[nagdu] Update on Diamond and Me

[judotina48kg at gmail.com]

Hello Shanna- Glad to hear things are going well for you and Diand. Hope you and she have a long working life.
Tina and the girls

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 12, 2013, at 5:41 PM, Shanna Stichler <slstich at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> First, please disregard my previous post. Not sure what happened, but my apologies for the missfire.
> 
> I hope everyone is doing well. I'm sorry I haven't been more frequently contributing to the list. Between computer problems and the semester ending, I haven't had a lot of free time or ability to post.
> 
> Anyway, first of all, Diamond is doing really well. She's completed her formal guide dog training and is doing some fabulous guide work these days. One thing that has really helped us both is that I finally got my harness from LDS Leather. It has an offset handle, which is making a big difference. Diamond likes to work really close to me, which has caused me to step on her paws a lot, and with my vertigo issues I tended to affect her positioning if my balance wasn't so hot. Also, the harness just gives me tons of feedback..much more than the gear I was using before. We've had several traffic checks over the past week or so, and have generally been working in fairly chaotic urban environments lately. None of this seems to phase Diamond at all.
> 
> Even though Diamond is an awesome worker, she still isn't the greatest house dog in the world. I still need to watch her fairly closely because she'll get into things if left to her own devices for too long. I don't think she'll ever be a dog I can leave loose in the house without me being home. She has improved in the house, for sure, but I think with her it's just going to take time and consistency.
> 
> I've started working with Diamond too on getting her AKC CD title. We began a group class a couple of weeks ago, and it's going well. It'll be a while before we compete, but I'm not really in any hurry.
> 
> As for me, the semester has ended, and I'm taking the summer off teaching. I've had some medical stuff to figure out, and also I'm planning to be gone most of July. I'm headed to Oceanside, Ca over the Fourth of July holiday, and shortly afterward I'll be spending a couple of weeks up in the Washington DC area visiting friends. Oh, and I've also decided it's time for me to lose some weight. I'm glad I have a dog who loves being active and going on long walks with me to keep me motivated. Dietting is stupid though..no more lattes for me. *sigh*
> 
> Anyway, sorry for such a long message. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading.
> 
> Best to everyone,
> Shanna and Diamond
> 
> 
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