Cheeky little B*******

• Firstly, you should read this so you know what these posts are all about.
• The matching visit with Mr. Banks.
• Day 1 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 2 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog
• Day 3 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 4 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 5 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 6 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 7 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 8 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 9 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 10 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 1 and 2 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.
• Day 3 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.
• Day 4 and 5 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.
• The first days back at work – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog 

Things are continuing to go very well with myself and Nama, my new guide dog.

I’m taking it easy for the first while with him but even when I’m taking it easy things are still moving forward. Last Friday we joined a few friends in a pub in Dublin city however I went to the wrong place so poor Nama had to take directions from me through an area that he had never been through before. To make things worse, it’s not an area I would know very well either so we had to get pointed in the right direction twice along the way. No harm though. As always, he took it in his stride. In fact, I got the impression that he was enjoying himself! We walked from that pub to Connolly station at around half eight in the evening and he did exceptionally well.

I know the instructor took him to Connolly station however I suspect that while there she needed to use the toilet. I’ll explain why in a second! He confidently walked right through the station with me pointing straight ahead. I knew once we got to the ticket validation machines that we would be able to get another point in the right direction. We must have veered to the right a little because before I knew it we had walked through a narrow doorway whereby I was informed in a rushed tone by a lady that I was in the women’s toilets. Thanks Nama! He thought this was brilliant! The tail was wagging so much that I could feel it on my left hand! For a few seconds afterword when I set back off back to where we had come from to find the right direction he was very unsure where the hell we were going because surely he was right and I had to be wrong.

Last night was the next change from the norm. It’s important that we don’t do too much but I was in the mood for a bit of a walk last night so we took the long way home. It’s interesting. He hadn’t walked that direction before and when I started the route I was a bit apprehensive because I remembered that there are a few parts that are less than by the book from the perspective of a guide dog. For example, there’s a loading bay on one stretch of path and it is designed very badly. It completely cuts the straight line away because they’ve put grass at odd angles. It’s like the path ends, there’s a huge step up to the loading bay then after a while there’s grass, a step down and the path resumes after a few feet. Before I knew it Nama had completely ignored the loading bay and had gone straight. I think this was probably the best thing to do because it was the safest and the most straight forward. Freddie use to do a complicated sequence of steps up and down but at the time I questioned if this was absolutely necessary. That’s one of the things about not being able to see where your guide dog is leading you at times, sometimes it might be wrong but you have to trust that it’s following the straight line principal and this in the majority of situations will be the right thing to do. The next part of the walk that I thought I was going to have problems with was coming near to the area I live in. The path forks but there are no tactile or audible difference from what I can tell. This fork gives access to one side only so you have to cross a small road to reach the other one. There’s no barrier to indicate that the path will end. It just leads straight onto the main road. Freddie use to do this walk with me and he learned that he should cross as early as possible when we got to this area. Fortunately Nama took it upon himself to find the curb for me and we crossed safely. Of course, if I missed it I would have just turned back and crossed at an area that I thought was safe. I didn’t expect Nama to determine this independently and in fact I’m not really sure how he did it. I’m thinking of getting someone to walk that area with me during the weekend. I’d really love to know how he knew that it was safer to cross there than walk up to the end. One bad thing happened actually on that walk. There’s a section of road where I live where the angle is just all over the place. Or, maybe it’s not but I can’t figure it out. It annoys the hell out of me because ordinarily I pick up areas really quickly. I’ve lived here now for five years and in fact my family even live around this area so I’ve been around it all my life but I simply can’t figure out what way I should be facing when I cross this one section of road. It’s not particularly wide or busy but I keep messing it up. I did this first with Freddie five years ago and I fell so badly that I did a lot more damage to a knee injury and I cut up my head quite badly. I’ve walked it since then of course but I try to avoid it whenever possible. I can’t understand it! Anyway. Yesterday I thought I was facing the right way so I gave Nama the command to go forward. Within a few seconds I knew something was wrong because we didn’t step up on the path. However, I thought maybe the path had been dipped and we had gone on it without knowing it. NO. I wasn’t that lucky after another few seconds a car stopped in front of me and someone told me I was on the road. I know what you’re thinking. How can I be so damn stupid? I don’t know. I think Nama was looking for the up curb but my indecisiveness was causing him to be confused. I just wanted to tell you this because although I’m really happy with Nama’s work we are having problems and their really up to me. Not him. In fairness to him I was probably too early to cross and I was facing the wrong way.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is, it’s lovely to be able to take a notion to take a nice long walk home from work without even giving it a second thought. I’m returning to the freedom I had two years ago where I can make decisions and not worry what impact my mobility will have on them.

