I’m rather tired today… This morning I stood around in the hallway with some other residents, eavesdropping while instructors called people to the lounge to present dogs. We had to skittle back into our rooms when our friends brought their dogs down the hall to their rooms; but I felt so mischievous and “bad” sitting there hearing, “Her name is …” “Ooooooh, you’re so cute!!!” over and over.
I was the last person on the hall to receive my dog. She is a very tiny and spunky little golden retriever named Kathie. She has tremendous personality, and we will come to understanding about where that personality belongs and how it gets displayed. More on that in a few paragraphs.
She was not trained by my instructor. Her trainer is working with another group of students from this class, and her room is across the hall from me. And I always know where Denise is in a room by paying attention to where my dog is looking, how much she is whining and straining her neck, and how fast she jumps up. I keep telling Kathie, “Denise doesn’t love you anymore.” It will take some convincing, though I might be discovering the way to her heart.
For the last six years, I have worked with a dog who preferred things to be nice and calm. It seems that I now have a dog who loves a party. I am working on reviving “the cheerleader voice.”
When I was ten years old, I was invited to portray Helen Keller in a scene produced by a theater student who was putting together his thesis project. I had to learn to throw tantrums, slap Annie Sullivan in the face, steal food from plates, etc.–without smiling. I have never been good at being devious. For one thing, I always think I will get caught. But most importantly, I just think it is glorious fun, and I want to laugh out loud as I do whatever forbidden thing I am doing. Yes, I know–I have just confessed all right here on the public blog. It’s ok. I never finished whatever it was I tried to do–I was too afraid of getting caught, and I would have gotten caught because I would have laughed.
But for this one play, I had to learn not to smile or laugh, and to act as if I hated someone else and wanted to slap her face.
I thought of that seen over lunch today. Lunch with a new dog is always interesting. I don’t remember ever having to get all the way out of a chair, wrestle a dog back from behind a chair, bting her back around after she has wiggled and wriggled and jiggled inside her–I mean out of place. It finally occurred to me that she was trying to contort herself into position to be able to star at …
Denise.
I’m gonna get a facemask for Denise that looks like me, and I’m gonna spray it with my perfume!
A staff member sitting at my table said that she would be surprised if I got anything to eat today. I think she was kidding. At least, I planned for her to be kidding. I would be needing some serious sustenance, and there was chocolate for dessert! I said, “Oh, I will be eating all of my food.”
I did, and just like Helen Keller folding her napkin, little Kathie was lying quietly at my feet by the end of the meal. At supper, she only got up once. I had just taken a bit out of a sugar cookie; and I asked, “Kathie, how did you know I just started dessert?” I wouldn’t necessarily have been surprised if she had answered and said she just thought it was good to keep me on my toes.
Kathie has a wonderful working disposition, and I am very impressed with her pace and pull. She is aware of every little thing around her. In some ways that can be an advantage. In other ways she will have to overcome it. There are many things in the environment that a working dog must ignore. While she is fully capable of guiding, she will, for a while, still be learning what I do and do not want her to attend to in our travels. She will also be learning what kinds of disobedience I will and will not allow. Some disobedience is part of her personality and isn’t that important to stamp out. Some is dangerous to our work. Some is “intelligent disobedience” and allows her to override my choices when I don’t have all the information we need in order to travel safely. She must have the right to veto my orders if she is the one with the eyes and she deems it unsafe to do what I ask her to do. On the other hand, I am the travel director, and I am the one who decides when and where to go. If she is disobeying in a silly or defiant way, I also have the right to make her straighten up. It is a delicate balance; and that is why we are here working things out for a couple of weeks.
Lunch was pea soup and a steak sandwich, and grasshopper pie for dessert. It was worth the wrestling match. Dinner was fish and a pasta dish with sherbet and a sugar cookie for dessert.
I am now figuring out how to manage my actual allergic reactions to dogs in this environment. I have had to step up my breathing treatments. Kathie is sitting here beside me, and I have just finished a nebulizer treatment. This is a new experience for her. She handled it with grace.
I am tired, and I want a midnight snack.
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Sounds like a great first day with Kathie way to go Alpha Sarah!
Wow di your life just change. But sometimes those dogs who test you and make you want to kill them are the ones who really step up and save your behind. All paws crossed for building a great team!
Would you consider writing an article on how you discipline a guide dog? I would find it very helpful as one day I plan to apply for a guide dog for myself.