Waffling Along

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.

Yesterday we arranged to meet our trainer just before the start of the town area so Sadie and I walked a familiar route with no support as she felt we now don’t need this on this route.  After meeting up we set off for the park next to the loch for Sadie’s free run.  On previous occasions when I’ve walked through the high street with Sadie she has needed reminded to slow her pace, but yesterday she slowed herself and kept a consistently slower pace as the street was really busy with locals and tourists out enjoying the sunshine.  We used the cafe to ask Sadie to target the button to open the door but didn’t go into the cafe and continued on to the park and it came as no surprise that Sadie knew exactly where she was going!  After doing our usual obedience, we let Sadie “go play” and she again turned back into a puppy zooming around and enjoying the various smells.  Despite how busy the park was with numerous dogs playing, Sadie kept fairly close to my trainer and I which was a huge relief to me but not much of a test of my nerve for my trainer to observe.  For once, we had an uneventful free run with Sadie happily sniffing and exploring on her own and finding two areas of mud to slap her way through – a good opportunity to practice recall with her.

My trainer walked back through the main street with us and left us at our earlier meeting point to walk back home.  I did debate getting the bus home but wanted to gauge how well Sadie would walk home after a free run, i.e. would she have used so much energy running around that the walk home was too long for her to maintain a reasonable walking pace just now while we build her stamina (and mine) up, but apart from the first little section where she dawdled, Sadie walked at her usual guiding pace almost all the way home, and even if she did momentarily slow,  she soon hopped up for me.

My trainer is aiming to call me tomorrow to arrange another meet up later in the week with us further practicing two routes from my workplace on our own in the meantime.

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.

Straight forward solo walk for Sadie and I today down to Sainsburys at the shopping centre and the bus back to my workplace.  No problems to report to my trainer tonight except that Sadie, understandably in my opinion, had a bit of difficulty locating the pole for the bus stop but that was because there were so many people milling around and a little girl running around who kept walking in front of Sadie as she was trying to locate the pole.  She got me to the general location and waited patiently with me until the bus arrived and again behaved impeccably while on the bus and back to my office.

A few weeks ago this is a post that I barely dared to hope to be able to write. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing of concern to report to my trainer, and nothing to ask for advice about. Real progress!  Oh, and we passed two pit bull type dogs with a numpty being in charge of them without Sadie or I losing our cool. Who’d have thought it?!

Lunchtime meet up with my trainer today to give her a glowing report of Sadie’s work yesterday and then we set off to the local shopping centre for the M&S store.  Sadie has in the past been reluctant to visit other shops at this shopping centre without also visiting Sainsburys so today we planned to try and work out a route that would encourage her to recognise M&S as the destination without the need to also add in Sainsburys (unless of course there are days when I do need to visit both shops).  Before setting off we also discussed our return route as to whether to continue to avoid the area just out of the shopping centre that appears to have super glue on it which Sadie keeps walking in and then finds herself unable to turn right when I ask her to, even cheese lost its appeal and miraculous unsticking properties last year!  We decided to play it by ear once we had been to M&S and off Sadie and I set at warp factor Sadie pace.

We had an uneventful walk to M&S with my trainer just asking me to pause momentarily as we neared it so she could talk me through what I should do if I encountered dogs at the Costa street café area just before the store (what is it with every café in the country putting tables and chairs outside in all weathers as it narrows the pavement down and creates extra obstacles to work around!).  As luck would have it (for me) there were no customers at all at the café but my trainer asked me to loop back round before reaching M&S in the hope that a dog and owner would come along but luck was still with me today (I appreciate that it would have made a good learning opportunity for me though).  Sadie behaved impeccably as always within M&S helping me find the desk so I could return an item and waiting patiently (and non-pouncingly …honest that’s a real word!) for my trainer as she went to a different part of the store and met up with us again.  We then decided to deliberately walk past Sainsburys to encourage Sadie to accept walking past it but asking her once she was past it to target the bus pole, which she did expertly.  As there wasn’t a bus due for a while we decided to walk the longer route back to the hospital which was to avoid the super glue pavement and it would give my trainer an opportunity to pick up on anything she needed to on the hill that Sadie slows on but does have a tendency to almost grind to a halt in her pace.

