[Introduction] [Week Two] [Contents] [Send me Email!]
Hi folks!
Well, I arrived here safely. It was an interesting trip.
Actually, the flight over was really boring. I met a classmate in Dallas though: Aurora, from Corpus, is 53 and studying sociology.
I spent a lot of the flight listening to a CD and being nervous and antsy. By the way, the food wasn't bad for airline food: a cheese calzone that actually tasted like one. Anyway, we got to San Francisco at about 12:45 San Francisco time, where it was a "lovely (read COLD) 59 degrees". Well, cold for a Central Texan in shorts and T-shirt! Dan met us at the gate, and we got luggage and went to the bus. They have these cute little buses, too, about van-sized, and you feel every single bump in the road. Pretty soon, Margie, another instructor, showed up with Ivan (or Pancho, depending on his mood I guess), and the three of us spent some time shooting the bull while Margie and Dan went to track down Margo and ...what's her name? I forget...but she's from Cleveland. That narrows it down a bit. Oh, it's Shawana. So Aurora, Ivan (or Pancho) and I are waiting on this bus, all of us wearing shorts, for Dan and margie to show up with Margo and Shawana, and we wait for about an hour it seems like. No fun.
They finally did show up though, and we set off for campus. Gods, what a bumpy ride! Dan and Margie were really cool. They are very friendly and approachable, and just a lot of fun to talk with. When we got to school, we waited around the loading lounge, a little area with benches in it, and each of us got oriented individually to our room. Mine's in the middle of the hall, near the dining room and dog food closet and music room, day room...in the middle of everything. There's a dog run outside our door for the dogs to relieve on the first few days, and each room has two people in it. My roommate is Thomas, a fellow who studies at American University. He's a really nice guy, and I think we'll get along pretty well. Each student has a closet, desk, shelves, and a sink. The shower and toilet are shared by the two roommates.
At 5:00, we had our first lecture, which basically outlined all the rules, welcomed us to class, and gave us a tour. Some of the rules (like no visiting other student rooms after dinner) make me feel like a kid again, but I can live with it for a month. Some of the rules like that seem rather paternalistic. Well, change comes slowly, I suppose.
There's a lot of stuff the students can use here. There are musical instruments, a couple of computers (including an Open Book), exercise equipment, vending machines. The washers and dryers are free, even though they used to be coin-operated. I wonder: Did they used to not be free? Dinner was excellent: dinner roll, mixed vegetables, prime rib (with brown gravy...yummy!), baked potato, chocolate cake. If it stays like this, I'll be happy for sure!
Well, Juno starts tomorrow. I'm excited about it! I'm kind of tired right now. Traveling does that...sorry for the typos. I don't think I left out anything
[Note: Some months before class, I had a couple dreams about going into training. In one, my guide dog was named Raymond, and in the other, he was named Jacques. That is what I refer to when I asked about Raymond and Jacques.]
Hi folks!
A couple things I forgot from yesterday:
The harness is still the same one they've been using. The new design has not been approved yet, as they're still working out bugs. (I asked.)
Cane use policy is cool. While not training with your dog, you can use your cane if you like. While I did not use mine sometimes, I was glad that I could while not training. And it is possible to leave campus after dinner if nothing's going on, as long as you let someone know you're off. The doors lock at 10, so I guess it is a good idea for you to be back before then or have someone let you in!
Now, new stuff. First, and somewhat important for those of you who remember, no, there are no class-ready dogs named either Raymond or Jacques. (I asked about that, too.) Now...
Breakfast was at 7:15. Oh, did I mention the meal chime? It's kind of cool...xylophony thing. Anyway, breakfast was banana pancake and sausage. Yummy. I had seconds on sausage. We had lecture then at 8. The first thing that happened was that the cook came in to ask us what we wanted for lunch. There is a choice of three items: in today's case, barbecued cheeseburger and fries, turkey club and a side salad, or the salad plate. A lot of people chose the salad, some the turkey club, and about four of us chose the very disfashionate cheeseburger. (Including me, of course.) Then the real lecture started. The other two instructors, Lynne and Paolo, (actually, Lynne and Paolo are apprentices, and Dan is going to take his license exam in December) introduced themselves to everyone, as did the nurse on duty and the class supervisor. (Oddly, the class supervisor knew who I was without me having to tell her.) That was followed by general announcements, then an introduction to what using a guide dog requires: confidence! The instructors talked about how the dogs read a lot from us about how confident we are in what we ask them to do and respond accordingly. We got a brief overview on why obedience sequences are necessary, had a few questions, then we had a short break. We were issued shiny, new, stiff leashes, which will remain ours forever or until they break, whichever happens first I suppose. Then we learned about how to do the obedience commands: sit, down, stay, and heel. (No, there is no formal "come" anymore, it's heel now.) They gave a demonstration first, then each instructor took students and did obedience individually with them.
