Last Updated on: 4th May 2016, 09:25 am
This will be a bit of a flurry…am writing at 10 o’clock…busy day. Let’s see. After the usual morning routine, which included a pretty hard bonk from Babs’s head, ouch, my nose still hurts, while she was trying to say hello, we went for breakfast. pretty uneventful I think, although today is a bit of a blurr. Went off to hang out for a bit and then headed for the van. Babs and Margery’s dog Amy really love each other. Babs always has her head right up against Amy’s butt when we’re riding together. And when I bring her in to busy or groom and Margery is there, she’ll go to see Margery and/or Amy. Sometimes the two of them try to have secret meetings in the van, wiggle closer and closer to each other, maybe they’re trying to whisper in dog language.
Went out in the morning and learned about what guide dogs do when they find a place where they absolutely must turn when they can’t go straight. Pretty cool. Got more used to catching her at sniffing. Once I thought she passed a curb, cause instructor Tim told me he’d try and make her miss the curbs, and we weren’t there yet! But he told me not to worry. And he’s a real devil. He purposely created diversions so I’d have to correct her.
Oh, I asked him about her lump on her chest and a little crusty spot on her head, and he said he’d talk to the vet about it because that all went away. That worries me. She’d better not have any veterinary problems *already*! Oh well I’m probably just worrying too much.
Note to past self: She does have problems. You weren’t worrying too much. Wasn’t that a wonderful way to enter into guide dog life?
Then we came back and went for lunch, god damn I’m hungry at every meal! It was good. We met another one of the instructors, Sarah. She seemed nice. Then after lunch I let Babs rest for a bit and then I brought her in and groomed her and did some of the obedience, but I get confused by it so will get Tim to go over it with me. He said he would.
That was also dumb. At the Ottawa school, we were encouraged to do our obedience alone in aquiet place. Um, the point of obedience is that they’ll do it anywhere. So shouldn’t we do it in places with lots of distractions? We hardly ever did obedience in front of instructors unless we were asking for help, we never did it with them on aregular basis to make sure we were doing it right!
Then we went out to the van, and the driver’s name was Mike Jordan. Ha ha ha that’s funny. He’s a nice guy. So we get in the van and drive out and do more walking. Did streets where you cross, but if you go straight you’ll head into someone’s driveway…so you have to go left or right. But you have to make the dog go straight across the street because you don’t want her going kittie corner on any street.
Something funny happened while I was waiting to go out today. I was sitting in the van waiting for instructor Tim to come back with Margery…and this kid went past the van and said, hey mom, look! and his mom said, yes, a guide dog! My first guide dog comment! Ooo!
For a while, you will hate those. It’s a spotlight like no other, and you had no idea. None. Zip. Well, you had a teeny tiny fraction of an idea.
I don’t know how instructor Tim does 8 walks a day…and that’s just with a small class. Imagine 8 students? How would one do 16 walks a day? Holy crap. We found out he plays hockey in the winter. He’s one fit dude. He’s been doing this for 15 years I guess.
Then some great fun happened between Tim and Sharon. I guess on the way back from their jaunts, the dogs got in the van and started to play, leashes got loose, and well, abra cadabra, Tim got Charity and Sharon got Willow. They took them home, fed them, busied them, the whole deal, but noticed that the dogs would not listen at all! And then Willow mooed at Sharon, or made that moaning sound like a toy cow in one of those toy farms…and she said, “what? Charity doesn’t moo!” So, embarrassed, the two wondered what to do. So Tim walked up to Anka and said, “What colour is my dog?” She laughed and said, “black!” Um, that’s not Willow’s colour. That’s Charity. So they make the reunions and all is well, but wow that was funny and Anka laughed about it all through supper. He kept saying, “what colour is my dog?” And she’d say, “green!” and laugh some more. She’s so cute.
I managed to get them all to agree to get instructor Tim something at the end of the class, and managed to get student Tim to agree that we should get Anka something, just gotta get Sharon. Then instructor Tim said tomorrow he’s bringing us Timmy Ho’s for breakfast! That’s cool! And he gave us our lottery tickets. Oh tomorrow should be way interesting. In the morning, we’re doing an obstacle course, and then in the afternoon, we’re all going out, hopefully to a coffee shop and doing some kind of walk. Should be great gobs of fun.
Let’s see what else. Talked on the phone a bit, and then came here. Got lots of responses from my mass email that I sent to a bunch of people to say that she’s here, without having them endure the days and days of googoo gaga. That’s about it for now. Should finish battling with this beast while my snoring mooing dog sleeps beside me. She’d probably like to be back on her comfy bed again soon.
note: had to take dog to bed because she decided to play a lively game of let’s tell mom I don’t want to sit here anymore and watch you send emails. So she’s waiting…please Babs, don’t poop on my room floor, please? please? I already called Anka in, well instructor Tim ended up coming in because I thought I smelled something funny and wanted to make sure it wasn’t dog doodoo. it wasn’t, thankfully enough. Plese don’t doodoo on my floor? I really will be back soon!
Um, that was cream of dumb to leave her alone so soon, especially when you had no tie-down! . So dumb. You were lucky she didn’t crap on the floor.