Shortly after leaving the shopping centre my trainer got her wish for me to get dog distraction practice.  I could see a cream lab in the distance whose owner really didn’t have much control over it…it was right out on full extension of its lead and clearly pulling on it.  As we neared I would have liked the person to pull their dog back in towards them but no such luck, although they did move the dog’s position slightly.  As advised previously by my trainer I took Sadie’s lead in my right hand so I could correct her in case she decided she was going to join in any nonsense instigated by the other lab but as we neared I lost my nerve because the other dog was so close to us and I started to advance on Sadie (when working normally I should be at Sadie’s hip but there are occasions when you advance on the dog which means you move up to their shoulder; that can be because you are body blocking a dog trying to get to them or stopping your dog from drifting right on a road crossing etc).  I’m still uncomfortable with dogs coming too close to Sadie (a reflection of her attack in the park) so I displayed a mild fear response in wanting to protect Sadie (advancing on her) and also stopped talking to her as I tried to keep myself calm and think through what I should be doing and saying to Sadie.  I heard my trainer tell me to tell Sadie “straight on” which I did and we got past the dog without incident.   We past another two dogs further along the route but happily for me, their owner was helpful and moved both dogs well out of Sadie’s or their reach.

We then started up the hill with Sadie slowing her pace and then starting to diminish it all together.  I got good practice in using the techniques my trainer had taught me previously and I had tried out on my own last week.  At one point when Sadie wasn’t responding very well to my efforts, my trainer said to tell Sadie “let’s go, hop up” but in a matter of fact voice…I’d tried a lighter tone with no success and a stricter tone with no success either.  The matter of fact tone worked and Sadie took off, not quite at her full warp factor pace but much faster than she has ever walked that part of the route before.  We got all the way back to the hospital without further incident (Sadie doing a great off kerb obstacle at one point for me) where my trainer and I reviewed the walk.

My trainer mentioned that I am still (yes, *still*) talking too much to Sadie. I’ve mastered being quiet in giving Sadie plain, short commands when she is not concentrating fully but then revert to chatter mode when she is working and trundling along good style.  My trainer’s concern is that my chattering will become white noise to Sadie that she doesn’t pay attention to but then misses any commands I do give her, or just switches off completely and pays no attention to me.  It honestly feels like just a few weeks ago that I was training with this GMDI and my first guide dog, Waffle, when she was encouraging me to talk much more to her as we walked along, again demonstrating how important it is to learn to work appropriately with your unique dog – what works for one, won’t necessarily work for another.  I also owned up to feeling a bit fearful when I felt the cream lab was too close and my trainer has said we will do some specific work on this a little later on in training (this is one occasion I do need to keep my voice and no go quiet on Sadie).  We then made a plan for the next few days and Sadie and I made our way back to my office but before my trainer left us, she said that she can see much progress and improved confidence in the way I am working with Sadie….can’t ask for more than that really!

As my trainer had another commitment today, Sadie and I were off on a solo walk in my lunchtime break.  As we had learned the route to the local Waitrose store last week we headed there today with us both having a spring in our step, Sadie so much so that I had to ask her to steady her pace a couple of times.  One thing that is becoming evident from our refresher training is my trainer’s thinking of giving Sadie destinations, and mixing these up most days, is motivating her and instead of a few weeks ago where we both dragged our heels as we (ever so slowly) ambled round a block route of the hospital grounds, Sadie is back in the main to “warp factor Sadie” as I term her optimal guiding speed.  For those who don’t know, Sadie and I stay in the town where Scotty (Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott) on the Starship Enterprise, which features so prominently in the Star Trek TV series and films, will be born in the year 2222 so describing Sadie’s speed in terms normally only attainable with nuclear fusion seems appropriate to me as she rockets us along the road.  For those less fantasy science fiction inclined, Guide Dogs put Sadie in the moderate/fast guiding pace range (my previous dog, Waffle, was slow/moderate).  Not surprisingly, we reached our destination in record time with me not needing to correct Sadie at all on any part of the route and she found the entrance to the supermarket easily.

