Day 2 at GDF- April 3rd

We got up and I put down the 4 cups of food that Favor is to get and she starts to eat a little bit, but Greg knocks on the door to let me know to feed her and she quits eating and refused to go back to her bowl. So we head on outside to break and she does pee for me but makes it clear her focus on on Greg, pulling at the leash and looking back and hesitant to leave his presence. We then go down to breakfast.  Goodness the cook is gonna make me gain all the weight back I've lost since starting weight watchers!   Kevin and Ann Marie can do some amazing tasting stuff!  Favor early fell to pieces when Greg walked in the room and sits at the other end of the room. A quick QUIET stiffles the whines and yips that had started up and she laid nicely under the chair, but her eyes were glued to Greg. We went back to the room and tried to get her to eat again to no avail. :(  Soon it was time to meet up in the gathering room to load up in the van for our first walk.


Our first outing was to head to Kings Park, the simple loop that is in a quiet area and flat.   Greg and I took off  and she kept looking back at hime a lot. and boy was she pulling hard.  Her movement too is completely different to what I'm used to with Rei.   With the lab, you can feel each foot hit the ground through the harness, and a rhythmic motion of the shoulders moving back and forth.  Where with Favor, it's very much a pat, pat, pat, pat, almost in a steady beat, but very light and springy.   Don't get me wrong she can take anything you dish out, but she reminds me of a deer almost- both in the face and in her movements. 

We got around the whole loop and I opted to sit on the bench and Greg told me if I wanted to do the loop again a second time, I was more than welcome to.   He got out with one of my classmates and his dog and they took off.   I gave them a good while to get down the path and Favor whined a bit and was eager to look for Greg.   After it'd been several minutes, I took off in their direction and you'd thought I had a runaway horse in the harness instead of a dog. LOL!   She was on the move where she'd seen Greg go.   Of course we caught up to them fairly quickly and I had her stop and then did an about to head back to the bus.   By this point the muscles on the back of my left arm and over my left shoulder were just screaming in pain as well as both of my calves.   I made it back to the bus and we got in and chilled out until we headed back to the foundation for lunch.

Favor standing at attention with the harness on, watching off in the distance closely.

We came back to the foundation and ate lunch and then after lunch, since I knew about Favor's mom and sister, the employee that was caring for Favor's sister while her trainer is travelling, had come down for coffee and Greg mentioned this.   The employee offered to let me come up and see her as Miss S looks VERY different than Favor.   Miss S looks like the collie, where Favor looks like the shepherd.  They are about the same size in body, but Favor is a s a little taller I think. 

Miss S- with longer hair, the collie face but tan face and under body like the shepherd, but a light grey and black mottled back and stripe down the tail where the black saddle on a shepherd would be.

Greg worked with us individually  around the grounds to do stair work and outside around the two squares.   As the other  two classmates were having their turns, I took her down to the grooming room to give her a good brushing since she's blowing coat after the bath she got yesterday. I let her go and went to throw the mound of hair away across the room. Came back and sat down and she cocked her head and looked at me and started wagging her tail, came running over and jumped up, both paws on my shoulders and licking my face.  :)   Miss Favor just made my day and melted away the blues that were setting in with missing Rei. :)

We then did our stair work and walked the square outside to the curbs.   She pulled immensely and I wondered if if she was too fast, but I remembered too that Rei felt like this in the beginning with a pretty hard pull.   We did the two blocks once with Greg and then once on my own.   As we were headed in, Greg saw another employee with a collie/shepherd cross puppy, who happens to be a niece to favor. :)   The pup was absolutely adorable so we went over to say HI! and get some puppy kisses! 

I am standing outside with the residence building behind me, holding the leash to Favor in my left hand and at my side and in my right hand, holding the mostly black pup. She has the tan markings at her feet and on her face, but not as much on the sides as Favor does.

After heading it was nearly time to break and water the dogs again, so did that and she came outside and peed, but wouldn't do a number 2.still.  She was still whining and looking for Greg pretty bad, and he explained that the German shepherds were the worst at transitioning over.   She was slowly coming around though.

After dinner was the transition/grief share lecture for us two re-trains and t the equipment lecture for all the new handlers.   This time brought some tears but we talked about fun things we remembered of our dogs that we'd retired and it helped to talk about it with someone that was in the same position as I was.

From here we went up for bed and called it a night!