In working with Kathie, one of the hardest balances for me to maintain is the delicate balance between my control over our travel and my trust in her work as guide along the path we take in getting toward our destination. Before I can train with a dog, I must have the ability to travel on my own and demonstrate that I can orient myself and make it successfully to a destination. Generally, this is demonstrated using a cane. However, travel with a cane keeps me in control of the entire process, including navigation around all objects in the path. When I travel with a dog, she takes control of navigation around objects–when our work becomes seamless, I often don’t even realize the objects are there.
In the beginning, though, as I learn to give over that control, I have some interesting and sometimes entertaining experiences. This is common for all students, I think. Instructors tell us that we should always follow the dog. Of course, this is a rule that is made to be broken–there are times when the dog is not guiding around an object but going off to put her head in someone’s lap, and our act of following her has just reinforced this behavior. So after just being told to always follow the dog, in the next breath the instructor says, “Don’t follow her. She’s socializing.” In time we learn to interpret the difference as we feel the dog’s excitement through the harness handle.
Today, Kathie and I and our trikp partner and his dog walked our route without help from our instructor–this is called soloing. She trailed along behind in case we needed help. We needed very little. I, however, suffered the impact of one of these follow-the-dog rules that is meant to be broken.
I was tired, and my left knee was hurting badly. While cheering Kathie on, i babbled about needing some coffee. Amusingly, she went into that little cafe and took me to a table. A man sitting nearby complimented me on how good she looked. At this point, my instructor said to me, “you’re in the cafe.”
I expected her to retrieve me and help me work my way out of it. Silly me! I should have known better. I’ve been in stickier situations than that on solos before and worked them out.
I turned around, remembering that I had done this the other day, and said to Kathie, “out.” She went out, and I noticed that there were planters marking off the cafe entrance. I sent her around the planters, thanked the man again for his compliment, and we were on our way.
In general, Kathie and I had a wonderful trip, and I felt like I was working a real dog.
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