I started writing this post on Thursday but I haven’t really had time to continue it. It’s now Sunday night so the timing is a bit off. Still, I thought I should fill you in on a few more little things.

Last week Nama decided that he was too good to use a simple dog run and only the deck would do someone of his stature. This meant that for four days he relieved himself on the deck. I know that I should have been stricter on him but I didn’t want to break his routine so I just let him away with it. That of course was a mistake. I should have practised what I preached. Consistency is always the key when working with dogs so I shouldn’t have let him away with this. As always, he was just pushing his luck. Since Thursday things have been turning around though so with any luck he’s back to the run again. I certainly hope he is. The run is a lot easier to clean! It was built two years ago just for this reason. I’m just telling you this because it’s important that you are aware that although things with Nama have gone better than I ever could have anticipated, he’s still a cheeky little pup that constantly tries to push his luck. In fact, his cheekiness verges on complete disobedience at times but it’s just his character. Guide dogs aren’t machines and with the good you have to accept the bad. The great thing is, with Nama, the bad doesn’t matter because the good is so fantastic.

We had our second free run today. It was on a beach near Drogheda. He had a brilliant time. The run lasted about two hours. We walked for miles up and back down the beach so he got great exercise. He’s actually lying in his bed at the moment snoring. I think, for the first time in a long time, he’s worn out! About time! This is brilliant! Nothing usually tires him out. Considering he spends about an hour a day constantly playing along with a good few hours’ work, this is impressive. That doesn’t include the quick play sessions in the morning or dotted around the day of course. The hour long play session is usually when I get back from work. I find it’s a good habit for the both of us to get into because it gives him something to look forward to, it’s great exercise and it means he’s happier for the rest of the night. He has such an abundance of energy. He actually tires me out. And that’s not an easy thing to do! I’m enjoying it though.

So far so good.

• Firstly, you should read this so you know what these posts are all about.
• The matching visit with Mr. Banks.
• Day 1 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 2 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog
• Day 3 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 4 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 5 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 6 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 7 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 8 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 9 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 10 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog.
• Day 1 and 2 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.
• Day 3 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.
• Day 4 and 5 of aftercare – Training with Mr Banks my new guide dog.

I am really trying not to say that things are going brilliantly because the day I do that I know something will go wrong but at this stage, what I will say is, “so far so good”. It was a running joke between the instructor and I actually. Every bit of positive feedback he’d give was supplemented by “to date”. It was the same as what I’m doing now. Things are going well but this is still the start of this partnership. I am still open to the possibility that something might crop up that must be worked around.

This week his spending routine seems to have become much more established. Once in the morning and once late at night. This is brilliant because I was a little concerned about this for a day or two. Not because anything happened but because I was a little on edge after some previous experiences. To be completely honest, I’m still living in constant dread that it will happen again but I know logically that what happened before wasn’t my fault and the situation is completely different this time so I have no grounds to base my irrational worries on. The illogical part of my head can’t help worrying though. Nama is putting my mind at ease with each day though. He gets up in the morning, jumps around the place like a mad thing, plays for a while, relieves himself, plays for another few minutes then it’s straight to work. To the train or bus, into Dublin, to the office and then a sleep. During Lunch he easily negotiates the route to Stephen’s green, relieves himself again then it’s back to the office for another sleep before it’s time to go home. Now, as things get a bit busier we’ll spend more time out of the office in other buildings however for the moment I’m keeping things a little more straight forward. When our evening routine hasn’t been set yet though. I don’t want to overdo it yet but I’m looking forward to getting out of here at night. With the time of year it is I’m not particularly bothered by being stuck in the house though so it’s a nice time to have a new dog. He’s spending a lot of time playing and generally getting lodes of contact with me. He runs around the front garden a bit, plays with the Cong or ragger and tries to eat my clothes. Yes. You read that right. He is a really mouthy dog. It only seems to be with me though. He grabs onto my clothes when he’s playing. I don’t know how he manages it but he never actually grabs my hands or arms intentionally and if for some reason he misses his target he lets go astonishingly quickly. It’s just all part of the way he plays. Absolutely everything here at the moment is fair game. If it’s left down and he can pick it up then it’s likely that he’ll run off with it. He doesn’t chew anything but he likes to bring things around with him. Fortunately I’ve been able to restrict his carrying to a bone or his Cong because that could get very irritating but in the morning when he’s really giddy he can run off with some socks quite easily. It’s very funny really. You get clothes out to get dressed and within seconds they’ve been pinched and you can hear him out on the landing wagging his tail. As soon as I walk over he drops them. It’s just a silly way of getting attention. I know that he’ll stop it shortly when he realises it doesn’t go his way. It’s very funny but although I know he’s just playing he needs to know what’s acceptable.

