Am I the Only Person Who Worries?

Fourth of July

It's July 4th.  It's a day to worry.  Why? Because a lot of pets are lost on July 4th.  They get scared, they run off and get lost.  It's a dangerous holiday.  I worry.  

Is this unusual?  No.  Does a day go by without my worrying about something? Why, no. Now that you ask.  It doesn't.  I am usually worried about something.  In fact there were several things that I found extremely worrisome today and I thought that other people should find them then at least a slight bit worrisome as well and they did not.

Tire Pressure Worries

And I know Coach found them a bit disconcerting. At least two of them.  The first exposure we had today was at the air and vacuum pump at the gas station.  We went there because Fred's low air tire pressure light has been on and I have been worried about it. We decided that today would be a good day to fix the pressure.

Photo of the air/vac machine.

Since there had been a lady using the vacuum before us and it was still running, I grabbed it after she drove off and used it in the car.  Coach and Jam were curious but not worried about it.  Check! Good boys.

Photo of a smiling Coach peering through the front seats.

Bella Brava

After the tires and car were taken care of, we went down to St. Pete for lunch at Bella Brava.

Photo of Coach with Jam's head over his peering into the front of the car.

 We really like Bella Brava both because of their outdoor seating, which allows us to bring Jam, and because they are dog friendly:

Photo of a Bella Brava dog biscuit that says "Thanks for bringing your owner."

They also always bring over a water dish, as well.  The staff is very nice and accommodating.  One of the things that worries me, though is that they are on a corner and there is a lot of foot traffic and many of those people have dogs.  It is best if you sit on an inside table that is not directly next to the lane of traffic as many dogs will pass your way and if you have a dog distracted dog, you will be forever getting up and down with him.

Closeup of Fred as he let me play with my camera settings.

Fortunately, both Jam and Coach paid no attention to any of the dogs that passed by and many did.  We we on the traffic side, but had a four person table and were in on the far side of the table.  Things were going well until this young man turned the corner with some sort of pit/boxer mix who I swear was deranged.

Deranged Dog Worries

As soon as the dog saw Jam and Coach, it started literally frothing at the mouth and making the most godawful snarling sounds.  The man had to pull up on the leash with both hands and practically carry him past our table, all the while the dog is snarling.  The man maintained a very happy-go lucky, carefree smile.  So pleasant and calm.  Jam merely perked his ears as if to indicate, "You, my friend, are too worked up."

But Coach and I had the same reaction: We both thought: "What the hell?" Coach didn't sit up, but he did watch that dog walk away.  I watched the man with narrowed eyes, thinking, "Your dog shouldn't be out in public if it reacts to other dogs like that."

Why wasn't he more worried?  Why wasn't he worried about what his dog would do?  Why wasn't he worried about the other dogs?  I'm telling you.  People need to worry more.

Car Alarm Worries

Then, after lunch as the breeze was making its cool way down the street, a couple parked their big sedan right next to everyone and got out making a big fuss about getting stuff out of the trunk.  Then the husband hit the wrong button and the shrieking alarm went off.

Was he worried?  No.  He stood there perplexed, pushing the same button, the one that didn't turn it off, over and over again.  He didn't move.  His wife stood by the trunk.  Shriek, shriek, shriek.  All the diners are irritated and beginning to stare daggers at them.  Finally the wife moves towards her husband. He tries a different button. The locks move up and down. Shriek, shriek, shriek.  The wife moves closer, all the while, not an ounce of worry is conveyed by her face. Is she really that calm? Shriek, shriek, shriek.

She reaches for the device and starts to push all the buttons.  I finally sense a hint of irritation in her frantic button pushing as the device is shut off and all is quiet.  They close the trunk and walk away.

No worries.

If it had been me, I would have hopped over the car to get to that device to shut it off, I would have been so embarrassed.  Is no one embarrassed anymore?  Is there no thought to another person's feelings? I also would have done the silent, "Im sorry" to the assembled diners.  We didn't get that either.  Kind of like Seinfeld and the courtesy wave when you let someone in when you are driving.  It's just polite.

That alarm woke Coach up as well.  I think he would have appreciated an apology too.  He's an old school kind of fellow.

