Day 24, Qualification Day!

What a surprise it was when after we got back from St Albans today to be told that I was being qualified!

It was a normal route there and back with both trainer Mike and Kelly accompanying me. Odene reacted well to another dog which potentially could have gone very badly. We came back home though, I offered tea which I started making but then Mike distracted me by saying, 'Kelly has some good news for you' to which Kelly said 'yep, you're now qualified!'.

I signed the Guide Dog Ownership Agreement, handed over 50 pence as per the agreement at which point Odene became a qualified Guide Dog and I became a qualified owner! Yipee! I will be celebrating tonight but not sure in what way yet!

Kelly and Mike were really complimentary about Odene and I, saying that we didn't look like a partnership that had only been together a few weeks but instead were a partnership that had been together a lot longer. I must admit, I feel so comfortable with Odene now, I'm far less conscious of what I should be doing next and instead it is coming naturally. I've got to thank Kelly and Mike for all their superb training and of course Odene, she has been brilliant and it's thanks to her trainers, borders, puppy walkers and everyone else involved that she has turned out to be such an excellent Guide Dog.

Of course it's not all over, I'm seeing Kelly tomorrow to do our first meet with my parents dog Inca followed by visiting the vets on Friday to get her flea treatment done. It just means that in the meantime if I want to go out, nothing is stopping us!

Planning on taking it gradually and I certainly will be sensible but boy am I excited!!!

My official qualifying Guide Dog Ownership photo card and badge!

Day 23 of GDT

London! We made it there and back in one piece!

Odene as usual performed brilliantly and she didn't mind the trains at all. It was certainly my longest journey for a coffee that's for sure! Instead of sitting at every right or left turn we did turns on the move in London. It made sense being that it's a lot busier with more chance of Odene getting trodden on. It did however mean quick travelling which was quite cool.

One thing that was a really big surprise was the need to get the escalators turn off. On part of my route the only way to get to different platforms are going up or down escalators which is a big no no for Guide Dogs. We had to ask rail staff if it could be turned off before we could go on them, made me feel very important! It makes me realise though just how many steps there are to take on the underground... at least I'll become fit with Odene!

If I were to take to the trains on my own I think I'll phone ahead to tell them of my journey to warn them that I will need escalators turned off so that they can look out for me. Else there may be a lot of waiting around looking for rail staff.

Once at Moorfields Eye Hospital we met up with a lady called Barbara along with her Guide Dog who works at Moorfields. I've actually met her before on one of my previous eye sight appointments but it was nice to get to know her a bit better and is someone I can hopefully see again next time I'm up there. We took both our dogs to the spending pen which Moorfields have created specially for Guide Dogs. I'm not sure if I'm mentioned this or not in previous posts but spending equals going to the loo. At home and at both work places, I spend Odene on grass or woodchip. The spending pen at Moorfields is made out of concrete with drains incorporated. Odene went second and I wasn't too sure that she would go or not but after a bit of sniffing she went on command, 'busy busy'.

It was a shorter day for me but it certainly was tiring, Odene is once again sprawled out on the floor. Kelly shot a pic of us on the train coming home so do take a look at her in her body piece! The metal harness bar is detached on journeys by bus, train or even just if I'm going to be lying her down for a few minutes as it can get in the way of her curling up and it can get quite uncomfortable just resting on her back.

Odene on the train!

Day 22 of GDT

A brilliant day, Odene is doing so very well.

We did another Watford route to work and back followed by St Albans route this afternoon. We even fitted time in to get a coffee at Costa whilst we were in St Albans which was joined by a cheeky chocolate brownie brought from the shop next door. We also managed to miss the down pour of rain this afternoon, it was as if Odene realised it was going to rain and sped up!

I have nothing bad to say about Odene, it looks like the main thing I need to be watchful of is allowing her to move across me when avoiding something. It seems that it's the only time my remaining vision is a bit of a hindrance as I'm great at following her going left but not so good at following her right. I think I'm getting there tho! This is my last week of full time training so it can't be long till we are qualified!

Odene is zonked out right now, happily sleeping on our cold wooden floor cooling down after all her exertions of the day. Kelly commented on how happy she seems here, as if she knows that this is her permanent home now. Whenever we go out on our harness walks and we return home I say 'find home' to which she suddenly perks up and almost drags me to the front door in her excitement! Tis very cute!

Off to London tomorrow to do a trip to Moorfields Eye Hospital which is one of my regular appointment places. Trainer Mike is joining Kelly and we are meeting a lady who works there who has a Guide Dog already to break up the route a bit with a cuppa before making our way back again. I think London may be tough so wish us luck!

A zonked out Odene! This pic makes her look like she is a giant size dog!

Day 19 of GDT

What a day! It been a busy one that's for sure. Odene is wiped out!

We started with our very early journey on the bus to my St Albans office. We stayed about an hour before making a return journey by bus. We had a couple of hours back at home before doing the bus routes to my Watford office and back.