There’s just one minor problem with his work but I’ll get this sorted over the next few days. When we go to the park during lunch he doesn’t want to return to the office afterword. The instructor thought this was that the path at the top of Dawson Street was too busy and narrow and he was getting a little uncertain but I’m not so sure any more. Think of this. We go out of the park and turn right. The crossing is on our left. Although he has now found this crossing at least eight times now, he never does it the first time. When he eventually finds it we cross over and then we need to take a kind of left turn down Dawson Street. No. He wants to turn right. I’ve tried talking to him, giving him very specific directions, going forward toward his head to strengthen the direction that he should go in, I’ve sat him down for a quick chat and I’ve even tried a gentle correction. No. He just doesn’t want to go that way. He will do it eventually but it’s easy to pick up the signs that he would rather be somewhere else. Same when we try to turn right onto Molesworth Street. We go straight to the crossing then do a right turn. No. He wants to go back up Dawson Street! So, we do a formal left turn and that gives him no choice. He has to go that way. Again, for the first few steps he doesn’t want to be there at all. Then we need to cross Molesworth Street to south Fredrick Street. Do you think he’ll go to the curb right away? Not on your life! We walk a good twenty steps more than we actually need to before he’ll finally find the curb. This is just silly! We find the curb and instead of going down south Fredrick Street he wants to continue down Molesworth Street. We finally get to the office and he finds the steps as if it was his idea to go this way all along. The tail is wagging as he installs himself under the floating window desk, the walk is confident and the tension through the harness is fantastic. Now, I’m imposing human emotions and psychology onto a dog and I am aware that there are a number of factors on this route that may also contribute to the exhibited behaviour. At the crossing outside Stephens green there are a lot of leaves. These may be putting him off. At the top of Dawson Street there are a lot of restaurants, people eating and people walking in every direction. At the Dawson Street side of Molesworth Street there are also a lot of leaves on the ground and finally, crossing MolesWorth Street, cars seem to be parking on a bad area of the foot path. However, all of these obstructions and distractions should be easy enough for him to handle as after all, he navigates them all with ease going the other direction. There are a few things I’m going to do to try to resolve this. I’ll give him a treat of food when we get to the mention house on Dawson Street. This should help give some encouragement for that area. I know he’s driven by food and he’s probably trying not to be distracted by the restaurants that we’re passing so this will give him something to work toward. Finally, when we get into work after lunch I’m going to get a few of the dog lovers to make a fuss of him. This added reward when he gets back to the office will be a huge source of positivity for him because although I am and will be the main source of attention, he loves to walk around to talk to other people when I provide permission.

He’s great while in the office. He hardly moves at all. If I get up to talk to someone he follows me around but that’s absolutely fine. In meetings he has to learn that he needs to stay down but with some more experience he’ll pick up on this. I was a bit concerned at what his behaviour would be like while in the office because he’s always such an interactive dog that likes so much attention. I was afraid that he’d continue to demand that attention while in the office. I’m really happy to see that he associates the office as a social environment where he must behave accordingly.

He’s still my little shadow while at home. As soon as I get up from a chair he’s up beside me waiting to go. Even if it’s just out to the kitchen, bathroom, or to the washing machine he wants to be involved with everything! Again, when in a new environment this is quite normal and I will start to control it a little as time goes on if it doesn’t subside naturally. At least now, he lets me close the door to the bathroom without crying! That’s a nice start anyway.