Day 3 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog

Oct 11, 2012 |

Scratch and sniff.

Reading that back it sounds a lot stranger than I intended. I was just talking to Mr Banks when he used his back paw to scratch his ear. When he finished scratching it he gave the paw a good sniff. He does this regularly. It’s like he just forgets what he smells like!

Mr Banks woke up with the same vigour as he did yesterday morning. Jumping around me like a complete nutter I only had seconds to be jolted out of what until then had been a lovely refreshing sleep. He doesn’t give me any time at all to gradually relax into consciousness. As soon as I grasp for the phone to kill the hellish racket he’s right beside me with his nose on the bed expecting me to be as alert as he is. It’s brilliant actually. He goes from naught to sixty in a fraction of a second. He’s like this when we start work as well. When I give that forward command he leaps into action and the pace is immediately consistent. Talking about speed, while walking around a very easy stretch of path today I decided that although we could have gone hell for leather, we changed things around a little. I decreased our walking speed a lot. I was a bit worried that he had two speeds before today. Stop and sprint. I’m very happy that he is content to walk at any speed that I pick. I love sprinting but it’s not always appropriate.

We covered a lot of different environments today. As I had hoped, we re-covered a route that I wasn’t happy with yesterday. As I said in last night’s blog post, I wasn’t happy with the way I handled the curbs. I was still a bit nervous with the way Mr Banks approached them. Fortunately today things were much better. There were no problems on the route at all. Actually, there was one minor annoyance. At one point there were a lot of geese and other birds. These are a major distraction for him so it takes a lot of work to keep his mind focused. However, indications are that this will get a little easier given time. I’ve mentioned it to the instructor though so that we give it some attention if he thinks it’s necessary.

We also covered off curb obstacles. These are elements of an environment that block the entire foot path therefore breaking the straight line that the dog would ordinarily try to maintain. For off curb obstacles the dog will stop at the curb and given instruction, he will negotiate the shortest route possible to safely guide the handler back onto the path to resume the straight line. This technique is one of the major benefits of having a guide dog in my experience. I was very happy with Mr Banks performance during this exercise. He handled it exceptionally well.

The last outing today took us into Cork city. We worked through some very busy areas with a lot of different types of crossings. Mr Banks seemed to really enjoy himself in this kind of environment. I’m glad I remembered to write about this. The way he moves around busy environments is really decisive. He seems to instantly pick the route that he knows is the best solution and he goes for it without reservation. I like this! He actually completely threw me off guard at one stage. We were flying down Washington Street but we came to a busy part of the path that had a lot of obstructions. He banked right, then took a really hard left and pulled up sharp at the crossing. The instructor said that we both handled it very well. He anticipated the obstruction, compensated for it, noticed another obstruction so compensated for that two while at the same time resuming the straight line that we were originally on. This inadvertently had the benefit of aligning him with the crossing that he would have had to look for so it just worked perfectly. I smiled for ages after that. If I had any doubts that this dog could handle all of the environments that I will throw at it, their certainly gone now. It takes a lot to mess up my special awareness but when he went so fast around those obstacles I hadn’t a clue what he was doing. I was particularly impressed when the instructor explained what he had just negotiated though. I must admit, I was a little proud of him as well. I can’t help thinking sometimes, “Yeah! That’s my Mr Banks!”

During the city walk we also did a quick bus route. Public transport is very important for me. A day rarely goes by that I’m not on a bus or a train of some kind. This is why I am doing that kind of work so early on in the training process. I’ve been practising with Mr Banks. I have very specific goals for him to meet when on public transport so it was important that he knew what to expect right from the start. I’ve been practising getting him under seats as part of our regular obedience sessions. This meant that today when we got onto the bus for the first time he was very comfortable with getting under the seat using the method I have been consistently using since Tuesday. Wow. Just consider that for a minute. We’re now only on day three! It feels like it’s week three! That’s why I write these posts. In six months, I’m going to read back on this time and laugh because I will then realise how little I actually understood about him. The bus exercise went without any incident at all. I’m very comfortable jumping on and off busses so I was able to give Mr Banks very specific instructions. It helps a lot that the instructor understands that over the past ten years of working with guide dogs I have developed my own style so although he provides a lot of input during our training sessions he is flexible enough to let me do things my way for the most part.

Now that I’m finished talking about work, let me quickly say how fantastic every single member of staff in this organization is. No matter who it is, they all couldn’t be more accommodating and helpful. When training with a guide dog the instructors and staff want you to have no other concerns. They therefore do everything they can to ensure that the dog is the main priority for the class attendees. I honestly can’t thank them enough.

Someone that I was speaking today remarked that I seemed to be much more relaxed during this training compared to a few years ago. I had to agree completely. This is mainly because I haven’t been board and actually by the time I finally go to bed around eleven or twelve, I’m actually tired. This is because Mr Banks has demanded so much attention. Demanded is a terrible word to use actually. If I’m busy he’s quite happy to leave me alone. He tries to distract me but he doesn’t need to be told twice to go away. The thing is, when he’s not working, he’s a playful idiot. This morning, he started the day off by robbing some toilet role. Now, all I was doing was washing my hands at the time. He didn’t do anything with it, it just unravelled a bit because he was holding it by the end but this minor thievery is just his little way of playing. There’s really no badness in it at all. Everything he does seems to be really innocent. With the toilet role this morning, he robbed it, dropped it accidently then ran off with it. When he dropped it a second time it must have unravelled a small bit but he just got board of it and came back over to me. When I was trying to find it he thought this was the most entertaining thing ever. He was trying to nudge my hands all over the place so that I gave him a rub. Again, I don’t mind it. I’m happy when he’s happy. This game playing is helping me to build up the obedience. For example. When he wants to play I get him to sit, lie down, walk to heal or just go to bed for a second while I grab a toy. Because he’s hoping I’ll do what he wants he’s very eager to listen to me. Equally when it’s time to stop playing, I give a command and he knows that it’s time to stop. Of course, the command may not mean that we stop the entire session; it just means that he needs to relinquish control of the toy to me. By building up his obedience while playing I can retain this in other environments. Don’t get me wrong, not everything has a hidden motive. When he’s playing he just goes for it. There’s nothing holding him back.

