The Weekend

May 23 and May 24
On Saturday morning, the instructors had individual meetings with all of us about our goals and our progress so far. While waiting for my meeting, I finally sat down at the piano they have here. Freesia sat next to me, and I began playing. She stayed sitting during each song, and she stood up at the end of each as if that meant it was over. I think she likes music, which is really good because she’d be around it regardless.
I met with my instructor and she said that Freesia and I are progressing very well as a team. I am so happy about that. Freesia and I get along great.
After the meeting, we went to the mall to work on getting on and off escalators with our dogs. Freesia really likes escalators. We went up and down them a few times for practice, and when it was time for me to direct her out of the store, she kept trying to pull me back toward the escalator.
On Sunday, we had a free day to relax and recoup. Another classmate and I decided to work out in the morning, so we took our dogs to the workout room with us. They have tie downs in there, which are chains that attach to walls or other objects to keep the dog in a confined area. First of all, it took us a while to walk around the room and find the tie downs (that blind struggle was so real), but finally I found one and then another. We attached our dogs to the tie downs and worked out, but don”t worry, it gets better. We finished working out when I casually mentioned that we may have some trouble finding where we left our dogs. We both called there names a few times, and my classmate found her dog. I kept calling Freesia’s name, but she wasn’t helping a sister out. Finally, she made a little sound with her mouth and I was able to find my way to her. I put her leash on and started walking with her out of the room. She wasn’t in harness, so she wasn’t really supposed to be helping me. Consequently, she walked right over the treadmill, no problem, and left me to trip and fall over it. She turned back to me and started licking my face; I think she felt bad. Don’t worry, I only hurt my pride and dignity on the way down. We just cuddled the rest of the day.
At night, I took her outside to the fenced in play area and discovered that, although she doesn’t like toys, she loves running. I got her to chase me a few times and it was adorable. At least she likes to do something fun. I was beginning to think she wasn’t a real dog.