Its always remarkable to me that for a little dog who fair trundles along the road (when motivated to do so) she also instantly slows her pace right down when we enter a shop…a reflection of Sadie’s fantastic training that she does this without me having to ask her to.  Although we had walked part way through this store last week with my trainer, I really hadn’t taken in where particular things were in the store so Sadie and I set off to investigate a little further and I managed to find some interesting vegetarian pies/quiches that I felt obliged to purchase to try out in due course.  Sadie showed her characteristic patience as we queued to pay for my purchases and she helped me find the box where I put my token for the charity scheme the Waitrose stores operate (the cashier offers customers a small green circular token to put in a box near the exit of the store – there are 3 shortlisted charities/good causes that you can ‘vote’ for Waitrose to support by putting your token in your preferred box) which also shows the versatility of the “find the…” command as I can use it to ask Sadie to find the pole the green man crossing box sits on, the touchpad needed to open semi-automatic doors, the post box etc.

I was expecting Sadie to be somewhat slower on our return journey (as is many guide dogs’ behaviour) but was hugely surprised and absolutely delighted when she rocketed almost all the way back to the hospital with her only slowing her speed for around 100 yards close to the hospital.  My trainer has spoken a couple of times about what speed I can reasonably expect from Sadie and also what I will accept from her. Sadie has been trained to slow her pace to enable her to show appropriate caution in busy environments so expecting her to dash through crowds of people or along a street with multiple obstacles on it would be unreasonable of me.  I’ve mentioned before that Sadie’s slowest slow pace that she had been walking on over the last couple of months really doesn’t bother me too much (I’ve learned to chose my battles with life in general and my guide dog in particular) so a consistent slower pace wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me but it is wonderful when Sadie does walk at a reasonable pace, not least because we both gain health benefits from her doing so.

Sadie continued to guide me safely, and speed appropriately, all the way back to my office and as always I gave her lots of praise when we arrived there and played for a short time with her with her toys before Sadie took to her bed for an afternoon nap. A very successful solo walk I’d say!

Oh, and for fellow grammar pedants, you don’t boldly go, you go boldly except today when Sadie and I most definitely did boldly go!

Yesterday Sadie and I toddled off to the local shop with her keeping up a good pace on the way there and a reasonable one on the return journey….fortunately no deliveries to contend with in the shop this time.  We spent most of the rest of our day playing in the garden – love my little garden for my dogs – passing some time grooming Sadie and playing with some of her outdoor toys (toys that I can easily wash if they end up in the mud as Sadie zooms around with them).    I’ll also admit that we both had a little afternoon nap – well training is hard work after all!

Today I was due to meet my trainer at my workplace but after a bit of a saga with the taxi company I ended up working from home.  I texted my trainer to let her know and as she’s on class a fair distance away from my home (I’d never expect her to come such a distance in what would most likely be her own lunch break), we agreed Sadie and I would do some more solo work in between me working.  I think Sadie enjoyed a more relaxed start to her day being able to bask in the living room sunshine while digesting her breakfast.  Around lunchtime, with the sun on the decking area in my garden, I groomed Sadie outside with us both enjoying the warm sunshine and the birds hopefully making good use of all Sadie’s donated hair.  I then did some more work for a while before heading off to the local shop…its amazing the variety of things such a little shop manages to cram in.  Again Sadie’s guiding, and her pace, were good and I couldn’t fault her guiding me around in the shop.  When we got home I played ‘hide and seek’ for a while in the house and garden with Sadie – I get her to sit and wait and I go somewhere in the house or garden and call her, using her whistle too – it turns obedience practice into fun for Sadie.  Sadie is far too good at this game and finds me every time, perhaps something to do with the tiny piece of chicken shmacko she gets when she finds me (just as she does when I recall her when on free run).  Sadie then dozed for the rest of the afternoon while I finished my work and it was time for her dinner.

Tomorrow we are doing a solo walk from my work place with us meeting up with my trainer the day after to see how we’ve got on the last couple of days before planning our training work for that day.

An early start to training yesterday in my own town.  After a catch up reviewing the last few day’s training with my instructor, we set off to walk in to the main town planning to stop off at the sewing shop to collect the trouser I’d put in previously (a good destination for Sadie) and then onto my favourite cafe with the intention thereafter to free run Sadie at the park and loch, which she’d never been to before.