At least we had great food and we all got a biscuit. I had no worries about that!

Be safe this July 4th! Don't make me worry about you.

The Greeks Know How to Eat

Recently we met friends for dinner at Acropolis down in St. Pete for dinner. Our experience with Greek restaurants is mostly tied to Tarpon Springs and so we like to think we are getting some kind of "authentic" experience when we go there as we have a certain Greek restaurant WE like with certain dishes that we haven't seen other places.  I have a feeling that our Greek world view was a bit snobbish (I'm speaking just for myself here) and that I felt I knew a bit about Greek food from what we had been getting.

Ah, foolish resident tourist.  While the restaurant we went to is certainly not claiming to be authentic, it does give you a much different interpretation of eating out Greek style than what we had been getting in Tarpon Springs.  For one thing, it was a huge party.  A party that went on all night long.

It was also a fairly unique experience for a guide dog puppy, but one that I would only recommend for older puppies.  It is a VERY LOUD experience at nighttime.  And have I mentioned the napkins?

When the wait staff dance through your aisles, they are followed by the sacred napkin thrower.  This person leaves napkin chaos in their wake. Additionally, beware, if you sit in the middle of the room for napkins may rain down from the heavens like Zeus's entreaty to clean up your mess!

 Yeah.  There's a few napkins as a distraction as well. Make that thousands.  Every hour and a half.  Our friend had mentioned the napkin quirk to us, but I had blown it off in my head thinking cloth napkins.  What could be the harm in that.  But when we actually came to dinner and we had Jam under the table and hundreds of napkins are being flung into the air right in front of his nose.  Well, I think that his staying under the table and not leaping out to rampage among the wild napkins is a huge deal!

Pat on the back to you Jam!

However, all is not well in napkin land.  These are flimsy napkins.  Light papery thin napkins that the slightest breeze will make fly into the air.  So, yes, while I could clear out a napkin free zone, anytime any waitstaff would walk by, a napkin would flutter into the red zone.

Jam under the table and dreaming...of napkins

Even though I was keeping Jam directly under foot (as above photo shows), there were occasions when a napkin would enter the red zone and Jam would grab it.  I would have to root around in his mouth and pull out moistened bits of napkin. Yum.  I did miss one napkin and the table next to us waved at me and pointed down to Jam.  Yep, he had just started in on a napkin.  I thanked them and extracted it.  You have to be vigilant.

Jam giving his full attention to the belly dancer.

There was music playing as well.  The musician was amazing, but be prepared to have him come over to your table.  Fred liked this.  Jam stayed under the table and was unconcerned.  He evidently has no interest in Greek banjo-like music.  I thought it was awesome.  Jam did poke his head out when the belly dancer appeared.  Or was that because Fred moved and was so interested in her?  Hmmmm? Hard to tell! 8-)

Anyway, Fred ended up dancing with her and Jam went back to sleep.  So I guess that answers that question.

Acropolis: good food, the servers and wait staff were all kind and friendly to Jam, interesting exposure for older dogs.

Walkathon News

Jammy IS going to be at the Walkathon on March 3, 2012 at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg, FL.  So if you are going to be at the Walkathon and you read the blog, please stop and say hello!  We would love to meet you in person and take a photo for the blog.

We will also be at the dinner later that night (Willow gets a pet sitter!).  If you don't see us at the walkathon, look for us at dinner.

Either way, we hope to see all of you or as many as possible on Saturday, March 3, 2012.

