More photos of the Mary Hare

After our camping holiday in the I.O.W. we moved on to spend a night in Didcot so that we could meet up with Margaret, an old school friend from the Mary Hare days. I wanted to show my daughter, Sharon and my grandchildren the school as well. We had a marvellous time and it was great to see Margaret again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last day

This was the day when we had the ‘free run’ in a small enclosed field and it was great to watch the dogs chasing each other around the field as we walked slowly round with the trainer. This was an opportunity for us to test the ‘recall’ by blowing three times on our whistle. The dogs came back running towards us as they knew that they were going to get a treat.

Following this, we all got in the van and our trainer took us all home, dropping Simon off first, then Kevin and finally me. I was happy to be back home but knew that there was still a lot of hard work ahead for me and Ishka. We qualified on the 26^th June 2012 and Ishka is brilliant, she has settled down well.   

Day Eleven

The night walk with Ishka was last night, something that I was not looking forward to! The thought of walking around in unfamiliar surroundings in the dark made me feel nervous as being in the dark is when I can see the least.  Having a dual disability is not easy ─ I know that I am unable to collect all the important clues from my surroundings with my remaining vision and that it is not possible for me to rely entirely on my hearing even though I wear hearing aids ─ this in the day-time. I know, you must trust the guide dog, Ishka but that was not the case, it was simply a fear of being in the dark, I have not been out in the dark on my own for at least forty years. To be honest I rarely went out at night unless I was with someone.

 Kevin went out first and as I sat in the van, I admitted to Simon that I was nervous but I was  going to do the night walk as I hoped that it would conquer my fears of going out in the dark.  Simon went next and then it was my turn. The trainer came round to my door and asked if I was ready and I replied that I was. We went round to the back of the van to get Ishka out ─ that was the first hurdle for I could not see her but she came up to me when I called her name. I put her harness on and then it was time to go. We did the walk with the trainer talking to me as we went along and me trying to praise Ishka who walked slowly en route and then it was all over. Ishka was brilliant and I cannot thank the trainer enough for her encouragement but I was pleased that it was all over. Will I do a night walk on my own ─ I plan to in the near future in familiar surroundings, it should be interesting!

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.

Seventh Day

Today, Simon and I had a very wet trip out; we went to a local street to test our skills of indenting. Simon went with the instructor first while I stayed in the van. It was not long before Simon and the instructor returned to the van and then it was my turn. We set off and to be honest, I did not think that Ishka and I were doing too badly in the wet conditions but then it happened ─ I fell in marvellous style! Even though I hurt my right knee I wanted to carry on but I could not stop laughing. Eventually the instructor and I returned to the van. The knee was sore for a few days but I did not want to miss any of the training so persevered with the pain ─ taking some pain-killers did the trick.

In the afternoon after lunch, we headed to the hotel basement and did some obedience work. This work was done in front of the other dogs and this added numerous distractions but all the dogs did well. It was a bit dark in the basement but I enjoyed the experience!