This turned out to be an exciting day.
I was a bit worried that Rory would keep me up during the night but she slept very well. I could hear her sometimes moving around but she really did a great job sleeping.
I got up at 5:10 and quickly showered, shaved and got dressed before PARC time was called and before them bringing the food to our doors.
I then played with Rory for about 30 to 40 minutes and also did obedience with Barb with her just prior to breakfast.
I am having to heel her around the house for the first few days just like I did with Vincent.
I learned that I would be on the 9:15 shuttle so I went back to my room and picked up my phone and went into the Men’s lounge to check email while the cleaning staff did their work in my room.
We had a lecture on the care of your dog today but I couldn’t do the hands on work with her due to her being so new. I did go and sit in and listen to the meeting. It was good socialization work for Rory.
I then left on the shuttle and Barb and I set off for our first walk with Rory. All I can say is that if I had wings I would have flown to the moon and back. Her speed and pull were off the charts, even a bit more then I wanted. It was a nice problem to have. Tom followed Barb and me for part of the route and we ended up finishing the route quite quickly. Tom suggests that her speed will decrease as well as her pull over time but so far at least the first trip it didn’t that much.
We went back and we had our class pictures. They now email out the picture of your dog to you which I think is very cool. I hope it gets here soon.
I was on the first trip after lunch and we did half the route using a short handle and the other half with the longer handle. I am unsure which I want to stick with so we will see. Rory loves me giving her praise with a chipmunk type voice and it makes Barb laugh. The second working of the Maple route was also good but indeed speed and pull decreased a bit more from the morning. Parts of this could be due to the heat. It was a bit warm out.
We got back to the school and I laid down for a nap after calling Keri to check on how she was doing. I slept for a couple of hours and then got up in time for PARC and feeding time. Rory eats very fast.
We then went for dinner.
After dinner Lucas and I worked on the beginnings of Clicker with Rory and we will continue on Thursday. We then had the vet lecture with Dr. Holly. I found it interesting that the question I had about snake bites and training dogs to avoid snakes was never asked of her until this evening. What brought this up was a snake bite that Keri’s Mom received yesterday and she ended up in the hospital for quite a while for observation.
After the vet lecture it was time to go out to PARC again and now after checking email I am writing blog posts. I did go up and spend some time in the Common Lounge with the rest of the class after PARC time for about 20 minutes or so.
That brings up to the current.
Steve wanted more information on the booties. We are using them simply for training purposes. The weather wouldn’t mandate their use right now but they want us to be familiar with putting them on and getting the dogs used to them while traveling. They are trained with them on also so it is really more re-enforcing already learned behavior (well, sort of).
See everyone on day 13.
Interesting about the bootie thing. The Eye is the first school I’ve ever heard of that actually trains dogs to tolerate them.
Also, a very little thing you mentioned caught my attention–that your food is brought to you at FWB time (feed, water and break). Interesting how everybody does some of the littlest things differently.
And about those pictures … (ha ha) … when you can, please post them up. Lots of significant-others want to see!
Keep up the great work. This blogging thing is making me feel more than a little like I’m going through it along with you vicariously .
Jeff,
I just wanted to write to say well done on the blog posts. I’m finding this all very interesting. I am hopefully not too far away from training with my second dog as Freddie, my current will retire very shortly.
I’m glad your sharing the good as well as the bad. Lets face it, training with a new dog is hard. Physically, mentally and indeed imotionally. Your painting a very realistic picture of the entire process. Lets continue to hope that the outcome at the end will be posative for you.
Good luck with it.