April 22 - Spring!

April is a splendid time to visit BC’s beautiful Okanagan Valley. Spring is in the air and if you stand still you can almost hear the season come to life.  The grass grows greener with every hour that passes and the fruit blossoms fairly burst forth from previously bare brown branches. Scattered in neighbourhood gardens, brilliant tulips and daffodils paint colour into the landscape. The birds chatter, the bees hum and small clouds of aphids float on gentle puffs of the breeze. I’m not so keen on the latter but I totally enjoy the sounds and scents of the other signs of springtime.

Lyle took the two pictures below. The first is of a mass of white blossoms with a perfect blue sky in the background. These blossoms were too far away in the distance for me to see, but Lyle took the second picture in our parking lot. This tree had a mass of pink blossoms and I could even reach out to touch the soft petals. Spring is definitely my favourite season. 

 

tree with white blossoms

tree with pick blossoms

April 17 - Meeting a Guide Dog

Probably, the title for this post shouldn’t be so much “Meeting a Guide Dog” as “Meeting The Owner of a Guide Dog.” After all, a guide dog, although very clever, well behaved, expensive and diligently trained, is still just a dog. The person holding the leash or harness is a person and at first meeting this is the one you need to speak with. It must be very frustrating for owners of guide dogs to be ignored while attention is paid only to their dog guide. While it is a matter of courtesy to speak with the guide dog owner first, it is more importantly a matter of safety. When guide dogs are in harness, they are working. They are trained specifically to be the eyes for someone who is unable to see for him or herself. The person who is holding the harness is dependent on the animal to lead him/her and to negotiate a safe path through any obstacles. If you should approach a working guide dog and perhaps lean to pat it, you run the risk of distracting the animal from its job.For instance, guide dogs are trained to stop at curbs and at the top of a flight of steps. Although the dog is trained to ignore distractions, it is after all, only a dog. There is always the chance that it might temporarily be distracted and so fail to stop when it should. If you or perhaps your own dog should be the cause of such a distraction, this might not bode well for the person who is holding the other end of the harness. This doesn’t mean that you should never ever have the opportunity to pat these beautiful creatures. The other week when Sue and I went for our walk, I very carefully followed Sue’s responses to Button. When Button stopped at a curb, Sue and I did likewise. However, when we arrived at the coffee shop, Sue removed Button’s harness. Button immediately curled up on the floor by Sue’s chair and I was at last able to pat her smooth yellow coat. Button knew that she wasn’t in working mode and gave my hand a friendly lick.Only a very small percentage of people who are blind or visually impaired choose to use a dog as a guide. Once they are matched with an owner, guide dogs need daily care and that means exercise and renewed training.  Fortunately, the only attention I need to give my white cane is to remember to take it with me when I go outside!

April 6 - New Guide Dog

My friend, Sue, has a new guide dog. Button is a yellow lab and is not quite two years old. She is a beautiful animal as you will see in the picture at the end of this post. A trainer from BC and Alberta Guide Dogs came to Osoyoos to work with Sue and Button for an intensive two-week training period before Sue was left to manage Button on her own.

Button is Sue’s second experience with a guide dog. Sue’s previous dog, Pinta, had become more of a pet towards the end of her working life. It was hard for Sue to let go of Pinta and to think of a replacement.  For the year that followed, Sue worked with her white cane and the assistance of a sighted human guide. Both transitions, from guide dog to cane, and most recently from white cane back to guide dog, required concentration and new learning on Sue’s part. 

When Sue and I walked together last week, she was still in the process of training Button over three selected walking routes. It was an interesting morning. Button was great. She was still a bit wary of the sloped sidewalk that led to crossings. I think that she had been trained to stop at well-defined curbs and so with the sloped path she tended to stop a little further back. She seemed disappointed that we didn’t stop at the drug store, where had she gone in, she would have been given a small treat.  Instead, she happily led us to our coffee shop destination for a well earned rest for us all.

I was pleased that Button wasn’t distracted by the use of my white cane when Sue and I walked side by side. Sue and I have it in our heads that we might plan for a longer walk at some point in the new year. I have also been thinking about a repetition of the White Cane Connections Walks – perhaps from east to west next time around.

The picture below was taken at the beginning of our walk. I am standing to the left in the picture holding my white cane, while sue and Button are on the right.

Sue, Sue, and Button