The obedience sequence consisted of heeling Juno (a furry rug) to a designated spot, of course. Then, Juno would sit, and then have a series of three downs and sits. (Down, sit, down, sit, down, sit) We then gave a "stay" command, made a long leash by un-clipping the end and clipping to the ring closer to the end of the leash, and stepping away from Juno, waiting, giving another stay, and coming back. Finally, we gave a stay, followed by a heel to have Juno come by the person's left side, turn around, and stand at the left. Another sit, and then back to the seat. That was it. We had one round of that, and then we had a break.
After the break, we took a walk around the grounds with the instructors. At a back parking lot, the instructors watched us all walk a distance of about fifty feet or so to gage our walking speed. Everyone walked, and then we went in for another obedience sequence, and then we presumably had time off until lunch. This gave a prime opportunity for a fire drill, which was, I think, the reason for the time off. It was a little confusing, as the alarm didn't stay on, it just sounded for a few seconds and then turned off.
After lunch we did more obedience practice, then we got a lecture about basic guide commands: forward, left, right, halt and associated hand signals and footwork. We each got old harnesses to use with Juno and took the old bus from yesterday to the downtown lounge. Each person then took a route with Juno--I guess it was about 5 or 6 blocks. During this route, we learned about a good following position, how it felt for Juno to take us around something and how it felt for Juno to get distracted. The instructors told me that I did a really goodjob with my following, footwork, hand signals and obedience. Needless to say, this made me pretty happy! Everyone got a chance to work, then we went back to the dorm for yet another obedience sequence, then dinner, which was roast turkey and mashed potatoes. I then got a brief interview, where they asked me about breed and gender preference, dogality traits, and so forth, and where they told me that I was doing OK so far. Oh, and I also got called down for rough-housing with the visiting dogs, and how I should be more gentle when I get introduced to mine, at first anyway. (Oops)
Well, that's it. Tomorrow, we do more obedience and guide work, and we'll learn about new words, probably things like hoppup and no and stuff like that, but they haven't told us specifically.
Oh, and my class is really cool. There are twelve of us, and we seem to have a pretty good chemistry. We'll have four retrains come in on this weekend, and then another eight in the retrain class the following week. I'll certainly keep y'all posted!
Hopp-up I guess looks like a strange word if you've never seen it. I've seen it alternatively as hopp-hopp, Hupp-hupp, or some variation on that theme. (I recall that an instructor told us one evening later in class that a student misunderstood once and was telling her dog, "Hubba-hubba".) Anyway, it means a couple of things; either "Pay attention!" or "C'mon, you can walk faster than that". "Straight" (which I understand they don't use anymore) referred to crossing a street. If the dog was not crossing straight, "straight" was a reminder to pay attention to making the street crossing straight to the next curb. (We were taught then not to use hopp-up or leash corrections in the street.)
Hi folks:
First, a couple of loose ends. Yes, I did forget the limits on alcohol and sex. Oops. Guess they're so commonplace in this sort of setting it didn't even occur to me to mention them, even though ...
OK. A bunch of folks have asked: Buddy, who is your class supervisor?! Well now, let me find that tape... Ah. The instructors are Lynne, Margie, and Dan, and Paolo...and the class supervisor is...ah. Kathy.
OK, so today was the second day of class, and today, we talked about a few things. We had an obedience session with Juno, then we had a lecture on Hopp-up and Straight. I recall a discussion here about straight: it is used with no hand signals, and only used in the street when getting to the upcurb. Afterwards, the people from admissions and social services (is that the name of the division?) came by and told us about the services they have available, including shopping for the first couple weeks until we go on free-lance work-outs, picking up and dropping off mail, and taking laundry and dry cleaning if we don't choose to use the on-site (free) washers and dryers. Then it was another ride to the downtown lounge for Juno work, where we learned about hopp-up and straight and left and right turns, and were also introduced to moving turns and "find the door/inside". This time and the next, I was reminded that I should keep a constant pressure on the harness, and remember to slow down when the dog did...sorta important, huh? I also forgot to step back for the right turn once. The big ones for me though were the maintaining constant pressure, slowing down, and when we did the second walk in the afternoon with corrections, putting the leash away too quickly. More on that later.
