Guide Dog Training: Day 5!
Training continues to progress. I took Sunny to Church with me for the first time this morning. It was our first outing together with Mom and Kyleigh and without Deana. She lay very quietly under my chair the entire time and took everything in stride. People had lots of questions, and I answered each one to the best of my ability.
In the afternoon we did indoor work in the mall, doing escalator and elevator work, obstacle clearances, restaurant work, and everything else that the mall provides as far as training opportunities are concerned. Working in the mall was very intense for Sunny and I because it was very loud and very crowded. We both became overwhelmed at times, and we took little breaks so that both of us would not become overly stressed.
In the evening we worked my neighborhood, where we ran in to our first very big distraction thus far. There is a Male Golden Retriever named Julius who lives next door to us, and Sunny has seen him when she and I are out in our yard. We were walking around the culdasac on our way back to my house, and Julius started barking. Sunny tries to turn in to the driveway to the house where Julius lives all the time, and usually a "no, forward" will get her moving again when I feel her veer left in to the driveway. This time she veered of course because she saw Julius, and naturally she got very distracted. She did not pull or growl or bark, but she did go in to the driveway thus we were very close to Julius. I began with a verbal correction to get her moving again, and when that did not work I tried a soft leash correction directing her head back to the right and away from the distraction. When that did not work I gave her a hard leash correction that got her focus back on me, and we slowly began moving again. I felt like I had not handled the situation well because I was unsure of what to do. Once we got back to my driveway, we went inside and discussed everything that had transpired. Deana reminded me that it is perfectly acceptable to stop and calm both Sunny and myself down at any point when I feel the need to do so, because it is good for both of us and it will allow us time to regain our focus. I need to remember to do this. Deana said that I handled the situation very well considering that I had never encountered anything like it before, and considering that I have only been training with Sunny for 5 days. The entire episode scared me, but thinking back on it I do not think I could have done anything differently. Now I know how to handle things next time. Deana kept reassuring me that Sunny and I are doing well, and her reassurance helps me to not worry.
The moral of the story is you live and you learn.
Love,
Kolby And Sunny!