Day 19, AGS discussion, Clicking through to Caring for your Dog and Mewing as we moved toward Crossing the diamond rough, Exit Interviews and Alumni discussions

We are nearing the end. I got a very nice note from my boss today and I sincerely appreciated that. She is awesome. I actually have two supervisors and Zach is out all week at an Oracle conference.

In the morning we got up at the regular time and took the dogs out. I checked some email and other such things and then went down to breakfast. I ate very fast to get two loads of laundry into the washing machines before the start of our day. It was either do it now or don’t do it at all today and it had to be done. I certainly love procrastination :). I finished up by 8:00 and waited for our lecture on the Admissions and Graduate Services offerings. After this we took our dogs out and loaded onto the busses to head too the lounge.

Today it was phase three of the Clicker training. We would take what we learned and teach Harold to find light polls (actually the button to push to cross the street). He picked it up very fast. Harold is an awesome boy! More proof of this is coming soon.

We finished up early and we headed back to campus to have a lecture on the care of your guide dog. This was mainly a review of material already covered.

At lunch it was cafeteria day. We had to go into the kitchen with our dogs, load up trays and move back to our tables. They made pizza for lunch so at least it wasn’t something more difficult to balance :). We had two eye doctors at our table (one was a student) and he was from Mesa Arizona.

After eating lunch I hurriedly moved back to the laundry room and moved my laundry into the dryer. I went into the Visitor’s Center and did cat distraction work with Harold and the cat. Harold completely ignored the cat. Keri will be happy :). Harold was more interested in the humans across the way then he was with Chester the big fluffy cat laying on the floor about 4 feet from Harold.

We then moved into town on the busses and worked on large street crossings. Harold’s work in this area was simply amazing. We first showed Harold the crossing at each curb giving him a food reward. This was done using sighted guide and not holding onto the harness. To Harold it was a game. Lots of praise and “Let’s go’s” were the words used to motivate him across each part of the intersection. The intersection was a diamond shape and was 5 lanes wide. We walked across and back rewarding at each stop. Sioux then told me to work with Harold across the intersection by my self. He did it perfectly and with gusto!

When we got back we had exit interviews and then dinner. Before the exit interviews I retrieved my laundry and through it on the bed. I must say, no socks lost since I have been here :).

After dinner we met with Aaron to talk about the Alumni association and to also discuss things about the Victor Reader Stream.

On Thursday we are going to the airport to work through security after a discussion about going home with our dogs. In the afternoon it is freelance work in Gresham. As for me and Harold, Sioux and I will focus on moving turns. We will be off that evening where I will work on gathering contact information from everyone and emailing it all around. I also plan on starting to pack for the trip home. I promised Keri I will do laundry on Saturday night so nothing comes home dirty accept of course what I am wearing :).

See everyone on the next post.