Guidig Eyes   Day 10   Tuesday  Nov. 4th

I hope everyone did their civic duty (not to be confused with the poop kind) and went out to vote today. Hey, if I can manage an absentee ballot, you can move your backside and go vote!

Quite a day today. Yes, we went to White Plains but we worked in tandem. Not two people and one dog, actuall two dogs, two handlers, and an instructor and intern. We walked a bit further, switching off the lead each block. This gave the dogs an opportunity to demonstrate they could work through distraction. We ended up in Macy's (already decorated for Christmas just four days after Halloween!) and planned to do "Juno" practice. The intern kept my dog while I practiced with an empty harness and leash on ESCALATORS!!! You heard correctly. Although I heard escalators were a no-no for guide dogs, that's not completely true. If you can get on and mostly get off correctly so the dog is safe, you can use them. I was a bit apprehensive but as with everything in this training, I throw myself into it anyway. The command 'to the stairs' is given and the dog will stop near the edge. You have the dog in a Heel position, reach your right arm out to the railing and be sure it is moving away from you. When you are ready, say"let's go' and at the exact same time, step onto the escalator with your dog. Say 'Heel" and position yourself one step above dog if you are going up and one step lower than dog if going down. As soon as you feel the handrail begin the curve downward, say 'let's go' and simultaneously, step off with dog, letting the leash out fully iin front of you.  That's a lot of things to think about at once. If you aren't well coordinated, your doggie could injure his/her paw pads and it's months to recuperate. That translate to totally untraining. No pressure here! DISCLAIMER: No real dogs were hurt in this exercise. Our first try at the down escalator (the toughest to do), my instructor said to swing my left arm with the leash around the front of me. I did, but she asked me to notice where my hand was. In front of me and about three inches above eye. She asked me where my dog would be and I started to laugh. I was holding the 'dog' by the neck about 3 feet off the ground! Just swinging in the breeze like a side of meat. I was reminded that Pippi-real Pippi- is not that tall. We did 3 or 4 rotations up/down and then decided to try it for realsies. This time, I felt like the revved car engine with the park break on. I leapt unto the up escalator, Pippi in tow, positioned myself a step above and prepared to get off, although we still had another 30 seconds to go. Hopped off together and breathed a sigh of relief (and I'm betting Pippi did too).. Then we did tandom escalator riding. Not quite an Olympic sport yet, but who knows. I rode up and down escalators about a dozen times and never hurt the dog. Yeah, I'm cleared to use escalators! But, if I'm carrying packages, I'm taking the elevator. No reason to push my luck!

While my tandom partner was riding the stairs, I was standing about 30 or 40 feet away. Pippi had the easy part; she laid down on the floor and snoozed. Two guys worked by and commented that they loved labs. Three women walked by once with a lot of awws and ohhs. They circled back around and one lady started to lean toward the floor. I wanted to scream, "don't even think about touching this dog!' Instead I actually said," this is a working dog. You cannot pet her. (Sounds reasonable, right?

On the morning walk, we discovered that my leash corrections needed work. So, this evening, she found me in the computer lab and we practiced with an empty harness and leash in the hallways. I think I've got the corrections snap remembered now. We'll see tomorrow