Feature Writer Steven Famiglietti – Home Again
After spending ten days at the campus of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, I took a nice, long ride back to Hartford, CT. As we drove north, I noticed a bit of snow cover on the ground from a weak snow event that happened the night before I left the campus. When we arrived home, the driver from Guiding Eyes helped me assemble the new crate that had arrived for Meyer. When we entered my apartment, Meyer walked around and sniffed his way through every room. After the trainer left, Meyer ran laps around the apartment for five minutes. I could already tell that he liked to slide on the carpeting. One thing became quickly apparent during our first few hours at home–Meyer was a young, fit dog, whereas Whitlee was an older dog who was not interested in running laps. It was true that she had slowed down considerably and I could really see the difference between the two dogs once I got back home in my own space.
I began my five days of home training with Kathy, the field rep from Guiding Eyes. Our first walk took place the morning after a three inch snowfall. This meant that most sidewalks were not properly cleared, which was good because I got to see how Meyer would deal with snow piles at the curbs. At first, our walk went fine. Then, we encountered a barking dog stationed behind a fence. I know this dog well from the many walks I did with Whitlee. When we encountered this dog, Whitlee would just keep going and ignore the dog. Meyer, however, thought it was suddenly play time. It is such a high level of a distraction for a guide dog to come upon another dog that is behind a fence barking, jumping and running as we try to pass. In this case the property runs parallel to the sidewalk for an entire block, so it was very difficult getting past this other dog with Meyer. We must have worked through this situation for at least 30 minutes. Kathy gave me some techniques to use to help Meyer learn to ignore the dog and focus on me. After all, a guide dog needs to focus on their person in order to keep them safe. I thought time stood still as we worked through the situation and I didn’t think I would ever be able to handle this on my own. But finally, after lots of work, Meyer and I made it past the noisy dog and continued on our way. When we got back home, I was mentally exhausted from the experience and I realized that I would have to use the tools Kathy gave me every time we passed this other dog. I couldn’t avoid walking and working Meyer just because of that distraction, I had to learn to be confident and consistent.
It is important to note that when I got Meyer, even though I intended to approach the situation with no expectations, that just wasn’t the case. It was very easy to expect him to act just like Whitlee. It was easy to expect him to work and perform just as Whitlee performed and that is not a fair thing to do to him. After all, he has his own personality and, like Whitlee, he has his strengths and weaknesses. It is my daily task to remember this and give him the fair chance he deserves.