He is really strange in some ways. For example, when just relaxing, he occasionally goes up in his back and puts his paws right up in the air. He can stay like this for ages! I’ve gone over to him, said hello to find him in the strangest of positions. I must ask the instructor why he seems to like sleeping on his back. Earlier I disturbed him. He was fast asleep when I found him on his back. I happened to put my hand on his head where I found the Cong in his mouth and the paws sticking up in the air. The sudden laugher made enough noise to bring him back to the world of the living. Of course, he then decided that if I had time to disturb him, I must have time to play so the next ten minutes were spent pulling a Cong out of his mouth.

I’ve started regular grooming sessions at night. Tonight is the first night I’ve really done a full session. In saying that, a full session takes less than ten minutes with Mr Banks. Mainly because his hair is so short but also because he’s so easy going, there’s nowhere that you can’t brush down. He’s a pleasure actually.

I think he was expecting me to write this blog post tonight. I leave the room to write the post. For no other reason but that it’s just nice to be out of there for a while. When I hadn’t left by half nine tonight he got a bit restless. I’m not sitting in the same place as I have since Tuesday though just to keep things a little interesting. I’m also breaking the rules a little at night however I must point out that I’m very careful while doing this because I would under no condition intentionally disrupt the dogs of anyone else on class. When we are in areas that are not frequented by other people I take Mr Banks off the lead and instruct him to follow me. He does this very consistently but his curiosity about the most minor detail can sometimes cause him to become very distracted. However, it is only by practise that we will improve his response to distraction and I would rather build up that skill here in an environment designed for this kind of work than in an office where he could potentially stick his nose into anything. I always have the lead near though because as soon as I hear anyone coming toward us I put him back on it. This isn’t necessarily because he’d get distracted and go over to them; it’s mainly to ensure that that there is absolutely no chance that I lose control of the situation.

So, there you have it. This post probably isn’t as entertaining as the last few but hopefully it is just as informative and interesting.

Day 2 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog

Oct 10, 2012 | , ,

Towel stealing peeping tom.

I’m here for a very important reason. To train with a dog that will essentially become my eyes while navigating around very busy, complex and ever changing environments. The gravity of this process cannot be underestimated. However, Mr Banks is making it hard to take him very seriously. For a guide dog, he has one hell of a sense of humour. Take this morning as an example. In a sleepy haze I threw my hands and legs in every direction to find my phone to shut up that infernal noise caused by the alarm telling me to wake up. Occasionally, I find a wet object but in my sleepy stupidity, my brain doesn’t register that this wet thing might be the nose of Mr Banks. Soon enough, my hand, covered in slime finds the phone and with vicious pounding on the screen, I kill the source of the infernal racket. Only for it to be replaced by something much worse. Within seconds I fully awaken with the sudden realization that there’s a dog doing relays around my bed. Yep. He must have something in his mouth again because he’s only ever that happy when he knows that I’m going to have to chase him. Let’s face it, I don’t know Mr Banks all that well yet so as far as I knew he could have left a lovely mess on the floor for me to tread in so gingerly, I place my feet on the floor to begin the epic chase. Fortunately, as I already know of course when I’m fully awake, Mr Banks is a very clean dog so such a mess would be beneath him so my feet were safe. To my surprise, instead of preparing for the chase, he leaped over to me and began giving me the most enthusiastic good morning sniff I have ever received! Yes, my tows were really that interesting according to Mr Banks and there was absolutely nothing in his mouth. He was just thrilled to be up and about. I tried to close the bathroom door before jumping into the shower but he cried at me so I decided I’d give him the benefit of the doubt by opening the door a little. He was fine with that. He paid no further attention to me and lay in his usual spot right in the middle of the floor. However, as soon as I turned off the shower he was over to say hello again. Let me break away from the point a little by explaining the shower to you. The previous occupant of this room actually thought it was a play pen when he encountered it first and what to me at the time seemed like the ramblings of a mad man actually still seem like the ramblings of a mad man but ok, they make a little more sense now that I’ve actually been here to see them for myself. When I put my hands on the shower first I found this little gate just below waste height. It has handles at the top on the outer corner and an oval catch at the middle of each side. It really does feel like a dodgy play pen! This in no way detracts from the very real and dangerous fact that the previous occupant is absolutely nuts however. Please be very sure of this. If you encounter this person be warned. He is possibly carlovian and dangerous. Sorry, I got wildly off the point there for a minute. Right! As I was saying, because the shower door is quite low, as soon as I turned off the shower he sprang up and in to the bathroom within seconds. By the time I had the shower curtain open, he already had his chin resting on the top of the door. When I told him to go away, he took a few steps back, got distracted by a very small pool of water that had leaked out from a tiny crack in the door and began drinking it. When he had finished that he obviously forgot that I had sent him away and decided to do a bit of a complicated turn to put his chin on the other shower door. He wasn’t in my way and he wasn’t doing any harm so I left him alone. After all, if Mr Banks is happy, I’m happy. If being close to me all the time for the first week helps him to develop a firm bond then you know, that’s absolutely fine with me. It’s a bit strange, maybe even a little uncomfortable, but not important if at the end I get a dog that listens to my commands and can be relied on in almost all situations. Anyway, time passed. As it generally does. I was drying myself, as I generally do after being in a shower however Mr Banks had other ideas. The towel was suddenly the most entertaining thing in his world and nothing gave him more pleasure than to try to pull it off me. Now, this wasn’t completely apparent straight away. Firstly, I actually thought that I had caught it in something so I felt down to find out what I had done wrong only to find that there were teeth tightly gripping the other end! He gave out a very satisfied groan and gave it a bit of a tug. It wasn’t a problem though, a simple command without any authority at all told him to leave me alone and he did so without any reservation. I thought that was the end of it so I tried to coax him out of the bathroom. I decided enough was enough. If he couldn’t let me get on with it he’d just have to put up with being in the bedroom on his own for a while. I tried to walk toward the bathroom door but Mr Banks just couldn’t contain himself. He was at my knees with every step trying to pull the towel off me! Ok, reading that back it sounds very strange but you’ll just have to trust me on this, it was absolutely hilarious! There was no boldness in what he was doing, he just decided that he had enough sleep, I hadn’t given him enough attention for a good six or seven hours so it was now time to play. After laughing at him for a bit I kicked him out and finally had time to get dressed. However, his attention to every move I make has been just as consistent all day. If I move he is alert. If I’m not doing anything for a while he comes over and sits beside me. He’s not intrusive, that wouldn’t be appropriate. He is just happy to be spoken to occasionally and if his bed is a bit too far away he comes over to put his head on my shoe.

