Where was I? Oh yes, the schedule … so I get up, pull on some clothes and take Bogart down to the relief area so he can do his thing. Then I come back up, feed him and while he is eating (poodles eat a bit slower than labs because they are much more civilized
In the 9am meeting the two trainers outline what the plans are for the day. If we are going on walks then they give us our tentative schedule. There has been some frustration in the class from many of the clients about how much sitting around we are doing. Part of the problem has been in climate weather. It seems that people in Ontario can go outside in -15 degrees (Celsius for those American readers) but they can’t seem to get outside in the rain. My suggestion to the trainers was that they develop an outline of what is tentatively going to happen on which days. This being with the understanding that these schedules must be flexible depending on the weather and how the class is progressing. Perhaps anyone reading this who has gone to a different school can comment on if all programs of this issue of scheduling.
Bogart had a rough start to this day. I had just brought him up from his morning relief and, as I was about to head out to get his food, he started throwing up. I wasn’t too scared but, obviously, I was a little worried about him. I walked across the hallway to get the over night trainer to help out. When knocking on the door I remembered her telling us that she’ll be in the kennels working after 7am. As fate would have it, I made a joke about all emergencies happen after 7am. Anyway, I made my way downstairs with no dog and no cane (that’s probably why we need good orientation skills before attending programs) and found the back door to the kennel. Guess I missed the populated front door. It was humorous since I could hear her cleaning kennels somewhere deeper inside. Like one of those action movies I moved forward tentatively, feeling my way along. I walked around a corner and stood there for a minute trying to get a fix on where the sound was coming from when all of a sudden one dog noticed me. BARK BARK … then all the dogs joined in. Bark Bark .. Angela there is an intruder … bar bark …let us out and we’ll get him!”. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a concrete building with 40 or 50 dogs barking but it is very loud. I just decided to stand there and wait to be rescued (or perhaps eaten). Angela showed up beside me, yelled “That’s enough!” and the barking subsided. You can imagine the dogs looking around wondering what she is yelling at. “we were just trying to help.”
Angela came back up to the room with me to see how Bogart was doing and help me clean up his mess. He seemed fine and there was nothing much in what he brought up, just that he brought it up all over the place. He didn’t seem to understand when I offered him his food dish to throw up in rather than all over the floor, between me and that door. Isn’t he inconsiderate?
So we had two walks. The first one didn’t really go that great. I think Bogart was hungry since he couldn’t stop himself from sniffing everything. Since he had thrown up I was advised to skip his breakfast. Due to this lack of attention we cut that walk a bit shorter and I brought him home so he could have a light lunch to hold him to dinner. Our afternoon walk was much better and Bogart seemed a bit more focused.
Overall it was a pretty good day. I continue to see progress with Bogart and continue to grow fonder of him each day.
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