[NAGDU] Anniversary (LONG)

Cindy Ray cindyray at gmail.com
Tue Jun 28 00:46:32 UTC 2016


David, that is truly a beautiful tribute to your pup. May you have many more
happy trails.
Cindy


-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David via NAGDU
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 6:23 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: David <david at bakerinet.com>
Subject: [NAGDU] Anniversary (LONG)

July 3rd will mark the anniversary of the day Claire Rose and I arrived home
from school.  As you can imagine, after a year Claire and I are pretty
tight. We walk each morning for a couple of hours, unless I start too late
and it gets too hot. I carry ice in a Camelbak and we sit on benches a
couple of times to finish off the ice. She thinks that ice is the world's
most fabulous treat. The school's local trainer here is not too hot about
treats, but Claire is so food driven, we have continued treats for
performance on a random basis since leaving school.

She can find an elevator button, even when I am convinced there isn't one.
The minute the door opens on an elevator in a bank of elevators she is
dragging me to it. Men's restrooms are a magnet and she never fails to find
one when I ask. I think I've mentioned before how she learned to find
traffic buttons in one clicker session at one intersection. The only ones
she has trouble with are those behind a guardrail. We still argue about pace
when walking, but I am becoming more relaxed about it and she is, too. I
don't know whether she was taught the Walk and Hike commands, but she
handles both of them with ease. Walk has been a big help in grocery stores
and Hike is great when we have to wend our way through narrow places. We're
currently working on tree roots on park paths and she is getting pretty
good. At 76 I'm a little too old to spend a lot of time on the ground.
Fortunately, Claire thinks so, too. 
She's very good at sidewalk problems, once I've tripped over them. 
(Right About, repeat Right About, repeat)

She is a perfect lady in restaurants - slides under and disappears until it
is time to go. (She does like licking bare toes and lotion from legs,
however, and when I hear giggles from my dinner mates, I know she's
indiscreetly making her presence known.) She finds cash registers, exits and
entrances, of course, and ignores children and dogs with a "Leave It" (even
though she loves the little ones).

We took 10 flight segments last year and she was perfect. The airline
attendants love her. As sweet as she is, it is kind of hard not to. 
Teaching TSA officers how to handle us through the scanner has had mixed
results. We're off to the NFB convention in Orlando next week. It will be
our first train ride.

I think she has filled out some, but at 70 pounds she weighs the same as the
day we left the school.  Fenway, our 55 lb. pet lab/husky cross has become
more tolerant and while they are not always playmates, they kiss after
absences and as long as it is not one of Fenway's high value toys, she
allows Claire to play with them. Fenway won't go near the water and Claire
won't stay out of it, so when we are out on the lanai and Claire has been
given "pool time", she confounds Fenway by jumping in the pool on her float
with one of Fen's toys. Claire has found a few other dog friends. An old
friend and another grad from our school live a few blocks away and his 80+
pound lab and Claire are a good match energy-wise. Their play reminds me of
how she played at school with her larger brother. No fear.

Thanks to her trainer and Claire's puppy raiser for the wonderful job they
did with Claire Rose. She has made a big difference in my life. I was pretty
good with a cane, but my wife said she started to cry when she saw the two
of us walking down the street looking like normal "people". Ah, well.

Thanks, too, to all the wonderful people on our lists who have provided
support each day as we hit different challenges.

-- 

David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL

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