ABI Anatomy and Assessments

Tuesday May 30th – More ABI stuff today. Each day we have a section on client assessment and interviewing and an anatomy section. Today during the assessment section we learned about the VAT (Vision Assessment and Training Tool) and how to use it. It is also called the Liddle Scanning Device. The VAT is a rectangular box 6 feet long and about 6 inches high. It has two rows of different colored lights spaced across the length of the box that can be turned on and off by the assessor. It is used to evaluate field of vision loss and to teach effective scanning techniques to people with visual field loss.

In the afternoon we had a lecture by a local speech pathologist who talked about speech impairments and therapies for an ABI client. She showed some interesting video of clients both at the beginning and end of their therapies.

We ended the day with more video, this time of some client assessments conducted by one of the ABI mobility instructors at GDV.

In my spare time I have been busy putting together the travel itinerary for my time after the course. I don’t know if I have mentioned it here in the blog yet, so if I have, sorry for the repetition. My husband Grant will be arriving next week just at the end of the course and we are traveling Australia for the next 3 weeks! Sue will join us on and off for different portions which should be really fun. The course ends on June 9th and on June 10th we catch a flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. We will travel across the south island to Greymouth, down the west coast, stopping to see one of the glaciers (Fox or Franz Josef), and Milford sound. We will go to Te Anau and see the glow worms and end up in Queenstown. From Queenstown we will fly to Sydney for 3 days before flying up to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and the tropical rainforests. Then it’s off the “the red centre” to Ayers Rock or Uluru for a three day tour of “the rock”, the olgas and kings canyon ending up in Alice Springs. From Alice we head back to Melbourne where we have 4 days to see the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island before returning home to the US. If anyone reading this knows these areas and has some advice for points of interest and places to stay I would love to hear them.

I’m getting excited for the travel part, but I’m also getting really excited to go home. It’s been a long time and I miss my family, friends, dogs, and my job.

Busy Monday

Monday May 29th – Today we began the ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) week. First we did one of the “treasure hunt walks” wearing vision simulator goggles. The goggles which simulate a vision loss associated with ABI are blacked out on one half of each side to simulate a hemianopia. In other words both my right and left eye would not be able to see anything on the left half if I had a left side hemianopia. It means that a person must learn to turn their head strongly to the side they aren’t seeing to scan for objects. Depending on the injury, a person could lose one quarter of a field, half of a field, or three quarters of the visual field.
After the walk we dove into the anatomy of the brain, and early brain development. Very quickly I was in over my head as I don’t have any biology or anatomy background, the terms were very unfamiliar and I have a lot of studying to do! It’s really fascinating though.
In the afternoon we talked about assessments and interviewing an ABI client and used the vision simulator goggles while performing some of the pen and paper assessments.

This evening Sue, Jhaneen, and I went to Pete and Leslie’s and taught them how to play poker. We all played Texas Hold ‘Em and had a great time. I am definitely starting up a girl’s poker night when I get home. We then met Laura over at the Skinny Dog, for trivia night. I am proud to say that again, we did not come in last place!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday May 28th – Today was kind of a lazy day. We went to the Queen Vic Market again, did some more souvenir shopping and people watching. We parted ways and Sue headed off to the Casino while I poked around some more at the market then drove through the Italian section of the city. Along the way I found the “largest used book store in Victoria”, which of course I had to stop for. It was HUGE and I was in heaven. I must have browsed for well over an hour, bought a couple of books, then headed home as most of the shops were closing (remember things close really early on Sundays). Once back at the center I blogged for awhile and watched some DVDs. Pete had loaned me a DVD of a Patricia McConnell (a dog behaviorist) seminar and I must have watched about 3 hours of it that evening. I know it sounds REALLY boring, but as you may have discovered, I am a dog training geek.

Return to the Dandenongs

Saturday May 27th – We returned to the Dandenong ranges today starting out fairly early in order to take our time, relax, and poke around. We headed first to the William Ricketts Sanctuary. William Ricketts was an artist who lived from 1898 to 1993. He purchased 4 acres at the base of the mountain in 1934 and built a home and studio where he worked until his death in 1993. This area of the Dandenongs has lots of mountain ash and tree ferns and is actually a cool temperate rain forest. Very green and leafy, and feels like a dinosaur could wander out from behind the trees any second.

William’s art was greatly influenced by his love of the environment and by his experiences while living briefly with the aboriginal people in the central Australian desert. His work consists of fired clay sculptures of aboriginal people which appear to morph out of boulders and trees throughout the sanctuary.

After taking tons of photos at the Sanctuary we had a quick lunch in Olinda and browsed the many little shops. Most of the shops had Australian made art, and we each made a few purchases. Next we went to Sherbrooke forest to Grant’s Picnic Ground and experienced the birds. This area is unique in that there is a large number of Australian King Parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Galahs, Sulfur-Crested Cockatoos, and Laughing Kookaburras.

The other unique thing is that all these birds (except the Laughing Kookaburra) will come down and eat seed that is sold at the concession stand. The Australian King Parrots and the Crimson Rosellas will actually fly down, land on your arm, and eat out of your hand. Yes, really! Of course we both bought seed and were delighted when the birds landed on us. Very cool!
We headed back to the training centre to get ready for our girls night on the town. We met Jhaneen and her friend at a restaurant where Lauren the GD trainer works on the weekends. We had a tasty dinner and some wine before heading to a night club. We all had a good time; it’s been a long time since this old married lady has had a night on the town, I'd rather be hanging out with my honey at home!

End of Guide Dog Week

Friday May 26th – We spent the morning with Justin who is one of the instructors training a string of dogs while incorporating the clicker. We wanted to take some video footage and Justin was very generous with his time. He worked three dogs who were at about 22 workouts, and they all looked really good. He gave Sue and I the chance to work each of the dogs for a part of the route and they did worked very nicely for us as well. We got to pick his brain about GDV’s training techniques, commands, and footwork, which is all very similar to what we do in the US with only subtle differences. Sue got some good video footage and I took a few more pictures, of course.