Going to Watford by bus was our first time at it and unfortunately there was a foreign market on the high street. It meant that my normal quiet walk to work was instead incredibly busy. Odene coped very well however. There are shared streets in Watford Town Centre which are streets without curbs. Obviously Odene has been trained to stop at curbs which means I don't just get taken into the road. With there being no curbs to stop at however it is up to me to say 'sit' at the right time, not hard in the daylight hours but it will be harder in the dark. Hopefully Odene will learn in time but it can't be relied on. I'm defs not a fan of shared streets thats for sure!

We then had a bit of fun and gave Odene a free run where we met up with Maz and Bella, Maz and Gab's Japanese Spitz. It went fairly well but Odene and Bella weren't automatically best friends. We're going to have another free run next week to see if they get on better next time. The meet was going much better towards the end but due to the heat we thought it best to take Odene back home as she was starting to pant a bit too excessively.

It's a break for the weekend and we start back up on Monday morning!

Day 18 of GDT

It's been a really good couple of days. Yesterday we did my St Albans route to work and back again using the bus with a nice 1/2 hour break at work. Odene performed brilliantly although it was incredibly hot and I think she was suffering from black dog syndrome with the heat getting to her. We certainly moved a lot slower than normal and it can't be put down to Odene's limp as that has completely disappeared now, woot!

Today we decided to make a trip to my Watford office. As it was another hot day so it seemed like a good idea to not make another lengthy trip to St Albans in the heat of the day. Instead we took Odene in the car along with her 3rd bed to Watford. Kelly and I went in first without Odene to check out the space that had been created in my absence. We set up the bed and filled up her water bowl and just generally warned everyone that we were bringing Odene up and to continue working as normal.

Odene we've decided is the perfect office dog. She happily sat down in her bed, took a drink and we did the trip up and down the stairs several times to get her used to where to go with her heading straight for her bed every time. She seemed to need no encouragement, instead it seems that getting to the office to have a relaxing lie down seemed encouragement enough! The only problem with the heat meant that she didn't constantly want to lie in the bed, it was too hot for her so instead laid down under the desk. Luckily I'm next to windows which we can open up with blinds to stop the heat of the sun coming in.

Tomorrow is going to be my first full on day. We're going to head to my St Albans office for my normal working hours, meaning Kelly is getting here for 7.15am! Then temperature permitting for the afternoon we're going to the Watford office again. With us ending with a well deserved free run with my best friend Maz joining us part way through with her dog Bella!

Day 16 of GDT

Today we took Odene on the journey to my St Albans office working in harness. As we had been cleared to work by the vets we were watchful of her limping but knowing that to harden her paw pads we should get her out and about. We saw a dog up in front and that seemed to make her forget about her poorly foot completely!

She remembered the route from when we last did it and went straight to the traffic light signal box when asked and the same for the bus stop. Here I experienced a truly silly question, 'How do Guide Dog's read the bus numbers?'. I'll start at the beginning, we arrived at the bus stop, yay lots of praise. We then took her to sit within the shelter but before quite managing to do this a fellow (who turned out to be the bus driver) tried to start making a fuss of her. This is where I had to be quite firm as Odene shouldn't react to people fussing her, unfortunately she turned towards him so I said 'no' and corrected her. Once ignoring the fellow I gave her lots of praise again, it's all about balancing the bad girl with the good girl you see. I thought my 'no' was enough to scare off the guy from speaking to me again but instead as soon as I sat Odene down he started coming towards us to give her a stroke again! Kelly acted as a human shield and was like 'seriously, you can't pet a working Guide Dog'. He still didn't really get it so Kelly started answering all his questions, to which he asked 'How do Guide Dog's read bus numbers?'. I was looking at him disbelievingly but he was adamant that they could. He had seen Guide Dogs either waiting at the bus stop, letting a bus go past if it wasn't the right one and other Guide Dogs trotting right up to the bus when it's the right one. Kelly explained rather tactfully that, no, Guide Dogs can't read numbers and that either the passenger with the Guide Dog has some remaining vision and can see the numbers, or another person waiting at the stop would have told them. I think the driver saw sense in the end and at least we came away knowing we had educated someone about Guide Dogs. I'm tempted if asked by someone again to just say 'I get her to read the timetable every night to practice'. Mike said that someone had actually said that to a reporter once and it got printed in the local newspaper... I don't really understand how anyone could've believed it but there you go!

It made me think though that it's a real shame that so many people aren't aware of what that do's and don't are with Guide Dogs and businesses aren't making more efforts in making employees aware of the Equality Act. I actually ended up writing to my local bus company late this afternoon to ask them about their views on the 'talking buses campaign' but also to ask if they gave all their drivers training on the Equality Act and what to do if a Guide Dog owner came aboard. We'll see if I get a response!

Once at work I took the harness off and got Odene settled again. Kelly and Mike left me for 15 minutes to see how she would be. I acted as I would normally in the office, got on the phone, checked some emails and opened filing cabinets. I didn't even get a lift of the head from her! Liz my St Albans work colleague was amazed at how well she behaved and to be honest so was I!

