I totally slept in today. My alarm didn’t go off at 7am so when I heard people heading out I checked the time to see it was 7:40am. Breakfast is at 8am. So I took Bogart down to the washroom and then straight to my breakfast. Then he got to eat while I showered, rushing all the way.
We got our scheduled walk time at 10:30 so Had a couple of minutes to hang out and relax. My back is really bugging me today so it was good to give time for the Tylenol to kick in. Bogart wouldn’t have much of this laying about waiting for our time. He was at the door whining and since I don’t know him really well, I had to assume this was a bathroom request. Not so. Took him down to the relieving area and nothing happened.
He did great on his walk. His only mistake was missing a big lamp post that he would have walked me into if Leah a, the trainer didn’t speak up. Besides that he handled everything pretty well.
Encountered my first casual corner petter. It happened when this old couple ended up beside us. Bogart had turned to the side so I felt his head to see which way it was pointing and felt the old guys hand. I corrected Bogart and told him to pay attention. The man then apologized for petting him and distracting him. I told him that it was a good training opportunity for me and the dog. (wanted to say keep your hands off my dog!) Leah was telling me that they had one student once who had a bit of residual vision and when people went to pet her dog she would slap their hand away. Pretty funny eh? Well, it took a lot of explaining to get her to understand that she couldn’t just hit people.
In the afternoon I was scheduled to go out with Katjya again except this time Courtney, the trainer who Bogart is still in love with, will be our leader. We headed out and Courtney asked where we wanted to go. We told her that in the morning Leah gave us an intersection she wanted us to get to and said we could go however we wanted. I said I’d like to go the opposite way we normally go but left the final decision to Katjyia. She wanted to go the way we have previously. This afternoon she was more interested in going my way since this would avoid our morning issue of running into other guide dog teams and slowing us down. She is a real speedster.
Courtney said she wanted us to go to George and lakeshore. No problemo. I suggest my rout and seek input from my walking partner. We agree on a route which is basically what I wanted to do in the morning. For those who are Google mapping we went east on Rebecca over the river, south on navy to lakeshore. We then took lakeshore east all the way to Reynolds. Then we came back on the south side of Lakeshore all the way to Kerr Street where we headed north to Rebecca. There we turn right and went one block east to Wilson which brought us back to our starting point.
It went really well. Especially once we got down to Lakeshore. There were tons of people walking around. Bogart did many wonderful things with working his way through/around people. The funniest was when there was a group of young girls talking in the middle of the sidewalk. I knew they were there but wanted to se what Bogart would make of the situation. What do you think he did? Yup, went right into the middle of them. (Hmm, don’t they say pets often reflect qualities and interests of their owners??) It was all pretty funny. He had a situation again where he almost ran me into a lamp post on my right shoulder. Courtney said we’d continue to work on that with him. He just needs to learn how big I am and not cut things too close. Later in the walk he did an amazing problem solving thing. We crossed a road and once up on the curb, there was a tree and a narrow passage way and then one of those lamp posts again. Katjia was ahead of us and her dog, Rhino, took her between these obstacles which were too narrow for me. Bogart started to follow her, stopped, thought and veered sharply right and went around the outside of the lamp post and back into the middle of the sidewalk. He got a treat for being so darn smart. There were many dog distractions as well. Another good one was running into a person who volunteers at the school. She was with her husband and their golden retriever. We followed them across the bridge and Bogart didn’t seem to care about the dog at all. At the end of the bridge they turned off to the left for the river path. Bogart didn’t even flinch to follow and kept right on going. Courtney said that was great. 90% of the dogs would have followed them since we were behind them for so long and talking with them too. Very good dog.
Bogart was walking a bit fast this afternoon. He must be wondering what the hell I want. This morning I was getting him to speed up and then this afternoon I was getting him to slow down. Over time I’m sure we’ll figure this out. I like how fast he walks in the wide open stretches but I like a bit more normal pace in the more crowded areas. He’ll learn that as we get more experience together.
We got the rough agenda for next week and it is really busy. We have one morning in the country learning how to walk where there is no sidewalks. We have a full day in Toronto doing the subway and busy city walking. Me and several others will get an extra half day in Toronto since we live in big cities. On Friday, I have a film crew coming to do another part of my getting a guide dog story that will eventually be aired on The Accessible channel. We will also be walking into downtown and then taking a bus back to learn how to get on and off buses. Next week we will have our dog health talk on Thursday night and the following week we will have a presentation on accessibility from the school. On Tuesday we will be getting a photo taken for our school id card, done professionally. I’m sure there were some other things that were mentioned but I can’t recall. Oh yes, showing us how to use the harness on stairs and in the building. It all sounds pretty busy which is fine with me. Helps lower my anxiety as we go forward and I see Bogart’s improvements.
Tomorrow is Sunday, which is our day off. I am amazed that johns wife has offered to do another load of laundry for me. That is so kind of her. You may not believe it but a highlight of my week was when I was able to give instructions to one of the teenage girls on how to use the laundry machines here. It shows that once I have the instructions my inner teacher comes out.
It is funny as I write this, two of the girls just left to go to Tim Horton’s. One dog is barking up a storm. He finally was about to give up and then the other dog had a little bark and off goes the first one again. Bogart is napping on the floor probably being annoyed by the sounds too.
Tomorrow is a day of rest. I think I should leave Bogart at least once and go for a walk with my cane now that I know the streets better. Was thinking of going out tonight but am still not sure if it will happen. I always have the best of intentions but then I get waylaid and soon feel too tired to go anywhere’s. There is no one of my age or inclination who would enjoy going to this café, The Moonshine Cafe, to have a beer and see some local talent. Perhaps I’ll take Bogart down for relief and then just get myself pulled together and get out for an hour or two. if that dog keeps barking it will certainly be motivation to get out of my room.
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