(VICT) Re: Where We Have Been
- From: "Ann Edie" <annedie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:54:11 -0400
Hi, Karyn,
Wow, it always amazes me how organized, structured, and comprehensive your
training plans are, and how thoroughly you execute them! It sounds as if
you and Thane are doing great! Keep up the good, hard work, and I'm
confident that you will be out there working as a real talented team with
great communication really soon!
Best,
Ann
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karyn and Thane" <bcpaws4me@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Vi-clicker" <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:26 PM
Subject: (VICT) Where We Have Been
> Can you say Training over and over really fast... LOL
> I have been doing a ton of training since receiving the offset handle from
> Julie. She worked with me so it could detox the way I needed it to which
> was
> awesome. I just covered the handle myself once I knew it was detoxed
> enough
> that I could handle it. Let me tell ya, she does not charge enough for the
> work she does! That is not as easy as it sounds to cover those offset
> handles. Smile
> My only wish is that I had tried this when Met was in my life. Wow! The
> difference between working Met or even Thane in a flexible guide handle
> and
> working Thane in this rigid guide handle is unbelievable. I do have to
> remove Thane's when we are not doing actual guide work. We still work on
> loose leash walking in areas along with my guide cane. Its very important
> to
> me that he be comfortable doing it in al lsituations. This way if there is
> a
> situation where its safer for him to follow me and I use my guide cane, he
> is well trained to do just that... no surprises. Smile
> Last week: Friday through Sunday, we had a sneak peak of summer. It was
> absolutely fantastic weather. You know the kind of weather definitely
> designed for training. Thane and I had been training a lot on the back
> streets here. It was what I was comfortable with. In training we do have
> to
> look at the entire picture for our and our trainee's safety- especially
> when
> we don't have a sighted person's assistance. It can backfire a bit with a
> breed with sound sensitivity issues due to their heightened hearing
> though.
> We began in the last two weeks to start including the noisy main road with
> all of its hustle and bustle into our training walks. There is one street
> here that I have never been comfortable with. The curbcut is an
> after-thought which they have yet to put in a legal one. Its fine going up
> it, but coming down it is pretty precarious. There are no sidewalks the
> entire street for us to use and the complex has limited parking lot space
> so
> the street is often lined with all of their cars. It is also a narrow road
> where the width we take to pass these vehicles is a bit nerve-wracking
> when
> traffic is on that street. Lets face it there are a lot of rotten drivers
> in
> our area that I frankly don't trust Smile
> We have done that street a few times with loose leash walking but its a
> workout needless to say.
> We do work the half circle on the other end of town- often in very good
> fashion. Thane can do this entire portion of town in harness other than
> the
> two road crossings that I do not feel we are ready to handle without my
> cane. They do not have signal lights or crosswalks there... its a small
> down
> but the street can get rather busy at times.
> One of the stores I use a lot here in town has a parking lot where there
> is
> no real pedestrian safe walkway- you just have to walk through the parking
> lot and figure your way to the door. I never liked the lot with Met, but
> he
> had a lot of experience with odd parking lots by the time we were going
> there. If I can get Thane accustomed to this lot, he can go with me to
> pick
> up my prescriptions at the outdoor pickup window.
> Since last Sunday was a beautiful day and they don't open until 10, I
> opted
> to go up there to work with Thane after our run on flexi at the park. We
> always start out before training with that run as it gets out some of that
> pent up energy Smile
> It was good to get there when no one was around. I know the routes Met had
> taken with me so could work the paths with Thane. Lots of back and forth,
> back and forth until he got it that I wanted him doing loose leash not
> yanking my arm from its socket. Every new situation is one where he tries
> to
> revert to a bit of that at first. Its all about training in enough
> locations. This store has a tricky entrance for getting all the way into
> the
> store though. It has a door I have to physically open, then a gate they
> have to buzz me into and not with a wide enough area for real guide work.
> I
> always sent Met in ahead of me so he would not get trapped with the door
> hitting him if they were being slow buzzing the gate as he could walk
> under
> the gate if needed, but I do not have the strength to hold that big door
> until they get undistracted and buzz us in. Needless to say, it will be a
> while before we are ready to do access in there. I've tried to figure a
> way
> that I can set that up here at home to train. I have a wooden pet gate and
> its pressure mounted so if anyone has any ideas how we could set a
> scenario
> like this up at home, I'd really appreciate some feedback.
> We will do our first access with Safeway. Everyone there is all on board.
> I
> figured since we do not have access to pet stores together that I would
> opt
> for entering the store down near their pet aisle at first. Using this
> aisle
> to work on the desire to sniff etc. I hope with al lthe work I have been
> doing with him, that during a quiet time in the morning that this will be
> helpful. If anyone has other ideas please do share them with me. I am not
> wanting to just take the plunge. Many like to but with all my multiple
> disabilities and my country dog I want to be sure everything we do has the
> best probability for a successful experience. If I keep working hard the
> rest of this month with him, I can see us beginning this by early June at
> the latest. A lot depends on my health and stamina along with his giardia
> staying gone. Living with the feral cats who began this in Met in the
> first
> place, there is a high probability for re-infection unfortunately but i do
> a
> lot to prevent it. I will admit I drained myself so bad this weekend that
> I
> have not done anything other than loose leash to the park and running him
> this week, but I have plans for today if I get off this computer soon
> Smile
> For those who do have the ability to see pictures, there are two new pages
> of photos of thane and I on my website under the graphic site area. I got
> a
> lot of help from an online friend to get this updated. Smile
> My website address is in my signature line
> I am working on thane's text page, but want it to be just right before it
> gets uploaded. Smile
>
> Karyn and Thane (GDIT, HDIT)
> http://www.pawsitively-k9.com
>
>
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