The afternoon consisted of Mark finishing up the lecture portion of the Guide Dog week, talking about the process of matching dogs with clients. This afternoon we all got to see an sneak preview of a commercial that GDV had recently made. It was a very well done commercial and reminded me somewhat of the type of ads we at GDB are producing. The commercial shows a man in his early 30s riding on a bus. There is a voiceover in which the man is describing a relationship with a female. He talks about loving to have her around and about her fun personality, and then he comments about how she doesn’t mind that he is blind, and that she loves him anyway. You see the bus pull over, he gets off, and begins working his dog down the street and the voice over says something about how the female he has been talking about is his guide dog. Very professional ad and the man in the ad is actually one of their graduates.

On of the highlights of our day today came when we headed over to the Flight Centre and talked with the agent who helped us plan our trip to Tasmania. We had decided that we needed to get serious about planning our last three weeks of travel. We accomplished a lot during our meeting and ended up booking all bit one of the flights as well as a tour package we wanted to take when we go to Uluru. The part where we had to pay was not quite as fun.

Kennel Tour

Thursday May 25th – More guide dog work, hooray! We worked the dogs under blindfold again this time in a light business district. Susan and I traded dogs so we could each experience a different type of worker.
Look Kristin, I finally found a red dog to work! We each had a chance to do a “Back Left” or a 270 degree left turn. From what I understand, these turns are similar to ones they do both at The Seeing Eye and in the UK. Used in a situation where there are obstacles close on the left side of the dog you step back, giving the dog a back command, and the dog pivots to your right. Once you are facing opposite of your original direction (180 degrees) of travel you tell the dog “find right” and they make a 90 degree right turn. It seems really handy in those situations but I have to admit I was a bit disoriented during the turn, guess I need to practice more!

In the afternoon we finished watching the video we started yesterday then went for a tour of the kennel complex. The kennel manager, Mia gave us the grand tour and answered all our many questions. The kennel can house up to 60 dogs but more often they have between 40 and 50 dogs. They include current training dogs, as well as boarding guides and boarding puppies. The staff consists of 4 full time employees and about 15 of what they call “casual” employees. The “casuals” work evening shifts (4 to 8pm) and weekends. They do all the cleaning, feeding, and medicating of the dogs. They also spend time playing with them and supervising “toy time” as well as taking them into the GIANT grass free run area.


This area is about an acre of fenced in grass where as many as 8 dogs can run, chase, and play to their heart’s content. We watched this group of dogs come out and start running! You can just make out the back fence in the distance. The kennel office has a small exam room where the consulting veterinarian sees any dogs on campus as well as puppy in the raising program. She is on campus twice each week and handles all the minor, non emergency type of problems. All surgeries and emergencies are done by vet clinics in the local area. They also have an “enrichment yard” which used to be one of the community runs that wasn’t being used very often. Mia has brought in tunnels, ramps, hanging toys, and a variety of chew toys and is about to begin a study of the effects of kennel enrichment and stress levels in kenneled dogs. This study is a part of her post graduate work and will include testing the cortical hormone levels of the dogs as a measure of level of stress. Fascinating stuff which I hope she will keep us up to date on.

This evening I went with Sue who had another basketball game. Unfortunately her team lost badly… Sue played well though!

Another Happy Dog Day!

Wednesday May 24th – This morning we began with Susan and I giving another training presentation to the training department. They have been interested in the concept of collar response after hearing us talk about how we use it in our program and asked for a demo. We gathered in the parking lot with a reclassified dog (career change) and a new breeder to give the demo. We discussed the technique then implemented it both with and without the clicker. The dogs we used were great. The female reclassified dog was excitable, busy, and VERY smart. She picked up the idea quickly and was even better when we introduced the food and clicker. The breeder is a young (16 months) male golden who is the son of their one golden stud, Finnegan. He was very nice, confident, and energetic but willing. Both dogs were very similar to the types of dogs we train at our school. We worked the dogs for awhile then broke for a sit down discussion over coffee. Again, it was fun to be involved in the exchange of ideas and brainstorming.

When we went back to the center for lunch Sue had a care package waiting for her from her parents. In the package were a couple of things for me as well! How cool it that? Sue’s parents sent me a pretty necklace with a sandal charm to remind me of sunny California, and a big bag of sunflower seeds!!! Which, as you know from reading my blog, has been something that has been difficult for me to find here. THANK YOU SO MUCH NANCY AND TOM!!!

We spent the afternoon going to town and working dogs under blindfold again. We worked slightly longer more complex routes. The dogs worked nicely for us again, although mine was a bit dog distracted. It was weird because while I certainly know how I would handle that situation at home with dogs I have trained, I felt strangely inhibited about how I should handle this dog. Sue and I worked with Lauren again who is delightful to be around, as she is so cheerful and enthusiastic. Back at the center Mark began presenting about the application process and how they prepare clients to work with dogs. To this end they use some of the techniques developed by Helene Guerette and Carole Zabihaylo from the INLB (Institut Nazareth & Louis Braille) who are affiliated with MIRA in Canada. We ran out of time so our talk will continue tomorrow….Stay tuned.

Training Department Outing

Tuesday May 23rd – This morning we joined most of the training department in observing the progress of the first dogs being clicker trained at GDV. This is a concept they are exploring and everyone was curious to see how it is going. We must have been a sight for the public, two instructors working dogs with a pack of about 10 people following behind pointing, and talking animatedly. The dogs we observed are at about 20 workouts and they looked really good. The instructors are pleased with their progress and there was some fun discussion and brainstorming. Sue and I got to work a couple of them, which was great fun for us of course.
The rest of the day was cancelled due to instructor illness. This worked out well for Susan and I as we both have pretty bad colds and are feeling run down. It was good to have some recovery time. I hope this cold passes soon, I’m sick of feeling sick!


This is me giving stud dog, Finnigan, a massage.

