Dog Day

I won't make you wait for it. This afternoon, I received a female yellow lab named Trishna. She's 64 pounds and 24 inches at the shoulder, i.e., she's kind of a big girl. She has a very soft, fuzzy coat and a sweet disposition. As far as we can tell by Googling, Trishna is an Indian name derived from the word for "thirst" or "drive" or "longing." It's a Buddhist concept for spiritual enlightenment (that's deep). I don't know how deep she is though, as she's lying on her back right now having me rub her belly.

Now here's the interesting thing. Almost all of the dogs in class now wear a collar that's called a martingale, which is sort of halfway between a flat collar and a chain collar. My girl gets the good ol' fashioned chain collar, because she "likes to work." I think that means she's rather spunky, but they don't want to tell me that yet. She's very sweet, and we're getting along very well. I think this could be the start of something wonderful. And she's not smelly like some labs are.

For those of you who want to know, they made us work with fake dogs all morning. The fake dogs are all called Juno. We had to practice obedience, go for walks in harness, and pretend. At about 2:30, we all went back to our rooms and they individually brought us our dogs. No Guide work in harness today, only heeling around the dormitory building. But nevertheless, I am exhausted. And I think Trishna is still wondering what the heck is going on.

On the whole, I think we're off to a good start. Here a picture, so that you know what she looks like.