[nagdu] Two weeks with Taylor - Update

[Nicole Torcolini]

Lisa,

	Glad that things are going well. Luckily, Lexia does not destroy
things that are not toys, but she definitely  does a number on those ropes,
which, for some silly reason, she likes more than the other toys. I am glad
to hear that he likes to work. When he gets distraction, do you use
corrections, redirection, or some combination of both? When he finds the
gate, do you praise him?

Nicole and Lexia who will destroy certain toys

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa via nagdu
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2014 10:42 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Two weeks with Taylor - Update

Hello everyone!

Now it's been two weeks since Taylor and I graduated from guide dog
training.
Those two weeks have been both exhausting and incredibly fun.
By now, we have destroyed one toy (a rope with two knots that now consists
of a thousand single strings), figured that this dog tries to chew on
EVERYTHING that he can find, including our wardrobe, soap, plastic bags,
shoes, paper, bottles just to name a few items. But I got him some obviously
delicious chew bones of cowhide and his behaviour inside the apartment is
getting better literally day by day.
His guiding is flawless as it has been during training and it is so great to
work him. When I take the harness, he is so excited and happy. And other
dogs, children and most of the other things you face outside don't distract
him. Only when people start looking at him too fascinated or dare to say
something, he starts pulling like crazy. But I was able to correct him and
get him focused again anytime so far.

The last few days, we've been working on finding a certain entrance. There's
a building I have to go to quite often and when I was still using my cane, I
could find it easily. But now that the dog is on my left side, I cannot look
at the different stones there anymore. So I wanted to show Taylor the right
gate and then make him remember it. I now have a command for this gate and I
was so astonished how incredibly fast he learned it. We went there several
times now just to practice it and by now, he guides me to the gate
everytime. I'm so proud of him.

Furthermore, the school made him sleep in his crate in a seperate room with
the door closed during the night. I thought it was quite reasonable during
training, so we all would get some proper sleep. But now since training is
over, I had the wish to have him around me during the night as I have during
daytime. So one evening, I didn't tell him to go in his room. At first, he
was totally confused and started running around and playing in the bed room.
When he was still up at 1 AM and started eating the carpet, I decided to
give him one more night on his own. ;-) But since the evening after this, he
has been sleeping on his blanket in our bed room so quietly and peacefully.
This is just awesome. So we are much closer and he is much more involved in
our everyday life.

Okay, I think this is enough for now. Let me say once again that I'm really
happy to be here on the list because I already learnt a lot from your
e-mails!

take care and greetings from Germany
Lisa



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