Guiding Eyes   Day 9  Monday  Nov.3rd

Second verse, same as the first. Not really. The days begin the same but that's about it for sameness.

The goals today were smooth approaches to curbs and corrections when there are distractions. Pippi and I sailed through our curbs, except for one. It was a + intersection. We stepped off the curb, headed to opposite curb. A car was pulled half way into the pedestrian walkway. Pippi moved me around the front of the car as trained. She's supposed to go back to her "straight line" but she must have been distracted by a scent [air distraction] or a little bird because we came to the curb about 2 feet left of our target. I cued her with the leash back to where we needed to be and she obeyed. That earned praise, but no treat. We're told to reward the correct behavior not the corrected one. My instructor tolde me to drop the harness, use the leash and we crossed back over the street to "rework" it. This lets your dog know it must be done correctly on the first try. Of course there wasn't a car in the way, but she landed exactly where we wanted her to and this time, she got the treat. Reward the correct behavior.

The morning weather was brisk and windy. On one of the longer street crossings, a large gust of wind swooshed right at Pip's butt. She jumped as if someone had goosed her and turned her head to look behind her. Not allowed when we are in the middle of the street! A forcefull Forward got her moving. My instructor laughed for an entire block about the look on Pippi's face.

Slight (I hope) injury as we were ready to return to school for the 4:00 PM feed-water-park. Pippi was given a Stay command at the base of the van steps. I'm supposed to sit down, then call her in. She jumped the gun, I sat but landed, hard, on the stationery portion of the seatbelt. Smack in the cocyx [no clue how to spell it.] Man that hurt! And still hurts every time I try to sit down.

The nightly lecture included this week's schedule. Our obedience this week will include a variety of distractions to try to make Miss Pipsqueak lose her concentration when sitting in a stay position, me standing 2 feet from her and someone walking all around her bouncing a ball. This week distractions will include squeaky toys, another dog, and loud noise. She peeked at the ball but stayed in place. I think the dog will be her weakness.

Friday will be a jam-packed day. Training in a different town, back to take group pictures and individual ones with our dogs, an exam from the vet, a lecture with the vet, AND a night walk. As in really dark, need a flashlight dark to be sure we don't fall off the curb kind of dark. Just picture it, folks; 4 sighted humans,10 blind or virtually blind humans, 10 dogs who have never worked with you in the dark ( and only a couple times with the trainers.) This is not painting a pretty picture, but I bet it will be an amusing blog post! It definitely will not be posted Friday night and maybe not Saturday. I promise I'll catch up by Sunday.

The photo is smushed a bit so I  look stockier but Pippi looks awesome.