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.