Darth Vader Meets Her Royal Highness!

It was a moment for the history books. Darth Vader and Her Royal Highness (HRH) coming together.


Here they are at their first meeting. You would think that HRH might be a little freaked out by the mask and weird voice, but true to her Santana (GLEE) nature, she recognized another dark soul and someone with whom she could conquer the world.



In fact, Darth and HRH began detailed world domination plans soon after meeting. It was all going very well. Then a familiar call came from across the room.

MOM!

World domination would have to wait. Who knew Mom actually was in control of everything?

Big Balloons

I'm always on the lookout for opportunities for Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley to encounter some of the experiences that Southeastern Guide Dogs wants her to have before we bring her in for training. So on Wednesday afternoon when school was over and Emma walked into the library with a HUGE balloon, I thought, I cannot let this opportunity pass! I got out the camera and moved HRH into position.



Emma held the balloon out for HRH to see. The key idea was to get HRH to experience the balloon and to go back to the balloon if she didn't like it. I wanted her to respond to being called over to the balloon, which she did. Corey, another student who was waiting to speak with me indicated she would walk with HRH over to the balloon and I motioned her to go ahead. She and HRH walked over together to the balloon.

While you might think that HRH is too fearful and isn't responding well, if you think about it, she is doing exactly what I want her to do. She is continuing to go back to the balloon and trying to get a feel for it. The problem with the balloon is that it is on a string and it moves in crazy ways. She didn't have very long to get adjust to it. But overall, for her to go back as quickly as she did and give it another try, again and again, shows me great fortitude and courage and a willingness to go ahead and do something even though she might be tentative about it. It also means we need to buy a balloon and leave it in the house for her to get used to.

Of course, what we are ultimately going for is the gold standard: The Prince Charles Response, as seen in the video below. In 1994 when Prince Charles was about to give a speech in Australia a man with a starter's pistol attempted to attack him. As you will see from the video, Prince Charles' response was not fearful at all. I don't know if HRH will ever get to the Prince Charles level, but it's a goal.

Problem Child

Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley has a small problem that we are working on: she doesn't like for me or Fred to leave her side when we are out. For me, that is a HUGE problem because I teach research classes so I get up to point things out on the screen. This enormous length of perhaps 5 to 6 feet is apparently so annoying that it has HRH popping up and barking for me "Come back right now!"

You can imagine how that goes over. Usually, it involves a lot of me doing sit, down stays over and over while continuing to lecture with students trying not to laugh at HRH or me. It is quite comical. However at Honors Chemistry class, something different happened. I think it was all because of Simon.

I always have certain students who particularly care for the dogs I raise and Simon loves Berkeley. So he was really happy that we had research day on a Berkeley day and he watched HRH behaving badly with a calm demeanor (Simon is always calm).

"Perhaps Berkeley would be better without her coat on?" He said. I did recognize the longing to pet her behind the request and when I looked up and noticed the stillness of the rest of the class as they realized that I might actually go for it. I thought, I have tried all day everything else, why not try free range puppy?

"OK, Simon." Then I told them they had to be really focused, pay attention to what I was saying, not call her, only pet her when she walked by and she could be visible for the period.

Then I took the coat off. And class continued the same as always.

But every now and then a black dog walked by someone and they reached out and loved her and she slowed down for them. And she did find her way over to Simon, her biggest fan. Here are the Honors Chem boys and HRH.