One More Week

Monday, April 19

When I was a child, I had several experiences with guide dogs. There was a lady named Susan who lived a few streets over and was a puppy raiser for one of the local schools in my area. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process of guide dog training, the puppies are sent to live with volunteer families after weaning to learn basic obedience commands. They stay with their raisers for the first year to eighteen months depending on the dog and the school, and the raisers are responsible for exposing and socializing the pup as much as possible to prepare them for the riggers of life as a working guide. Many dogs don’t make it past this stage. There is a very thorough testing process the prospective guides must go through and pass before they are allowed to continue onto formal guide dog training. I don’t remember if either of the dogs in training I met back then went on to become guides, but I remember them well. They were both labs or lab’ golden crosses; one was gold and the other was black.

The second dog I met was a working guide dog. My vision teacher in second grade was blind, and she had a yellow lab/retriever cross named tickie. He’d come to school with her every day and lay quietly under the desk until lunch time when we took him outside for a relieving break and a bit of play. My teacher went on vacation that Christmas and I got to dog sit him over the Hollidays. He was a cool dog to have around. Pulled like hell on the leash, though. That was my first experience with a dog that had a specific relieving schedule. It was after spending time with him and seeing how they worked as a team for that year that I decided that one day I’d have a guide, too.

In sixth grade, I took a field trip with a couple of other blind kids from my district to the local guide dog school in Vancouver for a presentation and to check out some of the dogs they had in training. I don’t remember too much about the presentation because I was too preoccupied with one of the boys at the time, but I do remember the part where we each got to try walking with a dog for a few blocks to get a feel for how they work. We were each blindfolded to remove any residual vision we may have and then paired with a dog and an instructor.

It’s a crazy feeling to put your trust totally in a dog. I’m looking forward to the challenge, but I think that will be my struggle in the beginning. They’ll blind fold you if they think you need it when you’re training with your dog, because it’s so important that you don’t constantly over ride their judgement and regress their training. They guide as long as they feel you need them and it’s important that they’re working so they’re not slacking when you might need them the most.

It’s surreal to think that in less than seven days, a volunteer will pick me up and I’ll be off to meet my new partner. This is a journey I’ve been thinking about for years. I’ve always known I’d apply for a guide dog, but I still can’t believe that the time has finally come to take that step.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been down here for a week already. All I can say is, thank god I have friends on the East coast. Although I’m still in quarantine, it’s a lot less lonely than it would have been staying in a hotel for two weeks. A friend of mine happens to be attending the same class at The Seeing Eye and she wasn’t so lucky. I’m making a point to send her a care package this week to hopefully liven up her days at least a little. Time has been going pretty quickly for me, considering. I’ve had lots to fill my days. Two weeks of forced isolation gives one plenty of time for self-reflection as well as an abundance of time for finishing up some music projects.

Another thing that always surprises me about America, no matter how much I see it, is the size of their food portions. I’ve taken pictures of some of the craziest things I’ve eaten so far, and I have a feeling that we’re not done yet. So much for this being a healthy trip. However, I’ve heard that there’s a gym at The Seeing Eye, and I plan to take full advantage of it. LOL.