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Category: Sienna

  • The adventures of Guide Dog Sienna …. Responding to your Guide

    Most of my posts are sharing the difference working with a Guide Dog has made for me. Hands down, it has been amazing, positive and dare I say life-changing. However, I wanted to express that there can be less than optimal times too.

    When we work as a team, there is cohesiveness. We both read each other and work as one. If one of us isn’t at our best, sometimes the teamwork falters slightly.

    Today our day started as usual until we left the house. At the bottom of my stairs, we turn right to go to work and left to go to our local Cafe, which is one of Guide Dog Sienna’s favourite places as there are children to watch, other dogs to meet and potentially crumbs under the table that we sit at that I may not notice.

    I told Sienna to turn right at the bottom of the stairs. She stood and looked at me, then pulled left. I asked again and she looked at me, then pulled left and then on the third time, I used a deep no-nonsense voice that usually works and she sat and looked at me and looked left. As if to say no, mum, I don’t want to go to work.

    I decided to go left to get her moving and redirect her up the road toward work instead of down the road, which is usually going to our local Cafe. As soon as we turned left, Sienna had a spring in her step and almost cantered with her head held high until we turned right at the bottom of the driveway. She then slowed down and finally stopped moving after about 10 m. I knew she didn’t need to go to the bathroom as she had been earlier, so I coaxed her along.

    Sienna hadn’t done a go slow for quite some time but used to do it when we were going home and training as she wanted to stay out and about. We walked slowly. Instead of her usual level of concentration, she was distracted by many smells and sounds. She stopped sniffing the crossing poles and grass verge at any opportunity. The typical snap of her lead and low voice didn’t seem to work.

    Sienna trying to get my attention to play!

    Sienna is a young dog who turns two in September this year, so I was expecting her to be a little distractible, but this was much more than normal.

    Finally, I thought all was good until we were halfway across a road and she stopped, not moving forward. There were no dangers, so I told her to go forward again. She stood rooted to the spot. Because we were at a four-way intersection of a busy road, safety comes first, so I dropped the handle and asked her to heel to get off the road. No movement, so I ended up pulling her off the road with her lead (which has not happened since the beginning of our training).

    I wondered if something was wrong with her or if she was hurt. So I stopped on the opposite side of the road but couldn’t find anything. She followed basic commands like sitting and I couldn’t feel any injury. What perked her up was getting the treats out of my bag pocket and carrying them in my hand so she could see them as we walked. We got to the bus stop without incident.

    On the bus, Sienna usually responds well to the under command and sits under my seat by backing in. Today, she lunged head first under the seat (there may have been food) when I said under and proceeded to back out and sit beside me in the bus aisle. I physically moved her to under my seat, giving her praise for staying there for the rest of the trip.

    An excellent under (sarcasm) aka sitting in the aisle of the bus. I moved her under the seat.

    We got off the bus as usual. However, Sienna didn’t take her typical path and was distracted, wagging her tail and wanting to interact with a student. I refocused her by using obedience and treats, asking her to go forward where she watched students and led me straight into an obstacle.

    At this point, we did some corrections and practice with her watching the object she didn’t avoid. I went and got coffee and headed to the office. I wonder if she had enough exercise, but we walk about 3 to 6 km a day, so she certainly does. I wondered yesterday if she was a little bored at work as she watched people go past and started to whine when one of her favourite people (Rachael) went past. Sienna certainly has toys, a bed and bones at work and we have breaks.

    Sienna chilling at work on the bed Sara made her under her 70s inspired dog sleeping bag.

    At about 1500 hrs today, Sienna was restless; she was trying to get my attention while I worked. Doing the perfect sit, vocalising and making dog noises picking up her toy and bringing it closer. I was ignoring her, so she barked. I have heard her bark five times (two of which were playing with other dogs she met at the beach). This isn’t the behaviour I want to reinforce at work, so I told her no and ignored her. She eventually settled and went back to bed.

    After 1600 hrs, she got restless again, which is semi-normal for her. If we don’t leave work by 1700 hrs, she seems very hungry and encourages me to leave work for the day. This is turning out to be q good thing as I had a propensity to keep working and go home about 2000 hrs. Now, if I know I need to stay late, I take her food to work, but this wasn’t a planned day to work late, so we needed to leave.

    For now, I am going to consider today a one-off and if she doesn’t settle call our instructor for advice. However, on reflection today I realised Sienna is not yet two so is still a puppy really. In saying that though, she does need manners when at work with me though.

    Sienna being a puppy at home playing with her turtle toy.

    My next Adventures of a Guide Dog Sienna will be more positive and focus on the positive changes from working with a Guide Dog that significantly outweigh our off days.

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  • How I see it … Metal detecting?

    Do people see what they expect rather than what is in front of them?

    Since becoming a Guide Dog handler about three months ago, my weekends usually include a trip to the beach. In doing this, my safety and ensuring Sienna has time to be a dog in her downtime are both important.

    Guide Dog Sienna out of harness sitting on a rock at the beach.
    Photo of Guide Dog Sienna sitting on a rock at the beach.

    For this reason, I bought a different type of white cane tip to safely allow us to walk on the beach with Sienna on a Flexi lead instead of in her harness. The cane tip is called a Dakota disc and it attaches to the bottom of my cane, allowing me to feel objects on the beach instead of tripping on rocks and a smaller cane tip getting stuck in the Sand.