Our first walk today was difficult for me. I trust Mr Banks but not completely. This isn’t his fault; it’s all up to me. I’ve been using a cane for the past year and I know when I’m coming near to a curb because I know the texture of the paths that I walk around. I walk slower when using the cane so I have more time to become aware of changes as well but with Mr Banks everything is so easy, fast and fluid I have really nervous that I’m going to step off a curb. Have you ever stepped off a high step without knowing it’s there while in mid stride? It’s actually quite painful! I didn’t think this would be something I’d be hesitant about. When training the last time I was more careful about objects on my right but they don’t bother me at all with Mr Banks. He glides by everything with such confidence that I hardly know we’re passing obstacles until the instructor prompts me to praise him for handling something well. It’s just something that I thought was worth mentioning here for readers because it’s important to understand that the time that a handler spends training with a guide dog is as much for the handler as the guide dog. If not even more so. Mr Banks gives me the impression that he’s perfectly happy with everything. The description “Like water off a ducks back” comes to mind because it seems like nothing fazes him. It’s like walking with a guide dog that is fully confident about his job and it’s me who is the one that hasn’t a clue. I’m delighted to report that my nervousness was completely unfounded. I was afraid that he wouldn’t stop in time coming up to curbs but he did it perfectly.

One thing to note on the first walk today was the level of distraction he showed. I’m reasonably confident that his tendency to get easily distracted will diminish as training progresses but at the moment it’s something that I have to be very mindful of. At this early stage, he’s still getting use to me and to a certain extent he’s seeing how much he can get away with. It might be interesting for some to read that I actually don’t mind this too much. Once I’m aware of it I can manage it and once I can manage it, it shouldn’t be a problem. Regardless, I don’t think it is going to continue at this high level once things settle down and he gets to know me better. On a side note, he fell asleep on my foot about ten minutes ago but I got up a second ago to find out where a noise was coming from. Now that I’m sitting down again and I’ve disturbed him from his foot shaped pillow he’s looking up at me yawning. It’s funny actually. His head is pushing against my leg and his mouth is facing up. I’m surprised he can yawn so easily in such a contorted position.

The second walk today got changed half way through because I wanted to try something a little different and as it turned out a little more challenging as well. I remember that when I was here a few years ago few side streets on one of the routes were particularly complicated from the perspective of working with a guide dog. This route was far from perfect but the thrilling thing about it was I knew it reasonably well so I could anticipate the more complicated parts and give instructions. Now, that doesn’t mean that I accurately gave the instructions or that it went well but it went better than I thought it would and it was a brilliant route to learn with. There’s just so much happening on that fifteen minute walk. It’s not the longest route but it’s one of the most interesting we’ve done so far from my perspective. We’re going to do that again a few times more to arm me with a few methods of giving instructions to Mr Banks that will help me better communicate what I need him to do more clearly so I’m really glad we did it today.

The last walk was a little longer. Here, Mr Banks really started to show his true colours. Kerb approaches were almost absolutely perfect, avoidance of moving obstacles, i.e., other people was absolutely spot on as always and although he made a mistake by just slightly misjudging the space needed to safely walk past an obstacle he made up for this by remembering to be cautious the next time he was presented with that scenario. Distraction levels were a little lower as well and although he got into a huff because I told him to do something a second time because he brushed me off a bin he snapped out of it quite quickly. He’s seriously like a teenager at times. If he does something wrong, he knows that he shouldn’t have done it because I can feel his head turned right in toward me. I think he’d just like me to leave it at that so when I turn around and make him approach the problem again he really does huff. This shows its self in the speed he walks at and the way he stops before crossings. If he is in a huff he stops a good foot or two away from where he knows he should stop. Again, it’s quite funny and it’s something that will become less of an attribute of his style as time goes on and he settles in to my style of doing things.

