A Year And Three Months In!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already spent a year and a quarter with my guide, Arwyn. Let me tell you, it’s certainly not been easy, but it’s been a grand adventure. I wanted to blog about our year as we were experiencing it, but it was a whirlwind, and I never felt that there was time. It’s something I’m going to make sure I find in the next year, because I’ve missed it. Also, it’s easier to write about things as they happen than it is to accurately recall all the details later.

We’ve been to many places in our time together, and I’d like to think we’ve grown a lot as a team. Schools and graduates all say that it takes a while for that bond to truly solidify and for dog and handler to develop an understanding. I’ve definitely found this to be true. I’d say that around the six month mark, things were very solid. Some say it takes up to a year, but I didn’t find that was the case with us. The communication, and consequently the work, is constantly evolving throughout a partnership, so if we’re still working together in a year from now, I’m sure we’ll be even better than we currently are. She loves her job and does it very well. I’m not just a single root kinda gal, so it’s really important that my guide is bold and adventurous enough to travel new roads with me as well as familiar ones. She likes cities the best because she gets the most work there. I think guiding is a game to her. It’s something she does well, and she loves all the praise she gets when she takes me around obstacles and stops at the places she’s supposed to.

Victoria has been her favourite city so far, I think. I mean… it’s mine too, so there may be a little bit of personal bias in there. She did seem to really work well during our trips there, aside from the one time she threw up on the ferry when I gave her water… There were many people in the downtown core, and the sidewalks were dotted with many awkwardly placed poles that she did a wonderful job at taking us around. She’s definitely not a dog who likes to stroll. I’m often finding myself heeling her when we’re walking in a group, or just leading the pack and waiting for everyone at the street corners. Neither situation is particularly ideal, but I’m a pretty fast walker on my own, and on my own is how I do most of my travelling. It’s only an issue on occasion, so I don’t worry about it too much. The first time we went together, we were still a brand new team. I think it was about a month after we got back home from The Seeing Eye. We went down there with a couple of friends and had a grand old time. Arwyn was a huge fan of the sandy beach, but not so much the water. She got a bit of off-leash time and zoomed around like a maniac. Unfortunately, we didn’t give much forethought to the timing. We were all due at the Empress for high tea shortly after, so we raced home, and I gave her a speed bath so she wouldn’t be covered in sand. She may have still been a little damp when we arrived for tea, but everything turned out alright in the end.

We had a lot of fun that summer getting to know each other and exploring new and familiar places. We rode the buss, explored both my home town of Chilliwack and ventured into Vancouver, and Arwyn got to come up to our lake house with me on the weekends I was able to go.

She was introduced to my horses, and she even became buddies with a little mule I had for a short time.

The first few weeks were awkward. We got along fine, but it took us both a bit of time to get into the swing of things. The work was new to both of us, and we had to work to get a rhythm going. It got easier as time passed, though, and she quickly became a fixture in my life. In the fall, she accompanied me to my first semester of university. She got used to the campus pretty quickly, and she saved my butt on more than one occasion when I forgot about some unfortunately placed stair cases.

Wherever I went, she came with me if it were feasible. Even to this day, I don’t think we’ve spent a night apart since We were matched on May seventh of last year. Our sleeping places weren’t always close because I was up in a loft most nights, and there was no safe way to get her up and down the ladder, but she was still close enough to hear. It’s crazy to think about, but I’ve never had an animal so closely involved in my life. That’s what a guide is, but I don’t think it’s something that can be truly appreciated until you experience it. She’s with me almost all the time, and she’s gotten to see so much more of the world than most dogs ever will. (Not speaking for other dogs in service, of course.) She’s just a dog, but she’s so much more than that, too. She’s been with me through all the rigours of the last year, both physical and emotional. She was there for my post secondary school experiences, she was there when our whole valley flooded and everyone had to evacuate, and most recently, she has been there with me through my move to California. So have my pets, of course, but we’ve spent so many waking moments together. Hikes, boat rides, deep lake swimming, trips to the gym, unorthodox car rides, beach trips… she’s even had a parrot land on her head.

She’s my dog, but she’s my guide, my partner and my friend as well. How could she not be when our whole lives are intertwined?

Don’t get the impression that it’s all roses, though. Part of the intent of this section of my blog is to share the realities of life with a guide dog, both good and not so good. The last year hasn’t been easy for either of us. We’ve faced many obstacles in our working relationship, three of which I’ll discuss here, and we’ve only begun to navigate them.

I try not to let breed generalizations affect how I view individual dogs, but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. Arwyn is all Lab and fits every stereotype of the breed to a T. She’s one of the most gregarious creatures this world has ever known, and she loves people and dogs alike. This makes her very adaptable and easy to bring in different environments, but it compromises the quality of her work at times. She is very easily distractible. People can get her attention by making eye contact or calling out to her, and she has a really hard time staying away from other dogs. In my opinion, the first problem could be resolved by better education for the public about how not to interact with service animals, but neither should Arwyn react to them at the level she does.

