two weeks with pete

It’s been a long time since I’ve written.  The transition with Pete has been a little hard.  He grabs everything!  ahhh!  I quite the fun thing to have little kids at home and a little puppy named pete as well.  He is a great dog, but, man this is crazy.  It seeme as though I’m having to correct for everything all the time.  Plus he can’t work that much because of the terrible sidewalks full of snow.  Wichita doesn’t do nearly a good enough job of keeping the sidewalks around town free of snow.  That makes it doubly hard to work.  I think, though, we’ll get the hang of things.  It’s just going to take a little more time.

Well better go for now.

one day till home

Hey. It's thirsday and my flight has been canceled untill tomorrow. I must say, however, that I am relly happy with the choice the Seeing Eye has made for me. I love Pete. He is a really, funny, happy dog and a great worker.

There ae a lot of people here whose flight was canceled today. I think most of us are just ready to go home. One chapter in my life is comming to an end and another one is beginning. I'm thankful to God for giving me Pete and I am ready to get home to my family and church. I miss them a lot.

Well, better go for now.

Tim

a week with pete

Hey guys. Sorry for such a long time between posts. I'm finding that I'm not too good at posting everyday,so, I'll post when I feel there is something ignificent to say.

I't been a week with Pete and I'm finding that my bond with him is becomming stronger tna with y other dogs. It's neat to see our relationship develop and I'm learning lots of things about him. For example, when he wants to play with his bone he will make a growling or almost a siren sound. We have been taught not to discourage this as he is just playing. He is a really decisive worker but is still running a few of the down curbs.

Last Friday, we started clicker targeting. In this, we would first associate the target. We'd but a "target on the object and let the dog hit the target with his nose. The target, in this case, would be a bell. We would then treat near the target. This would occur about 20or so times. Then we would "backchain." We would move a little farther back and let the dogs work us to the target. They'd find the target then we would treat them. The third and finjal step is to remove the target and the dogss would work us to the target and point it out with their nowse.

It's quite the teat way to train the dogs to find other objects.

Well better go for now as I have to feed pete the pup.

Days five and six at the Seeing eye

Hey guys. Sorry for suce a long wait between posts. There was not a heck of a lot on day five. But, let me see.

Day five began with a canceled trip due to the snow. There is usually one trip on Wednesday anyway it was just switched from the afternoon to the morning. We worked on Harness rules in the house, obedience, and clicker training. My trip on south went well. Pete started to work well for me without the instructor having to push him or say anything to him. We than worked on clicker training after dinner and a lecture on the topic.

This began with the instructor giving me a number that she was going to say. When I hear the number, I was to immeditely click, pause, and treat (give the treat)

Day six was some of the same except we took two trips, went on a schedule, went on shutles to and from the downdown training center, and worked a little differently on the clicker thing.

We were given a treat pouch we clipped on to our side. Then we were given a clicker and a rig with a bell and mmagnets and rubber band with which we can attach the "target" to. Pete would hit the targen with his nose and I would click,, pause, and treat. Pete did better at this than di I. Quite funny.

I know this post was compacted. Sorry for that. I'll try to post on a daily basis later.

Day four at the eye

Well. Day four has passed and Peete and I are doing well. After breakfast, we went out on our first walk togather and Peete started to work rather well. However, Tracy still had the leash on him. After lunch, we went on our second trip and Peete did a marvelous job.

My instructor didn't even have to put her leash on him and he did well. It's obvious that he is a big dog and his pace and pull are great. Hee only missed two down curbs and that was because he was pressured to go out in to the street. He is such an awesome dog and I'm glad he's mine.

Day Three at the Seeing Eye – Pete the puppy

Day Three at the Seeing Eye – Pete the puppy

Day three started out much like the other two days, except for the 6 o’clock wake-up call. We went to breakfast and I had a discussion with my instructor about whether or not the dog would fit in my small car. One of the important things I was asked to do is “just walk with me.” So, I did and had a wonderful time at our 7:45 Juno walk.

After we came back to the Eye we had a great lecture by the President Jim Cutch. He discussed the history of the Seeing eye, the importance of trademark, and the $65,000 cost of each person trimming with a “seeing Eye dog.” He also speculated as to where the term we use, “park time” came from the fact that there was a public park across the street from the old building in Nashville in which the dogs used to empty.

As lunch rolled around, my excitement was mounting and the buffalo chicken sandwitch was awesome.

Then, it was time to wait until… dum dum dum dum… the knock came.

Do you have your audio?” I was asked

“Yep.” I responded.

“do you have him.”

“yep, I have your buddy.”

I was than sat on a coutch in the men’s lounge and given the name of my dog. His name is Pete and he is the “happiest dog I’ve ever seen” according t my instructor.

So, we came to the room and began the bonding process. He is a great dog and I think I’m really going to love him.

Well, that’s all for now.

Tomorrow is another day.

Second day at the Eye

aWell it’s been an eventful day here at the Seeing Eye. We, well -- actually -- I got up at 4 after not much sleep. I played games on the computer until about 6 at which time I checked my sugar levels and they were a little high but not as high as I'd originally thought.

Then, we had breakfast at which I had my first English muffin in quite some time. After Breakfast, I went on my juno walk with the instructor and I got to see the training lounge for the first time. It's quite the nice please. The walk went great but I had my first case of shin splints in quite some time. I've determined that I was walking a little too fast so, tomorrow, I'll slow down a little bit and see if the pull is good and the pace matches well for me.

We next came back and I got a chance to play the piano in the common lounge and Hear Julia mosenand another student play the flute and piano respectively. They are both some talented musicians to say the least. I even tried my hand at singing a tennor solo that I remembered from a long time back and what was amazing is that the woman actually played the right accompaniment. Cool!

We then had a fire drill, a lecture from Walt Sutton, lunch, and dog handling and obedience work. They were covered in much more through detail than in times past so that was awesome.

We then had dinner, and ended with a wine and cheese social. All in all, I had quite the full day.

I will be able to post some audio of my Juno walkand the meeting with the new dog. I've got to watch what I record because I don't want to record people without their permission.

Well, that's all for now. See ya' on the flip side..
b