Yesterday we did a solo walk to Sainsburys without any mishaps, although Sadie was a little slower on the hilly part of the route than I would ideally have liked her to be – more practice needed by me of my matter of fact voice to get her moving a little quicker me thinks.

Today we were doing a solo walk to Waitrose.  On the first day of my training with my first guide dog, Waffle, Scottish Gas decided to dig up the main road to replace gas mains.  I can still remember my apprehension at negotiating the dug up pavement and roads but from necessity I soon mastered off kerb obstacles with my dog – it took time for me grasp the correct foot positions, commands and hand signals (with my trainer leaving Waffle at home on one occasion for me to practice with just her holding the harness as I was worrying I would stress my dog by not always getting things right – clever the things GDMIs come up to put us at ease to help our learning) but once I did so, really benefitted from all the practice that Scottish Gas afforded me.  Today on our way to Waitrose I put that knowledge and confidence in Sadie’s ability to good use as two long sections of the pavement were being dug up for cabling.  Sadie sailed us easily through the path works with not a paw or command out of place even when there was machinery working over our heads…if you think walking under a ladder is scary, try walking under heavy machinery a bit like a large claw which is picking up mud from the pavement, swinging it up over your head and putting it in the back of a lorry!  I hasten to add I found it scary, Sadie seemed completely nonplussed.  Sadie also demonstrated the value of her being trained in how to react appropriately around traffic as when we were crossing a side road a van appeared unexpectedly from our left (there is a partly hidden access road at this point).  Again Sadie just did her ‘thing’ and kept us both safe.

I had a telephone conversation yesterday with my trainer and part of this was her telling me that I handle Sadie very well.  I think today has demonstrated that I need to have more faith in my abilities just as I now do in Sadie’s.