[nagdu] the life of a guide dog

[Julie J.]

My routine consists of walking to work, about 10 blocks or so.  Monty lies 
under my desk, usually sleeping or dozing.   Sometimes I need to go to 
various offices in the building, but mostly I'm in my office.  Once a week 
we go to the grocery store.  I was doing really good with cooking at home 
for a long while, but lately I've really been a slacker!  So we've been 
going to restaurants a couple days a week.  I go to the bank, post office 
and other errand type places periodically.  I suppose it works out to one of 
these per week.  I also attend meetings and trainings for work.  Again it 
probably works out to one of these per week.  during the spring through fall 
I travel every couple of weekends for various events.  this weekend we are 
going to a blindness convention.  Last week I was at a three day out of town 
meeting at a hotel.  Monty attends all of this stuff with me.

I have found that his limit for out of town hotel travel is three or four 
days.  If I go someplace for longer than that, he goes to the dog sitter 
lady's house.  He loves it there.  He gets to run and play with a whole pack 
of dogs.

A year and a half ago I broke my foot and was pretty much stuck in the house 
for four months.  It was really hard on both me and Monty.  I did my best to 
teach him some new inside skills, play fetch games and whatever else I could 
think of to keep him busy.  When I was able to work him again, he picked up 
right where we left off with very little difficulty.

When we are at home Monty is free in the house.  He plays with my other dog, 
watches out the front window for squirrel intruders, plays with his toys, 
tries to look cute and get some snacks and visits with other family members. 
I've never kept him on leash in the house like I've done with other dogs. 
In the beginning I just shut all the doors to limit his freedom, but he's 
generally super close to me anyway.  At night he sleeps in a crate, but it's 
been ages since I've shut the door.

Julie