Bingo the Terrible

My friend Kim is an English teacher at school and I recently helped her with a plagiarism and academic honesty lesson. Of course Bingo got to attend as well. He did what he usually does, which is sleep and be a good boy, so here you see Kim smiling at the wonderful Bingo who has
slept through a rousing lecture and discussion on the perils of cheating! Woe betide those plagiarists! Not a twitch, not one from the sleeping pup. Ah well. Those were the days.


I have to remind myself of those lovely days when I have days like today. I didn't bring Bingo, guide dog extraordinaire with me to school, I brought Bingo the Terrible. First, something was off with his potty schedule, so instead of the two poops that we get before school, we only had one. I took him for a walk hoping for another, but in vain. It was during class, when after a particularly noxious silent but deadly fart he let loose, that I realized his inability to sit still was because he was holding in another poo. Fortunately, I was team teaching and could walk him out to do his business and come back. He slept the rest of class.

Then there was the walk to convo. Or rather the pull to convo. It was as if we had never had a good walk in our lives. I know that Debbie told everyone at the meeting that we communicate our emotion through the leash, but I really don't think I was upset. Whatever I was communicating through the leash, Bingo wanted none of it! There was a lot of correcting going on. This is Bingo giving me the puppy eyes. "I'm not terrible. I'm too cute to be terrible."

I found out they are going to do a column on him for the school newspaper called The Bingo Beat. It will give all his vital statistics and what he has learned so far. So, he better keep on learning and experiencing new things. No more Bingo the Terrible. Perhaps, Bingo the Slightly Grumpy.

Distracted

By Fred
This morning Bingo and I attended a SEGD meeting without Cheryl, who stayed home to nurse a cold. Normally we would have taken Bingo on a nice, long walk before a meeting like this, just to shave off the edge of his natural exuberance, but we've had a steady rain since before sunrise, so Bingo was wound up pretty tight by the 10am meeting.

As you might guess, these meetings are full of very nice people (without exception) and very well-behaved dogs (mostly), including many young puppies, sitting or lying down, waiting patiently (mostly).

Debbie, an area coordinator who is partially blind, was there with her new guide dog, and she showed us how happy he was to get into his harness, how dedicated he was to her and to doing his job, how completely focused he was. Someday Bingo will be like this. Someday, but not today.

As we all practiced walking in a circle, Bingo jumped and lunged at the other dogs and generally burned up his energy (perfect timing, right?) despite my efforts to control him. He is completely fascinated with the other dogs and completely distracted by them. I made excuses, saying that he has been walking so well here at home, which is true, but the real world is full of distractions, and we have to work with Bingo on these.

Of course, by the end of the meeting he was all tired out. Cheryl had texted me to ask if I would stop by the grocery store on the way home, smiling to herself, I'm sure, because Bingo was more than a little distracted by smells on our first visit to Publix. But on the drive home from the meeting he gave me a sweet look--I don't know, maybe it was a promise to be good from now on.

I took him in and picked up a basket instead of a big cart (smart). The store was filled with people and children, a sea of unrestrained children, more temptation than any puppy should have to endure. But this is the real world for a blind person.

This morning Debbie said that you transfer your emotions to your dog through the leash: if you are unsure or hesitant or fearful, the dog will sense it. So I walked ahead as though we were out on our normal walk through the neighborhood. He pranced along beside me like a pro and was not even distracted when a little girl rushed at him and attempted to tackle him.

On the way out I heard him laugh when I asked, Why couldn't you do this in the meeting today?

Uncommon Toys

By Fred
The SEGD puppy experts have explained to us that tennis balls, Frisbees and other toys that are likely to be seen whizzing by in the air--on a walk in the park, for example--are not appropriate for guide dog puppies. These toys would prove to be an unfair distraction to a working guide dog in the future, so Bingo needs to make do with less common toys.

Fortunately there is no end to the variety of pet toys, and some are downright strange. One of Bingo's favorites was this combination dog bone/baby pacifier on a ring. I suppose it's natural for us humans to imagine that a puppy might be interested in a pacifier. If Bingo could talk, he would advise us not to get hung up on representational design. I'm into texture, he would say.

Yesterday I noticed he had stripped away a big piece of pacifier and was preparing to swallow it, so I took the toy away and put it in with the other retired toys. Even though these toys are marketed as safe to swallow, I don't like the idea. Time to move to the harder nylabones, maybe something in titanium.

He's still just a puppy but sometimes he looks like a big dog in his photos. Here he is, wondering where the pacifier has gone.

Right About

By Fred
While we continue to work with Bingo on basic commands (Sit, Stay, etc.), we are beginning to work with suggested commands such as Left-Left, Right-Right and (my new favorite) Right About. SEGD calls these suggested commands because the puppy is not scolded when he fails to respond appropriately. Instead, we are supposed to repeat the phrases over and over so that the concepts eventually take hold in the puppy's mind.

