A DAY OF REST

For those of you who do not know, “Rest” means “Stay” with our dogs. However you say it and whatever you mean, this was a quiet and restful day for this team. Our trainer had a much deserved day off today. It was nice to begin our day an hour later.

The only activity for Puffin and me was to attend church. In fact, four students chose to worship at the same church.

Lucky for me, Puffin handled it as if she had been attending there every week of her life. Often a new dog will get up every time I do, but Puffin stayed down and was totally calm. She did offer a few comments during the sermon in the form of groans. She is about the most vocal dog I have had.

When we returned to campus, it was time to water and park the dogs. The next scheduled event was lunch. The afternoon was free for me and I spent it in our room, playing with Puffin and making phone calls to friends and relatives. There is little time for this most days because of our busy schedule and the 3-hour time difference.

We also had dinner as scheduled and the last park of the day. In between, I also listened to several audio files provided to us on a thumb drive early in our training process. Much of the information that we receive as lectures is included. Early on, I copied the files to Drop Box making them readily accessible from my iPhone. They are an excellent review for me as I also listened to them when I was here training with Trinity.

Until recently, we were working with used harnesses so that there would be minimal damage to new equipment should any dog see a nearby harness handle as a convenient chew toy. Recently we got our new harnesses and will begin gradually to use them as they are stiff. Yesterday, my trainer gave me a shorter harness handle at my request. I think it works better for me.

Two students are leaving early tomorrow and will receive some continued help from trainers when they return home. Many of us will be leaving this Thursday. A lot has happened in the past two weeks, and it is hard to believe that we have only a few days left. Still it seems as if Christmas was long ago instead of only three short weeks.

This has been a very cold day with temperatures in the teens and a wind chill factor to consider. At our 6:30 park, this morning, it was about 16 degrees with wind making it a near zero experience. Now there should be some warming again if the forecast is correct. How fortunate we have been with the weather.

Huffin' and Puffin