6:00- I set my alarm to 5:35 and was awake at the wake up call. Started the morning with bundling up in base layers, wool socks, and wool fingerless glove for the cold weather we have here, though not as cold as it is at home. The kids at home are cheering for the day out of school, though they will be making it up on Feb 18th.
6:45- fed AJ and she held her sit/stay very nicely for both her food and water. It was soon the call to go out and she surprised me yet again with being very quick to do both number 1 and 2. She quickly went and we were back inside and I peeled the outer layers and we worked our way to the dining room for breakfast, stopping for the fire doors.
7:20- Breakfast was a bowl of fresh fruit, a mouthwatering cinnamon streusel and several slices of bacon. I asked if we could make a stop at a store/pharmacy either on the way there or back as the one pair of sunglasses that I brought with me and put in my backpack on the flight here broke in my bag, breaking off one of the ear pieces at the hinge. So we are planning to stop on the way back.
8:00- After breakfast the trainers came and found us individually and we did another Juno walk around the square out behind the building. This is where eventually the obstacle course will be set up. It is a series of distractions and different obstacles that we will walk through to get from the building to the vans each morning and afternoon. We all head back in and get our stuff together to go to the Smithtown library to take our first walk in harness
9:00. At the library we take turns going out with our instructor and it is a big almost square loop that has soccer fields in the center of it. Cristina gets me out and we put the brand new harness on her. (We get new handles before pictures and going home). We walk over to the path and the handle is too short and I feel like I’m lifting AJ off the ground but they didn’t have a longer handle for me yet.
We take off and she is just flooring it. It had been since last Friday since the dogs had been worked so they all had a lot of pent up energy they were needing to burn. We go blazing along the path and came to what we thought was water but very quickly realized it was ice and all three of us start sliding a bit. We stop and Christina sight guides me around and off the path to get away from the ice. We come back to the path and take off again. It was a liberating feeling to be able to open up and take off again. AJ saw several other spots of ice and quickly learned to go around these spots. We also passed a couple of the other teams working the opposite direction that we were and AJ did beautifully, working past the other teams with only maybe a slight head turn to keep a mindful location of where they were. We get all the way around the loop and Bill and Rebecca were out too, getting some pics as well.
My student partner then went on his walk and I just sat in the van soaking in the sun and heat and probably dozed off a bit. When he was done with his route, Christina took AJ and I out again and we went the opposite direction this time. We took off well and Christina took off the safety leash and we took off. AJ had a much more relaxed and comfortable pace this time though her pace wasn’t bad before. We got about 2/3rds of the way around and I started to struggle with keeping the rings of the harness engaged as she was starting to slow down and I was still trying to get used to her pull when it wasn’t a full on charge ahead so she started to disengage with her work. We stopped and took a moment to break or just live on her for a moment to reset ourselves and then took off again and we were good.
She did even better this time with passing the other dogs and there was a lady walking her two dogs and the larger of the two was jumping and lunging towards us as we rounded a turn and they were coming up an incline towards us. We stopped and AJ was rather distracted with watching the other dogs and I tried to regain her attention and was able to as the other dogs passed and we waited a few minutes for them to get down the path a bit and then took off and AJ did really well.
Cristina guides us back to the van and took my student partner out again as I started typing up the happening of the morning here. After my student partner was done with his route, we started back to the foundation and Cristina told us that we wouldn’t be working the dogs in harness inside yet. She told us not to worry if we saw other teams working in the building in harness as she is looking for the dogs to settle more and be looking to us more. She explained that it’s not because of the work we are doing but that the dogs themselves are not quite there yet.
We then stopped at the CVS to pick up a pair of sunglasses and another pair of reading glasses for me. We took AJ in with us but Christina sight guided us though the store. The glasses were all in the back and lots of crates with products around so it was narrow and a little harder to navigate. We found the needed glasses and went back up front to pay. Though we had not covered it yet, I had AJ sit between me and the counter to pay, but there was all kinds of stuff and packages of items all along the wall of the counter and right as nose level to AJ so she was sniffing a bit at all the different smells. She sat there patiently until we asked her to get up to leave though.
11:25: We arrive back at GDF, and work the dogs through the van route and the obstacle course of barrels and then to the break area where she did a number one very quickly.