The first thing my trainer picked up on just a few minutes into the walk was that I am still doing too much of the work for Sadie – I was telling her “straight to the kerb” whereas I should only be telling her “straight”.  Telling your dog “straight to the kerb” isn’t incorrect, but to try and ensure Sadie is working her brain as much as possible and using the skills she has, my trainer wants me to keep my commands simple so Sadie herself has to be consciously aware that she needs to stop and sit at each kerb point.  Once you are comfortable working with your dog a lot of things, a bit like driving, become so automatic that you are often not consciously aware of doing them so I am having to actively remind myself numerous times on a route to keep quiet and alter my usual command to its briefest form.  Happily though not too far along the route my trainer said she was going to drop a little way back from Sadie and I as we weren’t needing any active teaching and so Sadie starts to get used to her not being so close by…another way of trying to ensure that Sadie is actively using her skills as much as possible but my trainer still being close by if either of us need support.  I didn’t notice any change in Sadie’s guiding pace or her attention as we continued along (until we passed a couple of dogs), and although its quite some time since we walked into town on this route, she remembered it perfectly and located the green man crossing pole we had practised last week perfectly the first time I asked her to.

When we reached the cafe my trainer and I took some time to review our training walk with her picking up that I wasn’t being firm enough with Sadie with her dog distraction; I am correcting but not firmly enough as Sadie will continue to be distracted seconds later.  Some of this comes from my general reluctance to correct my dog in case its an over correction – which is leading to me actually under correcting – and also because in the past Sadie has become over excited around other dogs so I’m still in my previous default mode of seeking to calm her rather than correct her.  Its not working though and I do need to try and be a little stricter with her.  Some of my inability / reluctance to correct also relates to my anxiety that Sadie will be harmed by another dog passing her so I am focussing more on keeping myself calm than correcting Sadie (we have had frequent instances of pet dog owners allowing their dogs far too close to a working assistance dog with some of these dogs being reactive which has chipped away at my confidence but with my trainer being able to see Sadie’s body language reassured me she doesn’t show any fear response but more of an instinctive desire to be friendly towards other dogs…it does take a working dog time to appreciate they must fully focus on guiding and not try to interact with passing dogs).  To help us both with this, my trainer is going to try and arrange with her colleague to arrange some practice for Sadie and I walking past another training dog, with the other dog getting progressively closer.  This will hopefully improve my confidence in appropriately correcting Sadie while I know the other dog is fully under control and won’t show any aggression towards Sadie so I know she is safe.

On our solo walk last week, Sadie had had to do an off kerb obstacle and I wanted to check with my trainer during our cafe break that a particular command I gave Sadie was still okay to use in light of the conversation we had had a few days earlier about the “find the…” command. As Sadie had guided me past the obstacle and I was encouraging her back towards the path, I had asked her to “find the step” which she did perfectly.  As Sadie has been specifically trained for me to locate a step when I need her to, it is okay for me to continue to use this command as she knows to find something concrete rather than using the command in an abstract form (e.g.  “find right”).  It does mean however that my all time favourite guide dog command of “find the way” is no more.  This was a command I could give my previous dog, Waffle, if all else failed or if she needed some encouragement to guide me past a complicated obstacle or when there were multiple obstacles on the path in very close proximity to one another.  Because of the way Sadie has been trained, its not a command I can use any longer but will need to remember to substitute it for just a simple “straight”.   Some people wonder why you need to re-train each time you get a new guide dog, but this change in the way the dogs are currently being trained and owners being taught to work efficiently with them is a good example of why you undertake full training each time you are matched with a guide dog.