Left-Left, for example, is given as you approach an intersection and then turn left. Eventually, the puppy will understand that Left-Left means "take a left at the next likely left turn." Right-About means take a 180 turn and go the other way.

Our dog Willow is a fabulous Frisbee player and all-around good dog, but she doesn't know her left from her right. And to be honest, I still have to peek at my hands occasionally--I can get lost just about anywhere. So I will be very proud of Bingo when he does his first Right-About on his own.

Here we are--not a perfect example because I am fiddling with the camera instead of focusing on him. The command comes too late, and he already has it in his mind to turn around and go home (he loves to go home), but we are still learning:

Bingo and Milly

I just got the formal picture the school's photographer took of Bingo and Milly and Mr. and Mrs. Newman and me. I think it turned out pretty good. Of course Bingo is looking off at the kids. He's always looking for kids. He really loves the students. 8-)

It's like taking an infant to school.

This is the face of my sweet little baby. Getting ready for school is no longer a matter of showering, throwing on some mascara, the outfit, grabbing a large coffe and milk and shooting out the door. No. Now it is a huge process.

Now, we need to plan in advance (fortunately, planning in advance is a genetic thing for librarians). What is astounding to me is how much longer everything takes with him. Of course, he and I have long conversations wherever we go, so I'm never bored. But I don't seem to be moving that slowly. Perhaps, I just stopping more often.


Our morning routine is to go into my office where two of my advisory kids and Bingo wranglers are usually there. Bingo has a special affinity for the table legs and chairs and we keep having stop him from biting the chair legs and substitute a toy instead. The boys are really good about pulling him off the chair legs and getting him interested in the kong. Usually, the walk in has him so wound up that it takes a good 20 minutes to calm him down, so having a first period class can

be a bit dangerous. It's like taking an infant to school and expecting it to behave. RIGHT. That's going to work. That was my schedule on Wednesday. I had class first period, second period, class meeting, library work, fourth period, lunch, fifth period, library work, afterschool work. Yikes!


Strangely, it did work. It worked because Bingo is a chill dog with a very laid back attitude. So, after an initial ten minutes of futzing around in first period, he fell asleep on Alex and Katie's feet (much to their delight). He remained asleep for most of my classes. I would say it is just me, but Tim who team teaches the documentary film class with me is a very exciting and interesting history teacher and Bingo slept right through his lecture as well. So it can't be me. 8-) This is Bingo sleeping through my lecture.


At lunch, he has so many fans that I take off his invisibility cloak and let the teachers and students come up and pet him. The world languages teachers especially are in love with him. Pilar is on the left and Katia is on the right. Pilar has Bingo as her screensaver.

The students in this photo are in my documentary film class. Bingo had a little problem settling down for class. He wanted to chew on the dolly tire, so the girls are trying to keep him away from that. Then he found the chairs. He realized that he could grab a chair leg and pull it and it would go wherever he wanted it to and it made quite a loud noise. Not good, especially, when Tim is lecturing! So I grabbed him, put him on a short lead, put him on a down stay and he fell asleep. Once asleep, he was down for the whole class.



His second full day and he did a great job.

A Pig with a Broom

By Fred
I spent one summer in college working as a musician at a theme park in Arkansas, and I got to know a professional animal trainer. He was only about my age, but he was so good with animals that he had his own animal show, probably the most popular show at the park because it had a pig that could sweep sawdust from the floor with a broom, pick it up with a dust pan, and put it in a waste basket. After watching the show a few times I learned that few things will delight a tourist more than seeing a pig with a broom it its mouth.

I became the animal trainer's friend and often went to have lunch with him and his parents on a farm with probably a dozen dogs, many of whom were in the show. I was amazed at how he talked to them and how they listened. But, I asked him, what about the pig?

He said never used food when training animals, except when teaching chickens to play tic-tac-toe (apparently chickens have a short attention span for board games). But, he whispered, a pig is just like a dog, and just as smart--a pig will do anything if you just show them how. Although with pigs it helps, he said, if you get down on your hands and knees when teaching them, and this can get mighty tiresome.

I was glad to learn that SEGD does not recommend using food as a training device. In the end there is one basic truth: dogs will do anything for you, and do it just for your approval.

With Bingo we go through a routine at mealtime to help teach him some patience, working with Down-Stay, which is something that he is reluctant to do at mealtime, considering that it might give the wrong impression about his true feelings.

Fortunately our Chocolate Lab, Willow, is here to provide some leadership and guidance with Down-Stay. Here they are, waiting patiently for breakfast while he licks her like a Popsicle. Of course, Willow knows that breakfast will come at the end of Down-Stay, so she is being extra good. Anything that keeps me off my hands and knees is appreciated.