    The linked Youtube video gives an overview of this cane tip: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HYs73yu7NuY&feature=share and the photo below is of the Dakota disc on the end of my white cane, which has a red bottom section.

    Picture of the Dekota disc cane tip.
    Picture of the dekota disc on the end of my cane.

    Last week one child asked me if I had found anything with my metal detector at the beach. I dismissed this as they were around eight years old and perhaps had not even come across a white cane.

    To my surprise, walking along the beach today, I was stopped by four adults and asked if I had found anything with my metal detector. When I explained no, it was a white cane, they all said something along the lines of oh yes, of course, it is. One woman even said, but you are so confident?

    For the rest of my walk, I started to wonder whether it was the context that made them jump straight to the metal detector or even if they were unfamiliar with someone using a white cane. Granted, it could be either, but It seems that people had never seen a blind person at the beach walking their dog independently.

    I also thought about how most people react to my Guide Dog. Their question is usually “are you training her?” or “how much of her training does she have to go?”

    People are usually surprised to find out she is my guide dog and has finished her training. On the one hand, it fills me with joy that people don’t realise I am blind. However, further thought usually leads me to question what is wrong with people learning I am blind? It also reminds me of the social construct and negative stereotypes of blindness, disability and deficit model associated with these.

    So back to the metal detecting. I would love to try metal detecting and it is pretty rare to see. I question whether metal detectors or blind people are the rarest sight? Or is metal detecting just a more straightforward topic to broach than blindness?

    Either way, normalisation is necessary, along with social change.

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  • Adventures of Guide Dog Sienna – bing a part of a community

    As a relatively new guide dog handler, there are many things that I am yet to learn and this post shares some of the things that I have recently discovered. I will give background and then tell you about a few things I have learned over the last week.

    Over the last week, I’ve been unwell with a respiratory illness (Not COVID-19), and as a result, I have been unable to work Sienna for the last six days. A situation like this was not something I had thought much about in advance. I know that some puppy raisers are available to board working Guide Dogs if their handler can not care for them for some time (like recovery from surgery). However, this seems a little bit of an overkill when a Guide Dog handler has a cold.

    Some people have family members who can take care of their dogs. However, this is not possible for me.

    One of the things that surprised me was just as with most dogs how how much Sianna likes to be out and about whether guiding or enjoying being an off duty dog. She is a very social dog and has a lot of friends around the university with whom she interacts daily. Usually, when they come into my office and she is out of her harness. What I learned from this is how much we both gain from being out and about.

    Early last week, our Guide Dog instructor took her for a walk with another dog on her way home which made my day as she was also able to drop off something I ordered from Guide Dogs simultaneously (much appreciated).

    The weekend before this one, a friend and I were out at a local garden centre where we met a Guide Dog puppy raiser, her daughter and their two dogs. When I was feeling unwell and unable to wear Sienna out without going outside, I put a note on Facebook asking if anybody would be willing to take her for a walk in the area. So a few days later, Siena had a walk with Guide Dog Ambassador Sam and Wilma. The photo below is of the three dogs in a local park.

    From left to right, former Guide Dog puppy Wilma, Guide Dog Ambassador Sam and Siena are sitting under a tree in our local park.

    What has also surprised me the is that Guide Dogs tend to notice or gravitate to other Guide Dogs and seem to be comfortable with each other. Similarly, I swear that Sienna can smell a Guide Dog Instructor and their car from quite some distance away and leads me straight to it. When Seena is comfortable with someone and there’s an open car door, she will get in, without being asked or instructed,m. You can see this in the photo below; Sienna jumped straight into Wilma and Sam’s family car as soon as the door was open.

    See you in a sitting in the foot well of a car.
    Sienna jumped right into the car’s footwell without even being asked to do so.

    I need to decide if this trust is the same with everybody or is it just people with Guide Dogs; I will get back to you on that one. I do worry about who she trusts. In some respects, it is also a good thing because she’s not scared of people; conversely, too much trust could lead to dangerous situations.

    Also, a shout-out to one of my old school friends Richard, who lives about a kilometre away and offered to take Sienna for a walk yesterday. They went to our local park and I was surprised at how trusting Siana was to go for a walk with someone she had only just met. I guess, like many children, If I am comfortable with the person, she is likely to trust that person.

    The last thing I would like to add is being inventive with interactive games. Sienna has a slow feeder, a Kong, And many other toys (yes, she is spoiled). However, they often don’t keep her occupied for long. One thing I did was roll up kibble in a towel for her and it took her about 20 to 30 minutes to get it. After doing this, I posted it on Facebook and am grateful to all the people who suggested other ideas to keep her occupied without any exertion from me. I am tempted to write a blog post on interactive games for dogs at some stage.

    Sienna with her nose in a rolled-up towel. Trying to figure out bow to get the kibble i hid there.

    In a nutshell, I have learnt a lot this week, mainly things I had not planned for or thought of solutions in advance. I believe that one of the main things that have stuck with me is just how much of a sense of community there is between people who train, puppy raise and Guide Dog handlers. I am very grateful for Is to be readily accepted by people in the Guide Dog community around where I live.

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