Guide Dog Week Begins

Monday May 22nd – Before I begin telling you about today, I need to rectify an oversight. I haven’t yet mentioned our “classmates”. For the past week Sue and I have had the pleasure of sharing the training centre with the fantastic group of clients who are here to receive their new dogs! They are a fun and rowdy group and are keeping us on our toes. They have happily joined in with the translations from “Aussie” to “American”.

Today began “Guide Dog Week”, Yea! Mark Fisher is the instructor running the week. He began with a basic introduction to the development of the domestic dog, the human animal bond, and brief history of the use of dogs as guides. He quickly touched on the application process at GDV for a guide, the interview process, and client training with a guide. In the afternoon we went down to the kennel and got “our” dogs. We learned how to “toilet” them (what we call relieving) but having them circle us at the end of the leash on the grass and giving the command “Quick Quicks”. We the got a brief overview of obedience commands and did a bit of practice with our dogs. We then loaded them into the training van and went into a residential area of Kew for our first walks under blindfold. GD trainer, Lauren came to assist and Sue and I worked with her while Laura and Simone went with Mark. For our first walks we began with the instructor also hooking their leash to the dog to ensure that all would go smoothly.
As the dogs got more comfortable with us Lauren removed her leash and just gave verbal input. If felt great to work a dog after so long. My dog was pretty fast and willing and worked very nicely. Those of you who are familiar with how I am under blindfold will be happy to know that I was equally as uncoordinated and clumsy under blindfold here in Australia as I am at home in the US. Fortunately my dog was unfazed by the bumbling dork hanging onto his harness and just kept trucking. It was great fun and over too soon.
This evening we convinced Laura and Simone to join us at trivia night at the Skinny Dog. We had a good time and managed not to come in last place, despite our American handicap.

A Quiet Weekend

Saturday May 20th – Started out the day by being lazy, sleeping in, doing laundry, and of course, blogging (Susan, you’ve created a monster!). Later in the day we went with Pete, Leslie and Bobby to the Dandenong ranges which is an area of forests and charming little towns with interesting shops and cafes.


We drove up Mount Dandenong which stands 633 meters high and took a few photos. We stopped briefly in a town called Olinda for some shopping and decided we will have to come back to this area and spend more time (and money).








Our target destination was Captain America’s. Captain America’s is an American type diner and Susan, Leslie (who is from New Jersey originally), and I got a kick out of the décor. There were license plates from every state in the US nailed all around the walls and they played 50’s Rock ‘n Roll music. We ate enormous burgers and I drank a Shasta Black Cherry Soda.

Sunday May 21st – Headed into the city centre did some wandering and window shopping before setting up at an internet café for some quality computer time. We are trying to organize our travels for the 3 weeks following the course. It’s a daunting task as there are so many things to do and see and not enough time (or money!). I think we will end up booking though the agent at the Flight Centre who set up our Tazzie trip. Trying to piece it all together ourselves is driving us crazy. Overall it was a relaxing weekend.

Healesville Sanctuary

Friday May 19th – Today’s special treat was a lesson conducted at Healesville Sanctuary. Laura and Simone had to plan the lesson for us and conduct it too. We wore low vision simulators and they had made a large print map for us to follow. We used a talking compass to help figure out which way to go. They had put together a list of questions and we had sort of a treasure hunt through the park to find the answers. It was fun and they did a great jog running the lesson. Afterwards we got to enjoy the park without the simulators on and spent the whole day there. I loved it so watch out, this will be another long post!

The Healesville Sanctuary is located about an hour from Melbourne in the Yarra Valley region. The sanctuary is one of Australia’s most recognized attractions, showcasing over 200 species of Australian wildlife and is renowned as the best place to view Australian wildlife in its native habitat. Founded by Dr Colin MacKenzie, who was granted 70 acres of land in 1921, on a lease of one shilling per year, to study native fauna for the purpose of medical research and originally called the Australian Institute of Anatomy, the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary for Australian Flora and Fauna was officially opened on May 30, 1934. The Sanctuary has achieved an international reputation as a world leader in wildlife care, research and conservation. It has 30 hectares (74 acres) of bushland offering encounters with some of Australia’s most unique and captivating wildlife including koalas, kangaroos, wombats, emus, dingoes, birds of prey and platypus. I have to say Australia does have some really cool and engaging animals and the Healesville Sanctuary is probably the nicest park we have visited here so far. It is beautiful, clean, and well maintained. The animals appear in excellent condition and the new wildlife health centre is impressive. It is a $6 million dollar State Government funded veterinary facility. I could have spent several hours in this building alone! Here’s why…

The Australian Wildlife Health Centre is a working veterinary hospital. The vets here treat about 1,500 native animals each year and perform over 5,000 procedures ranging from check ups to major surgery. The centre has various “zones” to educate visitors. Here are descriptions of a few zones.
The Impact Theatre: a central visitor space where a 10-minute audiovisual presentation explains the philosophies, values and vision of the centre.
The Operating Theatre: Where you can watch veterinarians and nurses performing surgical procedures. The surgery even has video cameras trained on the operating table which display what is happening on 2 large TV screens for better viewing!
Laboratory: Where actual diagnoses are performed by veterinarians, using state-of-the-art diagnostic tools such as the ‘Coolscope’ (a microscope built into a computer).
Post-mortem: Through a glass window, you can witness the post-mortem process and be able to talk to the veterinary pathologist. I’m not sure this would go over very well in the US, but I found it interesting.
Emergency: Wildlife patients are brought into Emergency by members of the public, shelter operators, wildlife officers, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and animal welfare organizations for emergency assessment and treatment.

While we were in the Health Centre we observed an operation to repair an owl’s wing which had been dislocated (when it was hit by a car), watched a baby wallaby being fed (its mother had been killed by a car), and saw this huge Goanna passing his quarantine inspection.





