Day 11 of GDT

Tired, so very tired today! What a week, I can't believe that I've only got 2 nights left at the hotel!

This morning took us on a walk to Radlett. Kelly drove Nicky and I along with the dogs and walked Nicky and Rita to Cafe Nero and then came back for me. The walk whilst with no crashes didn't go quite as well as normal due to either Odene being tired or due to just being cheeky. I tried positive encouragement, followed by a more firm 'get on' and even tried taking the lead and trotting alongside briefly to get Odene to go faster. Instead we just plodded along! When we finally got to the cafe, Nicky and I swapped places and Odene had a rest. I was hopeful that this may be the energy saver that we needed but alas it was also a slow return especially as it included a stretch that she had already walked along to get to the cafe, I could almost hear her thinking 'boring...'

We did have one very annoying man who came up behind us, asked Kelly if Odene was a Guide Dog (well yeah, can't you tell?) to which he then came up to stand right in front of us just as we about to set off on a 'forward' to stare down at Odene. Like, come on, don't interrupt a Guide Dog working! Kelly politely but firmly told him we were in training and to please move out of the way. It was my first real experience of how annoying some people can be. Advice, please look from a distance at a Guide Dog and admire from there and don't ever touch one without asking. After all if you are a sensible person, you wouldn't walk up to a dog and just start stroking it, you would ask if it was okay to and then hopefully you'll get told that he or she wouldn't bite!

After lunch we did some more obedience, I was pleased by this as I know Odene is brilliant at it. Except a surprise was in store, Nicky and I were asked to swap dogs! So there I was with Rita who is a much harder dog to work. She needs a much firmer handler and the 'no' needs to be rough and mean so that you only need to say it once. I found this incredibly difficult, I'm obviously no good at all at being mean! Rita also kept looking round for her Mum and obviously thinking 'who are you to tell me what to do?'. I was exhausted by the time we arrived back with Nicky. I'm so pleased I've got Odene who is a real softy in comparison and whom I don't need to be so firm with. It did at least mean that I practiced my fierce, firm voice which I think did improve slightly at least! It goes to show though that Rita has formed a real bond with Nicky and behaves much better for her and the same holds true for Odene and I.

After lunch we spent the afternoon obstacle avoiding. Trainer Mike joined Kelly and they put out lots of cones across paths to teach us how to get the dog to go into the road briefly to get round the obstacle. In real life this could be a car on the path, roadworks, a group of people, the list goes on! It was quite interesting how much the dog has to do in these situations and how much we too have to do to help out with the decision of what comes next. There is a lot of 'find the way' and 'in, in' once you've passed the obstacle. There is also a difference for when you pass an obstacle on one side of the street to the other which is to do with positioning.

Tomorrow is our last full day at the hotel and I believe we are going to try working the dogs round obstacles again. I'm now definitely looking forward to work on my usual routes and also looking forward to getting home!