Saturday, November 13, 2010

Saturday night - part deux

As the first week came to an end, I realized that the long days were much more mentally andemotionally challenging then physically ... Sure the walks or routes were challenging but they only lasted and hour or so and when there were victories along the way, or setbacks but recoveries attained with the help of their fantastic instructors and support staff, it was better then what I had been experiencing for most of the last 18 months ... one step forward, three steps back ... Being my first guide, I was only beginning to realize all the doors he would open for me, and to this very day I continue to do so. Except for the doors he runs me into but most of those are my fault ... No kidding, no doors have hit me but my legs and hear have hit a few tree branches .. if any GDB employees are reading this, or handlers, yes I re-worked those occurences ... sometimes I am not sure Calvin does not do this kind of thing because he knows at the end is some food reward ... Yes, these guides are very food motivated ... Moreso then someone in the last hours of Yom KIppur ...

So the week ended much much better then it began. There were definite days early on when I was convinced I was making a huge error and was ready to go home ... I was put on a list somewhere and everyone kept asking how was I doing ... even some of the other dogs were caught talking to Calvin in the corner telling him to give me a break and sit once or twice ... It got to a point where I would say sit and he would lie down ... Not sure if this was because he was listening to me, scared or just tired of hearing my voice I just took it as a victory.

I do remember one bus trip we took from the dorms in Boring to Gresham. The instructors told us that for those rides, the dogs had to remain sitting. Lying down there would not be enough room for all of us and standing was too dangerous for them. I still belive that that was a load of poop but it was meant to get us to control our dogs and do something they were not used to. Thanks for telling us that they had really never been asked to sit on a vehicle before. Well all the other dogs mostly got it. Calvin? Well, let's just say I was considering slew footing him to get him to sit ... I went a few rides struggling with how to get him to sit and stay ... finally the supervisor took pity on my and showed how to hold onto him close to his collar, put one leg behind him and just not let him move. I went the next three rides with a sitting dog and was so very proud until a little voice from the back of the bus asked why I was doing that when they told us the day before we could have them lie down. So we were a little different. It was not the first time and won't be the last.

The days leading into the second week and the first few days, until Wednesday slowed down a bit. We had less guide work, more doen time and things started to really feel more natural. We went shopping in a mall, I walked with another team and did a bit of gift shopping. Had my first contact with a member of the sighted public with a dog. In line at a bookstore there was a father with his two young sons. We were second in line to make our purchases so I said, "Calvin, sit pleas". Yes, i say please and thank you. Just being polite to my four legged human.

When I said that I heard a ruckus, yes a ruckus from the group in front of me. With a sad voice the younger of the two brothers told me "MY name is Calvin". The Dad offered to trade my Calvin for his.

No way I said. Not for anything.

Getting tired now and tomorrow I have a Guide Dog for the Blind Puppy Raiser of Mid Peninsula outing ...Calvins first group play date ... I will report on that tomorrow or early in the week since this blog seems to be working now ...

Oh, yes, for those not aware, I also became an Naturalized American citizen and started back at work last week. and i turned 45. Here's to the next a45

until tomorrow friends and family
david

The Saturday Night Post, November 13th, 2010 - all the news fit to print ... before the site crashes

OK, another shot at this ... I got some tech advice so this should work ..
The last I left our canine hero, we were in week two of training and the first week had it poopy days, or the days i could not even find the poopy ... but that got so much better I no longer fear the scoop or the scoop of the poop ... what I do fear is Indian food ... when Calvin hounds some up off the floor of my favourite place and transports it home and deposits it on my living room floor the next day - with a very familiar scent from the night before ... i.e., spicy food does not digest in dog's digestive tract ...

Anyway, back to week two of trianing ... from wht I can recall ... Clearly I was learning quite a bit, like how to function on less and less sleep ... there were more very very late night as we were fortunate to have San Jose weather in usually rainy Portland ... I had way too much cold weather clothing and mot enough clean underwear, um, sorry mother, I mean not enough clean t-shirts .. so I did laundry more often and, well stayed chatting with my new little family/friends ...

I do recall one evening when abut five of us decided to watch a movie so we spent about way too long choosing a movie, a vhs movie I might add, from the dorm's collection, settling on one with Steve Martin called Mixed Nuts ..

Joke - how many blind folks does it take to start a movie?
Answer - five, four guide dogs and about thiry minutes ...
Only to find out that someone with a very off sense of humour or bad braille skills put Shrek Two in the Mixed Nuts box ... so down to two remaining willing participants we watched that one ...

Funny, I do not think we all tried to watch another movie ...

Some word about Calvin and his guide work, at this stage ... Not sure if I posted about this before but as much trouble as I was having with obedience, his guide work, or rather our team work went very well from the get go ... Our first walk I kept saying to myslef, this is amazing ... so much build up to this point and now I am walking (with my eyes closed) and not hitting anything. Later I found out we are supposed to let our instructions know if we close our eyes - for us low vision folks .. oops ...

We walked routes in the small town near the dorms, called GResham which a little bigger then Ste-Agathe for you Montreal folks and sort of like a small district in San Francisco ... the hardest thing for me there was remembering the streets we were to walk on our own later that week, the firt week ... in retrospect, concentrating so much on what direction I was supposed to be travelling I forgot to think about guide work and just followed Calvin ... On Thursday in that first week we did out first two night routes for which I have no vision at all except if there is street lights and my days hanging under light posts are done and over ...

With the chill night air giving Calvin a little extra energy, or the thought of the bean bag chair tht awaited him at the end, he sped off that first route with a little extra bounce in his step ... I just KISS, as our supervisor kept telling us to do and just went with him. I am sure it helped to know that our instructors were following close behind but I had mo idea how close .. anyway we breezed through it and it was sort of an emotional moment for me as I never ever thought I would be able to walk alone at night again ... OK, stop crying D, it is not big deal ...

Calvin did not walk me into anything that night or any other night ... yet .... He did almost walk me into a tree another day route and I am reminded about that so let me tell you about Calvin, trail walking and booties ... somewhere later in the second week, we went to a new area to experience, among other things, trail walking. Now this was not hiking, just trail that had small rocks, pebbles or packed dirt ... So I found Calvin's Kryptonite - he slowed right down and he did not make me change my socks and underwear as often ... sorry for the image ... He was kind of slow so my instructor suggested n the way back we try his little booties that we are given for escalator and cold or hot weather travel ... they are also for walking on surfaces that may hurt his little pads ... So here we are at the beginning of the trail and I am struggling to put four little velcro attached booties on the dog with all the style of socks and sandles style and he is not loving this but as with most other things he is trusting me and staying in place. Staying so much that after I was dripping in sweat and his little booties were on, I pick up the harness and give him the forward command. No response. Command repeated. Nope. I put down the harness ahndle,lean over and give him a pep talk that Gene Wilder would be proud of talking to his monster to walk ... Nada. On my instructors suggetion I pull him and he stumbles forward. Victory. Perhaps we will move some ... and then , BOOM! Like underdog his neurons connect, oh yes, I can walk in these and proceeds to run like speedy gonzalez, me slipping on the rocks barley keeping up, not to mention my footing ... My instructor is porbably thinking I may be in trouble because she sort of yells for me to stop grabs my arm and I see about three inches in front of me her ahd and right behing that a nice solid, tree ... that was a close one. Mental note, get heavier booties for the dog.

Well, I will make this part one of the post and not push my luck .. if this posts successfully, I will continue it later or tomorrow ...

On the next post ... "This is why we can not have nice thngs ..."