Healesville Sanctuary is also internationally renowned for its platypus exhibit, care and research, and being the first in the world to breed this unique creature in captivity. In the 1930s the Sanctuary was the first organization to successfully keep and display the species and in the 1940s hatched the first platypus ever bred in captivity (an event that made front page news in London and New York). It took 55 years to repeat that success with the birth of twin platypus in 1998 (Barak and Yarra Yarra ) and again in 2000 (Mackenzie). I find both the platypus and the echidna really interesting animals. They are both are called monotremes, which means they are egg-laying mammals.

We also saw a tiny baby koala! Simone spotted it just as we were about to leave the koala area. As we watched the keeper came out and was surprised to see it as well. She was 6 months old and the keeper told us this was the first time she had come completely out of her mother’s pouch! We must have good koala karma.

Solo Travel!

Thursday May 18th – In the morning Susan and Laura completed their whole routes accompanied by myself and Simone as their instructors. They both did very well and we had a quick lunch before Jhaneen sent us all off on our very own to solo our routes. She staggered our start times so that no one would run into each other on the route then she drove to the final destination to wait for us. I volunteered to go first and headed out. I walked my residential part very quickly and the bus arrived within a few minutes of my arrival at the bus stop. The bus ride seemed REALLY long and began wondering if the driver had forgotten about me. Thank goodness he hadn’t and I hopped off and started my business portion. It was pretty crowded but I managed not to know anyone over. I did run into a grocery cart someone had left on the sidewalk and almost knocked over a bicycle someone had leaned against the wall but managed to make it to my final destination unscathed! The really fun part was to walk to route without my blindfold and see it for the first time. It looked so much simpler than it felt! Not what I expected at all. This photo is of “my” section of Smith Street. It reminds me of the Haight district in San Francisco, including the type of people who hang out there.

We all did very well, even poor Simone whose driver DID forget about her and drove past her stop with out telling her. Thankfully another passenger had overheard Simone say which stop she wanted and when the driver passed it she told Simone. Simone jumped up and asked the driver who then realized his mistake. Oops. He tells her, “I’ll just drop you at the next stop”. She freaked out a little and said she couldn’t do that. Thankfully the driver was at the intersection waiting for the light so he opened the door, got out to make sure traffic was clear, and dumped Simone out at the intersection. She managed to figure out where she was pretty easily and completed the rest of the route without incident.

Overall it was a great learning experience but I think we are all glad to be done with that part of the course!

Breeding Centre

Wednesday May 17th – This morning we got to take a tour of the breeding center. Yes, Kathleen, I took tons of photos (60 to be exact). Dave Markham graciously gave us the grand tour and answered all of our many questions. GDV has 23 brood bitches and 10 stud dogs. They whelp about 110 puppies each year. This breaks down into about 1 or 2 whelps each month. Some months there are none and some may have as many as 5 which would be pretty unusual. While we were there we saw one small litter at 13 days old and there was a female due to whelp next week. They have 3 whelping rooms with have a close circuit video system, and a bedroom nearby for staff to stay when necessary. Dave does a variety of jobs as the breeding manager including all the semen collection, artificial inseminations (including Tran cervical inseminations), ultra sounds, and of course all the decision making on which dogs to breed. And that is just the very short list! Talk about a Jack of All Trades!

Inside the breeding center they will often let a mom roam the main building with the staff. While we were there the mom of the two 13 day old puppies, Wanda, was loose. She was actually on a scheduled break from her babies as they are too well fed! It seems Wanda is a particularly attentive mom with only two babies and LOTS of available milk…. It’s a recipe for pudgy puppies. The photo above is a photo of both of them.
This one is being held by Dave, what a squirmy little guy, CUTE!

The breeding center was rebuilt in 1990, and in addition to having the moms and babies there, they also board both active and retired breeders, as well as puppies in the raising program. There were 5 puppies boarding today and it was great to get a “puppy fix”. The dog runs are similar to ours with both indoor and outdoor portions and heated floors inside. Interestingly they will readily house two females together (and not just ones who live together in homes).

We also took some time out this morning to make American chocolate chip cookies again. This time we had all the proper ingredients and they turned out really well! We shared them with all the clients in class and got rave reviews. We also made lime Kool aid which was, surprisingly, quite popular as well. Several folks agreed that it tastes just like Australian cordial. Later in the day we brought a plate down to Leslie (remember, the American who is married to Pete one of the instructors). She seemed pretty excited to have a “taste of home”.

This afternoon I completed my entire blindfold route for the first time. I did it “observed solo” which means my instructor, Simone, watched from a distance just in case I got into any major trouble. It went really well. I zipped through the residential part, found my bus stop, and the bus arrived within a few minutes. I hopped on, asked the driver to tell me when I got to the right stop, and managed to find a seat without sitting on anybody’s lap! Once at my stop I cruised through my business area and only ran into one obstacle, a pull cart someone had left on the sidewalk. However, I did manage to put quite a bend in my cane when the tip caught on a crack and I rammed myself in the stomach. Good thing those canes bend back into shape easily! Tomorrow we will have to do them completely alone with our instructor waiting at the very end, wish me luck!

O&M Observations

Tuesday May 16th – Today we each went out with one of the O&M instructors to observe them while they worked with a client. I spent the morning with Rose who is working with a client who has had a recent decrease in vision and since birth has been profoundly deaf in the right ear making localizing traffic sounds very difficult. Today they were working on road crossings and using a scanning techniques to best utilize the good ear. The idea is that the client would stand at the crossing and turn only the head while listening so proper alignment for the crossing would be maintained. The client’s skills were actually quite good; they mostly just needed some confidence and practice.

Mo, you’re going to love this one, in the afternoon I went with Linden for a scooter assessment. Yes, you read this correctly, a SCOOTER (as in a Rascal), assessment! The client has a loss of vision on one side of the eye. Due to some physical limitation the person wanted to be able to use a scooter. The client had received scanning training while walking and had recently been trained on how to use the scooter. Linden was to assess if the client was able to safely operate the scooter and use the previously taught scanning techniques while riding. Being an O&M here is a varied and interesting job!

