Carin’s Guide Dog Diary: Day 3

Last Updated on: 25th September 2013, 10:23 am

Grrr. There’s never enough time. Never! Last night, after I wrote that entry, I went to send it to the computer, but Autumn ran back to the room and said lock the door lock the door! So I did, apparently she was running from David! He’d ordered pizza, apparently he and Amy have hollow legs. Anyway, he called the pizza guy a spic, which pissed off everyone around him. This morning, if I can catch Autumn, we’re going to talk to the instructors about this David probem. We already spoke to him about having respect for our space and it got us exactly nowhere. Also, he was threatening to tackle Rain Man just for fun. There’s something wrong with that boy. I don’t want to live in fear for the rest of my training.

Autumn and I just laid down and talked for a long time. I didn’t nod off until close to 12. But oh my body had me awake at 5 for some unknown reason.

I’m happy. I’ve finally tamed that devilish alarm clock. God damn that thing is like a rebel guide puppy. It has a mind of its own! But I now know how to set it so if David plays with Autumn’s power bar it’s no big deal, I’ll just set it for her later and show her how. I love the comradery that happens at guide dog schools. We all help each other. I helped Frank with his phone, Amy helped me with the alarm clock, I love it. Everybody helps everybody.

Oh, I like Bernard now. He’s hillarious. Apparently the reason he was sorta creepy was he had a fever when he got here! The poor guy. Now we can’t shut him up. But I llike him.

David is in here again. I guess we’re not talking to the god damn instructors! Eeeee! I’m going to lose my mind. Going to lose it! Lose it! Real soon! Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

I forgot to mention the dinner chimes. They ring these pretty chimes when it’s time to eat. I guess that way nobody can say that they missed dinner cause they didn’t know.

This morning they fed us pancakes and sausages. Mmm.

Tonight we’re having yoga. They’re going to teach us stretching exercises to prevent shin splints. Cool! Yoga! Isn’t that the most awesome thing?

Almost time for class. Damn damn damn when are we going to deal with this? She claims he’s going to respect boundaries. Let’s see.

Mmm. Today’s lunch is a club sandwich and I’m trying the shrimp salad for dinner.

This morning we’re doing commands and then we’re going to Juneau in downtown San Rafael. Yee ha, man on a leash time! At least the locals are used to it. I just learned how to do the formal recall correction. Pretty straight forward. The dog starts screwing around, you just yank it back past your leg cause that’s where you want him to go! That went really well. I think I’ve got all the obedience commands down. Sweet. Went out on my first Juneau harness walk, sans rug, thank god. Ick that would be bad. Those rugs are all ripped to hell. Man it feels good to be walking with a harness again. We got to try the 3 hop ups, one for speed up, one for come on, doggy, focus, and one for ok we’re close to something but I can’t quite reach it. I think I’ve got them down. It’s all about the intonation. Got the lefts and rights straight, har har. I think I’m starting to know where I’m going. Gimme my doggy now! Gimme gimme gimme!

Autumn *says* we’re GOING to talk to the instructors. She claims she didn’t really want him in the room this morning. I can’t keep up with this, and I told her so. God damn. Everyone else I love to death.

Sylvia’s wrist is still bugging her, poor woman. I guess she’s 77 years old. Um, wow. Amy fell! Ouchers! She’s now crash junior. We’re droppin’ like flies! Don’t get booted Amy! Please please please!

Lunch was good. I liked the clam chowder. I didn’t get to try the chocolate mousse though. Oh well, we’ll get it for supper.

We went and talked to Jen about David and they said they’d talk to him. Should be interesting.

Now it’s lecture time. Controling your guide dog. Ok that was embarrassing. I fell asleep for a second. Um, that was a woops. Then I did more obedience and I think I’ve got it. It’s sit, down, stay, then formal recall where you make him stay and then you make him heel. So I think we’re going to the downtown lounge for more juneauage.

Uh-oh. They just called David to the office. This could be awkward. Oh I hate the way my body gets when it’s stressed. Hope there’s time to visit the john.

Well we went over to the lounge, and I was able to help Carmen with her email. I went out on another Juneau walk with more lefts in it, and wow, I could go faster!

David is officially an asshole. The guy went and laid on Amy’s bed because we said he couldn’t come back into our room. What a class act.

Mm dinner was good. Shrimp salad and chocolate eclaires. I’m an idiot though. I asked for iced tea and forgot that it’s just cold tea. *Ug*! There’s a note to all Canadians. It’s not your iced tea! And I was even warned! God I’m an idiot head.

Now David’s refusing to come to dinner. Like what the huh? He’s a strange individual.

Wow, it looks like a short update today. There’s not much left to happen, just yoga. But who knows? Maybe I’ll run into Seizure Augustus, or Seizure Augimpus as she is now calling herself because of her little fall. She seems to be fine now. I’m worried about Sylvia though. She’s at the doctors. That’s never good. I have to return Carmen’s pen. Autumn wanted to write down all the commands and stuff so we teamed up and wrote them down. Man I’m jealous of Al. He brought his own laptop with wireless access. If I had that I could email these from anywhere and not have to use the public computer at specified times.

My feet really cry out when I’m standing in the halt position. I hope that gets better.

Is there anything else I can say? Damn it I went back to give Carmen her pen and I missed the phone! Aboo! Please leave a message, please please, I’m on my knees! Voicemail? Lemmy check! No message damn it oh no! Let’s see if it was mom and dad. They never leave messages, the silly ones. I have no caller ID here! Arggy! I’m listening to the silly spanish collect call music. Ah come on hurry up and reject the call and then phone me back, ok? Come on! I don’t have long now. Well it wasn’t mom and dad. Arg must go to yoga now. Must pee first.

That was good, but I didn’t make it to pee. It’s hard to lie still and relax with a full bladder. But that was good. My muscles feel much looser. I finally met another of the continued assessment girls, her name is Nancy and she has one hell of a lot of arthritis. Poor girl. But I’ve never seen yoga perform such a miraculous transformation on someone. She went from “oo ee aaa” to “this feels much better!” and the instructor asked her if it really felt better, and she said yes! Wow! How cool is that? There I go again.

I met Nicole, the other continued assessment girl, and she has the cutest little voice. She said we were laughing so hard they could hear us down in the retrain wing.

I don’t think dear old Matt is getting a guide dog. We saw him trying to lead a puppy in harness back out into the driveway without help. Oops. The dog’s name is Martin. Wouldn’t it be funny if you knew a Martin like I do, and then you had a dog named Martin? Oh boy.

I think that’s about it for today. Woe! A short day! Holy crap! Or at least a short summary. Tomorrow we get our four-legged woofer friends.! I’m going to try and send this now, maybe it won’t look as bad as last time.

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