She's No Slacker

Like her namesake, Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley, (HRH Queen Elizabeth II is shown above in one of her smashing tea party outfits (delightful yellow suit with matching yellow sun hat rimmed with several large pink flowers)) is no slouch in the fulfilling her royal duties department. Jingle the leash and proffer the coat and HRH is up and ready to lead whomever into society. Secretly, I think she wants a little hat with flowers, if only to munch on occasionally. So it was with great spirit that that she greeted Thursday, a day filled with errands and rushing about. Not quite what QEII has to endure, but none the less is a full day for a guide dog in training. Our first stop was at Clearwater Cruises. Jennifer and Laurie have been amazing at helping us prepare for our 20th wedding anniversary (and mom and dad's 55th wedding anniversary!) Mediterranean Cruise!! I had to stop in and get some in person help and I brought HRH along with me. She was so well behaved that I let her go out of coat so Laurie and Jennifer could give her some loving. As opposed to QEII, who was caught sleeping in Germany in 2004 at an official engagement, sleeping during an errand is encouraged for our monarch. I highly recommend Laurie and Jennifer at Clearwater Cruises if you need to book a cruise. They have been wonderful. Our next stop you might think was the St. Pete Museum of Fine Art. Unfortunately, we only had time to explore the grounds outside the museum as we had a tight schedule to meet and were expected for lunch in 30 minutes at Red Mesa Cantina. It was a lovely day and I couldn't resist capturing her lovely visage against the backdrop of the huge cotton silk tree with its gorgeous red blooms. But as I was trying to set up the shot something fell on my head. I clapped my hand to my head. "Holy crap! A bird pooped on me." I am speaking to HRH of course. Out loud. In the middle of the day while there are other people walking up to the tree to take a photo. My fingers start to slide around and I'm trying to find out if it is bird poop or not. I'm also trying to get closer to HRH who is looking longingly at the little boy who is now climbing the tree. "Not your boy, my dear." I try to shove my iPhone into my pocket, look at my fingers for poop, glance at the sky for marauding, pooping birds and also lean down to pick up her leash. I teeter a little. HRH shoots me a glance. All around me I hear pops and bombs and splatters. I realize that this tree is just one giant oozing tree of nastiness. It's red flowers only a decoy to get you under its canopy so it can release its spit upon you. I don't have bird poop on me, I have tree spit on me. Better, but stickier. We. Are. Out. Of. Here. I grab her leash and march off just as a nice lady is walking up and about to offer to take a photo of the two of us under the spitting tree of red devil flowers. I smile and stalk away. Beware, my smile says, beware. The real purpose of stopping off at the museum grounds was so that HRH would have a grassy spot on which to relieve herself. She did not. She was much too concerned with the way things smelled, or the red flowers, or the way the sun sparkled on the water. I find that if the setting is not perfect, there will be no peeing. Finally, we met Theresa at Red Mesa Cantina and got a nice booth where we were able to chat and relax. HRH was able to indulge in her napkin fetish, as you can see below in the perfectly placed bite marks in my paper napkin. I hear Elvis does the same thing, only Elvis is a napkin grabber. And then we went home. Royal duties over for the day.

St. Pete Market

Last week at obedience class John had mentioned that Dodger was very distracted by all the non-SEGD dogs at the Sarasota market. Jennifer suggested maybe a trip to the St. Pete market was in order. John emailed us and asked if we were still interested, so we set up a meeting spot for Saturday.



Here we are by the musician stand. You can see the nuttiness of the market in the background. There were dogs everywhere! Talk about distraction city. It was a huge distraction for our pups. Plus the crowd was very big. We listened to the music for a bit, which the pups didn't seem to mind (open space for them, I think they liked it). Then we decided to move to a less crowded spot for a sit down.



We got all three dogs in a down-under under the table very easily as the table was pretty big. Unfortunately, the table was in some serious shade and we all became very shivery fairly quickly and abandoned our table to walk some more.



Since it was after 11, we decided it was close enough to lunch to find a restaurant and eat. So we headed down to beach drive. Along the way we stopped and did a little obedience (a few doggie pushups).

It was fascinating to watch how people reacted to the dogs. At one point Stephanie was bent over Princess trying to put her coat back on and only taking up her half of the sidewalk. Along comes this old woman with a sack of St. Pete Market purchases and a very sour look on her face for Stephanie and Princess and the fact that they didn't move completely onto the grass. Mind you, there was more than enough room to pass by on the side. So she sweeps past and knocks into Stephanie. Sweet. Really sweet. But that was countered by the elderly couple who had us all stop so they could take a photo of the three dogs. The elderly gent loves taking dog photos on their mornings out. Then they both started asking us questions about the dogs and the program, which we were able to answer and we had a lovely conversation.

It was also rather cute that when we went past a table of diners on Beach Drive I heard them say, "Those are Southeastern Guide Dog Puppies! Look! There!" I didn't turnaround. I was smiling too hard.

