[NAGDU] Trip journal

[Tracy Carcione]

I was grumbling to a friend about my problems with Krokus, and she suggested
I keep a trip journal.  I write down the trip, some of the highlights and
lowlights, and give it a rating.

It seems kinda useful, so I mention it to the list.  I can look back at the
last few days and see any patterns, and record what's working and what's
not.

I'm not sure about the rating, though.  Krokus tends to be a slow starter.
He screws around when we're starting out, then he gets in a groove and is
good.  So the first part of a trip could be a 2 or 3, then the rest could be
a 7.

Then I ask myself, what's my scale?  Really, my expectation is that a guide
dog would attend to guiding most of the time, only sniffing or getting
distracted a little bit.  So is that a 5, average, or a 9, with 10 being for
outstanding behavior, like a traffic check?  When Krokus actually goes a
whole trip without balking or sniffing, I'm so amazed I give him a high
rating, but I think I'm inflating his grades a bit.

Anyway, there it is, for whatever it's worth.

Tracy