Thursday- A day of OVERLOAD for me. :(

Today we got up and I was definitely moving slow this morning. I feel about as sleep deprived as when having a baby getting up in the night, though Honey hasn't been getting me up. My sleeping habits are all screwy, I'm not in my own bed, and since things are super accelerated, things are getting hairy.

We started off the morning running late, as I was in the shower still when they called for break, but thankfully I take a pretty quick shower anymore. So they were knocking on the door about 7:10, making sure I was up, which I was just sitting down to put on my shoes, then jacket to head out with Honey for break.

At breakfast, Mike Sargent informed us that the Destiny team and Honey and I would be doing of curb work, have our id photos taken, I would talk with Honey's Puppy Walker, the Night walk, our vet checks, group and class photos and that he needed to go over the alarm clock with me. So I head back to our room and leisurely go my stuff together and brush my teeth, thinking we were working separately from the group. Next thing I know, someone is knocking on my door, and it's Destiny's handler saying that Mike decided that we are to ride with the class on the bus, so ACK! That meant I had to get my butt in gear and get out to the gathering lounge to get ready and board. So we did and we head out and get on the bus.

Destiny's handler and I both hang out on the bus until we are called for our turn to work the dogs. We unload and break the dogs and harness up. We head off down the street and at the first down curb, Mike has me make a street crossing and about half way across, all of a sudden, here comes this car buzzing up and screeching it's breaks in front of us. Honey stopped and blocked like a charm, I then realized it was a GDF employee and bent down to praise Honey, but Mike tells me to go forward and not pet her in the street. So we get up to the curb and he then explains that you don't ever pet the dog in the street for two reasons. 1. if you bend over, and the vehicle is still right there close to you, you can bonk your head on it. 2. you are still in the street and if petting the dog as praise, you are distracting the dog from watching traffic. So get to the curb, then hugely praise up he dog. He also explained that this is the only time the dog is allowed to blow the curb, since they are most likely pretty rattled.

So then Destiny and her handler came through. We continued on, going about 4-5 blocks, in which at each intersection they did a different type of traffic check of the car coming at you. Man you talk about pretty unnerving to hear those breaks screeching and seeing that car coming at you. But Honey was perfect, stopped me in great time at times body blocking a bit. So we worked our way back and our poor dogs crashed hard on the van, as they were definitely working hard this morning! Our hearts were pumping pretty good from the adrenaline as well!

So then we came back for lunch, ate and then the Destiny team and Honey & I went downstairs to the grooming room to have our id pictures taken. After this, we went with Lisa to do off curb work, there on Fifty Acres Drive, right outside the dormitory. We worked doing left side off curb work going down the street, down the hill and to the dead end. We then worked our way back up and coming back the way we'd come, doing right side off curb work, back to the foundation. Honey continued to show here excellence, hugging the curb tightly both ways and finding the straight right around the parked vehicle as well.

We came in from the off curb work to find Donny and Mike Sargent looking for us, as the vet and the rest of the class was waiting on us. So we rush to our rooms to drop our coats and harnesses and then rush to the Leather Lounge. The vet examines our dogs and Honey is on the thinner side of a lean, healthy working dog. She'd be OK to gain a couple of pounds more, but not much more than that. Her ears were immaculate and her coat clean and soft and shiny. All was good and she got a good bill of health for her health certificate to fly home tomorrow. :) Then Dr. Cavello (sp?) talked with us about weight, the dogs vaccinations, heart worm and flea preventatives, and so forth. She then took off and we were told that next up was the class individual and group photos.

So I ran back to the room and changed into my rugby shirt and headed back to the leather lounge. They swapped out our training harnesses, giving us our new and fancy matching harness handles. :) Then then took each of us outside to get our "formal" portrait of us and our dog. Then they took all 12 of us outside and lined us up for the class photo. sheesh you talk about chilly out there and a sight of everyone trying have their dogs sit still and look towards the camera! LOL! These pictures are supposed to go up on the GDF website sometime soon.

After photos, we fed, watered, and breaked our dogs at 4:30. Then we came in and went to dinner. After dinner, we took the dogs immediately to the break area and hen proceeded the camera.