Eating today wasn’t a problem again. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue with Mr Banks at all. Spending seems to be really consistent as well. You wouldn’t believe how relieved I am to write that!

I’m still trying to work out his body language. When I introduced him to some live music last night while I played a tune or two on the low F whistle he was incredibly curious. Sniffing and licking my fingers, examining the whistle and walking around me sniffing everything. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by the noise but I hope I’m reading this right. His body language certainly doesn’t seem to indicate that he’s bothered. When I play music in fact his tail wags so much that his whole body sways. Tonight, I decided I’d try him out with the pipes for a few minutes. I only played for a very short time to let him get use to the sound slowly. Firstly, he was like a child hovering around a bag of shopping to make sure there are no sweets in there that they are allowed to have. His nose was practically on my fingers as I opened the zip. He insisted in having his nose so close to the case that when I opened it up it rubbed off his ears. It didn’t bother him of course; he just moved his head and continued sniffing! I just thought it was funny. With very close supervision he sniffed every single part of the inside of the case. My hands followed his nose because I know what he’s like. What gets sniffed can get licked. And what gets licked can be put into his mouth. As I told him tonight, it the pipes ever go into his mouth I’m selling him on EBay for a Euro. Don’t worry; I’ll give the proceeds back to Irish guide dogs. Seriously, I was very careful. I wanted him to know that he was allowed look but there was to be strictly no touching of any kind by teeth. Fortunately he was happy to confine his examination to his nose. When I started playing he sniffed furiously but when I put my hand on his back the tail was still flying away so I assume he’s quite happy with the sound. When I put the drones on the licked the whole where the base drone noise comes out. That area vibrates a little and I think that shocked him just a little. Dogs tend to explore using their tongues so this kind of thing is perfectly natural. Anyway, I decided that after a few minutes of exploration that he was happy enough so I was a little more firm. I told him to lie down and relax. When he was content lying beside me I played a few tunes. He jumped up to have another sniff but he quickly became board and he went to bed. This is really what I had expected. Over the next while I’ll play the pipes every day to get him use to the sound of them. It’s important that he doesn’t see this as a negative experience so I’m really glad that tonight’s introduction went well.

A few other things happened today but I’m not sure if I should go into any more detail. Mainly because this post is huge already! In summary, I’m enjoying his personality. I think he’s going to settle in well and I think we’re both going to have a lot of fun along the way. Work is a challenge but mainly because I have a high standard that I will demand from Mr Banks. I know he can do it though. I’m just hoping that by incorporating a lot of play into our routine I’m encouraging him in the right way. Yes. I mean business and as I have always said, any guide dog that I have is a mobility aid first and a companion second however I acknowledge that he is a dog with needs. It isn’t just enough to fulfil these needs either. It’s important to want to keep him happy. Hopefully you understand the point I’m trying to make. It’s amazing, I’m never tired but for the second day in a row, I’m definitely ready for some sleep. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Mr Banks playing, working, walking around or simply giving him attention and it’s actually quite tiring. In a good way though.

Hey, have you ever noticed that when a dog rests his head on your foot it gets really hot after a while? 🙂

Oh, I also noticed that two of you have used the donate button for Irish Guide dogs on the right of every page. Thanks for that.

Resync time with NTP server after system restore.

Oct 10, 2012 | , ,

I just wanted to write with a really simple solution to a very simple problem.

You have just restored a server from a backup or a snapshot taken a day or two ago and now when you try to log in through remote desktop you get a message saying that because the time difference on the server is greater than a certain amount unable to authenticate.

It’s quite a logical problem.

Simply go into a command prompt on the server using a physical connection or if it’s a virtual machine, connect to the console. Then run this command:

w32tm /resync

That’s all there is too it. assuming your network is set up to use an NTP server your servers time will be updated and you can log in right away.

Of course, if your patient, you could just wait for this to happen automatically after some time but I hate waiting for things to just happen.

Day 1 – Training with Mr Banks, my new guide dog

Oct 9, 2012 | ,

Roam wasn’t built in a day.

I’ve been noticing a major increase in traffic to this site over the past two days. It’s making me a little apprehensive so will you all just go away please? Ha! I know a lot of you are looking forward to these posts so I’ll try to make them worth your while. In all seriousness though, I have to say a very sincere thank you to all my regular readers of this website. Your support in comments, email and messages on both Facebook and Twitter has been very appreciated. You are the reason why I am writing an account like this again.

They say Roam wasn’t built in a day but are they really sure? With the day I’ve just had, I’m not entirely sure that it isn’t possible to build an entire city in a day because the dog that is lying beside me at the moment is so nice and chilled out I couldn’t see it getting any better! How could we build on what already seems to be perfection. Isn’t that brilliant? No. Not that it seems to be perfection, the fact that I’m this comfortable around a dog after only meeting him properly twelve hours ago. Imagine what we’ll be like in twelve months? I’ve had to remind myself that it’s only our first day together. That’s because he has completely exceeded my expectations. In and out of Harness. I’m seriously impressed with him. The fantastic thing really is that this is only the first of many many days where we can get to know each other better.

