Training day 11

9:04 AM

Yeah, so I ended up waking up at 7:00 this morning--I did it on purpose, though. My alarm originally went off at 6:00, and my body was like "nope, not happening" and I slept for another hour. Of course this meant I took my dog out a little late to relieve, and as the door clicked shut behind me, I realized I had left my key access card in the bedroom. I ended up pounding on the doors of a few of my classmates, and the instructor ended up letting me back in.

9:47 Am

We just finished our lecture on total barricades and traffic encounters. I'd write more, but I'm a bit nervous, as we're about to head out for our traffic routes. Cue the supervisor trying to kill us!

12:29 Pm

Ok, I'm sorry for the brevity of that last segment; as you might be able to imagine, I was a bit nervous, especially after our lecture. Anyway, we went on our route, and my instructor walked alongside me. She didn't tell me when the traffic checks would occur, but she did make all the traffic crossing decisions for me, i.e. telling me when to cross each street. Anyway, Arden did brilliantly; there were moments (after I'd finished cussing and my heart had settled back in my body) that I wanted to kneel on the ground and cry into his fur because of how awesome he is. The supervisor did everything: from pulling out in front of us while we were walking down the sidewalk, to making a right hand turn on a street just after I'd given the dog the forward command to cross. He even backed right into us, causing my dog to have to back up, all while making sure the path was clear for me to back up as well. Arden was a star, and my instructor told me that I also did a good job at following him, as well as staying calm (though I think she was probably humouring me; it's hard to stay calm when there's like, a hit man on the road trying to kill you). During our lecture, they asked us "Now, when you encounter a car parked across the sidewalk in front of you, why do you think it's best to go around the car on the side of the street and not the driveway?"

"You could end up in someone's garage?" Someone suggested.

"There might not be enough room." someone else chimed in.

"Yeah, and you don't want to be stumbling on random peoples' property," I added, "and if you're in Florida, they might just even shoot you!"

I haven't encountered any gun-toting rednecks out here, but I'm told they aren't in California all that much haha.

anyway, my dog did amazingly well, and didn't even seem all that phased by the "traffic encounters" as they call it. I'm always amazed at how reliable he is. Because I've been hit by a car before, and because I already have a very active fear of being hit, doing this exercise was very, very scary for me. I know it was supposed to be a bit fun (as well as showing us how awesome our dogs are), but it so closely resembles things that happen on a regular basis that  it makes me just want to crawl out of my skin. I'm one of those people who's aware of my own mortality to an almost invasive extent; I am always aware that I could die at any given  moment, and am constantly terrified that my loved ones will die. I'm not really sure where it comes from, but travelling around and exposing myself to thousand pound machines that are hurtling about at insane speeds does very little to ease my fears. Having said all of that, he did wonderfully, and really did not seem at all phased. After I returned from the traffic route, I did exactly what felt natural: I kneeled next to my dog and clung to him. he just stood calmly, licking my lips and wondering why I was squeezing him so hard. I wanted to sing this song to him:

Thank you for loving me; for being my eyes, when I couldn't see. For parting my lips when I couldn't breathe...thank you for loving me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eesZBfTj0cU

After lunch, we headed to a petco, where all of our dogs were super distracted. It didn't really help matters that there was a dog obedience class going on there at the same time. Have I told you guys how much Arden comes alive around other dogs? Although I wish he weren't so interested, I actually prefer his dog distractions over a need to interact with strangers (because I typically encounter more people than dogs) so that's ok. Anyway, I bought him a toy he seemed to be interested in, and then we headed out. When I went to Petco this last weekend, I saw a crate there that I thought would be good for my dog; it was a canvas one, and it was also portable. But apparently Petco doesn't carry one that's big enough for my dog, which is kind of strange. Like I know he's the biggest boy in class, but 75 pounds is certainly not huge or "plus sized". My instructor ended up calling another pet place (I think it's called Pet Food extreme?) and the woman there said they had a crate that was "huge". So we headed over there, and I actually ended up purchasing it. It's made by noz2noz, and is really awesome. Arden loved it in the store! I'm still trying to convince myself to be ok with the fact that he seems to love his crate.

After that, we went to the fenced in paddocks on GDB's main campus. There, we got to practise recall. Arden was really good at it like I suspected he might be, though I think things will be markedly different once we add another dog into the situation. Melissa felt similarly about her dog--both our dogs love other dogs, so we're interested in seeing if they'll be able to disentangle themselves at all once they're actually with each other. We'll be going there again next week so as to let the dogs play together--some of the people who I'm close to are dog handlers, so it's likely that my dog will play with their dogs, and I'd like to see how he does when something more compelling than me (tear tear) is added to the fray!

I intend on going for a drink with a classmate in a bit, and then want to call it an early night. But how many times have I said that? ugh.

8:49 Pm

I've just gotten back from a very pleasant and much needed chat with a classmate of mine whom I respect a lot and want to get to know better. She and I both agreed that we want to do it more often. It's not often that you have such a genuine connection with someone, so I'm glad to say that I have. And with that, and with a long and lingering hug from my friend "Cab", I'm off for the night. Tomorrow we head into "the big city"!