We came back from the Juno walks to do another obedience session. (We'll have this down, I guess.) This obedience session was preceeded by a lecture about corrections. We got to do corrections on this one, so Juno wasn't behaving so well anymore. I thought the hardest correction to give was the one for "down", which involved bending down to grab the end of the leash closest to the collar and correcting downwards. It felt rather awkward.
Lunch was good: choice of chicken dejon or French dip sandwich or the ever-present salad plate. Dick Bobb, the President of the school, sat at my table. He was very friendly and engaging--not the least bit intimidating or anything like that. he seemed very approachable and friendly. How can you not like a president wearing a mickey Mouse watch, anyway?
The afternoon session was like the morning one: obedience session, with corrections, a Juno walk, except with corrections too, and another obedience. Corrections are given with the right hand, correcting in the direction you want the dog to move. This of course seems to pose a problem if one's right hand is full of stuff, but it has the advantage, I suppose, of being flexible in the direction the leash can be pulled for a correction. That's my guess, anyway. The leash, when not being used for correction, rests under the left index finger. (That's when the leash is "put away", so, I kept wanting to put my leash away too quickly.)
The final obedience session was again with corrections. After the obedience, we practiced heeling juno to the dining room and went over how Juno would sit at our chairs. The dog sits, then downs, with his head under the table and his behind and tail as far out of the way as possible, lying at your left side. Then you step on the leash with your left foot and the leash rests on your lap. Seems pretty straightforward.
That's all, really...and I'm pretty tired today! I didn't hear the dinner chime. All I remember is somebody or another woke me up for dinner. Well, tomorrow is Dog Day though, and we were all talking about dog names on the bus. Tomorrow is coming pretty fast, but I think perhaps those last few hours might drag by a little.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the final lecture. How could I forget the final lecture? Well somehow, I managed to forget the final lecture. The final lecture was about care for the harness and a bit about grooming. The instructors went over the brushes, comb, and their proper use. They also talked about how best to care for the harness a little.
Well folks, it's just another seven hours or so and we find out about what kinds of dogs we get, and sometime after that, we meet them! Amazingly, i slept pretty well last night, and I'm ready to go. I'll be sure to fill y'all in on all the final details later today.
Hi folks!
Well, today was the big day, and a very fine and exciting day it was.
We started out with the obedience session and Juno walk, and the instructors told us that Juno would act like the dog we would eventually get, at least as much as was humanly (as opposed to doggedly?) possible. I was told that my dog would not generally require hard leash corrections, and that he would occasionally like to angle in front of me to have a look at curbs and things. No problem, eh? OK, so the obedience and Juno walk went really well. Then we waited around for lunch, and it was a very long hour. Lunch wasn't quite so long, but the half hour right afterwards was very long! Then we had the pre-dog dog lecture about how to introduce yourself to the dog, what to expect and what not to expect. My favorite quote: "If your dog could talk, it would say that it has no interest in meeting you, much less in becoming your lifelong companion and friend." (The quote goes on to say that usually when people meet, both parties try to make an effort towards friendship; this time, the human will have to make all the advances of friendship, however.)
Then, after a bunch of questions and goofing around, (Did you bring the dart board?), they read off the list. By the way, the instructors stayed up till aroun 11 last night deciding on who would get which dogs. My dog is a male golden retriever named Karl. He's a darker golden, red really, lighter towards the belly, they say average size but he seems big to me, probably 65 or 70 pounds. His coat is a little shorter than other Goldens I've met, and he's extremely soft and full of personality. I'll get to meeting Karl in a minute. The list of dog names goes like this:
Good names this time.
Karl is, as I said, full of personality. After a long wait, I met him. I sat down, and he came in, came up to me, licked my face, ran around, and was really very excited. I think he liked me at least some at the beginning. When we got back to my room, I got on the floor with him and petted him, and not too long, he had his head in my lap. What a good boy! Then we did heeling practice up and down the hall.
At five, we had a lecture about caring for the guide dog and on the schedule. During the lecture, Karl kept playingg the jack-in-the-box game: pop up, and so on. He's really a very curious dog, something I really like but will probably have to control.
Dinner was good, and again the jack-in-the-box. At seven, we had grooming. That was great...
Well, it's almost relieving time...so I'm off. Oh, we did relieve at 4, after feeding and water, but Karl didn't go.
So, it's a boy!!!!
today was the fourth day of training. So far, I've only called Karl Juno once. (And this morning, I said good girl because I was listening to another person praising her dog and got a bit confused...)
Last night, I actually slept really well, and so did Karl. He stayed on his rug and slept through the night, seemingly, and didn't make any noise at all. When we woke up, he relieved on the run. Than we had breakfast, and then another relieving opportunity on leash, which Karl did not partake of. (Actually, he didn't do anything on leash until this last one, where he peed about a gallon...)