On the way out of the cafe we took the opportunity to train Sadie to locate the button on the wall close to the main doors to the building that needs to be pressed to open the doors to allow us to exit.  My trainer remarked that Sadie mastered this in less than 30 seconds…yay, wee Sadie!  We then headed towards the park, which is only a few moments away from the cafe.  As we crossed the road and turn right towards the park, instead of left back towards home, I could feel a change in Sadie’s body language as she took in the new route we were walking.  I suspect her eyes were bursting out her wee head as entered the park, I could certainly feel her moving her head around a lot as she took in everything.  Given our earlier conversation about me needing some practice in controlling any distraction from Sadie from other dogs, my trainer asked me to work Sadie a little way into the park, but we reached a high point in the park where we could see a great distance around us and there was not a dog in sight! I knew it would’t be to long before a dog came along at that time of the day but my trainer said to just go through my usual routine of taking Sadie out of harness and working collar and changing it over to her play collar (which has two bells attached so I can hear her if I can’t locate her using my little vision) and doing some basic obedience to remind Sadie that she still needs to be well behaved at play.  As I told Sadie to “go play” she was like a little puppy exploring the world for the very first time with her not knowing what to sniff at first with lots of zooming around too.  It was a real joy to see her like this as, not only do I adore her and want to give her as much play and happy time as possible, but she has worked really well this past week so does deserve quality down time and a chance to exhibit normal dog behaviours.

It wasn’t long before we got close to another dog, a spaniel who didn’t want the company Sadie offered her, preferring to continue to explore the little stream they were playing by, and I noticed that Sadie immediately moved away when the dog gave her a bit of a growl when she attempted to play with it.  I have noticed before that Sadie is very good at reading other dog’s signals and will not persist if a dog doesn’t reciprocate her play invitation.  Minutes thereafter we came across a greyhound and I gave my trainer the perfect example of how instantly fearful and protective  I can be if a dog is aggressive towards Sadie (I’ve been honest about this and described how anxious I can be, but there’s nothing like giving her a real life demonstration of it!).  Initially Sadie and the greyhound played well, with the greyhound running off and Sadie chasing after it…she kept trying to catch the greyhound but after a few minutes lost interest as she realised the other dog only wanted to be chased whereas Sadie likes to add in some other play behaviours to her interactions.  Sadie came back fairly close to my trainer and I and happily started sniffing and wandering around as usual etc but the greyhound didn’t like this and started to growl at Sadie, who I couldn’t see as she was behind my trainer,  and I immediately panicked in case Sadie was harmed.  Fortunately the greyhound’s owners were really close by and put a stop to their dog’s behaviour putting them back on their lead.  My trainer reassured me that Sadie wasn’t harmed and didn’t look frightened or upset by the encounter.  She also explained that the greyhound was most likely to have growled because it was upset at no longer being chased by Sadie so was being grumpy rather than outright aggressive towards her. The fact that I heard the growl but couldn’t clearly see Sadie was what particularly panicked me, that and my genuine fear she would be harmed while on free run.  Although we hadn’t planned to frighten the daylights out of me when free running Sadie, in fact our intention was the opposite with the aim of building up my confidence in letting Sadie off the lead around other dogs, it did give my trainer insight into how anxious I can be so she now knows the level of this and can work with me to address it.  My trainer did take time to explain both Sadie’s and the greyhounds body language and Sadie’s reaction to the other dog’s grumpiness to me so I have a better understanding of the dynamics of that encounter and will better understand any future similar ones, but she also reassured me that I wouldn’t be made to free run Sadie on my own until I was more confident in doing so, but also that I do still have the option of being given help with this by a volunteer with Guide Dogs who can provide sighted assistance to me, and if appropriate Sadie, if we do come across any grumpy / unfriendly dogs.   As we were leaving the park, having changed Sadie back to her working ‘uniform’, my trainer did say my fears around Sadie being harmed are common and not unreasonable and that many guide dog owners stop free running their dogs but never ask for help which means their dog doesn’t get to experience the joy of exhibiting the full range of normal dog behaviours and can also mean they don’t ever have any dog company.  Despite how anxious I am about Sadie’s safety, and always was about Waffle’s safety, I would never deny her her happy, carefree times.

We decided to get the bus back home rather than walk, partly to give me practice in handling Sadie on, during a bus journey, and back off again (one of the things we had discussed when my trainer first arrived for our training session), although this relates entirely to my dislike of bus journeys rather than in relation to Sadie’s behaviour.  Once home, we finished up with planning for the next couple of days training work.

