[nagdu] Blown Away!

[Tami Jarvis]

Has anyone else ever had this happen? You're going along through the 
snow and all, then your guide dog is picked up by a gust of wind and 
you're just holding her to the earth by the harness? Or is that just my 
lightweight long-legged poodle?

Poor kid! I could *hear* what she thought about that little blip in her 
working day. It was *not* very ladylike. /lol/ Then she got her stubborn 
on, hunkered down -- literally, so she was closer to the ground -- and 
carried on like she has been doing snow and ice and wind before, well, 
now. And she did recover her confidence enough that by the time we came 
out, with the wind down a bit and the snow packed into beginning ice 
packs, she considered indulging in a dog distraction in the parking lot. 
She didn't, beyond some looking and prancing before tending to making 
sure nobody (say, me) slipped and that no cars were sliding around. 
She's seeming to grasp that cars are less predictable, although it's 
hard for me to be sure. Surely she is picking up on the fact that I'm 
more wary!

Anyway, I guess I need to rethink my winter travel philosophy around my 
apparently aerodynamic guide dog. I'm just wondering if anyone else has 
had the problem and if there's some strategy for dealing in case we get 
caught out when the wind comes up. It does that suddenly around here, 
from whichever direction it happens to come up from. I've been blown 
along by it and picked up by it before, in previous times here, which is 
something folks here just get used to, honestly. /lol/ It just never 
occurred to me that the wind would do that to my dog just walking from 
the pickup to the store!

Live and learn...

Tami