Can I just murder my laptop?

 

Anyway, I didn’t write too much last night Sorry everyone. After we got our dogs, we just spent time in our rooms with them. Later, the instructors called up down to the room where we have our meetings, the fireside room, and we had some discussions about using food rewards and what would be going on for the rest of the day. We were introduce to our classmates dogs, verbally anyway. We won’t interact much with each other’s dogs because it’s important for our dogs to bond to us. I won’t mention student or dog names in this blog without permission, so I’ll just say that Petunia is the only yellow colored dog in the class.

 

After meeting with everyone, we broke up and went with our instructor on a short walk outside. Petunia and I were not smooth or comfortable together, but that isn’t to be expected at this stage. She’s probably thinking, who the bloody gell is this idiot? But seriously, she did pretty nice work all the same.

 

After that, we came in and practiced walking up and down the halls here with our dogs heeling, as I said last night, walking at our side, not guiding, so not pulling ahead. If they don’t heel, we stop and pull them back into position until they are where they should be. If they get distracted, we do what is called a time out, where we grab the leash with both hands, right up by the collar and pull them into us. We stand still, not interacting with the dog at all for about ten seconds. they tell me it works wonders, because not getting contact from us is like a correction in a way, but time will tell. The juno did a good job of showing it, but I have to wait and see what I think in regard to a real dog.

 

We’re supposed to give them tons of kibble, walk a few paces then stop and reward, walk on stopa nd reward, that kind of thing. It’s tricky with Petunia so far, because since she stops accepting kibble after a while, that isn’t going to be the best motivator.

 

Honestly, It’s hard to get used to this, when for 39 years, if your dog didn’t heel, you either gave a leash correction or said, no, heel, or something. that little word no wants to come out of my mouth so badly. lol.

 

Last evening, she only ate part of her food. They put an antibiotic powerder on the evening meal, and she doesn’t like it. She also has not done her business except to pee at 5 last night. But she didn’t need to go out in the middle of the night. Hmmm. the only other golden guide I had didn’t relieve for 2 days! Yikes.

 

Currently, she’s quiet on her tie-down. I made coffee this morning, but the covered mug they gave us yesterday leaks anytime I try to drink it, so I’m going for a coke.

 

Today we will go into Gresham and start learning a route to a coffeeshop. Oh happy happy day!