First, of course, was the obedience session. Karl did very well, requiring minimal correction. He stayed and heeled perfectly; his biggest problem seems to be in sits. He doesn't want to do them so far, very much, without correction. That, I suppose, will come with time.
Then we went to our first work-out. We put the harnesses on and heeled the dogs through the obstacle course (sighted guide with instructors) to the buses. The dogs were expected to sit on short trips, while the bus was running. Unfortunately, Karl hasn't quite gotten this down yet. We're working at it though.
The first workout was only down the sidewalk to the corner and back. This was to give us an idea of what it was like to walk with a real dog, and it feels a lot different than walking with juno. The harness wiggles more. Dan wasn't too worried about obstacles this time, he said, just in Karl's straight lines and speed. He walked fast that first time, and my shins noticed. But he kept a nice straight line and stopped me right at the curb. We turned around, and on the way back, he avoided all the dogs in driveways, walked me around people, and walked me around overhanging branches like a pro! I was very proud of him. What a good boy!
We had another relieving opportunity on leash, and we watered the dogs. Karl drank, of course. After lunch, we had another relieving opportunity--optional--which I took, but Karl did not. Then we had another workout.
This workout involved turns and street crossings. Karl needed some encouragement and correction initially to hopp-up and at distractions, but he did very well. He maintained a nice pace, only ran a couple curbs (which were brought to his attention). But he did get me around every single obstacle. I didn't hit one single thing...and on the way back, we flew! And his work was flawless the last bit of our walk. Dan told me that he thinks that Karl and I look very natural together, and he and others have already told me I'm doing a good job of handling him. (He heels like a pro-- I'm getting in all the heeling practice I can, even at 20-minute or so stretches!) Needless to say, I was very pleased with this workout.
Then we of course had feeding and watering and relieving. Karl did the first two just fine. Lecture was on following the dog and its importance, and about safe street crossings. By the way, now lectures from here on out are available for review on tape. Good stuff! You can check them out from the instructors' room.
Oh, and did I mention that at work-out, during down-time, I spent probably a halfhour grooming Karl? You wouldn't believe how much hair! Well, you probably would.
Final event was heeling practice again, this time with Distraction Dan. Karl was a trooper! He did try to pull me out into the hall, and you can bet he got corrected. But after that, even though he would look over at Dan, he stayed right at my left side. In about 10 minutes, Dan decided he couldn't distract our dogs anymore so we were free.
More tomorrow. This is a lot of fun!
Hi folks!
Things are moving along quite nicely here at training. First, a couple of people have asked me about playing with Karl and about just hanging out with him. We have lots of down-time while not walking, doing obedience, and what have you. While I'm just now at a loss for games that are:
Obedience went very well again. Karl is also getting better at sitting at doorways on heel and at staying at a sit while the bus is moving. Karl again peed this morning and at the 1:00 optional relieving, and we hit the jackpot (so to speak) at the 4:30 RELIEVING. Let's keep this up. This is good.
The morning route went pretty well. Karl began (after getting off the bus, of course) with a good thorough brushing, which probably took about 20 minutes. It really does cut down on doggie-odor. Shortly after, we went out. Karl needed a lot of encouragement at first. He tried to put me back on the bus, and then he needed encouragement at going forward, so Dan got up ahead for encouragement. (I'm beginning to suspect that Dan was Karl's first and primary trainer, even though they tell us they've all worked with our dogs...Karl responds very well to Dan. Not only that, but Dan has done all of the walks with me so far.) Anyhow, after the first couple blocks, Karl began working pretty well, if a bit slowly. He only stopped short of one curb and tried to have me do a 180 at a right turn, and then tried to overrun the door to the lounge, but otherwise his work was flawless. We didn't hit any obstacles. Oh, and did I mention the obstacle course? We actually worked through that, and Karl only brushed me against one cone. Perhaps my fault, I'm not sure.
The second walk in the afternoon was similar, but more extreme at both ends. Karl needed a lot of encouragement at the beginning. Again, he wanted to get on the bus. He also wanted to talk with Tanker, a German shepherd. He got a couple forward corrections. At a couple of points along the first couple blocks, Dan took the leash to help encourage Karl a little bit. I got the hang of it pretty soon, and Karl was soon responding to my hopp-up and correction forward, (just a little one...) and then just to a hopp-up. I had to remember to not pull on the harness so much, a hard balance to have, when you also have to remember to keep a pressure on the harness. I got it though, and I got the hang of stepping up into corrections when Karl responded to them. It didn't take long--just had to be pointed out. After those first couple blocks, Karl's work was absolutely stelar. We passed up construction workers, A-frames, pedestrians, a dog in training--twice, a student and her dog on the bench, poles, walls at corners, everything, and dare I say again, you should have seen Karl fly! Dan said that he was really enjoying himself then: tail wagging, tongue hanging out, just having a great time. Oh, and did I mention...after only trying to run one curb there in the first couple blocks, he didn't miss a single one?! He is really a good boy! You can bet he got lots of praise during that one, and even more at the end...I had to remind myself eventually that the middle of the hall was not a good place to be sitting at face level with a golden retriever.