Public Transportation and an Aussie Slang Test

Monday May 15th – Ron is back which means our Aussie of the day is back as well! Here is your riddle for the day. I’m going to give you a sentence using Aussie slang. Most of the slang has been described on this blog at some point so you’ll have to search your memory. See if you can translate this sentence into American. I’ll give the answer at the end of this blog. Ready?

So I was herbing along on my pushy, had a stack, and put a dent in my skid lid. What happened to me?

So now that we have all done both our residential routes and business routes solo, the last piece to put it all together is using public transportation. Remember, I have to use my long cane while blindfolded to go from my pretend house through a residential area to my bus stop, catch the bus and ride to the business area on Brunswick Street. Once at Brunswick I have to walk several more blocks and several road crossings away to my destination (which happens to be a church). After getting to the church I leave and walk a different route back to another bus stop where my “instructor” will meet me. So today we practiced riding the bus under blindfold which included asking the driver to tell us when we got to the right stop. We then practiced riding a tram under blindfold which is slightly trickier. Trams run on tracks in the middle of the road. This means when you hear the tram arrive you must cross a lane of traffic to get to the tram. Not a concern if every driver is paying attention to the situation but one must still listen for traffic in case drivers get impatient and attempt to go around the tram. The other bummer about the trams is that the driver is in a practically sound proofed booth and it is not convenient to ask for assistance.

Answer: I was riding my bike (pushy or push bike) really fast (herbing along), crashed it (had a stack), and scraped (dented) my bike helmet(skid lid). (No, I didn’t really crash, it’s just a game, silly!)

Richmond and Port Arthur

I got so carried away in the blog about Bonorong that I forgot to write about the B&B we stayed at in Richmond! It is pictured here, next to the historic Richmond Bridge which was built by convicts in 1823 out of sandstone. The "Millhouse on the Bridge" was built in 1853 and was originally a steam driven flour mill. It was converted into a home in the 1920s and was renovated and turned into a B&B in 1997. It is absolutely georgous. we stayed in the "school room" which is pictured on their website www.millhouse.com.au . The town of Richmond hosts a population of about 1500. It boasts the oldest bridge in Australia (Richmond Bridge), the oldest Catholic church still in use today, as well as a Goal, and various other buildings built in the early 1800's.
On Sunday May 14th we headed towards the famous historic site of Port Arthur. On the way there we stopped at another Tasmanian devil park, but sadly it could not measure up to Bonorong.

Now for a history lesson about convicts in Australia In the South Eastern corner of Tasmania, on the Tasman Peninsula, resides the historic site of Port Arthur. Port Arthur is Australia’s most significant convict heritage and holds a deep history for punishment for difficult prisoners. Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania as it is known today) became home to approximately half the convicts shipped from England to Australia.
England, the mother country of Australia, decided to use Tasmania as a place to jail the more difficult prisoners kept captive in England. The jails in England were over populated and were taking up too much of its countries resources. Due to England’s poor economy and its high unemployment rate, the amount of crime was increasing. England wanted to make a statement to the public that if you committed a crime you would be punished severely. So convicts went sent to Australia.
Port Arthur’s history began in 1830 when approximately 150 convicts were first transported to the peninsula. With rough seas surrounding the peninsula, there was only one other way convicts could escape; Eaglehawk Neck is a thin strip of land that joins the Tasman Peninsula onto the mainland of Australia. Here on Eaglehawk Neck savage dogs were patrolled to keep the convicts on the peninsula where they belonged. This became known as the dog line.

If a prisoner was difficult then he would be put into solitary confinement. This could be up to 12 months at a time. The prisoner would have no contact with anyone, and on his 1 hour of daily exercise he was released from his cell with a hood over his head so he could have no eye contact with the prison officer. The prisoner would also have to wear padding on his feet so no noise could be made.
In total 12,500 convicts passed through Port Arthur between 1830 and 1853. Those that died were buried on the Isle of the Dead where nearly 2,000 convicts and free people are buried. The free people included soldiers, officials and their families. Conditions for the convicts were extremely harsh, contrasting with the relatively easy lives of the officers and their families. Exploring the historic site of Port Arthur, it is hard to imagine that prisons in England were less favorable. With moss growing on the inside of the cells and only a thin blanket to use for warmth, many convicts managed to survive these harsh conditions and eventually became the main population of the state of Tasmania.
This is a photo of the old hospital building ruins. The convicts built all the prisons, officer quarters, churches, and other buildings by hand. Talk about hard labor!

Bonorong Wildlife Park

Saturday May 13th – We started the day by going to the famous Salamanca Market. This is an open air market not unlike the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne but with more local artisans and higher quality products. The market is pretty big and runs every Saturday throughout the year. We wandered around for several hours before grabbing a bite to eat and heading to our next activity.
We had booked another B&B in a historic town called Richmond and along the way stopped at the Bonorong Wildlife Park in a small town called Brighton. This park primarily houses animals native to Tasmania and functions as a wildlife rehabilitation and education center. It was fantastic! It is a small park but very well kept with knowledgeable and caring keepers. One of the keepers, Greg, took a small group of us on a tour of the park feeding each set of animals along the way.
The first stop was the Tasmanian devil enclosure and I just about fell over when Greg hopped into the enclosure with the devils! According to him Tasmanian Devils are very misunderstood animals, they are not ferocious, vicious animals but actually fairly docile. He was cautious with his interactions with the three devils crowding around his feet but he did reach down and give one of them a scratch on its rump which it seemed to enjoy very much. During the time he was in the enclosure chatting with us the devils milled around his feet occasionally emitting horrible growling/screeching noises at each other and baring their teeth. Greg explained this was the manner that they communicated with each other and while it sounded very aggressive and fierce it was mostly about bluffing each other. Even when they appear to bite each other they are generally just mouthing and they don’t actually bite down.
Tasmanian devils are the world’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupials. Marsupials are animals where the female has a pouch that the baby is reared in from infancy. Common marsupials include kangaroos, opossums, koalas, and wombats to name a few. There are about 334 species of marsupials, over 200 of them native to Australia. Devils are nocturnal scavengers. They use their incredible sense of smell to locate and feed on carcasses of a variety of animals and therefore perform an important role in the food chain. They often eat road kill and many die as a result of being hit by cars while feeding on the road kill.
Devils are not very fast (about the speed of a chicken) and have poor eyesight. Because they rely on bluffing rather than actually fighting they are often killed by dogs. Greg explained that a dog as small as a West Highland Terrier can easily kill a Tazzie devil. When cornered by a dog they will display their teeth, growl, and mouth the dog, not inflicting a lot of damage or protecting themselves.
The newest and more disturbing cause of death is a new type of facial cancer that is sweeping through the devil population. Mortality rate is high and researchers are working hard at finding out all they can to stop the spread of the disease. Some of the wildlife parks are creating captive breeding programs of the non infected devils.
Later in the tour Greg went into another devil enclosure, the home of Gunther, an unusually aggressive devil. Greg has been working with this nasty guy and is trying to establish dominance over him. It was quite a show as Gunther charged Greg repeatedly, screaming and showing his teeth. Greg would hold his ground hissing back and raising his booted foot in a threatening way, the two of them continued this odd “dance” for a few minutes with Greg occasionally giving Gunther a light bump on the nose with his boot when he got too close. When Gunther began to calm down Greg pulled out a hunk of some kind of meat and dangled it in the air. Gunther leaped up and grabbed it, with Greg still holding it, and the two then had a nice little game of tug of war with the meat. The whole time this was happening Greg was chatting away to us explaining what he was doing. Sue got some spectacular video footage of the whole thing.

