Phase One

July 13, 2009

Today Glaze starts Phase One in her training. This phase is dedicated mostly to physical health. During her physical evaluation, her hips will be x-rayed and her eyes/ weight will be checked. She will then be assigned a "string" and a specific training kennel. A string is about 35-55 dogs with 5 instructors and 4 or 5 Canine Welfare Technicians, although Guide Dogs has just launched a new expedited training program where the dog to instructor ratio is much smaller and each dog gets twice as many training sessions per day. I hope she is placed in the expedited group.

Prior to meeting her trainer, Glaze's personality and controllability will be evaluated in order to prepare her instructor how to motivate her most effectively.

Of course her days will not be made up solely of intense training. Check out some of her kennel enrichment activities:

-Food-stuffed Kongs (she is gonna LOVE that!)

-plush and squeaky toys

-baby pools

-playground equipment

-Different scents (vanilla, peppermint, lemon etc) sprayed into the kennel

-bubbles

-mirrors

-music (Bad to the Bone?)

-T-Touch, massage and Reiki

-treadmills, campus walks

-cuddle time

Many of these are things I was not allowed to do with her, or wouldn't have even thought to do with her (Reiki? Massage? Scents?) and I know that she is going to be in doggy heaven!

I spent the better part of Sun. de-Glazing my house. Swept up all the fur-bunnies hiding out in the corners and under the furniture. Took apart her crate and cleaned it out, putting it away until a new inhabitant arrives (it's just too darn sad to look into an empty crate). The house is much quieter without her nails clicking around on the floor downstairs, sometimes it's so quiet that I find myself looking for her in all the bathrooms--whenever the house was quiet when Glaze was here it was most likely because she had her head in the toilet, tanking up. I am enjoying my freedom, but am missing her none-the-less!

Recall

July 11, 2009

Today, the day most bittersweet in every Puppy Raisers days, I returned Glaze to the Guide Dog for the Blind campus in San Rafael, Ca for her formal guide training. I walked her down the kennel corridors, the last walk with her on the end of my trusty leather leash, dogs barking her welcome. She followed me with a little less bounce in her gait, her tail a little lower, her brow a little more furrowed. Her easy confidence was replaced with a timidness I haven't seen in Glaze in a long time. She wasn't sure what to make of all the kennel noise and the amount of dogs all in one place. She looked at me like she was expecting me to correct these ill-mannered animals for their needless, overwhelming vocalizations.

With a Guide Dog Personnel Escort, I picked out a soft fleece and a spankin new Nyla Bone as we made our way to her new home. She was led into a kennel large enough for me to stand and/or roll around in comfortably, with both indoor and outdoor accommodations. She had housemates on either side, a yellow on her left, black on the right. Though apprehensive at first, I knew she would come to relish their company. She has always been happy to see another dog-- sometimes distractedly so. I laid her fleece in a corner where she could cozy up and put the bone on top. She sniffed around inside, stuck her head out the door to the outside then came back in and looked at me like "now what?". I wished that I could explain to her the importance of what was to come next for her. I wished that she could understand why I was going to leave her there and not return for her later. I wished that she could know that she is going to be fine, she is going to have fun, that even more people would come to love and cherish her. Before making a complete blubbering fool of myself (well, maybe after) I patted her on the head, ran my hands down her flank and told her that she is a good girl. She snuck in a lick (as we all know, she cannot hold her lick-er) and walked away to stick her head out the door again. I took my leash and left the kennel, closing the gate behind me.

In an effort to support the dogs and not to confuse or distract them, puppy raisers are not allowed back in the kennels while the pups are in training. I will not see Glaze again until graduation (hopefully) or until she is "career-changed". She now has 10 phases of training ahead of her and I will receive simple phase reports as time goes on. On Monday, she begins Phase One.