First and second day of class by Thida

Today I met a ton of service dogs (okay about a dozen), all different, all well trained. I found myself utterly confused as I tried to learn the basic commands they taught us and figure out who was on the other end of my leash. Some dogs moved slow and others moved quickly. I discovered I liked the faster moving dogs. I thought I wanted a slower moving one, but I was clearly wrong.

Some dogs were really mellow and if they didn't understand you and many had problems with my accent and probably the way dystonia elongates my vowels then they sat and waited for you. This made me feel stupid and I tended to get frustrated. Others tried to do something usually slowly to see if that was what you wanted and that made me feel better. The ones that moved quickly and were wrong were too fast for me. Some needed to be encouraged to do anything even if it was clear that they understood since they didn't want to be corrected. That frustrated me too. I discovered that I'm not as patient as I'd like to be and yet my reaction time is slower also.

Others got too excited if you praised too animatedly and broke their sit or down. I was clearly too much for some of these dogs while working. Others responded with just a glance if you praised them which was too little for me. A look was fine. Okay I knew I was excitable. LOL. So that was not a discovery. But I did learn more about how different dogs express pleasure and that was very useful in my eventual pairing with Hermione.

Another problem I had initially is I would say "No" in a mom tone with a hint of worse things to come which is good for my kids, but terrible for dogs. I had to learn how to say "No" in the same tone as I give orders which is simply "I mean it now" I went too far the other direction and didn't say "No" firmly enough. Once someone told me the order and the no are in the same tone, I understood it, but I still messed up when the dog clearly knew it was not supposed to do whatever it was. Some of the dogs just don't listen that well to people who aren't their pack leader which is a good thing for people like me in a household with multiple people who could be the pack leader.

I was worried, because I rotated through all the service dogs and it was clear with some we were not a good match. These dogs were wonderful matches for other people and several graduated very happily. I wondered why I had this wrong match. I worried this dog would be paired with me. After a while I realised that I was learning about dogs and the trainers were learning about my reactions. It was a useful exercise, because the dog I had asked for and thought I wanted was not exactly the dog I was paired with who is a brilliant match for me.

Those coming back for their successor service dogs seemed calm and content to wait. I will take their cue next time if I'm privileged enough to come back, which I hope is a very long time from now since I want Hermione to work and live a very long time.