Almost Finished

All in all, Trishna and I had a very good day. I am really ready to go home. The food is great, but this 5:30 in the morning thing is getting old. So you remember when I said Trishna was running me into overhead obstacles, and I said that they were going to run me into things. You thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. They set up an overhead obstacle, which Trisha proceeded to run me into three times yesterday. It's this weird contraption of PVC pipe wrapped in foam. The pipes kind of look like wind chimes, and they hang over a main sidewalk here on campus that the instructors make us walk past every day. I'm happy to say that we did not hit it at all today. Go Trishna!

We started our day at the Embarcadero/City Center (San Francisco). We mostly worked on subway platforms and escalators, which means the reappearance of the doggy booties (see previous posts about them). Trishna still doesn't like them, but she will wear them. She did great on the escalators and her platform work near the trains is excellent. She keeps me far away from the edge and directs me right to the open door when the train is stopped. Good girl, Trishna!

This afternoon, we went to Sausalito, lots of dogs, people playing ball along the water, vendors, performers. She pulled out all of her crowd-handling skills, and we did very, very well.

Finally, this evening, we had the lecture on going home with your Guide Dog. I think people are going to have a very hard time keeping their hands off of her for the first six months. Six months is the average bonding time during which you should be the sole center of your dog's world. I can let people pet her for a minute or two, but it really should be me providing everything for the dog. Does that mean that no one's allowed to build a relationship with Trishna? No, it does not. Tomorrow's post will be all about our last adventures and how people can help a Guide Dog team when they first come home.

One last thing before I close. Really, sighted people, can you please explain to me why you mill about in crowds and don't watch where you're going? I really need to understand this. :-)

One last quick note. People love to touch my dog. I'm not even kidding; they love to touch my dog. I worked a German Shepherd, and lots of people were afraid of her and some wanted to touch her. But lots of people will just come up and touch Trishna without telling me or asking permission. It's about 10 times more than they ever did with the black lab puppies we raised. My instructors say that it's very common, because people are more conditioned to be afraid of black dogs and German Shepherds than they are of my golden girl. I'm thinking perhaps that my hairdresser John can give her a dye job. Just kidding. :-)