She's a guide dog!
Okay, so Jetta has been guiding for some time and doing a great job of it. I think long time guide dog users will know what I mean when I say that there comes a time when your brand new dog just really shines. It's that moment when you feel like everything is clicking together. that moment when you can take a deep breath, relax and know deep in your soul that your dog is a guide. I don't just mean stopping at curbs and taking you around stuff, but has moved up to the next level where she is actively thinking, suggesting and pulling her full weight for the team. It's as if the dog is teling you, "no worries, I've got this."
Jetta is at that stage. It's been only one month today. She's only 15 months old. I shouldn't expect that we will have all the bumps ironed out, and we don't, but she impresses me so much.
Yesterday I took her with me to the after school program where I teach once a week. she hasn't gone with me before. She has never been that direction at all, except for the first tiny bit through the park. It's about a 30 minute walk, one way. I haven't been up there in months. There had been construction and improvements at both the park and the college campus.
Jetta was absolutely awesome! She worked the sidewalkless perfectly. She went around the construction spot on. She worked a couple of odd T intersections correctly. She took me around all the overheads. She nailed the weired parking lot entrances with the steps to the sidewalk. Interestingly she worked those exactly like Monty does. Great minds think alike? There was a lot of traffic and there are no traffic lights, just stop or yield signs, but she was very aware and did good work. She didn't startle even when I about jumped out of my skin when a small furry thing popped out of the bushes right beside us. She worked though the park past football practice and loud speakers. she found the door to the school and then the door to the office handily, even thought the door to the office is a bit tricky.
She enjoyed greeting everyone at the school. People were very excited to meet her. I've only been talking about her for a year! I need to put greeting on a cue so she and the people are very clear about when it's okay and when it's not. Jetta does pretty good, she doesn't jump up or go crazy, but her nose does tend to go everywhere.
I sit on the floor with the kiddos, which Jetta thought was great fun. she was slightly resistant to lying quietly with kids to visit right there, but I insisted and she obeyed. I put her behind in between my back and the wall so I could closely monitor her and the kids next to her. It worked perfectly. There was no messing. she fidgeted a bit, but nothing unexpected or unmanageable.
I let the kids interact with her at the end. It gives the kids a reward for listening and behaving during the presentation. It also allows Jetta to keep her calm when I need her to be calm and then wiggle right before we are setting out. The kids were great with her. I explained that she was new and young, that she was still learning about school and how to behave there. I told them this was her first day at school and just like the first day they arrived at the school, she doesn't know what's expected here quite yet. It worked to help them understand when she made mistakes or did something they didn't understand. Like when I got out the music player, Jetta wanted to sniff it. The kids thought she wanted to eat it, but I explained that she had never seen it before and she was just curious about it. Her way of understanding things is to sniff, so that is what she wanted to do. they seemed to understand this and accept it.
Then we went home. this is where she truly exceeded all my expectations! We took a slightly different route home because of my new understanding of the construction and changes in sidewalks. Jetta somehow knew which direction to go and backtracked the route to home. Well, it wasn't a true backtrack because the route was a bit different, but she figured it out and made selections based on where we needed to go. She was choosing correctly so I encouraged her initiative and let her get us home. Somehow she did it! I am still a bit speechless. I have no idea how a dog who has never been on that route before could backtrack it incoorperating changes to the route on a route that is probably close to 2 miles long. It's like a Lassie maneuver, where she gets us home from across the country without ever having been that direction. Kind of Hollywood and I would not have believed it possible, especially from a dog this young, but seeing is believing! It's possible that she guessed, but mathematically speaking, the chances are pretty remote that she could make that many guesses in a row that were correct. If she's that great of a guesser, I need to figure out how to have her pick lottery numbers!
On today's agenda is a trip to the high school for mentoring and then my office in the afternoon. the high school will also be a new place for her. I'll see if she can get us home from there or if yesterday's adventure was some sort of fluke. My money is on Jetta!
Jetta is at that stage. It's been only one month today. She's only 15 months old. I shouldn't expect that we will have all the bumps ironed out, and we don't, but she impresses me so much.
Yesterday I took her with me to the after school program where I teach once a week. she hasn't gone with me before. She has never been that direction at all, except for the first tiny bit through the park. It's about a 30 minute walk, one way. I haven't been up there in months. There had been construction and improvements at both the park and the college campus.
Jetta was absolutely awesome! She worked the sidewalkless perfectly. She went around the construction spot on. She worked a couple of odd T intersections correctly. She took me around all the overheads. She nailed the weired parking lot entrances with the steps to the sidewalk. Interestingly she worked those exactly like Monty does. Great minds think alike? There was a lot of traffic and there are no traffic lights, just stop or yield signs, but she was very aware and did good work. She didn't startle even when I about jumped out of my skin when a small furry thing popped out of the bushes right beside us. She worked though the park past football practice and loud speakers. she found the door to the school and then the door to the office handily, even thought the door to the office is a bit tricky.
She enjoyed greeting everyone at the school. People were very excited to meet her. I've only been talking about her for a year! I need to put greeting on a cue so she and the people are very clear about when it's okay and when it's not. Jetta does pretty good, she doesn't jump up or go crazy, but her nose does tend to go everywhere.
I sit on the floor with the kiddos, which Jetta thought was great fun. she was slightly resistant to lying quietly with kids to visit right there, but I insisted and she obeyed. I put her behind in between my back and the wall so I could closely monitor her and the kids next to her. It worked perfectly. There was no messing. she fidgeted a bit, but nothing unexpected or unmanageable.
I let the kids interact with her at the end. It gives the kids a reward for listening and behaving during the presentation. It also allows Jetta to keep her calm when I need her to be calm and then wiggle right before we are setting out. The kids were great with her. I explained that she was new and young, that she was still learning about school and how to behave there. I told them this was her first day at school and just like the first day they arrived at the school, she doesn't know what's expected here quite yet. It worked to help them understand when she made mistakes or did something they didn't understand. Like when I got out the music player, Jetta wanted to sniff it. The kids thought she wanted to eat it, but I explained that she had never seen it before and she was just curious about it. Her way of understanding things is to sniff, so that is what she wanted to do. they seemed to understand this and accept it.
Then we went home. this is where she truly exceeded all my expectations! We took a slightly different route home because of my new understanding of the construction and changes in sidewalks. Jetta somehow knew which direction to go and backtracked the route to home. Well, it wasn't a true backtrack because the route was a bit different, but she figured it out and made selections based on where we needed to go. She was choosing correctly so I encouraged her initiative and let her get us home. Somehow she did it! I am still a bit speechless. I have no idea how a dog who has never been on that route before could backtrack it incoorperating changes to the route on a route that is probably close to 2 miles long. It's like a Lassie maneuver, where she gets us home from across the country without ever having been that direction. Kind of Hollywood and I would not have believed it possible, especially from a dog this young, but seeing is believing! It's possible that she guessed, but mathematically speaking, the chances are pretty remote that she could make that many guesses in a row that were correct. If she's that great of a guesser, I need to figure out how to have her pick lottery numbers!
On today's agenda is a trip to the high school for mentoring and then my office in the afternoon. the high school will also be a new place for her. I'll see if she can get us home from there or if yesterday's adventure was some sort of fluke. My money is on Jetta!