New guide dog journals day 10

Last Updated on: 3rd April 2013, 10:24 am

I’m exhausted. If I’m not careful, I may fall asleep with my keyboard.

So we went to the lounge and waited for big evil traffic check man aka Adam. So for those who don’t know, the traffic route is the one where the class supervisor, or someone, drives at you from various positions so you can feel what it feels like. It was cool to see the newbs go out on the route all full of nerves but come back full of confidence.

Tansy did really well. By the end, though, she started seeking out buildings. It was kind of adorable. When we got back to the lounge, she was panting harder than I’ve ever seen. Oh and Adam was driving a hybrid. That was freaky. It would appear out of nowhere. He said it made a high pitched whine…I never heard much of anything…a little gravel crunching but that’s all.

It’s getting near the end of training so they’re starting to talk exit interviews. You can do it face to face or now you can do it online. But the only down side of doing it online is you have to do it sooner, and right now you can only do it from one computer and others had complained that it didn’t work well in Safari.

I did it online because I like writing my own thoughts down, but knowing what I know now I would wait and do it face to face on Friday. There are things I couldn’t say because we still had 3 and a half days of training to go and in this new way, that means so much still needs to be crammed in.

Then we went over to campus for one jam packed afternoon. I got some gift shop items, We had our pictures taken, we had our fun things about my puppy thing read, We had the vet lecture that now kind of looks like a q and a, and then we had our vet consults. Oh and they told us about speakers bureau and alumni association. Oh and I got to meet Tansy’s primary instructor. Oh my god Tansy lost her mind. I believe she learned to fly. I wish for the day when I got that exuberant reaction…and if this is what she does for the trainer,…I’m in trouble when the raisers show up.

I got to tell her that I call Tansy my little rock star and she laughed. I know I have more questions for her, but I only have a couple minutes. At least I have her email.

At the vets, Tansy had had several small medical problems but nothing scary. Found out she weighs 51 pounds now, and I also recorded her microchip number. She has more tags now. She jingles different now.

Then it was back to the hotel, feed the dogs and come to dinner before a night route.

Dinner was ok, except I think I unintentionally ruffled some feathers. The director of training was there asking us how we thought it was going. I said the only thing I missed so far was the bus to lounge route because that really built up my confidence. Well! She asked me why that couldn’t be scheduled in and how come I didn’t know what my goals for the week were and how come the instructors just couldn’t back off anyway…and on it went. I explained to her that we basically get told by the half day. Sure we set our goals but the instructors figure out how to shoehorn those goals into the week. At this, she said she would get me some more information and stormed off, not before backing her chair straight into Tansy. Thank god Tansy moves quick.

When she came back she didn’t speak to me for the rest of dinner, leaving me with an uneasy feeling.

On the way to night route, I managed to explain what happened but not before getting emotional. At least Danielle understood.

Night route was good. Traffic was wacky and unpredictable. We did more clicker and discovered that because my hands are so wee small, it was better to go with a marking word than trying to manhandle the clicker and all the other gear. Tansy likes that audible pole.

Funny thing that happened to us: Tansy saw a white prius, the same car that Adam drove at us, and would have nothing to do with it.

Oh and we got and tried gentle leaders today. They have a new extender piece to attach gentle leader to collar without engaging it. Now that confuses me lol.

And the reason this is going up in the morning is I did fall asleep with my keyboard.

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4 Comments

  1. Geez, how unprofessional is that? Wow. Thank goodness she didn’t wack Tansy with her chair. I almost just wrote Trixie. Ah, traffic check day. We had the electric car too. Did they have you sit in it and go for a spin to feel just how quiet those things are? We did that and I had to give Jayden to a trainer. I was like noooo! I love how the traffic check really lets you know just how much you can trust your dog. So cool. Man they must terrify those dogs with cars while they’re being trained haha. Jayden doesn’t like movie even if a moving vehicle isn’t anywhere near us haha. He hates parking lots with a passion.

    You’re almost there and then you get to go home and just be with your dog with no pissed off staff upsetting you. That was the pep talk I had to give myself in my home stretch. Almost done.

  2. Hopefully that training director was just having a bad day. I’d hate to think she was that not personable and unaware of things in her own department all the time. At least I would assume instructors would be part of training. Would be in a logical world anyway.

    You did well for somebody who fell asleep. Unless I missed something, I didn’t have to fix any mistakes this time. I think that’s twice now.

    1. Carin – I agree with Steve – chalk it up to a bad day. She must be doing something right there; and these days, so many organizations are facing extreme financial difficulties, she may be bearing the brunt of that.

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