The second time

The second time

The second time I saw Emma was after a blind tennis tournament we played in Nice, France. Before returning home, we took a small detour and took a city train to Berlin’s outskirts. Emma’s trainer came with two dogs, emma being first to give my hand a quick examining lick. She was very excited and playful. We took the two dogs on a free run near a forrest, where they played, and I tried recall on her.

Pavel immediately said:

“This is not a dog, tis is a toy! She doesn’t look black and isn’t big, she is little sandy!”

True, Emma is sand-coloured, and definitely tinier in statue and height than both my Hovawarts.

The trainer told us a lot about her. Initially, Emma didn’t want to be there. She had felt the need to be responsible for everything that was happening around her, even though that suit didn’t fit her at all, it was too tall and too heavy. With the help of the trainer’s eight-year-old Australian Sheplerd, undoubtedly the manager of the dog pack, she learnt to relax and found out that even when she relaxed, others did the job and nothing happened.

At first, the trainer’s task was to teach Emma to do nothing, precisely nothing. No carrying things, no guiding, no being in control – just walking along and looking at the world.

She took her on a city train platform for a week, before Emma came out of hiding and started discovering the world around her, and to her big surprise the world wasn’t thunders and monsters, but the world wasn’t really interested in her.

Emma learnt that destroying blankets, digging holes or biting fences would lead to boredom, so she stopped it and preferred to be with the rest of the gang rather than the dog house all on her own.

She didn’t like the signal jacket on her body, she didn’t like the harness on her body, and she didn’t like pets – she was too impatient and too alert for that.

So the trainer spent a lot of time petting, stroking and cuddling her, combing and massaging her. She found a harness that was tolerable for Emma, and with that she went everywhere – guiding, playing, walking – playing and walking without the handle, of course.

She appeared to be very sensitive and easy to scare, but we decided to give it a go and so we put the harness on her and went for a small walk.

Emma loves a brisk pace, close to flying. She raced me along an uneventful path, but when we returned there was a narrow place. The trainer warned me that she might not like it, but she proved her wrong, guided me through without hesitation and showed me the entrance to a flower shop.

When Pavel, who was sitting on a bench resting, called her, she ran to him, kissed him hello and forgot that the harness was still on her back.

We then took Emma on the city trains with us. The trainer was happy to see that she didn’t seem to be scared at the sight and sound of one of Berlin’s major train stations. She curiously peaked through handrail fences down to the next floor, and watched people passing by. She even looked around herself on the city train and eventually started to take a sniff at one or the other passenger.

After that meeting, I was confident that I would soon have a new guide dog with me, thanks to a great portion of devotion and belief in little miss sandy.

First encounter

When a guide dog turns seven, latest eight years of age, it is high time to stat looking for a successor.

When quito had turned seven, I met with a guide dog trainer. I called him and told him I chose him because I knew he had trained Hovawartsbefore, and wanted another one. He was more than skeptical, and asked me why among all dogs I wanted a Hovawart. I told him my two guides were Hovies, I had no major issues with them and liked them. But only when I mentioned his friend ans Quito’s coach and Quito, he softened up and said he had seen Quito before. We met in Berlin on a nice late summer day, spent an hour talking about his training methods and attitudes, and I told him I wanted a dog from his school, but if possible no Labrador.

He didn’t get back to me about a dog, but a colleague of mine did and said she had an idea. Another colleague had takin in a puppy whose host family could no longer take care of her. The two, lady and dog, didn’t quite click, and it might be good for the little golden girl to get out of that family.

So finally on a grim, rainy November day I met Emma, just over a year old. I met a lively, interested and impatient golden retriever. My colleague told me she was impatient and started barking the moment she couldn’t get what she wanted. I had a key moment with her. She wanted to play with me, had a bark in her throat to come out, and in that moment I turned my back on her. So she stood quietly and stopped barking.

I immediately told my friend I liked her and wanted the guide dog trainer to assess her, I thought something could be done to redirect her energy.

The trainer came, took her with him, and some three days later I called him.

“If it weren’t for you”, he said, “and if I didn’t know you managed to deal with Hovawarts, I would drop this dog here and now. She has destroyed all my dog baskets and dog blankets!”

We spent some time trying to figure out why that happened, didn’t really come to a conclusion, but he said he was working together with a colleague, who can spend much more time with the dog. I agreed and told him that maybe Emma was a women’s dog.

“If she sees hope, we will work with her.”

 

 

Liebe Grüße  |  Best regards

Chris Kaplan

 

Turbo speed update

Hi everybody, Chris writing.

 

Long time, no writing/seeing/hearing/reading, but you know that we’re alive and kicking.