I was dreading the introduction this morning. I was afraid he wouldn’t get on with me, he’d be too attached to the instructor, he’d be too giddy, too mouthy or even just too lazy! I really didn’t know what to expect. I admit, I’m not a dog person. I need to consciously be aware of my interaction with dogs. I like dogs, don’t get me wrong, I also love having a guide dog. But, compared to “dog people”, it doesn’t come as naturally to me. So, I was just a bit nervous about the whole thing. Mr Banks as he will be referred to on this blog and all other online social mediums was as cool as anything. He walked into the room, had a sniff of the ground, the chair, the bed, the wall, the air, the toilet, the shower and everything else he could possibly reach then he decided that I was far more interesting than all that stuff so he decided to do circles around me. He seems to love getting his ears, chest, back and just above his tail rubbed. Oh. He doesn’t pass up a good chin rub either. Once you keep doing that, he does a figure of eight constantly to make sure you give all the important parts the right amount of attention. He’s quite helpful really. So, after the initial excitement he had another quick exploratory sniff of the room. I’m not sure where he found it but he started teasing me with something in his mouth. He’d walk up to me, and touch me with his head but he wouldn’t actually show me what was in his mouth. After some playing, I found out it was a door stop. He thought that was a brilliant game but when I finally extracted it, I took out a more suitable toy. I had taken a new ragger with me for him because this is the toy I’m most comfortable with. It is a rope with a not on each end. Working from left to right, it’s frayed on the end, then there’s a not, then it’s a twisted rope, a knot again and the other end is frayed as well. It’s great though. The dog holds onto the twisted rope in the middle and the human holds onto the two frayed parts. This gives plenty of grips for both dog and human. The one who pulls it out of the grip of the other wins. It’s that simple really. However, it can be a battle at times before someone finally gives up. I have to admit, I under estimated Mr Banks the first few times. I didn’t think he’d be that strong, sneaky or resourceful. He plays, relaxes then whips it out of my hand. Or, he plays for a while, lies down then roles over and uses his paws to try to push my hand away. I’m wise to him now. I know his tricks so his days of winning are over! Some dogs can’t be left alone with a ragger and I think Mr Banks might be one of them. They tend to chew the rope if their board. It’s a real pity because the ragger is such a nice toy for them to play with. I’m very glad I took one with me. Having the confidence to play with Mr Banks right from the start has made the day go much faster I think. I think he might be aware on some level that it doesn’t have to be all work and no play as well.

Ok. The play is great fun with Mr Banks but let me tell you about the really brilliant part. We did three walks today! Yeah! Three! I can’t believe my luck. They were three nice long walks as well. They weren’t technically perfect then again, there’s no way anyone could expect them to be perfect, but they were relaxed, enjoyable, effortless and completely void of any stress. I think I can say the same for Mr Banks as well. His body language felt great through the harness. We walked through some very quiet residential areas and a small town. There were a few points I was a little concerned about during the matching visit but it seems like these have been almost completely taken care of. It is actually like walking a completely different dog to the one I met a month ago. I even said this to his instructor. I think it’s important to reiterate that by the time perspective guide dogs start class with a handler, a lot of work has been done by puppy walkers, the early training unit and the advanced instructors to get them to this level. So, for this reason, I would encourage you to use the donate button that I’ve placed on the right of this site. Sorry to talk about fund raising but seriously folks, this charity deserves it. Without them I’d be looking at more time using a cane. You can’t begin to understand how much having a guide dog improves my quality of life. Anyway, getting back to the work, as I said, it wasn’t perfect. He made a few mistakes and so did I. For example, I need to remember to step back when doing the continental heal, I need to be more aware of when he’s becoming distracted, I need to improve my body position when he’s approaching a curb and I’m sure there are a lot of other things I need to be aware of as well. The great thing is, this is only the first day and things will improve gradually with time. Now, to be clear, there are going to be days that go badly. There are days when I’m going to want to give the whole thing up. There are going to be days where he doesn’t work well at all. But, that’s all part of it. What I’m talking about is the overall training process. Oh, although I’ve mentioned this before in other blog posts, I should also reiterate that what works for one guide dog partnership will not necessarily work for another. I will try to reframe from talking about specific solutions that I will use while training with Mr Banks however, if one slips out that you think might be useful to you, please consult with your guide dog mobility instructor before taking any action and also give me a good slap on the wrists for being so stupid as well.

Mr Banks is certainly a cheeky fecker. 50% of the time when I tell him to do something he doesn’t do it. 25% of the time it’s simply because he doesn’t want to and the other 25% is probably because he’s still getting use to me but I’m quite quickly learning that he has his own mind. If he’s intently sniffing the door handle and you tell him to leave it alone he will possibly completely ignore you because, let’s face it, the door handle is much more interesting than a human. I don’t actually mind a bit of give and take. I know that given time his obedience will improve but I’m not pushing it just yet. I want him to relax first. Of course, it’s important to be consistent so maybe I’m making a mistake but without going into details, in the unlikely event the outcome a year ago was my fault, I don’t want to make the same mistake twice. If there’s any chance that I could have caused sensitivity in the past, I want to be quite certain that I don’t do it again. If that means working a little harder to attain the required level of obedience while keeping Mr Banks completely chilled out then I’m absolutely fine with that. For the next five weeks, Mr Banks is my one and only priority in this world. Absolutely nothing else matters. I’m really trying not to make any comparisons between other experiences and the new relationship that I’m building with Mr Banks so please feel free to virtually hit me with a big stick if you find that I’m doing that too much.

