Last week, we reached our three month milestone. Wow! Where has the time gone? We are doing well, bonding more and more as a team. I’m getting to the point where working familiar routes is effortless. My boy is a great little worker, and he loves to please! The other day we were walking home and stopped at 711 to pick up a slurpy for Casey, an iced coffee for me, a couple of little snack items, and last but best of all, a 711 pizza. Did you all know they have pizza now? I think they’ve probably had it for about a year or so, but we’d never tried it. It wasn’t half bad. So, we ventured forth with our goodies. This is how we know we are definitely not a new guide dog/handler team any more. I had 2 bags hanging from my arm, one of which had a drink holder with our two drinks. With that same hand, I was holding the pizza box, making sure to keep it upright. Thankfully our house was just around the corner. Once we entered our subdivision and crossed over to our side of the street, my poor boy started trying to walk really fast. Thankfully, I caught on right away this time, and had him walk on the grass. It was so hot and his poor lil paws were hurting. So, we did the Judy sidewalkless technique for the heat, which involves having him walk on the grass and me on the street. By the way, this was a very newly developed technique, as new as last week. * wink * We made it home without dropping or spilling anything, miracle of miracles. For any current or potential guide dog users, I did this knowing full well what could happen, but also trusting that my boy would do fine. Yes, things can happen, but as people who don’t drive and need to be as resourceful as possible, we sometimes need to think outside the box and do things a bit unconventionally to get done what we need to, as long as there isn’t a safety issue (i.e., carrying a full hot cup of coffee with no lid while your dog is guiding you)—bad idea, mostly because you could burn yourself and your dog. Bottom line, this experience has shown me how I have begun to trust my dog more, and how far we’ve come as a team in a very short time.
Judy's Dog Blog 