Much has changed over the past four years.

Micki has moved places, Mr Sun and I have started playing blind tennis, and Quito quickly learnt to tell the difference between ours and her tennis balls.

She got tired of work, so two years ago it was time to retire her. She went to live with the great Ramona and her friend Max, the little yellow lively fellow, where she could guard property, protect it from monstrous cats, dig holes to her heart’s content, take baths in what was thought to be the birds’ drinking and bathing basin, sleep and play, go in and out as she liked.

I will not forget when Ramona picked her up, she carried Quito’s bed to her car, and quito yelled after Ramona to wait for her.

Retiring her was much easier than retiring Hapoo, because I knew Quito was healthy enough to have a few more happy years ahead of her.Quito and I followed slowly. However, the apartment was quite empty then, and silent.

There was not much time to look back, as I had boxes to pack, and I had the trip to the doctor’s office to be completed with cane only – quite a challenge, but I was proudly successful. Yet another occasion to show me that travelling with a dog is much smoother and faster.

Boxes and boxes and more boxes filled our apartment, and where Quito’s bed used to be there was space to put even more. We were preparing for the big move. Quito had been there twice, and guided us there the next time around, when we had things to do there. However, I did not want to put her through the stress of having to adapt to a new apartment, new resting spots and new routes, so the time to retire her was perfect.

The move to the new apartment was done fairly smoothly, except that the company had too few people to do it all in one day, so half a week later they returned to do the rest of furniture assembling. Dining furniture had arrived, which we had chosen in summer with Dirk and Anna, friends we had found through Quito and tennis. With Micky I had bought some great lounge furniture for the dining room, which also arrived. And finally, the kitchen moved in. The shop owner had taken his time to show me everything. I was impressed by his work and ideas, and he was impressed by my ability to visualize, my knowledge of kitchen planning and my allover contribution. I thought of good lighting, wanted the wall cabinets to have doors that opened in a particular way, and he chose kitchen appliances that I would be able to operate. And now, after the kitchen had moved in, we had a wonderful, modern kitchen.

Micky showed us elementary routes to bakery, supermarket and light train, and then we were left on our own, with more boxes to unpack, but a good foundation laid beneath our feet to start walking.

Candles in the winter

Have I told you about the other new inhabitant, apart from the plastic
and metal fox and the special sticks?
It is a massive bicycle, if you wish, apart from the very interesting
fact that it doesn't move, however hard or fast the humans may pedal!
That is really strange! I only know the bicycle of Lena's or Suse's,
where I can run along as they are rolling through the city. But this one
is standing in the bedroom, and it certainly does not move, whatsoever!
Means it is an extremely boring device. Chris says she likes it, and Mr
Sun says he likes it a lot! And Chris says that that is the most
important thing. The cable should connect to electricity, but I have no
idea why. Because if the bicycle is on a leash, it certainly has no
chance to move! Strange, strange! Okay the, if Mr Sun has fun, then it
must be a good human invention.

Generally, I have to tell you that both Chris and I love Mr Sun. He
always kisses her when we come home from work, and when I haven't been
undressed, he does so, plays with me and is silly with me. He sometimes
lets me jump, and I can already wake him up when he closes his eyes. He
is the nicest Mr Sun ever, very caring for both of us, and I am not
jealous when he hides with Chris. I am, in fact, happy whenever we come
home and I can see him. He is very cheerful, and Chris is very happy to
have him around. Since he has been there, we have been travelling much
more, visiting more events and places, going to the city more often -
it's more fun with him around! Mr Sun, you've got to stay with us!
Promise! And if not, I will just block your way, that's that!
Have a good candle time everybody,

Woofs again!

Part three, yu see!
Are you bored already? If not, I'll tell you more stories!
One day we all visited Micki, and Suse and Lena and the baby. I didn't
get to see the baby much, he was always out of my reach. But I was
surely happy to see Suse! And at one point Chris and Mr Sun went away
without me, they say they were at the dentist's, where somebody looks at
their teeth. What for, when they don't bite and crack bones either?
Humans need no sharp teeth! Look at me, I've got to have them for when
Chris gives me bones - yummmmm!
And then we went for a wonderful walk with Suse and the baby - that was
fantastic. I even saw a little dog who stupidly bit my nose - stupid
silly breakfast snack!
And here's another strange thing we did! We went bowling - the humans
that is! They went rolling heavy, unbitable, unplayable balls along a
small path and tried ambitiously to knock over some obstacles in a
distance. Strange, boring story, but both humans seemed to like it a
lot. Well, who says you have to understand humans? Generally and mostly
they are nice, but they definitely have strange ideas about what's fun
and what not. Romping, barking, playing and licking people's hands and
faces, getting pets and food and sleep, that!s fun! Jumping on Daniel
and lying near Mr Sun for pets, that's fun! Wrestling with Chris and
jumping with Diana, that's fun! Not that stupid ball rolling or cookies
shaping or going to a cold church to lie on the cold floor for an hour!
No fun at all!
For we were at that cold church twice! Once when Micki was praised for
her volunteer work a lot, and once when the story was all about baby
Henrik - no idea what that was all about - I just know that we met very
many people, including Lena and Suse, and Micki, of course!