So, let me finish this very long blog post up with a few things that I really like about Mr Banks at the moment:

  • He’s very interested in everything that goes on around him.
  • When I get up to do something he takes an interest in me instantly. So much so, if I do something that he thinks might result in a quick rub, he comes over to stick his nose in. I like this interaction. Mainly because I know where I stand with him. If he wants me he comes over. If he doesn’t want me, he lies in the middle of the floor.
  • He’s very vocal and creative while playing. I really like that he can completely relax. That’s very important.
  • My god when he is let out to pee he does it within seconds! He’s incredible!
  • The person holding the food bole is god. This is nice. He really seems to love his food.
  • While working, if he’s walking around people or avoiding an obstacle his pace is really comfortable. He slows when he needs me to get that little bit closer to him but if my normal distance is fine he just fly’s right on through. I learned that today when I stupidly didn’t pay enough attention and I rubbed off a bush. That’s damn good for a first day when the worst I’ve done is rub off a bush though!
  • He already knows where the toys are kept and when I walk past that door he is very interested in every single action. I expect he’ll learn that I enjoy winding him up just a little before too long.

Some things I’m not so sure of yet.

  • The dog bed is evil and must be eaten at all costs. Either that or, the bed is the most delicious thing in the world and must therefore be eaten at all costs. Either way, his bed gets eaten quite a lot. I’ve given him a Cong to chew now so maybe he’ll get his teeth into that instead.
  • If something is on the floor, it is logically his to do with what he pleases. Usually this means he’ll carry it around to show it to the world but I suspect if I wasn’t there to extract it, it would get eaten. This is a minor concern. Not because I can’t manage it but more because it means that he’s going to have less freedom if it continues. That’s a pity.

So, there you have it. My first day with Mr Banks. It’s almost over and you know what? I’m kind of glad! I didn’t expect it but I’m actually tired!

Bring on tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Dell XPS13

Oct 5, 2012 | , , ,

I gave the Mac book air a fair shot. I lasted two months but when with every update, problems weren’t fixed and bugs seemed to get worse, I decided enough was enough. So, two weeks ago I started looking around for alternatives. I’ve decided, I’m sticking with Windows for the foreseeable future but the size of the Mac book air was still really appealing because of its keyboard and its size. Comparable systems on the Windows platform are called Ultra books. There are a few good names in this area. Acer, Toshiba, Sony, Samson and Dell. In fairness to these companies, they are pretty much neck and neck with their offering. They are governed by the limitations of the hardware in the form factor of ultra-books so there aren’t major differences in the specifications. Weight, size, processor, RAM and storage is all very equal among these systems. It wasn’t easy to make a choice based on website specs.

Fortunately, I was very lucky to know several people who could let me spend some time trying out some of the ultra-books from the main providers. HP, Toshiba and Dell were definitely the winners of the bunch for what I wanted. Unfortunately, almost all of the ultra-books I tested felt very flimsy and cheap. Maybe it seems silly, but I want a laptop that’s going to feel and look great. It doesn’t matter that I can’t see it, when I walk into a meeting with this, I want people to know that I take computing seriously and I take care in what I choose. The feel of it is hugely important. A laptop with a spongy keyboard is uncomfortable and sloppy. If it has a big boxy body then it’s just not sexy. Let’s face it; I spend more time on a computer than most. It’s important that I’m happy with everything when I finally settle on buying a laptop.

I finally decided on the Dell XPS. The keyboard is incredibly comfortable, it is very light, the front has a lovely shape, my wrists don’t hit off the touch pad when I’m typing, it has just enough USB ports, the battery life is just about adequate, it’s very quiet and it performs well. Of course, it goes without saying that it has a solid state disk and four GB of RAM.

I put Dell through hell while buying this laptop. The machine I tried out was six months old and it had a number of annoying problems. The wireless adapter frequently dropped the connection and the fan would spin up for absolutely no reason and remain on at full throttle for ages. These were recognised defects in the first model of the XPS13 however from only a day of using this one; it would appear that they have been rectified. I certainly ensured that I got confirmation in writing that the issues had been resolved in the unit I was about to purchase before I made any decision. I was torn between the XPS13 and the XPS14. The extra inch allows Dell to cram a lot more power into the laptop but in the end I decided that portability was a little more important than power at the moment. Plus, although the XPS13 isn’t as powerful as the XPS14, it’s by no means weak. It easily handles Windows 7 and Windows 8, Office 2010, Visual studio, the VSphere client and a plethora of other applications. Also, for the past few years, I find that I spend most of my time on system administration so I don’t need a huge amount of power to get my job done.

So, there you have it, I’ve given up on the Mac. I don’t mind telling you, I’m relieved. If you like, I can go into all the reasons at another stage but for now, all I’ll say is, it’s nice to be more efficient while out and about again.

Hitting the road.

Sep 24, 2012 |

Emma and I have been making a real effort to get more fit lately. To be honest, it’s partially for the wedding but it’s more because we enjoy being out and about. I started back at Judo in May and for the most part I’ve been doing that twice a week with the Wild geese club in Dublin. Emma is also back at dancing and in October, she will be taking part in a simply come dancing imitation show in Drogheda to raise needed funds for the White cross primary school. So, we’re exercising separately quite a bit. It’s nicer to do things together though so whenever the time allows we can be spotted speeding around Drogheda on the tandem. Most routes we take are around 20K which isn’t all that much when taken out of context however Drogheda is built on a valley. That means no matter where you go, the hills loom on every direction. However, when you get over the constant climing Drogheda has some lovely areas to cycle around. Certain roads such as either side of the Boyne toward Termon Feckin and Bettys town are actually quite flat as well so there’s a nice combination of speed and endurance in most of our cycle routes.

I’ve been putting off writing about cycling on the tandem for quite a while because I’m quite aware that the blog can become quite boring when it’s full of text. A lot of my visitors really prefer images along with posts.

This weekend we took the opportunity to have a few pictures taken. They’re not what we want yet but in fairness to the photographer, he complained that we were moving too quickly for him to properly focus on us. On the flats we can get up to 37KPH. Down hill we get closer to 50KPH. Although our tandem is old, it has been taken care of very well. The wheels are decent and we’ve extensively upgraded and modified the breaks and gears.

