Day Ten

I am not likely to forget these traffic sessions! The idea was to get Ishka to move off a kerb while a car is approaching. I had to give Ishka the command to set off which I was not exactly happy with for what if anything went wrong ─ I would never forgive myself.  This was how it was done; it was done in a controlled condition with another trainer driving a car while my trainer worked with Ishka and me.  Imagine the main road being on the right and a car waiting to travel down the side road to join the main road. Ishka and I are waiting to cross the side street so the car will be on the far side and so we could be in the middle of the side street by the time the car arrived.

My trainer walked to the middle of the road and gave the driver of the car the signal to proceed and then came over to Ishka and me and when appropriate tapped on my shoulder for me to give Ishka the forward command ─ we did this several times and Ishka hardly moved. We were just going to start the second stage when the car would be on the nearside of the road and very close to us when it started raining, thundering and lightening ─ Ishka made a dash but I held tightly on to her lead. We returned to the car wet but laughing! I was very impressed with how Ishka reacted with the traffic work.

Day Nine

After spending the dogs, we all met at the van and with the trainer at the wheel we set off to a location nearby ─ it looked a nice area. I went out with the trainer first and after a short walk we came to some shops and I noted that one of them was a cafe. We went in the café and found an empty table near the window. Ishka immediately disappeared under the chairs. Oh yes, I wondered how many cafes Ishka has been in because you could see that she was no novice and knew exactly what she doing. The trainer went to get me a fruit drink and then told me that she was going to fetch Simon and his guide dog, Ascot.

Ishka attracted a lot of attention from the other customers who asked if they could stroke her while others asked me what it was like having a guide dog. I explained that it was early days for me to answer that question as I was on a guide dog training course ─ throughout all this. Ishka behaved very well and I was proud of her. It was not long before Simon and Ascot arrived and after bringing a drink over for Simon the trainer set off to fetch Kevin and his guide dog, Danny. Once again, some of the customers started to come over asking if they can stroke the guide dogs.

Eventually, Kevin and Danny arrived and now it was time for Ishka and me to depart ─ we walked along the street and eventually arrived back at the van, I really enjoyed that walk. When the others arrived back, we returned to the hotel for a light lunch.

In the afternoon we did some off kerb obstacle training, this is when a guide dog cannot get their owner safely round an obstruction while on the pavement and so means going on to the road which could be dangerous for the owner and guide dog. Situations like this could happen when there are some road works, or a car parked on a pavement or a group of wheelie bins. The trainer had set up some barriers which forced the guide dog to take their owner on to the road ─ it was simple but clever. 

A free day!

Today was a free day and the day when my family came  to visit me at the hotel in Nottingham. My youngest daughter, Sharon and her four children came and my sister, Rosalyn and her husband, Paul came over from Stoke; I was really looking forward to seeing them, probably because I wanted to show off Ishka. The call from reception came to inform me that my visitors had arrived so I went down to the reception to meet them. My grandchildren were delighted to see me and were eager to meet Ishka. We went to the lounge and after explaining what I wanted them to do, I went to fetch Ishka from my hotel room. I returned to the lounge with Ishka who by this time was very excited; on entering the lounge she wanted to make a fuss of everyone! I made her sit beside me for about ten minutes and then I allowed her to walk around the room while on the long lead to meet everyone ─ it was a successful way of introducing Ishka to my family.

We had a lovely afternoon and they all wanted to know what I have been doing and the children told me their news too. It was a lovely break from the training though I must admit that I was enjoying the course.