Responsibility is probably the biggest part of effective mobility in my opinion. When training with a guide dog, it’s important that you portray confidence all the time. If you’re not confident then the dog won’t be. In my experience it’s as simple as that. If you’re not confident and you’re the leader of the pack between you and the dog then how can the dog be expected to be confident? After all, you’re the dominant one. You’re the stronger one. You’re the one that always has to be in control. That’s how the pack works. Taking responsibility for this is vital.

How can you be confident though when you’re entrusting your safety to a four legged hairy mutt? Let’s face it, at the start, how are you meant to trust that this dog isn’t going to have a brain wave one day and figure out that if he knocks this fella out he won’t have to walk me everywhere. I know. I know. They love working and they love doing what their trained to do. I’m just making a point. How can I be expected to implicitly trust this animal with my safety and mobility when to me, it’s little more than a trained pup. I can’t do it. Well, more accurately, I can’t and won’t do it right away. It takes time. For me, that’s what the three weeks training in Cork are for more than anything else. I won’t trust the dog; I’ll trust the trainer who is walking behind us. If the dog makes a wrong move, I may not detect it right away until I become use to its little subtleties. The three weeks training in Cork will help begin to create a bond between the dog and me. This bond is by far the most important part of the dogs training with me. The bond builds this pack mentality for the dog and probably more importantly, it builds a trust for me with the dog so that I believe it’s able to do what it’s been trained for.

As I said at the start, it’s important that I take responsibility for my own mobility. Life doesn’t stop just because my situation changes therefore it’s important that I don’t stop either. When I return from training in Cork and I have had some training at home, I will need to launch back into work with the dog at my side. I know from conversations I have had with the trainer that this is going to be a particular challenge with this dog as it would probably be more comfortable for it if I ramped up slowly to my usual routine. I will have to take this into account in a lot of situations however unfortunately the most complicated routes that I do from the perspective of a guide dog are unavoidable. This is where the responsibility for confidence comes in. If I am very clear and concise in my instructions to the dog it will hopefully be able to keep its concentration focused on smaller tasks. With this more granular breakdown will come an increased number of milestones. With every milestone comes praise for the dog for doing it right. With smaller tasks, more praise more frequently the dogs confidence should remain high.

I can only do this if I am confident in the routes myself. For that reason I have begun analysing every route that I walk every day. From home to the train station, From the station to work, from the work to the park, from the park back to work, from work to the train station, from the train station to home and all the other routes in between. I am walking each one both on my own and with friends to ensure I intimately remember and understand every stage.

The aim is that I will be able to use these routes as a foundation for the dog for a number of months. They are challenging as they contain a lot of crossings, off curb obsticals, crowds of pedestrians, noise, barriers and distractions. Once we master these routes I will be able to slowly increase the scope of the dog’s routes steadily over the next eight months to a year.

In conjunction with this I am also revising material I received in the pack given to me when I qualified with my previous guide dog to ensure I clearly remember all of the different commands. I am attempting to ensure that this entire process goes as smoothly as possible because I know that as soon as training begins it’s going to be an uphill battle. Things that I never expected to go wrong will crash down around me. It’s inevitable that the dog will probably get sick, the weather will go against us, I’ll have habits to break or something else will happen to set us back a little bit. Hopefully the more prepared I am the better I will be at getting back on course afterword.
So that’s it in a nutshell. The preparation for the training is ongoing but even though I’m trying to cover off anything and everything that can go wrong, I know that nothing is certain. Hopefully I can prepare for that uncertainty too?

During the training I will attempt to document each stage, each set back and more importantly each success. If this interests you, look under the new guide dog category for these posts.

So, I’m exactly two weeks away from traveling to Cork for training with my next guide dog Ike if all goes to plan and the weather doesn’t completely mess everything up.

Emma noticed on Sunday night that a new picture had been added by Irish Guidedogs to their facebook page of Ike showing him with a santy hat in his mouth. The caption underneith it reads: Ike disappointed that he missed Santa.

I contacted the trainer last week to see how everything was going and it seems like things are progressing reasonably well. There still a lot of work to do but hopefully by the end of the training it will all be sorted.

For obvious reasons known to people who have gone through this process I cant say all that much just yet. During the training however I will provide regular accounts of how things go. It will be as much for me to look back on as it is for visitors to read about.

Six months after my Fairwell to Freddie, my previous guide dog, I’m still waiting for the new dog Ike to be fully trained in preparation for the class in the middle of January 2011.

It’s been a long, boring, difficult, frustrating and challenging six months. Still, I’ve navigated my way around the country and even to England, Spain and Italy with just the cane so I really can’t complain. Not having the dog has limited what I can do and where I can go substantially but I’m lucky that I still have quite good cane skills so I haven’t been completely left high and dry.

It’s funny how things change. Originally when I applied for my first dog I had hoped that it would make getting through crowds easier. Crowds have always been one of my weaknesses. I just can’t keep my Barings while walking through them. Interestingly now that I’ve experienced the benefits of using a guide dog my reasons for looking forward to the new one are slightly different!

There are three homeless people around this area. Leaving aside if they are legitimate or not, I’m tired of walking into them. There’s one man who stays in the same place but the other two keep moving! Also, the man who stays in the same place stands where the other two are sitting or something so their almost completely impossible to miss. I’m sure there as tired of being met with a cane every day so you’d think they’d warn me when I’m approaching? No. They don’t. They just wait until they get poked. Actually, last Friday there was a new person sitting at one of the walls. He or she really got on my nerves. I was walking along trying to listen out for people coming toward me and trying to make sure I didn’t land on my behind by slipping on the ice when this idiot grabbed the bottom of my cane and tried to steer me around by it. This is like showing a red rag to a bull for me. Leave my cane alone! Don’t touch it! For any reason! I don’t care if a bus is coming toward me, leave my cane alone! There are other ways you can direct me if it’s absolutely necessary!

My next reason for looking forward to having a dog again is simply relaxation. I haven’t gone for a walk for the hell of it in six months. I miss strolling around Stephens green during lunch. It’s nice to just get away and have a few minutes to think from time to time. I probably didn’t appreciate how much I’d miss it when it was gone.

Christmas shopping. Before I had Freddie I use to get friends to give me a hand with this. No, the dog was completely useless for finding good presents for people, but he was great at finding doors to shops. This year I neither have the motivation or frankly and honestly, the independents to do this as efficiently as I have been able to for the past seven years. The simple act of asking people to help with this is also embarrassing! Yes. I’m well aware that that’s stupid thank you very much.

Yes, I’m looking forward to January. So much so that I can’t seem to get into the Christmas spirit at all this year. I just want the whole thing to be over so I can get on with 2011.

Oh, I really miss the social side of things. I’ll never again complain that people come over constantly when the dog is around. I actually miss it! This isn’t as sad and pitiful as you might think! It’s simply a thing of logic. Say you’re out on your own for whatever reason. If you’re surrounded by people, it can be difficult and actually even intimidating to simply strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. In fact, I did this last week and began by talking to an empty chair. Stupid! I know! The fact is that when you have a dog, people are more likely to come over and say hello. This gets the ball rolling nicely. By that simple conversation you can gage a dozen little helpful things about what’s going on without asking one single obvious question.

So, today, I’m going to have to bight the bullet. Today is the day where Christmas shopping can’t be put off any more. Things need to be done.

It’s been a difficult six months but I think it was just the six months I needed to give me a good kick in the ass and make me appreciate what I had and what I’m striving for again.

Bring on 2011!