The whole tour was really good, with Greg telling us about each animal and how it came to be at the park (most had been injured and where being rehabilitated for release). I got to hand feed an Emu, pet a koala, and Greg taught us the kangaroo’s favorite spot to get a scratch, under the chest. When you scratch a ‘roo there they do a funny blissful dance, swinging their heads from side to side and melting into your hand. I saw a kookaburra and one of

my new favorite birds here in Australia, the Tawny Frogmouth.
With their nocturnal habit and owl-like appearance, Tawny Frogmouths are often confused with owls, but are actually more closely related to the nightjars. During the day, the Tawny Frogmouth perches on a tree branch, often low down, camouflaged as part of the tree. The bulk of the Tawny Frogmouth's diet is made up of nocturnal insects, worms, slugs and snails. Small mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds are also eaten. Most food is obtained by pouncing to the ground from a tree or other elevated perch. Some prey items, such as moths, are caught in flight, which has led to many unfortunate instances of birds being hit by cars while chasing insects illuminated in the beam of the headlights.
I guess I've gone on long enough! More on Tasmania in the next blog.

Off to Tasmania!

Friday May 12th – Today’s big excitement came after class… a trip to Tasmania! Tazzie, as the locals fondly refer to Tasmania, is an island 240km (about 150 miles) south of mainland Australia. We flew from Melbourne to Hobart which is on the south end of Tasmania. As we flew in I looked out the window and saw this tiny looking runway and thought, “That can’t be for us” it looked like a runway for tiny propeller planes. But sure enough we headed right for it. I found out later that the runway is only 2251 meters (barely more than 1 mile) long. We did stop with room to spare, but not much room, let me tell you! Here is a photo I got off the airport web site.





The first thing we did was go to the Cadbury chocolate factory for a tour and, of course, tasting. The tour was much like a tour of the Jelly Belly factory for those of you in the Bay Area. Before being allowed into the factory we had to remove ALL jewelry and check our cameras and bags. Unfortunately this meant we didn’t get any photos inside the factory but I did take this “flattering” shot of us wearing the mandatory hair nets just before we entered the factory. It was an interesting tour and we got to taste some chocolate, got some freebies, and spent too much money on chocolate in the factory store. Seriously, how much chocolate does one person need? In our case about a large shopping bag each!





We ate dinner in Hobart and spent the evening at the B&B we had booked in town. The Lodge on Elizabeth is a manor built by the convicts in 1829.



The Lodge on Elizabeth...




We curled up on the couches next to the fire in the drawing room to read and drink some port. It had been a long day and the warm fire made us both very sleepy. I gave up fighting sleep at about 8:30 pm and headed for the room. Meanwhile Sue fell sound asleep right there on the couch! The next thing she remembered was being woken up by some other guests who came in to enjoy the fire; I think they enjoyed teasing her a bit. It must have been disconcerting to wake up with 4 strangers in the room!

Moving Day and Myotherapy

Thursday May 11th – Today we moved back into the GDV training center. A new class will begin on Monday so all the staff will be there. While we have enjoyed the comforts of our little apartment we are excited to be back hanging around with Grant, Ron, Carrie, and Christina. It was quite a task to pack up all our stuff as the apartment looked like a tornado had hit! But we managed to transfer the debris from the apartment to the center in just a couple of hours.
The other major accomplishment of the day was that we all traveled our business routes under blindfold alone.
This evening we arranged for Simone’s sister to come to the center and give us massages. Monica is a myotherapist which is somewhat like a physiotherapist. According to Monica we don’t have Myotherapists in the US so I will give you a brief desription. Myotherapists assesses and physically treat myofascial pain, injury and dysfunction affecting movement and mobility. Pain or symptoms caused by muscle (myo) or fascia is described as myofascial. Myofascial pain is often described as a 'deep ache', 'tightness' or 'tenderness' in an area. It can vary in intensity and radiate to other areas. Other symptoms can include reduced range of motion of muscles and joints, stiffness, fatigue, weakness, numbness or a tingling sensation. Myotherapists use a combination of therapies to treat mysofascial pain including deep tissue massage, heat therapy, electric stimulation, acupressure and acupuncture.
Monica was awesome! She has the strongest hands of any therapist I have ever been to and regularly works on men from a Melbourne rugby team. The massage was great and she even did some acupuncture on me! I have never experienced acupuncture before and it was really weird knowing there were needles sticking out of me and I couldn’t even tell.
It was an excellent way to end a busy day!

