​A really, REALLY good day with Pat. He's been rewarded with dinner and an affectionate rub-down, and Andy's gone out to bring me home some won-ton soup for my own well-earned dinner. As soon as I give Pat his final "busy-busy" time at eight, it's into the crate for him and into the bathtub and then bed for me. I ache all over and I'm keeping the ibuprofen and tissue makers in business, but I'm glad we worked as hard as we did today. Tomorrow it's going to rain and we should get in as much outdoor work in easy weather as possible.
I was wiped out after our morning workout on the short around-the-neighborhood route we did the first day. But I was also proud of myself for holding on to the baseball for the whole route, in spite of my wobblies. And even prouder of the way Pat accommodated my wobblies. He's really good about slowing down just enough but not too much when I'm unsteady as well as for any significant elevation changes, tight spaces and obstacles, and with a little encouragement from me, he gets right back into the brisker pace I prefer for the smooth straight-aways. We're honing our communication with each other and starting to develop our style.
I took a nap after that good morning workout, and didn't wake up until Steve came back around two-fifteen. I wasn't happy with Andy, because I'd asked him to wake me at two o'clock. "You were coughing too much," Andy said. "You needed more sleep." So I had to argue with both Andy and Steve to do another workout.
We made it down to Vic's, and on the way I successfully used the clicker to fist-target Pat to the walk button pole at the street light at Vallejo and Riverside (much easier for Pat than the other light we worked on yesterday, probably because this walk button pole was significantly set back from the sidewalk and closer to the curb and crosswalk than the other one). Then I fist-targeted him to the door at Vic's when we got there (no pesty yip-yappy ground huggers around today). Pat got nice big rewards for each target.
I was surprised and impressed when Pat remembered the crosswalk on Riverside we used yesterday, even though he's used it only once before. And we came up to it from the opposite direction. He started to turn me right to the curb and crosswalk when we came up to it, and Steve had me give Pat a gentle nudge and a "Hup-up! Forward!" to keep him going straight and assure him that no, I don't want to do that turn. Steve was impressed with Pat's memory, too. Pat seems to have the kind of memory and problem-solving aptitude April had. Trace, on the other hand, is the kind of dog who trains well and does just what he is trained to do, period. This is good. He was reliable that way. For example, Trace totally kept me safe guiding me around obstacles and through my wobblies, but he wasn't as flexible the way Pat is about gauging the severity of both the obstacle and my wobbly of the moment together, and he wasn't comfortable picking up his pace again the way Pat is.
It's hard not to compare the three dogs, but that's not necessarily bad. It's more a way of cataloguing and organizing all the experience I've had with my previous dogs and using that background knowledge to understand what is going on now with my present dog, as well as appreciate how each dog is unique with its own personality. I wonder if any parent with more than one child does the same thing.
It was such a successful run down to Vic's, that after a cup of coffee there, I felt recharged enough to work the route back home, too. I was a little wobbly at the end but Pat and I are hitting our groove and all in all it was a nice smooth workout. Steve said Pat and I are one of the best matches he's seen, and that the workout was excellent. "You should maybe get sick more often," he joked.
No thank you! But who knows. Maybe it has been good that I've had to slow down a bit, and consequently I paid more attention to Pat while we're working. Maybe the shorter workouts, and the extra focus I've had to put in to maximizing what I get out of them in spite of feeling lousy, has been a good thing after all. I'm still headed for bath and bed early, and shooting for feeling better a lot sooner than later.
This morning, with Andy's help, we had another session with Patches. I was proud of both her and Pat. I had to give Pat a few corrections, but not one single high-collar. And when Andy let Patches go, she actually walked — calmly — right in front of Pat and me, instead of dashing off in the opposite direction. That surprised all of us. I still wouldn't want Pat off leash around the cats, but he's definitely improving, and what's more, Patches is getting to the point where she'll tolerate his presence as long as he keeps his distance. Bella's skittish so it will take longer for her.
Yip-yappy ground huggers are generally just pesty and irritating. But a snarling out-of-control big German shepherd is another thing, and there is one of those in my neighborhood. Apparently it belongs to a little old lady (even older than me, that is) who walks it around the neighborhood and is barely able to hang on while it barks and lunges after other dogs. I haven't seen this pair yet, but Steve saw them on our first day and again today on our morning workout. A vicious dog attack will ruin a good guide dog faster than anything. Steve says when he sees them again, he's going to talk to the lady and ask her to please take her dog inside or otherwise get out of our way if she ever sees me out with Pat. He also said we may need to bring in the local animal control folks.
One of my Leader Dog friends tells me that when she got her guide dog from there a couple years ago, Leader Dogs taught her to use food rewards with her dog the same way Guide Dog Foundation is teaching me with Pat. So the movement toward using food to train the dogs does, indeed, appear to be universal among guide dog schools these days.
The leash is leather, about 6 feet long, with hardware that allows it to be doubled over (folded in half) so that the working length is about 3 feet. When the dog is in harness, it's held between the middle and index fingers of the left hand holding the harness handle, with the end dangling toward the right, and within easy quick reach of the right hand. You use your right hand to grab the leash for leash corrections and occasional "Hup-up!" cues. When walking the dog, as opposed to working the dog, the left hand drops the harness handle and picks up the leash.
The leash is designed to keep the dog within arm's reach of your body. So when you're keeping the dog on-leash, the short length minimizes getting tangled up with the furniture and all that, but tangles still happen every now and then.
Tie-down cords are steel cable and impervious to chewing. Some dogs are notorious leather-chewers, but Pat doesn't seem to be one of them. Or maybe he's had it trained out of him by now, since he's 3 years old. Anyway, the tie-down cords are looped through a metal eye installed in the wall, around the leg of the bed, dining room table or other heavy piece of furniture, or around the leg of my breakfast nook table. When I want to fix something in the kitchen, or just leave Pat alone for a few minutes, I loop his leash through the tie-down loop. From there he can watch me in the kitchen. The first night I had Pat, before we got his crate, I put him on tie-down at the end of my bed at night (until I let him up on the bed, that is).
When I say I'm keeping Pat on leash 24/7, that is exactly what I mean. Unless Pat's on tie-down or in his crate, I'm hanging on to his leash. Sometimes, if I'm sitting, I'll simply loop the leash around my leg, or sit on it. This constant close proximity is part of the intense bonding process. If I need to get up and put something in the trash can, Pat goes with me to the trash can. And if I need to use that other can, he goes with me there, too, and I put him in Down-Stay position while I do my business.
Keeping the dog on leash is also part of the obedience training. Because Pat's on leash all the time, I know what he's doing. If he gets into the little trash can that's under the breakfast nook table where I'm typing, for example, I am in a position to issue an immediate correction. Same if he lunges at the cats. Because he's on leash all the time, we're doing the "Heel!" "Walk!" "Sit!" and "Down!" commands as a matter of course several times a day.
Oh, yeah … remember that up-curb he kept taking me to the right of?
The one yesterday where instead of taking me straight across within the crosswalk, he kept veering off to the right and I had to work him a little to the left to get back into my line of travel.
And no, Steve and I never did figure out what was going on there yesterday.