Yesterday morning we did the backwards P walk again. Rei did really well yet again and her guiding work is just superb. I told Mike tonight that her guide work was just as good as what I remember of Honey's work. Which I'm really, really thankful for, as Honey was just an awesome dog!
So we walked the backwards P again (no rain this time! Yay!) and we were late getting back to the school and rushed to water and break the dogs to get down to lunch. After lunch we met in the gathering room and loaded up again, this time to go to Patchhogue for the afternoon.
We make the 20-30 minute drive there and when it was my turn, I took off down the street and we breezed through to the end of the block (a LONG block) and then headed up to the main street. We then worked our way up the main street to encounter pigeons, other dogs, and passing other guide dogs. She did well with the dogs with a quick "Leave it", but the birds were tough to keep her attention. With a slight leash correction though, she quickly re-focused on her work and was back to weaving me in and out of people and around poles and such. :)
We made it to the corner and then turned toward the off street that the van was parked off of. We made it to that street corner and headed left again, back to the van, and got to the next downcurb and there was a large man in a wheelchair off to our left. Lisa later told me he was very intensely staring at us and was sitting very still, which prompted Rei to jump and bark a couple of times. I quickly did a hard leash correction and told her to "Leave it" and got her to move foward and she then re-focused on the work she was supposed to be doing. I was a little surprised she'd barked at the guy, but then as we were unloading from the bus, she gave out a bark too at the trainer Sebastian, standing in the door. So not sure what her deal is with men. LOL!
Last night we then had three lectures rolled into one, Harness mechanics- teaching us how to take apart and put together our hanress. Then there was the toy lecture of what toys were appropriate and what was not with the do's and don'ts of playing with the guide dog.
Today, we got up and had breakfast, and loaded up in the van for Patchhogue again, this time, after talking with Mike Sargent, there was a person in a wheel chair on the sidewalk. It also came up behind us at the intersection and while Rei jumped a little bit to the side to push me away from it, there was no barking. :) Yay! We then worked the entire intersection, crossing at the cross lights and the pedestrian walk. Ick, those things are hard! Anywho, she did great with the intersection and walk altogether! :)
We were indeed very late coming back to the school, so we went straight to the dining room and had lunch and then went and watered and breaked our dogs. Afterwards, the three of us going home on monday went over to the kennels with our dogs in the van and Lisa ran them in for thier flight certificates and any followups they may have needed medically.
After the vet visit, we headed over to the Horse shoe walk. Rei absolutely did fantastice, taking me around all the objects, and guiding under low tree branches. I really apprecate it,it helps! :)
Suzi and I were in the van at this point and we were really late getting back to a dinner that most everyone threw away tonight. It was just really bad.
Anyway, not much more to share, lecture tonight was how to clean thier ears nd to teach the newbies how to clean up after thier dogs. I skipped out on the poop patrol lecture, since I've gone it before and know how it's doing it.
Here's a couple of favorite shots of Rei from the last couple of days:
tired puppy...
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