Mistakes and Successes

Owning a guide dog makes you aware of people’s strange ways of keeping their personal esteem when they know they have lost a fight. So it was with Yossi, the manager of the pool in Nahariya who told me I needed to write a letter asking for permission to enter with Suki, and then called me up to tell me I had been “given permission” to enter the pool with Suki.

Entering the pool today I was not hassled by the guard, and was greeted by the secretary who informed me that I had to renew my subscription. No problem. I stepped through the office door, and was told, “You know how hard Yossi fought for you?”

Riiiiiiiiight, I said to myself. What a laugh. Like a mercenary, he wants to be on the winning side. Out loud I asked what there was to fight about. I had the right to enter the pool by law from the beginning and there was no need to fight for it with anyone. No matter. I was given a discount and a very convenient payment arrangement and all was settled. And there was no way I was going to put Suki on the patio with puddles on the floor and threatening black clouds in the sky.
Today she sat next to the life guard, but unfortunately decided that an occasional bark would convince me to get out of the water. Next time I’ll have to bring her a new toy to chew on and hopefully that will keep her quiet.

Guide dogs learn to stop at every cub and wait for your command to step down into the road. Since they are “programmed” to do this literally, they have trouble understanding that there are some roads that have no curbs. This is confusing and if you are not careful you are liable to walk directly into the road without realizing it. For this reason I’ve been working with Suki on the crossing at the end of our road in Ben Ami. One side of the road has a curb. The other does not, and Suki tends to “miss” it and walk straight into the road even if I command her “straight to the curb”. Evidently a “zebra” striped crossing is not enough to signal that there is a road ahead.

We’ve also been working on locating mailboxes – not just the one where I pick up my mail (Suki knows that she has to put her nose against box number 151!) but also the red mailbox in the square in Nahariya. Today I also led her to another red mailbox in front of the post office and rewarded her with a click and a treat when she led me to that one. Eventually I hope she’ll locate any mailbox.

Next we’ll work on locating ATM machines…What word should I use to coach Suki to them? MONEY! Suki, Moooooneeeeeeee!

I guess it was a good morning though I know I goofed up a couple of times. Darn it, I keep forgetting that the place where we cross the road has no step up or down and cars come by there anyway. Why don’t they put a step there?
When we got to the swimming pool today suddenly the people were all very nice. Evidently they wanted Bracha to keep using the pool, take out that little plastic card, and pay more money. But, hey, this time I didn’t have to stay outside in the little patio, It was full of puddles. So instead Bracha tied my leash to the place where the man sits and watches the people swimming back and forth. He petted me, called me by my name, and gave me water. It was warm and dry there but then I got rather unhappy because Bracha got into that water and started swimming away! I barked and she came back and then she swam away again and I barked again. I wanted to tell her, “Either come back or let me go in the water, too!” This did not please her at all. In fact, it made her swim away again. Guess barking in the pool was a mistake.

Then I er, well, I, uh, made a mess on the sidewalk and I know that was wrong…and I had my harness on, too. We talked about it afterwards and Bracha said she would give me more time to get all of my business out of the way next time we come out of the pool and I said I’d remember to finish when I was given the opportunity. She also told me I must not bark in the pool because that makes the crabby old ladies angry and then they start the business of “This is no place for a dog…bla bla bla..."

I really do want to go swimming, though! Or get in that water where the bubbles come up…oooh!