Day three

Today is day three.

Did you ever think that guide dogs sleep during the night?  Well, I really suggest you think that idea through again.  This guy had only one thing in mind, turn and turn again, flop oneself down, grown, get up and tap the gate with one’s claw , scrape one’s claw along the bottom of the crate, repeat as necessary until morning.  By the way, all these antics start around 3; that is 3 in the am.  I never knew there was a 3 am until I was introduced to one supposed guide dog named Jeter.  I think it would be fair to start off with last night.  I played Star Trek, Wrath of Con (one of my favorite movies by the way), to see if I could get another huge woof out of him.  Well, I  guess he liked Captain Kurk better than Luke.  Last night, he started wining while I was getting dinner ready; I ignored it.  It got louder, louder and still louder until there was a little yep in it.  When I heard the yep, I said in a firm voice no.  That stopped.  When he stopped all the noise, I walked calmly over to him and praised him for being quiet.  I went back to prepping dinner again.  When he started in again, I ignored him including the little yep.  When I did nothing about it, he stopped, walked around in a circle and laid down. 

Dinner for Jeter was adventurous.  He has been leaving a bit in the bowl these last few nights and last night he got it all.  After dinner was finished, I took him outside.  He did nothing; as in, he just wanted to stand around and look.  I gave up on him and went back inside.  Shortly before bed, I gave him another opportunity to go and again he did not want to relieve. 

This morning, he did not relieve as in not a  thing out of that guy directly out of the crate.  So, I went in, fed him and took him out again.  He gave me a hard dropping, but no number one.  Well, guess who did not want breakfast this morning?  Jeter.  He only had a few mouthfuls and called it quits.  No more, not interested.  So, I picked up the food and put it up; He will have it again tonight.  He was dry heaving when Pete came to the door this morning.  Pete thinks he was doing this because he did not have anything in his little tummy; I wonder how that little tummy feels now?

How do I feel about Jeter?  When I am working with him and things are going great, it is fantastic   working with a guide.  This dog is so much better then all of the others.  I do not know if it is because of the approach of the trainer that is making the difference, the dog or both.  First of all drive; Jeter does not have a hard drive (I know, I know it seems as if he is a computer at times, but what I am trying to say here is that he does not have a hard pull on harness or leash).  Most of the previous dogs I have had have had drive.  He will go at a nice speed.  I noticed that he had drive this morning and I am beginning to think that Jeter needs to go if he has a hard pull while in harness.  Jeter went number two in harness  again (which is a BIG no no).  A dog with TO MUCH drive is not A good THING.  After number two, he was back to his sensitive self marking over hangs and all.  I am still feeling doubts and I am still nervous when I pick up the harness handle; I think much of this is coming from the fact that I do not totally trust the dog yet and the dog does not trust me.

Training issues:

Walking on the right.  Jeter is consistently pushing me far over to the right side of the sidewalk.  I had asked Pete why Jeter is doing this; he is not to sure.  Jeter stops way before the down curb.  Pete had stated that Jeter is getting used to how I walk and how much time I may need to identify the curb.  Pete had stated to give the harness a sharp jerk up to say get up there.  My guide is still wanting to drift in to on-coming traffic when we approach the up curb.  To help Jeter understand that I want him to go strait, I need to face my upper body in the direction I want to go and keep it there.  Make Jeter push a little; this will help Jeter stay strait.  Missed the down curb.  Yep you got it, after all of that trying to get Jeter to get to the down curb, he blows right past it.  I don’t know what I am going to do with that shepherd of mine.  Slipped off the far right of the sidewalk.  While walking home, Jeter was to close to the curb.  I had asked Pete if my form was good, he had stated that it was pretty good  and it was  Jeter’s fault that I slipped off the curb. 

Things that went right today.  I had a beautiful traffic check.  I   heard a nice loud truck running facing me; it started driving towards me and I thought I had the right of way.  so I told Jeter forward.  Would you believe that that truck was turning left in front of me? That UPS truck (according to Pete) turned in front of me!  Jeter say that bad UPS truck and stopped with lots of room to clear that truck.  Pete had asked the primary trainer if she had given Jeter extra traffic training, she had stated no.  The primary trainer thinks because Jeter is so sensitive about things that he takes his guide work very seriously and always did traffic very well.  Jeter did a superb job with stopping for that truck.  Because of this, I feel very glad and honestly was very presently surprised to feel how fast Jeter stopped.  It was not slow down, it was a full stop all at once; it was like Jeter slammed on the brakes.  Since I was in correct position, I was able to stop.  Times like this is when I am glad that I have a guide dog.  I could have very easily stepped in front of that truck.

In the afternoon, We went to the Metro today (second walk).  That was very interesting because I learned how Fidelco dogs do stairs.  They are trained not to go until the handler steps down that first step.  If you tell them forward (if I am not on the first step), they are to intelligently disobey the command.  The purpose of this is so that a blind person does not fall down the stairs thinking that they are on a curb.  Jeter does escalators just fine and has no issues.  Once on the platform, they are trained to stay to the left side of the platform when one walks.  This is so that the dog is between the platform edge and the handler.  If one is standing at the platform edge, and you tell the dog forward, the dog is to turn left or right to avoid stepping off the platform.  When the dog locates the escalator, the dog will show the handrail.  At this point, one walks on to the escalator.  When I came to the top and it was time to exit the station, there are stairs.  Jeter is to stop it the bottom of the stairs and wait until I say forward.  Well, Jeter decided that he wanted to just go up them.

All and all, I feel good about today and think this will work.  I feel a little down right now.  I think this is because of missing Juan, my previous dog.  I was thinking that if I would know what I know now, I could have saved that dog; on the other hand, maybe not.  I can tell already that this dog is a much better match for my working environment.  By the way, the dog who has an alarm clock set for 3 in the very early AM, is sacked out on the floor.  I think if a bomb went off he would not move.  All and all, this is going well and I think I made the correct decision.  By the way, Jeter is currently off  leash and is lying by the door (which is closed).  Please stay tuned in to find out how things go tomorrow.  We are going to take the subway to work and introduce him to the working environment.  Pete wants to help Jeter get used to my work place since there is where he will be spending a lot of time.  Pete also would like to see me start spending some time at work because he wants to see if there are any issues and to help me work through these issues.  Jeter is also going to have to learn how to stay quiet for long stretches of time. 

Well, I hope this helps you understand a bit better what it is like for someone to have in-home training with a guide dog.