I’ve said previously on my social media posts how grateful I am to Guide Dogs and my GDMIs for the time they are taking to (re)train Sadie and I back to the point where we are both confident in working together again but I also wanted to include it here.  Both my trainers are currently on class with other guide dog owners so its not an insubstantial amount of additional work for them to be also training Sadie and I.  I hope they feel this is being worthwhile, I can certainly see the difference in the way Sadie and I are working together and the great progress we have made in just a few days.

As I work from home on a Friday, our training work today was to walk without a trainer present from home to the little convenience store, either buy something or just wander around the shop and then return home.  Sadie set off with good pace weaving me safely around the many emptied wheely bins on the pavement and only momentarily slowed as we reached the pedestrian crossing point which would take us to my sister’s house.  As last week, I told Sadie “straight to the kerb” which she did and sat perfectly at the kerb edge (located perfectly for a road crossing towards my sister’s house).  I positioned myself for a right turn, telling Sadie “right”.  As soon as I started to speak I felt Sadie move forward as if to cross the road but as soon as she heard the word “right” she did turn right.  This shows great self control and obedience by Sadie as she would want, and expect, to cross the road to go to my sister’s house.  If you remember from day 1’s blog, I said I had often had to persuade Sadie to go straight past this crossing point and not try and aim for my sister’s house.  The thinking of my trainer that we allow Sadie to locate this crossing point, praise her, and then give her a clear “right” command is working with Sadie happily complying.  She did for a split second start to dither at this point but I gave her a “straight on” command on a clear, confident voice also using the hand signal and off trotted Sadie.  As we neared the Spar shop I asked Sadie to “find the door”, which she did although it was pinned open as the shop was taking receipt of a delivery, but I praised Sadie nonetheless as she had correctly turned right towards the door when we got to it.

I obviously picked the worst time of the day to visit the shop as there were delivered food items strewn everywhere in the store.  I had to ask Sadie to turn back at one point as the aisle was completely blocked…not great accessibility but understandable in the circumstances.  Sadie was a bit unfocussed in obeying her commands in the shop but I think this was because she was trying to predict what I would ask her to do in an effort to please me rather than outright disobedience.  She has always behaved and done as I have asked her to perfectly in all other visits to shops so I think it was because it was our first real shopping trip to this shop (I had no clear idea in my head of what if anything I was going to buy) and the narrow aisles and delivered items were testing her safe guiding skills to the max.  Sadie did wait patiently while I paid for the various things I bought and located the door well for out exit.  She initially wanted to turn right on exiting the shop, again probably expecting we were going further on on one of our familiar routes, but did happily turn left when I asked her to to head back home.

Again Sadie kept up a good pace on our return journey and had only just started to indicate she wanted to go towards the pedestrian crossing to my sister’s house when our postman in his van pulled up alongside us and said he had a parcel for me which he was on his way to deliver so gave me it there. This nicely distracted Sadie and she happily trotted straight on past the crossing when I told her to! And again she very nicely weaved her way past the many wheely bins still on the pavement and we reached home without incident with Sadie, as always, getting lots of praise and a food treat for locating my front door and getting me there safely.

Tomorrow my trainer is coming out and we are going to walk into town (I think, not entirely sure if we are getting the bus / driving part way down), doing some work along the high street and then we will take Sadie for a free run.  I am excited to introduce Sadie to the loch and park she doesn’t know exists in her own town although if she comes home covered in mud and having had a dip in the loch, I might not be so excited!

Sadie and I happily set off for our lunchtime solo walk.  She performed as usual guiding me safely out of the hospital but as we crossed the road she didn’t pick up her pace as she normally would.  It took me a few seconds to realise that it was bin emptying day and there were emptied wheely bins strewn along the street so Sadie was showing caution in her guiding rather than any reluctance to step out.  She did pick up pace on the short stretches where there were no bins obstructing the path and we arrived at Sainsburys in good time with Sadie maintaining a safe guiding pace, slowing down and picking back up as appropriate. Go wee Pops!