Face full of Paint

Today we went down to Corey Ave. for the Tail Painting Benefit. Bingo was in high demand and was described by one little girl as "the cutest dog ever." Of course all the puppies are cute, but I hold a particular fondness for my little boy, so hearing that made me really want Bingo to do a wonderful job for her, which may be why my voice sounds like I have been sucking helium out of balloons (it is uncomfortably close in range to Minnie Mouse's voice!). 8-) So when you play the video below, you were warned.



I'm not sure if you can see it in this photo, but I am covered in paint. Bingo has paint all over him as well.

Tail painting was surprisingly taxing on the dogs. Bingo did four paintings in a row and by the fourth one, his tail was starting to droop. It's a bit sad when the volunteer has to move the dog's tail. I just didn't think that was right. So I was trying to do all I could to jack Bingo up into a full out exuberant mood so that he would be really into tail swinging happiness.

Bingo is a bit of a klutz, though. The hazards of tail painting are clear. Just watch this video. 8-)



Here you see what my effort at exhorting Bingo into full fledged exuberance has gotten me: a smack in the face with a tail laden with paint! Oh, did I mention that the St. Pete Times photographer was sitting just opposite me and was snapping photos? Yes, yes, he was. Sigh. At least it will be a colorful photograph if they print it and the paint was washable. But it was for a good cause and if the shot makes for a great photo for him and a more prominent photo because of the tail smack, then I say, OK. I say this because I haven't seen the shot of me with a face full of paint. I hope it's cute. I hope it's mostly of Bingo. He's really cute.

The nice thing about this meeting was that unlike the other meetings there was time to talk with the other puppy raisers. Usually we are so concerned with keeping Bingo under control we just go to the meeting and then head straight home. It was really nice to get to talk. Below Bingo gets to have some quality time with his brother Jim. That's Bingo telling Jim how he's going to take over the world.

Pack Leader

Well, I've begun using my new found pack leader skills (essentially a loud NO and a firm whatever the correction is) and it seems to be working. Last night Bingo started in with some biting and I tried out the loud NO and the biting correction Chuck told me to use, which startled the snot out of Bingo. He sat real close to me the rest of the night and never made a move to bite again. This morning he tried a tentative bite and I did the correction again. I'm hoping by the time we get back to school on Wed. that the biting phase will have been dealt with. If not, I have some students who will gladly work with me on testing Bingo to get over this little phase. We'll have him bite free by the end of the week.

Next, I am going to work on stairs. Debbie and Chuck explained in more detail about why the puppy raisers are supposed to make the dogs sit before and after they go through them and at the top/bottom of stairs. I had thought it was because the blind person needed to find the threshold of doorways for themselves. The stairway sitting seemed obvious. They explained it was a control issue. They don't want the dog speeding through the door or leaping down the stairs. They also said it was important for it not to become an automatic thing. If I ever arrive at a door and Bingo sits without my telling him to sit then I should turn around and go someplace else and come back. The dog doesn't make the decisions. The handler does.

Monday is our 18th wedding anniversary. So we went today to the Vinoy in St. Pete for brunch to celebrate with a friend and we took Bingo and I tried out my new tools for being in charge.

Brunch was very tasty and pretty stress free. At first, Bingo seemed to want to start on a gum exploration of the underside of the table, but a firm NO put him off that idea. We settle him down and it only took a few more firm downs to get him to stay there.

Of course we could do nothing about the crazy family at the table near us who let their baby crawl LOOSE ON THE FLOOR without ANY SUPERVISION and the baby made it all the way to our table. Bingo was wagging his tail and would have gotten up, but I had a hand on his back pressing him down. Seriously. Are people insane? What sort of parent lets their baby crawl around loose on the carpet of a public restaurant 15-20 feet away from them and toward a strange dog? A dog that is on eye level? That's a parent who deserves to have their child taken by child protective services for child endangerment. Not because the dog is a danger, but because their parents are so stupid. They never got up to get the child. Eventually, the child crawled back to them, on its own. They never moved from their seats or their plates of food. Greedy, stupid people.

We worked on stairs and Bingo did very well. We also worked on the stand command in the public restroom. He was very good. He was tired and happy to go home at the end of the brunch.