We were on our own again today with my trainer saying that she was happy for us to do whatever sort and duration of a walk I wanted to do with Sadie.  I decided it was about time we delivered my Mum’s Mother’s Day present to her so off we set along a very familiar route for Sadie.  I didn’t want to go the straight forward route which would have taken no longer than 10 minutes but chose to do a long loop route to my parent’s house which Sadie coped fine with (about a 45 minute walk).  She remembered where the post box I needed was along the route, did a great off kerb obstacle (which in this case was more of an off path obstacle to avoid a small van parked on the path so she took us seamlessly around it using the grass verge at the side of the path to walk on), remembered each and every turn on the route although I think we last walked this route just before the New Year and got me safely to my Mum and Dad’s.   Both my parents remarked on a change in Sadie’s behaviour with her being calmer and more focussed on me, although she did get to play with my Dad which she always enjoys, as does he.

Sadie was a little unfocussed on the return route but I got her back on track each time with my matter of fact tone and just giving her clear, simple commands.  For anyone who has done their guide dog training you’ll know that there are occasions on class when your trainer(s) will go ahead of you setting up obstacles or traffic training so you get valuable but safe practice.  Well, had I not known better I’d have thought my trainer had sneaked ahead of us on our return route and set up not a dog distraction but a horse distraction task for us!  It appears that the same tone and command works just as well to get your dog past a horse as they do past a dog.  Not sure though if Sadie’s eyes are back in her head as I swear they were almost popping out when she spotted the horse, not least because it came out of her much loved route to my sister’s house (honestly Sadie my sister may have all sorts of pets, but horses really aren’t one of them!).

A very successful walk and a real life task that Sadie helped me achieve today.