Team Training Update

This is going to be kind of quick. It is 9:30 and I need to be up at 6 to get ready for the day. I am super tired and need to get some good sleep.

I'm copying and pasting my journal entries from yesterday and today (we write journal entries as homework during team training.) If anyone has a question that isn't answered, just let me know and I'll be glad to elaborate some more. The journal entries are fairly basic --we are given a prompt to respond to each day and that is what I did. :)

Journal #1: June 12, 2011

The last 24 hrs has been nuts. Just plain nuts. Bed bugs and insane stair cases at the host home, a mission to retrieve my stuff in the CPL van, and spending the night in the trainer’s office on an air mattress. And I’m still trying to catch that hour I lost traveling here from Houston. What a way to start team training!

One personal goal I would like to accomplish during the three weeks of team training is to be able to walk with less fatigue and pain –to still have energy left to do what needs to be done (make dinner, do homework, etc.) and not have to depend on my roommates so much to help me do things.

One fear I have related to team training is opening my heart and life to another dog. I am still grieving the loss of my first dog, Pebbles, to retirement. She’s moving to Arizona this week to be a therapy dog and I won’t get to visit her anymore or see her again. I went and said goodbye to her last week on Wednesday.
So team training is a bit of a bittersweet feeling –the happiness and excitement of a new partnership and regaining the independence I lost when Pebbles retired mixed with grief over the loss of my friend and partner. I know Leon will open many doors for me figuratively and literally –and I know how emotionally involved service dog partnership can be –but it’s worth it all. While there will never be another Pebbles, Leon will also have a special place in my heart.

Journal #2 June 13, 2011

I would define partnership as a fluid, give-and-take relationship with another being –you begin to be able to finish each other’s sentences, so to speak –and are each sensitive to the needs and feelings of the other.

The best part of today was the obedience exercise –getting to work with the dogs walking around the room, changing directions and learning to walk together as a team. I got to experience with the angle of the harness handle to find the one that was most comfortable for me and got to learn more about Leon and what motivates him. He does walk very nicely in harness and it feels fantastic to walk with him (when I’m not stepping on his feet and he’s not running into me going through doorways.)

The hardest parts of the day today were some of the things Leon did to test me. First, he growled at a puppy in training that one of the staff had in the training barn. Then, when we were standing watching Erica unload Phineas from the van, Leon reached into my bag on the ground and stole a large dog biscuit out of the goody box we received. I caught him in the act –took it from him, “downed” him and then told him to “leave it” while placing the biscuit on the ground in front of him inches from his paws. He just stared at me like I should be convicted of animal cruelty. Then, Leon tried to (and mostly did) DRAG me into the kennel building at dinner time and into the grooming room to be fed. I keep forgetting about the prong collar due to not having to use one in a few years. Oh, and yesterday, he pulled me to a patch of grass so he could ROLL on it –why is this dog doing things that his trainer has not seen him do before?

Things will get better. I have to earn his respect and we need to get to know each other better –then we will be a team.