The Mini Guide and Ultra Cane

Wednesday May 10th - Today we worked with the Mini Guide and the Ultra Cane, beginning with indoor use to get familiar with them then moving to our blindfold routes with them.
The Mini guide is a device which uses ultrasonic echo-location to detect objects within a maximum distance of four meters and a minimum of .5 meters. It is about the size of a box of matches with two small round sensors at the front. There are two versions: One gives audible feedback using a combination of tones to help judge the distance between objects. The second type uses vibrations. The closer you get to an object the faster the vibrations pulse. These two versions can allow a person who is blind to (with practice) confidently judge the distance between their surroundings and the aid. It is intended for use in conjunction with a white cane.
The Ultra Cane uses similar technology but is combined with the long cane. It is a long cane with a bulky handle and built into the handle are the sensors which house the echo-location feature.
In the very brief time that I used them I found the Ultra cane a bit bulky for me but the mini guide seemed like it would be a very useful piece of equipment to use in conjunction with a cane. It would definitely take some practice to use it most efficiently.

More Assessments and School for the Blind

Tuesday May 9th – This morning we did another round of assessments with the O&M instructors playing the roles of clients. My client was “Sophie De Beauty” played brilliantly and flawlessly by Lil. “Sophie” is a very shy insecure older woman who has a variety of medical aliments and eye conditions. Lil made me work hard to try and develop a rapport with “Sophie” and she NEVER broke character.
After our morning of assessments we joined the Orthoptic students from LaTrobe University for a tour of the School for the Blind. The school was originally run by the RVIB (Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind) which has recently merged with Vision Australia. The school was founded in 1961 and began as a boarding school. Today it is a day school only with about 25 students ranging from 5 to 18 years old. The school is located next door to a primary school and one of the popular programs is the reverse integration program. In this program about 10 students form the primary school attend school at the school for the blind with the visually impaired students for a period of one year. Having the primary school so close also allows students to have dual enrollment when appropriate.
We closed the day with some more blindfold work and Sue and I managed to make it to the gym.

Trivia Evening

Monday May 8th – This morning we had a lecture with the consulting psychologist. She is on campus one day every other week and sees clients or staff. It was an interesting morning which flew by. We spent the afternoon under blindfold again and I’m happy to report that I was able to complete the first half of my route without getting disoriented. We worked on the second half of my route, which went well also. Yea!
Sue and I went into Kew to have dinner at a bar/restaurant this evening called the Skinny dog. While we were there they began a free trivia contest which apparently happens every Monday night. The MC was pretty entertaining and enjoyed teasing us about being American. He could do a pretty good American accent and would read the questions then “translate” into American. The funny thing is, when I hear someone imitate an American accent (if they do it well) it doesn’t seem like an imitation, it just makes me feel at home… Weird huh?

Shopping Galore!

Saturday May 6th – We began the day by going to a café in Kew for coffee and breakfast. We then went into a Flight Centre (travel agent) and booked our trip to Tasmania for next weekend! We left the car in Kew and took the tram into the city centre and headed for the Queen Victoria Market. This is the huge open air market we had gone to briefly last weekend. We had a great time wandering through all the stalls and buying little snacks and stuff.

The fruit and vegetable section was huge, and I actually found sunflower seeds. Seeds are my favorite snack and finding them roasted and in the shell is quite difficult here. I also finally found new running shoes, as the shoes I have been wearing are trashed. I love Asics but here in the retail shops the model I like was selling for $240! I sure didn’t want to pay that much. I actually found two pairs I liked so I bought both.After wandering around for a couple of hours we came across a foot massage place, much to our delight. Ever since Singapore we are hooked on a good foot massage and reflexology. By this time it was 4pm and the market had closed.



We went in search of Starbucks and stumbled across some more shops that were amazingly still open. (Shown here) We spent another happy couple of hours wandering around Melbourne, people watching and window shopping. Don’t worry honey, even though we shopped all day I really didn’t spend that much money!
Originally we had planned to go to a Footy game this evening but Grant called and cancelled and it was pretty windy and cold so we opted for the movies instead. I wanted to go to Gold Class again but it was already sold out for the movies we wanted so we went to the regular theatre. Interestingly here in Australia when you go to the movies you buy assigned seating. It’s kind of nice because you don’t end up having to go really early and stand in line to get good seats for new releases. We saw Mission Impossible III which I really enjoyed. It’s non stop action from beginning to end!

More Assessments and I Get Lost Under Blindfold

Friday May 5th – We got to see the final day of assessments this morning. The dogs are walked in the busiest area they have seen so far. It is an area much like Chestnut Street in San Francisco. There is a part of the walk that goes by the train and through the underground sections of the train station. It’s a great place to observe the dogs and we watched 2 of the dogs we saw on Wednesday before have to leave. The dogs are graded on about 10 traits such as confidence, anxiety, scent distraction, dog interest, etc. This morning Rachael, the cadet from Taiwan, was being tested in this area. Rachael had to come out and observe 4 dogs on this assessment who she has never seen before and write her own assessment which must agree with the head trainer’s assessment.
We left early as we had a guest speaker coming to talk to our class as well as some of the other O&M staff. The Speaker was a client who is deaf and blind. She has Usher syndrome (type I) as was born totally deaf. Because she has Usher syndrome she also has RP and lost her vision slowly beginning in her teen years and now in her mid 40’s she is totally blind. Obviously there was an interpreter there as she communicates with sign language. This client spoke about her condition and experiences in learning to use a cane once she lost her vision. She also used a guide dog briefly but had to retire the dog very early due to a medical condition. She feels more comfortable at this time using a cane due to the tactile feedback it gives her, but may try a dog again in the future. She described how her O&M instructor worked with her and what techniques worked as well as what didn’t. It was a fascinating talk and I was so impressed with her courage and persistence in the face of such incredible challenges.
In the afternoon we had another test, this one on medical conditions then headed out to do some more long cane work.
I attempted to solo my route today and while it did arrive at the designated spot at about the right time, it didn’t go very smoothly. Somehow I crossed one of my street, got disoriented accepted some assistance from a passerby and ended up I don’t know where. I realized I was not where I was supposed to be and stood for a while trying to figure it out. I suspected that when crossing the street I must have crossed to the diagonal corner instead of crossing straight but since this was at a roundabout I was reluctant to try to get back to my original position. I has just about decided that I would just stand there until my time ran out and Laura would come looking for me but I thought to myself, darn it, I should be able to ask a pedestrian for help and figure this out! I worked up my courage, stopped someone, and started asking questions. Imagine my confusion when it became apparent that I was back at the exact spot that I started at before I began my original crossing at the roundabout! Somehow when I crossed before, I inadvertently did a U turn and crossed back over. I think this must have taken place while I was getting “assistance” from the well meaning passerby. He must have been confused at to where I was trying to go, and I wasn’t specific enough with my questions so he took me back across the street. Once I figured that out and triple checked with questions to my “assistants” (who must have thought I had recently been released from some sort of “facility”) I was able to complete my roundabout crossing correctly and made it to my meeting point. Poor Laura, my instructor, has nearly having a heart attack worrying about me and had actually begun searching for me when she saw me talking to the people who helped me get on track.
We ended the day a bit early because it started pouring rain, Sue had an appointment to get her hair colored and I decided to go along as Laura had told me there was a 24 hour K-Mart near the hair salon. I would have never thought I would be so excited to go browse around a K-Mart, but hey, you take what you can get.