The same could be said for most of our dog issues, as well. A lot of the encounters could be avoided by owners taking responsibility for their dogs by keeping them on leashes and away from a dog that is clearly doing, or trying to do a job. Arwyn loves others way too much, though, and one of the biggest things we’ve been working on this year is understanding when she can interact and when she should not. It’s a work in progress, though, and I don’t think the problem will completely resolve itself in her lifetime. She’s just that kind of dog, and there’s no changing her basic nature. Aside from the fact that it’s a pain in the butt for guide work, why would you want to? Her love of life is infectious; it’s my favourite thing about the Labrador as a breed. I’ve reached out to The Seeing Eye about this among other issues and have tried all of the suggestions provided to me by the training managers. Some of the things helped, but I think there comes a point when one decides they’ve pursued an issue as far as it reasonably can be and/or taken all of the steps one is willing and able to take. That’s where we are here.

Scrounging is another one. She’s very loose with her definition of what’s edible, and in and out of harness, she often has one eye on the ground for possible candidates. Rocks, sticks, marbles, random pieces of rubber, paracord… the list goes on. Food is included on the list too, of course, but seriously, she’s not very picky. We do our best to manage, but that means that more often than not, she’s guiding in a gentle leader, (a halter/head caller for dogs). It’s also been very difficult to give her off-leash time when she isn’t working because I pay for it for the next day or two. I’m cleaning up her messes after she inhales something she shouldn’t, and it also means that she’s unable to work for that time. Even in the house, she often needs direct supervision so she doesn’t get into mischief. If I can’t be watching her directly or at the very least be in the same room, I have her on tie down if it’s not practical for her to accompany me wherever I’m going. Recently, I’ve been able to relax this a little, but only if she’s within easy hearing distance. She’s a sneaky girl and will bide her time if there’s something she’s after. It’s improved, but only marginally. We’ll continue to work on this, but it’ll be another one of those things that’s in constant progress.

The third issue is arguably the most severe and the most threatening to the long-term success of our partnership. Ever since we were matched, Arwyn has exhibited signs of anxiety in busy, strange or loud situations. She’s totally fine in the streets, even the ones in a big city, but is sometimes a little leery of large trucks. At first, Large crowds freaked her out a little too, and she wasn’t a fan of music at any volume higher than normal conversation level. This was problematic as I’m around all these things on a regular basis. I started making a point to take her to more events to try and help her get over the fear by exposure. I remember the first small play we went to, she was literally shaking in her boots. I brought her a mat to lay on and one of her favourite toys to chew, but I couldn’t get her interested in it. She wasn’t cold; I made sure of that. She wined occasionally too, and though she tried to behave, I could tell that the noise and the darkness made her uncomfortable. It was a small theater, and nothing was particularly boisterous. There are certain environments I would choose not to take a dog for both their comfort and safety; a large rock concert, for example. However, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect a guide to handle every-day events and to cope with a reasonable level of noise. I took her to church services, plays, ball games… anything to provide her with situations in which we could grow her confidence. There’s been improvement here, as well, but only in certain areas. She’s not visibly shaking anymore, but on the busier, and perhaps for her more stressful days, she is more accident prone. This is the same for travel days, which are quite frequent for us as of late. Over the past few months, accidents have become a bit more frequent. On our day-to-day roots, she’s happy as a clam, but when there’s anything out of the ordinary, it shows in her work and in her overall demeanour. Recently, I’ve taken her to the vet to check for any physical ailments that may be causing the problem, but as I suspected, none were present. No UTI, no kidney disfunction or anything else of note. I’ve also tried her on a few anxiety medications which have had no appreciable effects. She can’t be put on anything too heavy if she is to work because her job by nature requires her to be alert to perform it.

All that to say, the first year and some change hasn’t been easy. I’ve learned so much from this dog, and I’ve grown a lot as a handler. Each dog teaches you something if you’re willing to listen and learn, whether you work with them for a week, a month, a year or a decade. However, the relationship has to be fair to both the dog and the handler, and I’m not sure if this work will be fair to Arwyn long term. My life is busy and rich with different environments. I travel a bunch, and there’s no way I can guarantee that each day will be even remotely the same. We’re not out of options yet, but it’s uncertain at this point whether or not we will work a full term together. Retiring her as my guide makes me beyond sad, and the thought of experiencing another class as emotionally trying as the last one makes me beyond nervous. For anyone who didn’t catch my earlier blog posts, I went through three dogs in my first class at The Seeing Eye. My first dog, (a Shepherd and arguably my best match), was pulled a week in due to medical issues. My second dog,, (also a Shepherd), was too slow of a guide, and there was a dog switch two days later. My third dog was Arwyn, (a black lab), and she made the rest of the class so easy for me. Her and I work very well together, and I had no reservations about her by the time we were ready to go home. The guide dog lifestyle is challenging, though, and sometimes there are curve balls thrown at you that no one expects. It’s hard to say what our future holds, but we’re not giving up yet. Retirement, or at least partial retirement may be on the horizon, but I won’t lose the hope until we’ve exhausted all alternatives that are feasible for me and fair to Arwyn. For now, we’ll just keep pushing forward in the best way we can and see what happens. I’m hoping for the best outcome for both of us, whatever that may be. The guide dog life has been a wild ride, for sure, and I’m looking forward to learning all I can throughout all my partnerships in the years ahead.