Dancing With Melanie

Life with Melanie is beginning to be more routine, with our daily walks, sometimes, visiting a store, a doctor, etc. Always, we work on some of the same issues, ie., dog distractions, pace and pull, and many other smaller things. Today, was "pace and pull". Due to so much rainy weather, even though we've gone out just about everyday, the weather cleared beautifully today, and she could hardly contain herself. I finally had to put her "gentle lead" on for more control and kept halting and having her sit to take a breath (me, that is). Some days she forgets she's a Guide Dog and thinks she's a sled dog, just pulling me along. So, we had to slow things down today on the rec trail and, finally, after about 5 sits and stays, I was able to push her harness handle forward so she would understand that the pace needed to be slower. She walked on her tip toes for about half an hour doing the "Melanie Dance", but it helped our pace and pull to something very comfortable for me. On the way home, we stopped at the PG Police Department and picked up a copy of the citation report on the dog who attacked her a couple of weeks ago. I just wanted it for my records as I knew we'd be going up there again and want to be sure we don't have to deal with that problem again. The stramge thing is that the dog who came after her was a black Lab, guess he was just jealous of her dancing.

Melanie Kisses and a New Chip

According to my husband, who sleeps in later than I, says Melanie should come in the bedroom to wake him up with her kisses and, amazingly, she loves it too. So, just before we go out for our morning walk, I walk her to the bedroom door (without her harness or leash), tell her she can go in by herself and to be very careful. She looks at me, says "Sure", and then flys through the door and laps his face all over and falls down on the floor beside him. During the day, they play tug with her Kong tug ring and he really believes it's helping heal and strengthen his arms since his surgery a year ago. Actually, he's madly in love with her and laughing at her antics, he's just a happier person since Melanie came home. I call her the family rehab dog and she seems to love her job.

Also, we took her to the vet today and had a tracking chip inserted, even though she had tattoos inside both ear flaps and 3 dog tags (4 now). I happened to read GDB's web site where they stopped doing tatoos in favor of the chip one month after we graduated. If she gets lost now, she did it on purpose. Can't bear to think of her not being in the family.

Melanie Update

I got a very nice, concerned, email from Melanie's puppyraiser. I let her know that Melanie and I went out walking as usual today and she was her happy normal self with dogs and all other manner of Guide Dog issues. Coincidentaly, the animal control officer saw us walking and stopped to ask how we were doing. She said she talked to the dog's owner (a hardware store, not the water shop) and saw the dog. She said the dog had no history with them and that she's extremely gentle with people but does harrass dogs, but doesn't bite. She said the owner was very apologetic and the officer instructed him to have a dorr closing device installed on his front door so that when customers come and go, the door won't stay open. All in all, the situation was handled well and apparently the article I wrote for our BVIC newsletter entitled "Guide Dog Etiquette/Responsibility" came out in the nick of time. Fortunately, because we live in a small city, the police are only minutes away and the officer said she has seen Melanie and I out walking on a regular basis. However, the next time I have to go to that particular shopping area, we'll walk on the other side to get to the beauty salon. Oh, Dear, what we do for beauty!

Dog Attack on Melanie!

Unbeliievable, but totally not unexpected, according to the GDB info. As Melanie and I were leaving my hair appointment in the shopping square between Safeway and Trader Joe's in PG, we had to walk around a truck parked in the driveway area and without warning of any kind a dog about the size of Melanie came out snarling and growling trying to attack her. The owner of the dog came out of the store (a water store) and had to restrain her dog twice (without a leash) to get her away from Melanie. She said her dog tended to be aggressive to dogs outside and she usually keeps the door to the shop closed, but this time it was open. We checked out Melanie for any bites or injuries, but she appeared to be okay. However, a man came over to me very upset and said he saw the whole incident and had immediately called the police. I thanked him and another female came over who also saw it. The man thought I might also have been injured because of the way the handle of the harness had beenh wrenched from my hand; however, I did still have her leash and I was okay. The police (animal control) came and interviewed the witnesses and me and said they would interview the owner of the attacking dog and a report would be ready for me to pick up in a couple of days. Apparently, PG animal control are aware of not just physical injuries that can happen to a Guide Dog but the emotional trauma, mentioning that if the dog had to be retrained it would probably have to be paid by the owner of the attacking dog. At that point, I left and Melanie and I walked to a local store I had planned to stop in and picked up a couple of items. Quite frankly, dear Melanie, seemed none the worse for all the commotion; in fact, seeming to wonder what all the fuss was about. She is not a timid dog, but certainly not aggressive in any manner. I'll be taking her out again tomorrow to see how she does around other dogs and going around vehicles. I think she'll do just fine. I did call GDB to alert them to this matter and was told that unless a criminal complaint was filed or if I just needed to express my feelings about this, there really wasn't any need to report this type of interference.

Well, Melanie is on her mat next to me having a siesta after her evening meal and just being her wonderful self.

Catching Up With Melanie

It seems like I post about once or twice a week these days. Melanie and I have a regular routine in the morning and we keep working on the things that I feel are important. She really is doing a great job as my little Guide, even the dog distractions don't seem quite as "distracting" as they used to. Of course, many people are keeping their dogs from interacting and some ask if it would be okay for the dogs to meet. Sadly, right now, I tell them it would not be a good idea since Melanie still needs more discipline in that area, but, hopefully, eventually, as we walk and meet some of the regulars, we can stop and have a calm hello. But, all in all, she's doing much better. Yesterday, we walked to "Pet Extreme" and bought her 3 new nylabones, regular, bacon, and chicken. I also ordered an extra handle for her harness as a backup.

Today was our first time together when I went to have blood drawn for a annual lab test. She was her usual "lady-like" self and everyone said how well-behaved she was, not realizing the amouut of time and money it took to get her that way. However, I still have to be the one to be sure she follows the Guide Dog rules. My husband picked us up there and on the way home we stopped for breakfast at Coco's restaurant. Again, she was very polite but found it hard to get all the way under the table because of the way the booth tables are desined. But she worked it out and all the staff loved her. We went for one of our "power" walks to burn off some energy and now she's in the TV room with my husband "loving and teasing" him. Every day I'm so thankful to my puppy raiser and GDB for giving me this opportunity to live my life with such a special little person (I mean dog).