It is also fun to go to the city with Mr Sun and Chris, finding ways and
listening to them argue about how to get where, and being cheerful with
them once they have found their ways! It relaxes me to lie beside them
as they are eating food! Once we were at somthing called Christmas
market with Micki. The humans looked at little wooden houses where
various things were sold, and Mr Sun got gloves and more to prepare him
for the badly cold winter, which all the four of us aren't very fond of
but cannot avoid. And now every day there are candles burning, and Chris
and Mr Sun always blow them out. That's also nice.
Have a good warm cold time, Quito.

Another catching up

Hey-Hoo, here's part Two!
So what about the special sticks? I considder them competition. Mr Sun
uses his more than Chris, she says she doesn't need one, she has me. Mr
Sun pushes his ahead of him to feel whether there is an obstacle or not.
He says he is mainly pretending to use it, just because the law says
it's better in case of an accident. And Chris sometimes uses hers, just
because she says she wants to play, she has never had a nicer white
stick with a small ball at the tip, probably the only ball I like to
avoid - it doesn't look like I want to play with it, because it doesn't
jump.

One week Chris and Daniel on wheels and I were at a hotel, where most of
the people really liked me, one even brought me delicious treats which I
would have liked to always demand from her, but she obeyed to Chris who
tortured me, once I went too crazy. She held the treat in her hand and
on her lap for a very, very long time, until I had decided it was not
for me, nd relaxed. And only then, all of a sudden, it was beside my
head and I could munch on it. I really liked staying at that hotel. I
soon found Daniel's room and the elevator, and one evening Angelique,
the nice lady, came to visit, and once Manu, who is a bit afraid of me
but has agreed that I am not a monster. and Chris always makes sure I
don't bother people that are afraid of me too much.

And one other day we were at a chocolate factory. There the humans went
into a room and sat down, and I lay down, and another lady talked about
chocolate - which is no food for me, either! And then the humans got to
taste various chocolates, and later they got to buy them, too. Micki
loved this excursion very much and I was happy it was warm in the room
and cold only outside.

I suppose I will have to add part three to the catch-up memories, so
stay tuned and keep watching, and you'll read more of my strange
human-bound adventures.
Cheers, Quito.

Here I am - active and well!

Hi all humans and woofs, chaseable cats and other interested and
intelligent creatures,
how's life, and how's winter?

Winter is cruel! I am the loveliest Quito ever and need no cold! I want
medium warm, to romp in the grass and have fun in the water! But not
this terrible, disgusting weather, where Chris needs a glove to hold on
to my harness, wich is very uncomfortable! And wen you have to lie on
the ground to wait somewhere at a streetcar stop, that's unbarable!

Talking about it - this happened to us once! We all went out from home,
took the streetcar, took the train and ended up at another village than
Chris had intended - certainly not at Micki's! And because of her
planning mistake, we had to wait at this forsaken train stop for an
hour! It was not really warm there - thank God it was not raining - but
so boring and so cold! At least Mr Sun played with me and tried to keep
me warm! I think when planning a trip Chris should turn on her brain
before boarding the wrong train! But she says the people were
wonderfully kind and helpful! And in the afternoon she and Mr Sun and
Micki baked cookies, of which I surely got none to try. But they were
all very happy about this activity.

A few times Mr Sun's rehab teacher was visiting, once she brought sticks
of the special kind to him, and once one to her. And once we all went
into a supermarket, where the humans were playing around with some
device that was speaking products to them. And Chris also met another
lady she had met somewhere once before - I have no idea where, but Chris
was very happy about this. And a few weeks later, after a visit to the
doctor who looks into their eyes, those devices moved into our home,
they call them fox, and I don't really know why. To my understanding a
fox is an animal you'd better not meet, but this is nothing to fear, and
surely no meat involved! Chris says she is hapy, for this thing brings
fun to Mr Sun when he puts away the huge grocery.

Allright, I will tell you more later, there's so much to catch up on!
Woof-woof-woooooof!