The lecture today was about public relations: first off, what materials are available, etc. and then about keeping a house-clean dog on a good relieving schedule.
Seems I also misunderstood the rule about after-hours off-campus runs. I guess at the beginning, one could make them, what with no dog and all, if one got the goahead. Now, and this is a very sensible rule, we are expected to be near our dogs at all times, at least for the first while. That means the dog should be near us at all reasonable times, and at times (like bathroom and shower) when he can't, they shouldn't be too long. Tie-downs are provided for our dogs in places like the exercise room, for instance. (A student got in a bit of trouble on this one yesterday, as he went jogging, his dog got himself tangled and tied up in his collar on tie-down while frantically looking for him and then looking for help to get free of the thing...)
Oh, this is funny. Karl has a nervous habit, or perhaps it's a thought-pose for him, I don't know. But he licks his lips--he'll raise his head and go at it, some say, like he's got a hair on his lip or something that he wants off. It sounds like he's drinking, and indeed he does this after he drinks, but also at other times. Dan says he just likes to do this...it's sort of funny. What a good boy though!
Hi folks.
Well, here it is, already the end of the first week. We have tomorrow off. The schedule is pretty much the same as always. Karl took advantage of four of the six relieving times, except emptying fully on only one. (This is a vast improvement, of course.)
Obedience again went pretty well, except that Karl broke the stay. (My fault, as I was bragging on him...)
We now work the dogs from the door to the relieving circle and back, from the dorm to the bus and back, and from the bus to the downtown lounge and back. Karl again breezed through the obstacle course...my problem now is getting the hang of moving turns, but that's coming.
I worked with Kathy, the class supervisor, on my routes. On the first route, Kathy took the leash for a little bit, and Karl needed a lot of encouragement. He overran a couple curbs and didn't want to make a couple turns, but as he got into things, his work improved. Kathy said then that on the next run, we'd try to encourage him verbally and see how effective that was. Karl got lots of grooming. The second route, in the afternoon, Karl was again a bit pokey at the beginning. He needed a very minimum of corrections during the route (like four tiny ones--maybe), one for ignoring a hopp-up, a couple for turns. He overran curbs again--but he certainly is not shy in the street! One thing I'll have to get used to is having him take me to the up-curb right off, because I'm used to crossing and making adjustments during the crossing. I also have to remember not to crowd him when he wants to move right. He does very well though, making decisions far back from the spot they need to be done when he can. He had a golden opportunity for a diagonal--another student was diagonally across from us--but he very definitely went forward-and-left to the correct up-curb. He also avoided all the obstacles, weaving me around tables and chairs, making definite turns around poles and planters, avoiding pedestrians, and the whole thing. He does awesome work. And once he got going, his pace was again very good. I just have to get the hang of moving turns, and a lot of other things. One other thing--and I had to apologize to Karl for this--was when I thought he was going to run a curb, because I heard the street coming up, so I hesitated, but he was right on. I made sure he knew I goofed. (Kathy says she's glad to see I'm not shy about getting on the sidewalk with him for a good praise at the other side of the street.) At any rate, he needed only a few corrections, and his work was very good. He was listening to me very well. In fact, the last block (it's the basic route...), before the lounge, Kathy said she was a good fifteen, twenty feet or so behind us, and he was working fine!
Oh, important stuff about lunch guests of the past week. Tuesday was of course Dick Bobb, as I said. Wednesday, Aerial Gilbert (from this here list) and...somebody...sat with us; Thursday it was Bruce Benzler (executive director of this campus) and Don Frisk whose title I forget, and Friday it was Marla the counselor and Debra from development. It's kind of neat to have the staff circulating through and sitting with the students. They're all really nice folks.
Karl's nervous lip licking thing got a good laugh out of us all. It sounds like he's drinking water or something, but of course he isn't. I wonder if it's a nervous habit, or what?
I met the retrains coming in today, and one of them retired his dog right there. Introducing the four new retrains was the 5PM lecture time.
As I said, tomorrow we have off, so actually training day 7 will be Monday.
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