Open Day Prep and a Dinner Date

Friday April 28th – We worked on our blindfold routes this morning and it went surprisingly well for me. I had been a little nervous about using my cane in the busy area but it was actually easier to maintain my orientation with all the pedestrians and busier traffic. I even managed to cross the several streets without veering too badly. That is until I started heading uphill. The slope really threw me off and it was weird how my feet would just follow the slopes of the driveways then I would veer back uphill into the building. I was like a ping pong ball! I only learned the first section but I was relieved that it went pretty well overall.

In the afternoon we were requited to assist with the set up for Open Day which will be on Sunday. We will be helping the ABI department with the “sensory hallway”. They have darkened the hallway in the training centre and set up all kinds of different tactile surfaces for people to experience.

This evening Peter, one of the GD instructors invited us to have dinner. Pete lives in an on campus house with his wife Leslie who is an American, and their 7 month old son, Bobby. Pete had spent a year at the Seeing Eye in New Jersey back in 2001 on an exchange program. While Pete was in the US one of the instructors from the Seeing Eye came to Guide Dogs Victoria. Pete and Leslie met there as Leslie working in the kennel department and the rest is history. It was a really fun evening, we all talked non stop about all kinds of stuff and it was interesting to get Leslie’s take as an American living in Australia. I had brought our big bag of American candy which was a hit and we reminisced about the candy we enjoyed as kids.

Of course we did talk some "shop" which I am always ready to do. I am learning so much about different perspectives, styles of training dogs and how successfully other schools run. Obviously there are pros and cons to being a large organization like my school but smaller schools have their own set of different pros and cons too. I really enjoyed sharing our different perspectives and Pete’s experience is fascinating because he has worked in both environments. It was totally fun and we are planning to get together again next week.