Guiding Eyes  Day 3 Tuesday 28th

This 6:00 AM start is killing me!!!
AQnd I'm even getting to bed at 10! I can't go to sleep any earlier because "last call" for pooping is 9:30 PM.
Anyway.....

After breakfast, we all met to find out the name/gender/color of our dogs. Our instructors would out our name, say "you're getting a _____ color female/male dog whose name is______. The anticipation I saw on classmates' faces reminded me of the Miss America Pageant when contestants wait to see if they made the top 10, We all had a smile plastered on our faces to keep a brave front if we didn't get our preferred dog. I can't devulge my dog's description or name until after Friday when are sure the match will stick. (If they take this dog away from me, my heart would just crumble.) Yes, I'm hooked.

We were sent to our rooms to wait for an instructor to bring in our Mystery Dog. Mine arrived after an hour of trying to stay calm- something that isn't easy even on a normal, average day!

I was directed to talk with Doggie, feed treats from the treat bag permanently attached to my hip. The wiggly tail was great. The slobbery hand following a treat... not so much. Then, the instructor hooked on our leash, unhooked hers and left us toi get to know each other. Doggie dragged me to the door hoping against hope that Doggie's person would return and end this nightmare. When she didn't, I called Doggie by name and offered up some scratching behind the ears, on neck, and belly (don't know doggie well enough yet to be a butt scratcher. Doggie stood in front of me just staring me in the face. The former Gail, who feared dogs, would have quickly looked away, or maybe walked away. Nope. The new Gail stared right back at Doggie. I'd like to say Doggie was trying to see inside of me. The reality is I might have been getting the stink eye!. This walk-to-the-door-walk-back-and-stare-at-person went on for 2 hours....two very looooong hours. Both of us were struggling with this "first date" so I poked my head out into the hallway to see if anything was going on. This room confinement was turning bor-ing. Next to my legs, Doggie poked out a head too. An instructor walking down the hall asked if I needed something and I said, "Doggie and I are bored. Do you have a ball or something we could play with?" I was informed we weren't ready for the level of interaction and to go back in and talk. Yeah, I'd already talked about me, our house, the family, the neighboring dogs around us, and food. I'd asked about favorite toys, games, sleeping preferences. This was not a hold hands and sing Kumbayah moment.

Later, each student/Doggie team saddled up, actually harnessed up and took a brief walk outdoors. Although this Doggie was a good leader, I felt like I was being pulled along the street. My instructor decided I needed, rather Doggie needed a longer harness as I take large strides and "walk confidently with my cane."

4:30 PM Park-feed-water-park our dogs. Feeding and watering is not difficult, BUT (that's with one T), this Park stuff is complicated. You need to remove harness, remove training collar, leave regular collar, and keep leash on shorter heeling/training length. Walk out back door, rather get dragged out, get Doggie to heel-sit-stay and change leash to longer length. Walk to edge of Park area and let them sniff away. Of course, all the good smells are not in the area you're and the person needs to stay stationary and not let Doggie yank your arm out of the socket! When Doggie begins circling around or going back and forth at a frenzied pace, something is about to happen. All 12 of us are out at the same time with Parking dogs, so between the various "dances," an instructor is calling out "Tom, that's a number 2" or "Mike, that's a number 1" and our response is to act excited and praise them for "getting busy." Sounds like a room filled with moms potty training little kids. A little odd for a 62 year old woman!

Let me say that my Doggie is a bit inhibited and is willing to stand and watch all the others do a #1 or a #2, but NOT willing to try anything until every other dog goes in. That means I get to stand out in the rain/cold/snow longer. I'm all for bonding time but I prefer mine indoors, thank you.


We survived the first day together and I smell totally like dog!