Mike returned for me as Kelly was fetching the car and I put the harness back on and we went back downstairs. Going outside towards the car I made my first boo boo of the day. I was saying 'find the car', which she did but then didn't stop at a curb. Kinda both our faults I guess but seeing as she had done so well we just let her get into the back of the car. Kelly and Mike brought me back home with news that I'd be doing it all again tomorrow but this time would be having a return journey by bus as well!

It's becoming real now, I'm not getting as many instructions from Kelly or Mike with them now just following behind me and only giving the occasional point to improve on.

Day 15 of GDT

We took Odene outside today to see if her limp had gone over the weekend, unfortunately she was still limping on the tarmac. She has been fine in the house all weekend so it must just be that her pad is sensitive on the tougher surfaces. We decided that due to her continued limping despite the rest of the weekend we shouldn't work her so instead to still make use of the day in training we took her in the car to my St Albans office.

It went brilliantly! Kelly and I went in first to set up her bed and bowl in the office and to give everyone the heads up that we were coming in. We then went back for Odene and heeled her up to the office. We had filled her bowl with a bit of her evening feed so she went 'wow, this place is amazing!' and once she was a little bit more settled we shut the door to the office and took her off the lead to have a bit of an explore around.

Once she had ensured that she had sniffed everything she could we got her settled into her bed and got her settled. Kelly and I stayed for a tea so we could give her time to get used to being in a new place. As I say she couldn't have behaved more perfectly and she truly made Kelly and I proud!

Odene had quite a few of my colleagues admiring eyes on her but it didn't seem to worry her at all and she also seemed quite happy when I left the room. Take a look of the picture below of her in her St Albans office! I'm thinking of asking for an NHS name tag for her to attach to her harness, it would be appropriate don't you think? After all, every worker has to have one and she is a working dog...!

Odene having a snooze at the office

Once we were finished at the office Kelly took me to the pet store again to get a few more bits. I wanted to supply her with a kong or nylabone in the quiet times of work to ensure she doesn't get bored just sitting next to me all day or if I have to leave her on her own in the office for any length of time. As a Guide Dog I'm only allowed to leave her on her own for 4 hours at a time just as a bit of extra knowledge. I'm hopeful that I won't often need to leave her this long mind!

We then took her to the vets again for another examination and we were cleared to work her again. Yay! We are still to keep an eye on her and if she were to start limping on every step instead of the random limp that it currently seems to be, we're to then take her back again. Obviously every day that goes by without her able to work is a day lost in getting qualified!

Tomorrow I believe it's another trip to the St Albans office but instead of being driven there we'll be working Odene there. Trainer Mike is joining us and depending on how Odene is doing limp wise we'll assess whether a drive back is in order or a harness walk back will be okay.

Day 13 of GDT

Wow, the last day of our time at the hotel went so fast! Granted we left just after breakfast but still the last 2 weeks have zoomed by. Hubby Mike stayed over for his birthday and so we all had breakfast together short of Nikki and Rita who had to leave early. I was looking forward to getting home but sad to say goodbye to Paul who has been tremendous company but we will hopefully keep in touch to find out how each us is getting on! I know he'll remember me as 'Emma whom is not the same without her pudding!' :-)

Once breakfast was eaten and my 2 weeks worth of stuff had been packed away into Mike's car to take home for me, I jumped into Kelly's car with Odene so we could do a harness walk to my local vets and take Odene on the free run she never managed to get yesterday. Unfortunately Odene started limping on the tarmac again so we decided that it would be best to forgo the freerun and harness work and just get her registered at the vets in case the limping persists come Monday. Once this was done I was left once again with Odene back at home and currently there are no signs of limping which reassures me at least that there is only pain when she goes on harder surfaces that might have grit that pushes in on the small split on one of her pads.

If all goes well come Monday we'll perhaps do a trip to the St Albans office to introduce her to her spot next to my desk. Fingers and paws are crossed!

I managed to get hubby Mike to take a photo of us all on our last day so do take a peek below!

From left to right: Odene, me, Kelly, Mike, Paul and Zeus

Day 12 of GDT

First of all, Happy Birthday to my dearest hubby Mike! Sorry I couldn't spend the day with you!

This morning Odene and I started our obstacle walk but we stopped the harness work half way round due to Odene starting to limp. We took a look at all the paws and carried on a little in case it was just a bit of grit but unfortunately she kept on limping with the troubling paw appearing to be her front left. So I put the harness down and just heeled her back to the car. Kelly called the vets and we got ourselves an appointment that afternoon.

Some agonising hours later we got to the vets and typically Odene stopped limping! She had a good check over however and the vet noticed that she had a very small split on one of her pads. She was cleared to carry on working however and I breathed a sigh of relief, not because I was worried about her not being able to work but that she was okay. I'm definitely very attached to my pup!

We decided it was best to give her a rest for the rest of the day so Kelly took me to a pet store where I brought tons of toys and treats, I think I was feeling sorry for her! I'm just going to keep an even closer eye on her and her paw for anymore problems. I'm being a very concerned Mum that's for sure!

Off for the last dinner now at the hotel before heading home tomorrow!