It's Been A Long Time
It's not my fault that I can't chase cars with you anymore.
I would join you if you asked though.
I'm find myself in a weird place again and don't know where else to put these thoughts.
A journal wouldn't work for me because I can't pen my thoughts fast enough before they spill out of my head into useless puddle. I NEED to put all of this baggage and junk somewhere.
I think I'm ready to start using this weird thing again.
Funny to think of the journey LJ has had from what it was like before anyone could have a Facebook account to what it is now. I don't use LJ to keep up with friends anymore. If anything, I type my own bullshit and don't bother reading other people's. When I do manage to find myself on LJ, it's because I'm on ONTD (which, may I mention, is absolute crap since the Buzz Media association).
But I digress.
Ra ra ra, I want to be back on LJ. I want to put down the meaningful things that are happening in my life and how I feel about them. As funny and sometimes uncomfortable it is to read my older entries, it's like reminiscing with an old friend. Many of the people I wrote about back in high school, I don't talk to or rarely talk to them anymore, so when I read particularly entries that remind me of really happy or important times of my life...it's oddly comforting.
I regret not updating my experience with Delaware.
For 8 months, he was my shadow and the life of my life. It hasn't been very difficult to adjust without me, but it was surprising how sad it made me to say goodbye to him. I cried like a silly baby and couldn't make myself stop for the life of me. Looking back at it now it's kind of laughable because it's not like he died. He didn't become meat or something morbid like that. Instead, he's probably having tons of fun having dog friends to play with everyday and training to become a guide dog. For the past two weeks he's been in phase 4 which is the introduction of intelligence disobedience. Apart from dog distractions, I think this will be his biggest challenge. It's easy to teach a dog to do something, but it's hard to teach a dog NOT to do something, let alone try to make them understand that they are expected and REQUIRED to make judgement calls. I don't know how they do it, but the trainers at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael work magic. If my boy can make it through phase 4, I'm confident he can get through phase 5 through 8 without much difficulty because it's taking everything he's learned and applying them to real life scenarios out in the town of San Rafael and the streets of San Francisco. I'm hoping for the best that that silly dog becomes a guide dog so he can make someone else as happy as he made me.
Goodness, I was originally driven to update my LJ because of emotional baggage that I needed to get off my chest, but after thinking about Delaware I don't feel so down anymore.
To continue the momentum and remain on the same vein of guide dogs, I will be puppy sitting Reno this weekend. I'll be getting him tomorrow evening from his raiser Kellie.
Kellie had Delaware for the last two months before he went to training when I couldn't keep him due to my new living situation. I'm very grateful that she took him because it at least kept Delaware in San Luis Obispo where I could still see him and ultimately have him back the last few day before he officially left. However, I don't think she did much for him in terms of furthering his training. Delaware was a BIG dog to suddenly be placed in charge of because he was head strong and needed large correction. For me at least, I was able to gradually grow into Delaware's needs since I got him when he was much smaller at 8 months versus Kellie getting him at 15 months. She wasn't ready for the challenge of changing a dog like Delaware and I felt she gave up to the point that she just wanted him to okay versus better.
For two quarters worth of school which is about six months, I stopped using Delaware's head collar because I felt he was old enough to be trusted to conduct himself with a normal collar. Although training a head collar is significantly easier to handle a dog with, I felt it was crutch that didn't further Delaware's training when he was older. Kellie and her brother on the other hand, had him on a face collar all the time...which is entirely unnecessary. I also realize I hate her brother and kind of of mad that she let him take Delaware to his high school where his CLASSMATES would handle Delaware and the school. Ugh. Just thinking about this makes me rage. I could seriously push that boy off a cliff for being so liberal with my dog.
Yes, you heard me right, I said MY DOG.
I was the main puppy raiser that made Delaware what he was. Kellie and her brother didn't do jack to improve his training. I will give her credit of trying to work on his dog distraction, but girl, working on his dog distraction with a head collar is not what he needed. In my opinion, as selfish as it may be, they were merely the baby sitters that kept Delaware while Guide Dogs dealt with their annoying number issues for classes. (Don't even get me started on how long it took to get Delaware recalled.)
When I think of Delaware though, I can't fail to acknowledge Jill who was Delaware's very original puppy raiser that had him from 8 weeks to 8 months who passed her baby on to me. She gave me a pup that had been introduced to everything he needed to know as guide dog puppy in training and the only job I had to do was fine tune and make him consistent.
Balls.
Apparently I need to get out of my funk and back to real life. Need to deal with a senior project presentation I have to make with a group in front of a whole bunch of mechanical engineers. Sadface. Need to seem knowledgeable in technical shit when I really don't know wtf is going on. Then chem quiz to study for and take a quiz for one of my kinesiology classes.
