Last day of Home Training.

That Thursday, Lisa came and picked me up at 11:30 to go up to Castleton Mall and work with Suzi. We got there and started off down the main corridor, Suzi in the lead. We were switching back and forth and it was interesting seeing the looks on people's faces of the two of us with the dogs.

Both of us being fast walkers, we made our way quickly down to the sears end of the mall. It was soooooo nice to be able to turn it over to Rei and not worry about clobbering someone or a little kid because of the changes in the lighting as I walked from light areas to dark areas, due to the skylights and patches of natural light to overhead lighting. For most people, this isn't something you even think about.

For those with RP, it's almost downright torture. it makes navigating a real challenge because with the death of the cells, it is what gives the eyes the ability to adjust quickly for light and darkeness changes. So for the person that has RP, it just doesn't happen quickly. Summertime is another time that is hard, going from the bright outside to inside somewhere, it's black for several minutes and even then it takes a few more minutes to adjust completely. It's frustrating to me, as natural reaction is to stop dead in my tracks, as I have no clue where anything is and if I'm in an unfamiliar place, it's even more difficult, because I haven't even had a chance to orient myself. The beauty of having Rei is that I can relax and trust her to keep me moving and I'm not plowing into things during this adjustment period. :)

We walked on down to the other end of the mall, Lisa working with both of us on stepping in front of us from different angles and such, to make sure the dogs didnt' run us into people that walked in front of us but not the dog. Rei ran me into Lisa once and after that, she made sure I was clear, even if it was just a matter of inches.

So we headed on to the Sears store to find an escalator to work. Suzi went first as I sat down a couch set for little kids. I sure was right at home. LOL! Suzi and her pup did the escalators a couple of times and then our we were up for action. Rei kind of danced a bit as we approached the escalator and Lisa explained that she wasn't fearful of them, but was winding up to leap on. It's almost as if Rei finds them as a game, as she leaps on and leaps off. She was anxious to get ready, so I had to get her to stay put and Lisa suggested that I really work on obedience with her as we were making that first ride up.

I did as Lisa had shown me, to wiggle the handrail back and forth, rocking it until we got to where it wouldn't rock, which meant we were at the end of it. We got to about 4 steps from the top and while I couldnt see her, I gave the command "Off", and she had crouched her behind down and with a great spring from the hind legs launched with a flying leap completely over and off of the belt. Lisa laughed at Rei's enthusiasm and since I was doing the rocking, it gave me a split second longer for it to register in my brain to start moving, so we exited much smoother and knew what to expect from Rei too.

We went around and found the down escalator and again she hopped on and well over the grate that the belt came out of. Lisa said again, she hunkered down and especially with coming down, she flung herself off the belt and was already getting herself ready to "fly" before I said the off command. So we have a pretty good handle on the escalator thing. :)

We left the sears and headed back to the food courts to work on food distractions, since we knew that Rei LOVES her food and that I was having a hard time getting her to lay down under the table. Lisa bought some drinks and a small bag of french fries from Mc Donald's. Lisa Set up a table with some fries hanging off the edge of the table and warned us to be prepared to correct if we needed to. Rei of course went right for them and with a strong correction and a sharp "No!" she left it alone and Suzi and I both put our dogs down at our sides. Lisa then "accidently" knocked off a couple of fries right in front of them both and both dogs wanted soooo badly to gobble up the fries. Seriously, Rei stared those fries so hard that you'd thought that through telepathy they'd jump right to her! After a few minutes, she settled down and even with them a mere few inches from her nose, she closed her eyes and settled and was relaxed.

We chatted for several minutes and then Lisa took Suzi and her pup home. I went back through the mall and the Sears to thier back lot to let Rei have a potty break and then came back and had my own break. It wasn't too long that Lisa was back and we headed back towards home. Since Meaghan was at the neighbors house and Katie was going there after school, since I wasn't sure I'd be home on time, I had a little bit of quiet time before I had to run over and pick them up.

So all in all, we had a really good day. :)