all those wonderful people

So Maylee and I have had many bad dog encounters and a few of them involving uncontrolled dogs. I hoping sometime this week or on the weekend I'll have more time to post about some of them. One note I want to stress here is throwing kibble at a uncontrolled dog (off leach, no owners around) after yelling for the owner of the dog or someone to help and no one answers works!! Be sure to have loads of kibble with you because sometimes the dog will follow you and your guide (or even pet dog) till you are safe in a store, or behind a fence etc... Many people don't think it's a big deal if their pet dog is off-leach despite leach laws in place and it comes up to a guide dog and guide dog handler and starts to bark and nip at the guide dog's neck not letting the handler nor guide dog pass it

Enough of that for now. I start school again tomorrow and we have to be in class at 8:30 am. Arg, I live an hour and half away so it's going to be an early morning and I'm up late *sigh* so off to bed for me.

Dog Days of Summer

So the weather was been hot and a few days ago we went to go enjoy the weather at my in-laws for dinner. Everyone was outside in the backyard playing bocce ball in the backyard, well almost everyone I was on the steps knitting my sock. I let Maylee wonder around the big yard, she was a very happy little dog doing so because it's a huge backyard compared to ours. Well a bocce ball was bounced not rolled and it hit the little brick pathway to the storage room. I was just finishing up the stitches on my needle then go pick up the ball to put it back on the grass and Miss May beat me to it. So you all know Maylee is my guide dog; May as a guide dog is not technically aloud to play with balls or Frisbees. All you canine fur babe owners may think this is mean, but she is a working dog and we try to avoid having the working dogs (especially of blind or vi handlers) play with toys that they would normally see other people playing with when they are on the job. Can you imagine a guide dog dragging it's handler across the street to go and play with a ball that some kids are throwing back and forth. What a disaster right? With that in mind, my dog picked up the bocce ball (man those balls are heavy) in her mouth and placed it with the other ones on the grass because I could say no and correct her. It was so funny because right after she walked away as if saying I was only trying to put it back and I've done my job! I was told by one of her trainers Maylee was like the queen in the kennel and she'd hop down from the supply box she hung out on to tell dogs that they aren't doing something the correctly and teach them the correct way then go back to her box to observe her kennel mates again. Lol, I love my dog's personality!

We went to the aquarium yesterday and it was loads of fun. I'll post about that later once I have the pictures ready to put up. Today is a horribly cold and cloudy day, it's a good day to snuggle with May, but first she gets her bath and Advantix.

So I haven't posted here nor has Maylee for a while. She still very itchy and rubbing against furniture, rugs, people and anything else she seems to deem appropriate to help relieve her itchiness. Maylee is now on a food trial and I realized that her toothpaste is chicken-flavoured oh shite! I need to remember to call her vet tomorrow and get her some allergy food trial friendly toothpaster because my dog is one of those special dogs that need their teeth brushed daily!

We went out for coffee with a friend and Maylee decided to slow her pace down so my friend D would be able to keep up with us. Unfortunately May also dropped a bomb in harness, I thought she'd be able to make it to the next block; however once she stopped in harness I realized that she couldn't and I took off her harness right away. *sigh* accidents happen and I am learning when she signals me that no mom I really have to go right now even though when you took me to relieve and gave me some extra time before we left I indicated that no really I don't have to go I was so wrong, she needs to almost right there and then. We'll get it eventually. I also noticed that May continued with a habit I thought I broke her out of, which is turning around to check on the person who we are with to make sure they are slightly behind us. Seems like I have to break her from this habit with each new person we walk with, soon she will have met all our friends. Also she got to meet D's cat Trillian they were both good. Maylee really, really wanted to play with Trill, but I keep her in harness so she didn't scare the cat. My guide dog is way to eager to play with any cat or dog she comes in contact with, just like she is way too happy to meet new people. The introduction was really cute because I had May on a down stay and Trill decided to lie down in front of May and just look at her. I could feel my dog's tail thumping away and her trying hard not to get up and play with the cat despite her overly exuberance to do so.

Also we got Maylee a new bed because she can't sleep in her crate with the head funnel. She really loves it and it's just the right size for her to curl up on. So now I'm teaching her to got to her bed when I say "bed" because she goes to her crate when I say "kennel" and I'd rather have two different words for these places so when she is able to sleep in her crate again there won't be any confusion.

I like Dinosaurs

Hi Maylee here! Mommy took me to see some robotic dinosaurs and some fossilized bones at Yaohan Mall this weekend. They seemed unimpressed with the robotic dinosaurs, but I loved them. Especially that large handsome one.See that's him. He has a strong voice that really interested me. Mommy and the family thought it was a bit funny, but that's alright I don't mind. Today has been boring since it's raining and Mommy doesn't like to go out in the rain much. She spent the day finishing a sock and got so excited when she finished. Then she took out the camera and took pictures, man she can be sooo weird! I really hope it won't rain tomorrow we might go to the Vancouver Aquarium that Mommy and Mini-me keep talking about and I really do want to see it because it sounds like fun.

Mommy says that I shouldn't itch, scratch, bite or lick myself, but I'm sooooo itchy and she stopped my medication that was somewhat helping. She said that I have to stop taking some of my pills because I will be seeing the dermatologist on Monday to find out if I have allergies like Mommy and my pills will ruin the test results. It really sucks, I have to wear a shirt in the house so I don't scratch or itch myself and I have to sleep with that uncomfortable cone around my head at night. I don't care what others say it doesn't look like a Edwardian or Victorina collar!!

Licks and wags,
Miss Maylee

So Maylee noticed all of the guide dog puppies have blogs and got a tab bit jealous. I thought that I would set up a blog for her and I to capture our times together good and bad and share it with our friends, family and other people online. It's nice to be able to talk about things that others just don't comprehend like learning to work with a guide dog and the training. Most of all, I hope to educate the public about guide dogs and people who are visually impaired. It seems like it is so badly needed and I want to be able to get rid of the anger and learn to educate more than get frustrated at the uneducated public.

The fact that guide dogs are very different than pets, but they are still dogs who do doggie things. These dogs are chosen because they love to please and work. I've come across so many people in the short period so far that May and I have been a team that pity her for working. I tell them she has it better than any other pet, she gets to go everywhere with me. Now tell me what dog gets to go to work, school, see the new Harry Potter movie, sleep at their owners feet on a plane and so do much more other stuff everyday. She gets out more than any other dog that is a pet and sure as heck gets more praise, which she loves. Now why would you pity a working dog who obviously has it better than almost all the pets out there? People like to humanize dogs, we hate to go to work every single day; however working dogs love to go to work anytime, any place they are ready to go do their job. The wonderful animals have so much dedication to their work and love to let loose when they are not working. They have the best of both worlds really.