One modification I particularly like is I have control of the gears and the drag break. The drag break is a disk break on the back wheel. When going too quickly on a descent the drag break slows the speed of the bike without heating up the rim of the wheel. I love having control of the gears though. I’m sure Emma will add her voice to the comments about why she hates me having control over the gears but, for me, I like being able to control our speed to a large extent. Especially when flying down hills or racing around flat roads. I just love the rush of speed.

I would love to aim for a distance of 100KPH in a day. Unfortunately we’re both quite busy so getting the time for this is a challenge. I’m sure we’ll do it at some stage though.

In my opinion cycling is one of the nicest past times ever. There’s really nothing like cycling alongside a river or on a quiet country road. Focused on the rhythm and motion of the peddles as you propel yourself forward is just so relaxing!

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Blond, affectionate, energetic and spirited. Just as I like them.

Sep 11, 2012 | ,

OH I know what I want. What I want was introduced to me today.

Mr. Banks is the guide dog in training that i met as part of the official matching visit. This is where a guide dog applicant meets a perspective dog. Or, possibly even several perspective dogs.

Mr. Banks is a cross between a golden retriever and a golden labrador. At first he seems less sensitive than other dogs I’ve trained with but I must point out that I only had a short time to get to know him today. The real fun will start when I attend the national centre for Irish guide dogs for the Blind of Ireland in Cork in October.

Todays matching visit was very interesting. I met with two dogs. Dog 1 is Mr. Banks and Dog 2 is ….. lets just call it dog 2. The first walk with Mr. Banks was not comfortable. I wasn’t happy with it at all. I found that he pulled a lot, he was very distracted and he seemed stressed during the entire walk. The walk with dog 2 was much more comfortable. I instantly read the dogs body language easily. I could step out properly, changes in speed and direction were felt equally well from both my perspective and the dogs perspective and I really liked that it was focused on my commands. However, I was warned about the dogs high sensitivity and based on my past experience I decided that a dog with such high sensitivity wasn’t suitable for my needs at the moment. I would like to say something very clearly at this point. Dog 2 was simply amazing. If I wasn’t so aware of the demands my life style places on a guide dog I would have snapped this dog up in an instant. It is very important to be aware that different dogs are suitable for different handlers. The fact that I didn’t think dog 2 was suitable has absolutely no baring on it’s suitability for someone else. In fact, I almost envy the person who is lucky enough to train with this dog. They are going to have one fantastic guide. Mr. Banks is equally good though. Let me continue to explain.

During the walk with dog 2, I had some time to reflect over a lot of the skills that I haven’t been using for the past year. Body location, handle tension, verbal commands and hand signals are all vitally important when using a guide dog. Although I still remember a lot of the techniques used when working a guide dog, a few of the more subtle requirements didn’t return to memory as easily. For this reason, I asked for the opportunity to walk with Mr. Banks again. The next walk was much more enjoyable. He was still a little distracted and the speed of his starts from a straight stand kept taking me by surprise but I was much more prepared. We walked to a local coffee shop through some busy areas and narrow paths. I began to find some of his little movements entertaining. He almost dives off ramps for example. Because I was more aware of the methods I could use to keep him focused he was a lot easier to work. I came to the conclusion that I will probably need to work a little harder on my working relationship with Mr. Banks but I can tell that it’s possible that he will work very well for me. I could be wrong here, but it seems that if I want a dog that can put up with my life style, I need a dog that will be a little less sensitive. This might mean that his work needs a bit more attention but overall the package should be more suitable.

I am being very cautious during this process. I am going to blog during the training process but to be straight with you, it’s more for my benefit. I find the previous posts on this topic to be a very interesting source of information. They remind me what I’m getting in to and they remind me of the challenges I’m facing as well. I am aware that certain opinions would suggest that publicly tracking the training process could give an unbalanced view of the struggles of training with a guide dog. It is a difficult time for both dog and handler and if this is not openly acknowledged it is very possible that the tone of the text could be lean toward the negative unintentionally. I am very conscious of this. I fully respect this opinion as I understand that if a perspective guide dog handler was to read such negative experiences it could potentially put them off applying for a dog in the future. I will be as fair and as balanced as possible while documenting my progress however, of course, my account will be truthful therefore with all the good posts I am sure to write, there will be a fair amount of negative posts. Training with a dog is hard but rewarding. Some days things will go well and some days they will be terrible. The important thing I would ask you the reader to keep in mind is that when a partnership between a guide dog and a handler works, it is unbeatable. As time goes on, the good days become more frequent than the bad.

Bring on October! I can hardly wait!

Hijacked!

Aug 27, 2012 |

I was inspired by Grannymar’s comment and so today I have hijacked Darragh’s blog. It’s about time that you all got to hear things from my side.

Well firstly, I think I need to defend myself! Darragh keeps posting about things I say prior to 7am in the morning! 7am – what level of English does he want? By that stage I’ve gotten up and ready for work and am at the bus station. That in itself is impressive! My poor brain is usually still fighting for more sleep!

So payback time! Hmmmmmm where to start.

I think I will start with Saturday. Well we were out on the road early to bring the tandem to the bike shop before doing wedding stuff in Dundalk. Well seemingly I was not breaking enough! Me? I think it was the early hour. Just because the back wheel of the bike (that Mr. Digital is nearest to) was skidding back and forth across the road! Its not like it was the front one!