I purchased a few things in Sainsburys and we made our way out of the store with me asking Sadie to locate the bus stop pole as we neared it which she did perfectly first time. Go wee Pops (again)!  She was a bit sluggish in her pace as I asked her to go straight on which might have been because Sadie was expecting to get on the bus, especially as there was a bus at the stop as we drew close although it departed before Sadie had located the pole.  Once we turned out of the shopping centre and onto a long straight stretch of path I asked Sadie to “hop up” which she immediately did and continued to rocket her way along the street, only pausing momentarily in a sit at each down kerb until it was safe to cross and then picked her pace back up beautifully.  She continued like this until we reached the down kerb we needed to turn at.  At this one I made a point of fussing and praising Sadie because she had done remarkably well in maintaining her pace, not sniffing at all (there was repeated sniffing when we walked this route 3 days ago, although bins being on her shore line* might have helped that) and kept good focus on guiding safely.  Sadie made this turn perfectly but wouldn’t increase her pace much for me.  She kept looking to my right hand which suggested she was expecting a treat.  I’ve not treated her at a down kerb for a long time but perhaps with me praising her she was also expecting, or hoping, for a treat too. No such luck Sadie, I even showed her my empty hand at one point allowing her to sniff it and then told her a bit more briskly to go “straight on” and to “get on with it” which she reluctantly did, albeit keeping to a slower pace.  I accepted that pace as we were walking up hill and its not unreasonable for a dog to slow their pace, especially as they are actually taught to do so during training (and frankly after rocketing along the previous section of the route I would have needed oxygen and roller skates to have maintained that pace up a significant hill!).  Again where we previously had constant sniffing on this part of the route, Sadie never sniffed once, or if she did, she did it so furtively that I didn’t pick up on it despite specifically watching for her doing so.  My trainer had told me a few days earlier when we had walked this route that at the moment she wasn’t too worried about Sadie sniffing (I corrected the ones I was aware of) as there were more important things for me to concentrate on during walk so had Sadie sniffed, I wouldn’t actually have corrected her….clearly we forgot to tell Sadie that!

We reached the next down kerb and I praised Sadie again, perhaps not as enthusiastically as the last kerb point but she had still maintained a reasonable pace and continued to walk on without me needing to get too tough on her so she did deserve some praise.  On crossing the road she hopped up for me (a flatter section of road) only slowing as we neared a complete blocking of the path by rubble and two small diggers, one working to move the rubble into someone’s driveway.  Give the workman his due, he switched off his engine as we neared and told me there was an obstruction offering to guide me around it but I wanted to let Sadie do so, which she did perfectly.  I did give her a treat when she got me safely off the kerb, round the obstruction and safely back onto the kerb after finding the step for me (not sure if I mentioned previously that Sadie was clicker trained to find the up kerb for me by my own GDMI teaching  her “step” with Sadie finding the up kerb, putting her front two paws on it and then pausing until I step up.  During class we practised this on occasions but always with Sadie getting a treat to reinforce this behaviour so that when I need her to do this in the dark on a crossing that I know don’t know whether it has a dropped kerb, or am unsure of it, she will do so reliably.  I still practice this randomly with Sadie to ensure her ability doesn’t degrade over time).

Sadie kept a good pace up thereafter all the way back to the hospital and even through most of the corridors back to my office, only slowing when the corridor became busy.  I really couldn’t have asked for, or hoped for, a better walk than this.  Ever so proud of my wee Pops!

I don’t know what is happening with training tomorrow as I need to wait for my trainer to call me either later today or tomorrow morning to find out how today’s walk went and to make arrangements going forward but I need to collect a pair of trousers that are in the local sewing shop and I would also like for Sadie to have a free run so hopefully these will form the basis of the next few days training or solo work.

*shore line.

When I was being taught safe mobility using a long cane, my RNIB rehabilitation officer taught me to check using my cane that I didn’t stray too far from the shore line and become disorientated on the pavement.  If you imagine walking along a beach with the sea on your left, the shore line is the point where the tide stops coming in and you can walk along the beach without getting your feet wet.  When using my cane this translates to when I swing my cane side to side on the pavement to check for obstructions, it should make contact on the left hand side of the path off the building line, hedge etc, particularly in unfamiliar areas.  If I stop feeling this, I’ve strayed too far to my right and risk falling off the pavement if its narrow.