ONE WEEK

It was, perhaps, a few degrees cooler today, but we did the morning and the afternoon route as we did yesterday afternoon (two blocks short). My partner and I did it today with very little help from our instructor. We took turns leading the blocks and both managed to get back to the lounge. Tomorrow morning, we will do it solo. This means that we can still work together with each of us leading successive blocks, but the instructor will not give any input unless there is a safety issue involved. In other words, if our dogs take us into a parking lot and get us totally turned around, we will have to figure out our own way out by asking someone or just using our wits. The trainer will be following in silence. I don’t believe they have ever lost anyone on these.

Next week we will be presented with a longer walk, learn it as we did this one, and then go solo on it. I believe there are three successively harder routes to accomplish before we do free lance work.

Some students really stress about these solo walks, but I like to do them. They give me confidence that this new dog and I can work together. The purpose is for the trainers to see what we need to work on in the future.

We had an interesting talk about senses of our dogs. There sense of smell is so very much better than we have as is their hearing. They have about 250 degrees vision whereas we have 180 degrees meaning that they can see farther behind them on either side. The sense of touch is also very important in their world.

I haven’t mentioned the food. It is delicious. There is always a main dish and a salad option. The salad fixin’s could also be made into a sandwich. If all else fails, they can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

We are responsible for our own laundry, but the dorm staff takes care of cleaning our rooms and changing and making the beds. We must keep our stuff picked up. Our dogs need to have the rooms puppy proof as they are still very young and we have yet to see how well behaved they are in a house. They have been kenneled for the past 4 months, and we are dependent on the good work of the puppy raisers for their house manners among other things. That is why they don’t yet have freedom in the room but are either on leash or on tie down at this stage.

I have been thinking about all those dogs that were in the basement in their vans and how very quiet they were. The trainer said that the van doors were open and they could se us coming and going. Each trainer takes half his or her string into town in the morning and works with them. Then in the afternoon, the other half go into town. As I understand it, there is lots of supervised group play time for those that are back in the kennels on campus--not in town. There are instructor assistants and other kennel staff who also care for the dogs besides the trainers.

There are some people working through the training process and are considered apprentices. They observe other trainers as they work with us something like student teaching. Gradually, they take increased responsibility for the dog training and class process under the watchful eye of an experienced trainer.

Trinity was due for a shot at the vet and the trainer took her thair during the lecture. I really missed her in those few minutes away. I think she was glad to have a little time with him again.