On January 11, I headed down to San Rafael, California, to train with my new guide, Michener. While the weather in Edmonton was nice, for Edmonton, it was a lot better when I stepped off the plane in San Francisco. Ben Cawley, one of the licensed instructors at Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), met me by the luggage carousel, and we headed over to the campus with two other students, Larry and Scott both from Arizona.
The next day, I met Michener. Kathy Westling, the supervisor of Class SR691R, handed over the leash to me and gave me a bit of info about him. She told me he is 29 inches tall at the shoulder, that he is black and tan in colour (with the tan being almost white, and his black back being flecked with a bit of sable in places), and that he likes to play when out of harness but is very focused when working. After the handover, Mich and I spent a bit of time getting to know each other.
The next day, we got down to the business of training, and we worked hard for three weeks.
The training program at Guide Dogs for the Blind is rather intensive. Each day consisted of a combination of practical training and educational seminars / discussions. Topics of discussions ranged from caring for your guide's health / well-being to getting around obstacles, working at night and sidewalkless routes, dealing with the public, playtime for guides, what to do in an emergency, how to work an escalator without injuring your guide, riding public transit, reworking problems, clicker training, grooming, feeding and travel considerations. After each workshop / discussion, we hit the streets of San Rafael, San Francisco, or some other nearby community to work with our dogs, usually practising what we had discussed earlier in the day.
Right from the start, Michener and I worked together quite well. I had been warned that Mich travels fast and pulls hard, and, indeed, he does. However, I walk pretty fast myself, so I seldom had to reign Mich in. Our biggest problem was that I kept clipping obstacles on my right side. The trainers and I concluded that the clearance problem was due to my being quite a bit larger than Mich's trainer, Jennifer Ceia, and that it would just be a matter of time until Mich got used to my extra bulk and gave me extra room. That theory proved correct, and within a short time I only clipped an odd obstacle here and there.
My favourite part of the program was learning how to train my dog with a clicker. Using the clicker, I can teach Michener how to target walk buttons, empty chairs, doors to particular stores, etc. By the end of the program, I had used the clicker to teach Mich to show me where an empty chair is, and then lie down on the floor to the left of the chair after I sat down myself. Mich loves it every time I bring out the clicker because he knows that the "clicker game" means lots of treats are on the way.
When not in class or on a route, much of my "free" time was spent in optional seminars / discussions, doing laundry, grooming Mich, making coffee and comparing notes with other students. One evening, Michael Hingson, a GDB graduate who had been in one of the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11 and lived through the tragedy, described the events of that morning. His story is incredibly inspiring. The thing I'll always remember about Mr. Hingson's story is that, immediately after the building was impacted, he didn't panic; he "knew there was no immediate danger since Roselle [his guide dog] wasn't scared."
Believe me, his story is incredible.
On Sunday, January 18, a friend I had met over the internet, Paul Furman, picked me up at the dorm and took me to a nearby park area for a hike. He asked me if I wanted to do the easy route, or the more challenging one. He warned me that there is an abrupt drop off from the path down into an abandoned quarry, but it sounded too tempting to pass up. So, we took that way. At one point, Paul cautioned that I needed to be careful because the path was on a bit of a ledge between a wall on my left and a sharp drop off on the right. I told him it wasn't all that difficult for me because it's kind of like being Mr. Magoo: If you don't see it, it isn't as scary. However, I was very careful to keep checking the width of the path with my white cane (Michener had to stay on campus, except when accompanied by a trainer, until after graduation). This hike, at the end of the first week of the program, was a great way to relieve the stress of the most rigorous part of the program, and I want to thank Paul for guiding me through that incredibly beautiful area. Paul was great as a tour guide, since he is extremely knowledgeable about plants and an accomplished photographer. His description of the vegetation we visited was both informative and artful.
By the time we reached the last week of the program, we had covered most of the tough stuff, and we were fast becoming more comfortable handling our new guides, so our routes became more challenging. My two favourite destinations were the Golden Gate Park and Muir Woods. At the Golden Gate Park, we visited the De Young Museum. The museum staff were very helpful and allowed us to approach the various exhibits and check them out tactually. In addition, our ever present and incredibly imaginative GDB staff members gave us great descriptions of each piece. My fave was kind of a modern Stonehenge type construct with an inner room where the acoustics were fantastic. Mich's fave was the upside down apple exhibit where he tried to sneak a quick slurp from the water collecting on the top (bottom?) of an apple.
After the De Young Museum, we took a winding walk. Along the walk, Ben took some pictures with my camera (see attached). Michener REALLY likes the out of doors, so he couldn't sniff things up fast enough throughout the whole walk. Still, he did an awesome job of guiding me over some rough terrain, with only a couple of light brushes of my right shoulder against some low-hanging branches.
I don't like to compare my guides to each other, since each animal has been different, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But, the question is often asked of me. What I tell people is that Bonner, my first guide, was the best at remembering routes; I'd show him a route once, and he would always remember it. But, he wasn't into problem solving. If we encountered an obstacle, he showed it to me and let me figure out what to do next. Dima, my second guide, on the other hand, didn't always remember a route, but she wanted to solve all of the problems we encountered, herself. At first, I thought she was like Bonner and was waiting for me to figure out what to do, so I would quickly start probing with a foot or stretch out a hand to check for an overhead clearance problem, but, Jim Dugan would quietly say, "Wait, she's thinking..." Then, I'd feel a tug of the harness handle, and off we would go. Dima had figured it out.
As for Michener, it's a bit early to say where his strengths and weaknesses lie, but, as I pointed out to Ben and Jenna, this is the best start I've enjoyed with a guide, yet. I'm not sure if it's because I've got more experience handling dogs than I had with my previous guides, or whether Mich really is the embodiment of all the good qualities of both Bonner and Dima, with virtually no drawbacks (which is how he appears at present). Maybe, it is just because the GDB trainers are, themselves, more experienced, and the program has improved through a natural, evolutionary process. It's hard to say for sure. But, regardless of why we work so well together (the real reason is probably some combination of many factors), I want to thank everyone from Michener's puppy raiser, Ellen, to the trainers and other GDB staff members for giving me the greatest gift anyone can receive, years of independant / carefree travel.
If you can afford a donation and would like to help someone like me get a guide like Michener, please, visit the GDB website and click on the "Donate" link. I can't think of a better organization to support, and the school is not funded by the government -- just donations.