Back to the grind.
I would join you if you asked though.
I'm find myself in a weird place again and don't know where else to put these thoughts.
A journal wouldn't work for me because I can't pen my thoughts fast enough before they spill out of my head into useless puddle. I NEED to put all of this baggage and junk somewhere.
I think I'm ready to start using this weird thing again.
Funny to think of the journey LJ has had from what it was like before anyone could have a Facebook account to what it is now. I don't use LJ to keep up with friends anymore. If anything, I type my own bullshit and don't bother reading other people's. When I do manage to find myself on LJ, it's because I'm on ONTD (which, may I mention, is absolute crap since the Buzz Media association).
But I digress.
Ra ra ra, I want to be back on LJ. I want to put down the meaningful things that are happening in my life and how I feel about them. As funny and sometimes uncomfortable it is to read my older entries, it's like reminiscing with an old friend. Many of the people I wrote about back in high school, I don't talk to or rarely talk to them anymore, so when I read particularly entries that remind me of really happy or important times of my life...it's oddly comforting.
I regret not updating my experience with Delaware.
For 8 months, he was my shadow and the life of my life. It hasn't been very difficult to adjust without me, but it was surprising how sad it made me to say goodbye to him. I cried like a silly baby and couldn't make myself stop for the life of me. Looking back at it now it's kind of laughable because it's not like he died. He didn't become meat or something morbid like that. Instead, he's probably having tons of fun having dog friends to play with everyday and training to become a guide dog. For the past two weeks he's been in phase 4 which is the introduction of intelligence disobedience. Apart from dog distractions, I think this will be his biggest challenge. It's easy to teach a dog to do something, but it's hard to teach a dog NOT to do something, let alone try to make them understand that they are expected and REQUIRED to make judgement calls. I don't know how they do it, but the trainers at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael work magic. If my boy can make it through phase 4, I'm confident he can get through phase 5 through 8 without much difficulty because it's taking everything he's learned and applying them to real life scenarios out in the town of San Rafael and the streets of San Francisco. I'm hoping for the best that that silly dog becomes a guide dog so he can make someone else as happy as he made me.
Goodness, I was originally driven to update my LJ because of emotional baggage that I needed to get off my chest, but after thinking about Delaware I don't feel so down anymore.
To continue the momentum and remain on the same vein of guide dogs, I will be puppy sitting Reno this weekend. I'll be getting him tomorrow evening from his raiser Kellie.
Kellie had Delaware for the last two months before he went to training when I couldn't keep him due to my new living situation. I'm very grateful that she took him because it at least kept Delaware in San Luis Obispo where I could still see him and ultimately have him back the last few day before he officially left. However, I don't think she did much for him in terms of furthering his training. Delaware was a BIG dog to suddenly be placed in charge of because he was head strong and needed large correction. For me at least, I was able to gradually grow into Delaware's needs since I got him when he was much smaller at 8 months versus Kellie getting him at 15 months. She wasn't ready for the challenge of changing a dog like Delaware and I felt she gave up to the point that she just wanted him to okay versus better.
For two quarters worth of school which is about six months, I stopped using Delaware's head collar because I felt he was old enough to be trusted to conduct himself with a normal collar. Although training a head collar is significantly easier to handle a dog with, I felt it was crutch that didn't further Delaware's training when he was older. Kellie and her brother on the other hand, had him on a face collar all the time...which is entirely unnecessary. I also realize I hate her brother and kind of of mad that she let him take Delaware to his high school where his CLASSMATES would handle Delaware and the school. Ugh. Just thinking about this makes me rage. I could seriously push that boy off a cliff for being so liberal with my dog.
Yes, you heard me right, I said MY DOG.
I was the main puppy raiser that made Delaware what he was. Kellie and her brother didn't do jack to improve his training. I will give her credit of trying to work on his dog distraction, but girl, working on his dog distraction with a head collar is not what he needed. In my opinion, as selfish as it may be, they were merely the baby sitters that kept Delaware while Guide Dogs dealt with their annoying number issues for classes. (Don't even get me started on how long it took to get Delaware recalled.)
When I think of Delaware though, I can't fail to acknowledge Jill who was Delaware's very original puppy raiser that had him from 8 weeks to 8 months who passed her baby on to me. She gave me a pup that had been introduced to everything he needed to know as guide dog puppy in training and the only job I had to do was fine tune and make him consistent.
Balls.
Apparently I need to get out of my funk and back to real life. Need to deal with a senior project presentation I have to make with a group in front of a whole bunch of mechanical engineers. Sadface. Need to seem knowledgeable in technical shit when I really don't know wtf is going on. Then chem quiz to study for and take a quiz for one of my kinesiology classes.
Back to the grind.