Well skip forward a few hours and we are on the bike (with new skid free tyres and lovely clothes that in fairness he did purchase for me) on a long cycle (long for me anyway, this whole biking thing is pretty new to me) Cycle went great. We had a great time. Lovely views out by Baltray. (Note to self bring a camera) Well right until the last hill to the house (downside of Drogheda being built around a river valley). We hadn’t even gotten the bike into the garage and he wanted to cycle to Tescos. Over 18km we were just after completing! Let’s just say that was one I won (there are benefits to being the steerer!)

Sunday we decided to go on another cycle. Now I wanted to go a different way and Mr. Digital told me he wanted this one to be over 20km (don’t listen to him if he denies it I don’t think he even listens to himself sometimes!) so out comes the trusty iPad and the Google maps and I punch in the first faraway but still nearish place I can think of into it and decide on a route. I keep telling him that it’s not like the gym – wherever we cycle to my legs still have to be able to cycle back from!

Off we set out the coast road to Bettystown. We stopped for an oblatory ice-cream in Bettystown (more for me than him) and were on our way back a different route (much easier to cycle a circular route on a tandem than turn the thing!)

So I couldn’t remember if we had another turn coming up and we had to stop. Now people please agree with me that this is wrong. He used his shoe to break. His SHOE! And the noise nearly gave me a heart attack. Two passersby thought it was hilarious but then when we were passing them next he shouted to them about the abuse I give him! Well I never, just cause I was concerned about his shoe!

So we pedal along pretty fast (we are getting better at the togetherness of the pedalling) and a bug hits me…hard in the arm… a major downfall of being the one in front let me tell you! Mr. Digital thinks it’s so funny if I get a bug in my mouth (shudders) So a minute or two later we are flying passed 2 people out for a stroll and he roars at them to watch out for the kamikaze bugs! Really like where am I supposed to hide on the front of a bike!

I won’t even go into the fact he thinks its ok to pretend (well I hope its pretend anyway) to have a little nap on my back during a cycle!

Today he thinks we might be doing a 90km cycle in a months time. In 3-4 hours. I’m not sure what planet he’s on but I think I will need new legs with some Li-ion battery backs! Anyone any good spares out there? Preferably in a thin, toned and nicely tanned model… we do have a wedding coming up you know!

On a non-cycling note am I the only one that gets this when I ask a simple a or b question? Yes. Would you like a Bulmers or a glass of wine… Yes. Yes! grrrrrrrr. To be fair Mr. Digital sometimes says no, but it’s not exactly any more helpful in getting a good answer!

I better not say any more. I still want there to be a wedding!

Oh no. I better go. I can hear him coming! Here’s hoping he doesn’t see this for a while!

Double negatives.

Aug 27, 2012 |

Emma thinks it’s mean that I write this but I think it would be mean to deprive the rest of the world of knowing about some of the things that she says. I call her language Emmish. It has to be a language because it’s rarely English!

Take this morning for example. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was trying to say and for that matter, I’m not sure if she knew what she was trying to say either.

You can’t not get the bus from here.

After a few moments of deliberation, she translated this to partial English for my benefit. She’s very nice like that. 🙂
What she actually meant to say was:

You actually have to get the bus from here.

No. She didn’t say it like that either. However I’ve become quite good at translating from Emmish to English. She said:

Ah You know what I meant It was a double negative. Ya Have ta get the bus from here.

I’m only teasing her of course. In fairness to her, we have cycled over 40KM this weekend. We also got more suits fitted for the wedding, we booked the bridal car and we had a lot of other normal life things to do that usually get left until the weekend because we never have time to do them during the week. So, I won’t blame her for being a little tired today.

RIP Freddie.

Aug 15, 2012 | ,

I can’t explain how utterly upsetting it is to write this. Today, while I rubbed Freddie’s ear, we put him to sleep. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. I wanted to write sooner rather than later because it’s very important to me that I say thank you. Thank you to everyone who commented on this post. Thank you to Freddie’s puppy walker. Thanks to Irish guide dogs for giving me a guide dog that is simply one of a kind. Thank you most of all to the family who took him during his retirement. I know it only lasted two years but wow he had an amazing two years. I seriously can’t express enough how grateful I am for the way they treated Freddie. It was actually my father who really confirmed it last week when he got to see Freddie for the first time in his new home. He said that the best decision I could have made was sending him to that particular family. It is simply amazing how much they cared for him. I could never have asked for anything more. The more I visited Freddie the more I noticed their attachment grow.

For me, and I know for everyone with a guide dog, one of the hardest things is that day when you hand over the dog. It’s not like turning off a light switch. You have taken care of the dog and equally, the dog has taken care of you. That bond isn’t one that’s easily broken. That was actually very evident tonight. Even though Freddie could hardly move, he still found the energy to look up at me for assurance when the vet was shaving his paw. When Mark told me, in a funny way I knew that I was meant to be there. Not being there for the end would have been simply wrong.

That’s really the only reason I wanted to write. I just wanted to thank everyone. I am finding it a great comfort to recognise that Freddie has been incredibly lucky. Just think about it. He had a brilliant puppy walker, Ok, he had to put up with me but still, he travelled a lot and experienced a lot more than any other dog I have encountered. Then to top it all off, he lived with a fantastic family in a lovely area. I couldn’t ask for any more. When it was his turn to move on, he did it just like he did everything else in life. With speed. Within a very short space of time he rapidly declined. I think that’s much better than a prolonged illness. It meant that up to two weeks ago, he still had his normal character.

The post I wrote on the day of Freddie’s retirement to say thanks is here.