Training begins

Here is a photo of Jay, ready for  action.  You’ll see that Jerry has no intention of being upstaged. 

Karen (our trainer) arrived at 9 this morning to begin our first day’s training.  Like most other Guide Dog owners who have had their dogs for a long time I have developed bad habits and shortcuts when working with my dog.  With a new dog it is really important that you use the correct foot and body positions, hand signals and tone of voice when communicating with your dog.  The first thing we did was a simple route round the block, first one way, then the other.  This enabled me to practice the turns and other manoeuvres which form an important part of basic training.  This went well, so, inspired by success, we did a walk from home to our Church (which has a nice coffee shop).  This is quite a long walk which takes us through a grassy area where lots of dogs enjoy a run.  The inviting open space and other dogs (like the Jack Russell which dropped its ball at Jay’s feet) meant that this was an exciting walk for him.  Like all dogs he tends to pull when he is excited, so Karen took me through some basic obedience training – a dog which respects its handler will be much better at responding to instructions like “steady” which I will need to use quite a lot during our first few months.

After a good break we did a much simpler route to a local shop this afternoon.  Tomorrow we will revisit the shop and then, in the afternoon, it’s off to County Hall.

I’m extremely pleased with our progress today.  Jay is a lovely dog to work with – responsive, willing to please and intelligent.  I think one of the things I am happiest about is his reaction to having the harness slipped over his head.  Jerry and Jay are both a little harness shy, which means that they don’t like the harness being passed over their heads.  However, this afternoon Jay positively shoved his own head into the harness – surely a sign that he is raring to go!

Tonight he is accompanying me to a trustees’ meeting at Sight Concern Worcestershire.  This will give him some great practice at lying quietly through a meeting – something he will be doing a lot of over time!

Jerry has now realised, I think, that Jay may be here for longer than he thought.  When Karen arrived today he made it very clear to both Jay and Karen who is top dog.  I don’t have a problem with this – Jay doesn’t seem fazed and Jerry has been with us for a long time, after all.