then we headed out to Gresham to do some Juno and then the route to Jazzy Bagel. That’s my destination for the next bit. We definitely did better than the first route but we both have some learning to do. I need to stop when he stops at curbs and probe with my foot immediately, not shimmy forward still thinking we’re not there yet. If we’re not there, I need to tell him to hoppup and let him do his job. We had to rework a crossing because he and I collectively screwed it up. But I guess that’s why I’m in school. I have learned that if I’m hesitating a lot, he will start showing me stuff, and if nothing else, he’ll show me the curb edge even if it’s in the middle of the block. Eek. So don’t hesitate for stupid reasons.
There were a few times we got into a good groove and man did that feel good. When he gets distracted, at least so far, he slows down. I’m not used to that.
Lunch was a Greek pita with chips. There was strawberry shortcake but I was too full so I took it to go.
The afternoon was all about reworking errors. So Juno got to be a mean mean Juno and bonk us into stuff. Juno even made me knock over one of the obstacles. Juno veered in the street, brushed me into walls, bonked me into stuff. Naughty Juno. Then I went out with the dog and he made some errors of his own. Errors aside, that route was even better than the morning route. And today, I met my class supervisor. She sort of surveys all the teams and offers suggestions. They were trying to decide which harness handle I should use because apparently, with one handle, my shoulder dips and that could be bad over time. I think we settled on the short straight handle. I think. I guess the supervisor had met Scary Jane from the Babs days. It’s a small world. Also, whenever she spoke, my dog would look at her with adoring eyes.
Then we came back and cleaned doggy teeth and ears. He doesn’t mind ear cleaning so much, and he loves the teeth stuff. Of course he did.
Then something cool happened. My instructor told me that while he was in the kennels, he made some art. Something about smearing peanut butter on a surface and then he smushed it around and the kennel staff painted a representation of the smears. Anyway, she wanted to know if I wanted the drawing. I said sure. I’ll have to get her to explain how it works again.
Supper was an onion galette, not sure of spelling, and more delicious strawberry shortcake.
Then we had a lecture about playing with our dogs and safe and unsafe toys. We got a kong, which my dog tried to attack right there. We also got a carabiner, which can be clipped to the kibble pouch and can be used to hang things on. I’ve always wanted a carabiner. I was very tired in this lecture. The lady who did that lecture has a golden for a pet. I’m going to be pick pick picking her brain. I also noticed that the mat under his ear is back already! Booooo!
After that, I flopped over. I know I was supposed to groom him, but I didn’t make it.
Tomorrow is going to be interesting. We’re going to learn about working our dogs in buildings and then, that means we can work them in the dorm! Woo! Things are going to get interesting these next few days. We’re going to get to do cool things like free run our dogs and do a campus route and stuff like that. Things are heatin’ up.
Also tomorrow night is yoga. I’m really going to enjoy going into corpse pose.
And I should really go into corpse pose by going to bed. Hahahaha.
Looks like you got galette right, assuming that what you were eating was something like this. I bet that was probably yummy.
Reading about him showing you stuff that may or may not be useful makes him sound like right now he falls somewhere in the middle of Trix and Shmans on the confidence scale. I remember Trix would often think it was her fault when something went wrong, while Shmans was generally more of the alright, I bet this is what you’re after sort when you would be unsure of yourself. You’ll definitely need to watch out for that, but it sounds like something that you could totally work with. With time, maybe you can turn him into more of a Shmans.