Random Photos

Thursday May 4th - Today we mostly practiced our routes under blindfold with the long cane. So I decided to post some random photos instead of giving you the blow by blow details of cane travel.


This is Shane, the occupational Therapist at GDV. He is modeling a popular haircut here in Australia called a 'Mo'. It's sort of like a Mohawk but without the shaved sides. People often will dye the Mo different colors.






Pete Tomlins and Justin Marshal at Open Day. Both are Guide Dog Instructors and mostly work with clients. They are sharing a string of dogs to train now to see is they can balance client work and dog training together.



Me and Dave Markham the breeding manager at Open Day.





This little boy is a North Melbourne Kangaroo fan at the Footy game. There are face painting stations outside the gates for the kids (and adults). I'm not much of a kid fan, but he was pretty cute. (Photo by Susan)






I took this one for my boss Charles who is a cricket fan.
It is a bigger than life statue of Bill "Ponny" Ponsford, a famous cricket player. He was the first player to make two scores of 400 or more in first-class cricket. He played 29 tests from 1924-1934 scoring 2122 runs at 48.22. He averaged a remarkable 86.28 for his state and amassed 13,819 runs for Australia and Victoria at 65.18. He was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996






Grant and Laura expressing their lack of enthusiasm for American chocolate.

Guide Dog Assessment

Wednesday May 3rd – This morning Sue and I got to observe guide dog assessments. When dog return for training at GDV they spend the first week being assessed. In general only about 50% are accepted for training. The assessment consists of loose leash walks each day starting in quiet areas and working up to busy areas. The dogs are not being trained at this time, the handler observed the dog and makes notes about its general temperament and potential to be a guide. It is similar to the assessments we do on our potential breeders. We saw 6 dogs and enjoyed every minute of it! The black lab pictured here was a real sweetie. His name is Merlin and he is a soft manageable intact male who I would pack up in my suitcase and take home in a heartbeat!


This is John Gosling out working a dog who is about halfway through training.






It rained off and on all afternoon but it didn’t matter for us as we stayed in for a lecture on cultural aspects and intellectual impairments. We stayed in and relaxed tonight watching the movie Troy (man does Brad Pitt look good in this one!).

Vision Australia and the Comedy Festival

Tuesday May 2nd – Today we went on a tour of Vision Australia which is an agency that provides many of the same services that GDV provides except for training guide dogs. This agency recently merged with two of the other large organizations who provide services for the visually impaired (Royal Blind Society and Royal Victoria Institute for the Blind). They have a low vision clinic there which sells various supplies like magnifiers, large clocks, phones with large readable buttons, etc. They run a Braille library and a print radio station which reads newspapers, books, and other entertaining and informational items. Vision Australia also provides technology training and employment services. It was an interesting tour.
In the afternoon we continued working on our long cane routes under blindfold. My route went pretty well overall although I did whack a homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk with my cane. Of course I apologized profusely.
This evening we went with Jhaneen into the city centre and saw a comedy show. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is happening right now and the city was parked with people going to various shows. We saw a group called “Tripod” who are hilarious! They play guitars and sing playful funny songs poking fun at themselves and the world. Check them out at www.3pod.com.au

OT and More Guide Dog Talk

Monday May 1st – Happy US birthday to my honey!
We spent the morning with Shane the Occupational Therapist and talked about some of the clients he sees and the different goals and therapies for each. We then went with him to a low vision clinic and looked at all the different aids for people with visual impairments. There were lots of adaptive watches, clocks, gadgets to use in the kitchen, and games.

We spent the afternoon with the guide dog trainers again as a follow up to our presentation about some of the training techniques we use in the US. It turned into a fun round table type of open communication about different techniques. Sue and I also used a couple of dogs to demo some clicker techniques for food refusal. Here’s an interesting story; one of the dogs we used was a female golden names Stacy. She has come from the Seeing Eye in the US a couple of years ago for breeding. She lives with the breeding manager Dave and he loaned her to us to demonstrate how to “load” a dog on the clicker. This means simply to teach the dog to associate the sound of the click with a food reward. Sue started clicking and giving treats and Stacy gets it so fast it’s obvious she has played this game before. We look over at Dave who says to his knowledge she has never been taught the clicker, then he remembers that the Seeing Eye does clicker work and possibly she was exposed then. That was a minimum of two years ago! Pretty amazing how strong that association is and how long it lasts.

We went to dinner with Pete, Leslie, and Bobby again. This time we went to a baked potato bar which was delicious! We are really enjoying their company and a few glasses of wine at their place after dinner was a perfect way to end the day.