11:40: AJ and I work our way inside and I gave her some water and then she grabbed her Nyla bone and was all happy. Praises her for being a good girl and the wiggly little lab waggled her butt back and forth carrying her bone in her mouth.
I went to the bathrooms and came and sat in the bed. I’d been trying to let her have a few minutes of time off the leash every so often to give her the opportunity to engage and interact with me and to kind of gauge where the bonding process is. She came over and laid down for belly rubs and then seemed to stretch out and just chill. I laid back n the bed for a few minutes and I heard her get up and walk to the bathroom Next thing I hear is the soap dish on the bathroom sink clatter to the floor. I jumped up and AJ was starting to chomp on the bar of soap. I tell her NO and to go to her place which is on her platform bed. I clip her on the tie down and she drops the bar of soap on the bed. I thought it was long gone and was surprised that she hadn’t inhaled it yet. I grabbed it and left her on tie down staring at her in disbelief because Rei had done the same thing. But she was stealing the soap out of the bathtub. She ate 3 bars of soap before I realized that she was doing it!
12:00- Lunch is a large garden salad with chicken cutlets on it. It was really good. As I ate AJ really started fighting me on staying under my chair. She wanted to be in front of the chair and tried to visit with the next dog or lay halfway outside the chair on my left side. Cristina wasn’t in the room so she started up whining again and popping up again too. I dealt with them as they came and kept putting her back in position. We were told we would do some more Juno walks and would work the back square with learning how to do corrections for different situations. Then we would go out again with our dogs and work the square with the dog too.
12:30: I went back to the room and put AJ on tie down and as I’m full and warming up I’m getting really sleepy. I lay down on the bed and yeah I dozed off. Cristina wakes me up knocking on the door to go out and do the Juno walk.
1:30 Cristina takes me out to work on how to do corrections, what to do if she strays off her line of work, what to do when distracted, and overall performance management skills to keep her skills sharp. We went around the square out back, stimulating incorrect behaviors and. Me showing how to correct them. It was getting colder with the winds picking up.
I then came in for a bit and Cristina worked with my student partner for his corrections lesson. Then she came and got AJ and I and we worked the full van route. Which means we worked out to the break area, gave her a chance to go- which she went number one pretty quickly again. We then worked across the break area, down the walk and made a left and a bit later made a right to go across to the square.
Worked around the square and though the obstacles which were series of orange barrels. By this point the wind was really blowing as the cold weather was starting to really move in at this point an emergency broad cast came on and announced high winds and squalls. We make our way back in and both my partner and I meet Cristina in the lobby to go over giving medications, clean their ears, and other grooming discussions. We finished with this and had some time before dinner. I went back to my room with AJ to feed and water her. She did very nicely again.
4:30- feed, water, and take the dogs out for break. I can’t tell you how happy I am that she breaks super fast and she has done very well so far. The winds were blowing intensely, blowing over bins and stuff and she went right out, did her business. We came back in and I went to the dining room to wait for dinner and to work with her on sitting under my chair. AJ has been sitting sideways under the chair and trying to get her to sit longways under the chair and ultimately so her head is facing out the back of the chair. We worked on reinforcing staying in that behavior and she did really well.
5:30- Dinner is Caribbean tilapia with rice and broccoli. It was sooooo good. Then there was a choice of red velvet or cream cheese cake again. I went for the red velvet cake. Cameron also left a large black Kong for AJ to play with.
6:15- I came back to the room after dinner and gave AJ water. We could see the snow outside and the winds gusting through the trees here. I then decided to go down to the grooming room and give AJ a good brushing since I hadn’t done so since since being here. She didn’t seem to care much for the grooming but did play with the toys a bit.
Picture on the left is AJ walking across the room with one front paw up in the air as shes in mid stride across the floor.
Picture on the righ is of AJ standing next to the grooming bench and looking at me and the camera.
After she showed she was done I tried to clean up the hair and gathered up my brushes and come back upstairs, working to type up this evenings events as I wait for the call for last break at 8:30.
8:30- final opportunity to relieve Took AJ out and she went number one super fast and we went back in. I went to the dining room to fill my water bottle and got caught up chatting with Jody M and a couple of other students. So another nap may be in order for tomorrow! LOL
Night all :)
AJ curled up in a tight ball on the end of her platform bed.
