Wednesday 1 January 2014

A walk with a Blind Guy!

Blog 36 January 1 2014
A walk with a Blind Guy!

As I wrote in my Blog in May 2013, that I have to apologies for not writing as much as I should have. I made that thou to write more and be on top of things, guess what it is now December 31, 2013 and this is my 3rd blog.
As you probably guessed I went through the summer de-toxin from medication that the doctor keeps on getting me to try.
I spent 1month getting use to the new meds and the next month expelling the side effects from it.
I did manage to do something’s over the summer not much but a few.
Lucky and I did put some Kilometers on over the summer on the days I felt good and we really started to click together as a team.
Our first evaluation was ok, we had a couple of issues but overall the school was happy.
Our 2nd evaluation went much better.
Like every new partner be it at work, friends or even a spouse you got to get to know the personality of your partner.
This follows true with a guide dog team, the exception is that you don’t have years to get to find all those little quarks you need to figure those things out quickly, especially when you are working as a team in Montreal. 
I found out a lot about him this summer and we spent a lot of time traveling we traveled, on the buses we traveled on the Metro and we walked a lot.
I found out he is not really a rural dog he works ok in that environment, but it’s not his strong showing. I look at it as having a really intelligent, child sitting in a class that is way to easy for them and as soon as something small happens they are distracted.
However when he is working in the city or in the subway he is as sharp as they come!
His traffic is fantastic his corners are great he brings me around the little cracks in the side walk.
If we are on the corner and he hears a siren he does not move.
It is these things you learn about your partner that makes you a good team. He learned from me to trust in me, he learned that on the street we are all business, but he also learned that when he is at the park and out of harness that is his time to have a break and sniff and roll and I don’t get
upset about it, well maybe a little since it takes a lot to brush him out and 2mins to roll in the grass and get covered clippings. This is all part of his personality
He also learned that I am not in a hurry when we are going somewhere and he can take all the time to assess the route and traffic.
Needless to say after finding all this stuff out between the both of us our second evaluation went a lot better.
I think the hardest thing he had to get use to was when I took our little guy to play pool on his birthday.
I tethered Lucky to my belt and had him follow me around the table while I played after the 1st game he got it and stuck really close by this proved to be a good work experience.
Over the summer our son Chris made a video for his class on what it is like to work with a guide dog if you ever wondered how we get through revolving doors, you will like this.
I acquired a piece of equipment that allows me to video while I walking so I am going to attach a video clip of Lucky and I going through the Subway up the escalators, outside and crossing some major intersections on our way to pick up a new modem plug.
You can expect more of these videos to come, but for now enjoy.

Happy New-year Joy , Health, Happiness most of all PEACE.

John & Arlene, Lucky and Family

Warning some of these are long. This is my first time 

Walk down town Montreal
Lucky taking a  break 

Going through revolving doors Montreal 1

Going through revolving doors Montreal 1a

   


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