Highs and Lows

It's well known to those in the guide dog community that these dogs can make or break our days. We celebrate their successes and share in their difficulties as well.

You can well imagine my elation on Thursday when my leader called to share the wonderful news - after six whole weeks of phase reports showing Terence in phase 1 of guide work training, Terence jumped all the way up to phase 5 - halfway through! Whoop! It was quite a relief to know he was working his way through training after all, and not stagnant.

Finally I had a reason to go through my puppy raising manual and read about all of the phases of training, something I hadn't allowed myself to do - don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, you know? Phase five consists of preliminary guide work training where the pup is asked to demonstrate all the commands it has learned thus far. I knew there was a lot at stake.

I guess it wasn't a total shock when I got a call from my leader yesterday. I knew as soon as I saw who was calling: Terence has been career changed.

Oof.

As a pup in training, Terence had many many GREAT days where he rose to the occasion and was flawless. Easy to handle, responsive, confident. A raiser's dream. But there were other days where working was hard for him - he would balk at things, refuse surfaces that hadn't bothered him before, ever, or would startle at noises that he didn't bat an eyelash at before. If something startled him, he was on edge for the rest of the outing. He had ongoing intermittent fear of children - like his brain could not process the fact that some humans are small and have tiny hands and high voices and they can look you straight in the eyes because they are just your height. It broke my heart on days like this and I became hyper-aware of any situations where children were present. How to handle him best to decrease his stress level, what to do if approached by a child, how to make him feel most secure. On some days though he would reach over and lick a child in the face, tail wagging. I knew with his inconsistencies he may have a hard time with the responsibility of guide work, but at every evaluation his good side shined and he continued in the program. It helped that he was a wonderful goofy happy bright boy and highly food motivated.

When it came time for guide work testing, though, it was his sensitivity that put an end to his working career.

SUMMARY: Terence is an energetic dog who does best with regular exercise. He has displayed noise sensitivity throughout training, starting with the guillotine doors in the kennel to reacting to loud truck noises. He can display dog and bird distraction and can require effective handling at those times. Generally, he is a very sweet dog to be with and was progressing very well in obedience and guidework training. He was always appropriate with other dogs. Terence loves to play with toys and fetch is a favorite game of his. He is a great dog and we will miss him.

RELEASE REASON(S): 21301 - BEH: Fearful Behavior Environment Generalized

I'm so proud of him for making it this far. He will have a wonderful life as a pet, playing FETCH apparently! I can't say I'm not heartbroken that my time with him has finally come to an end - but this is the right decision for him.

There will be no more bad days and his raiser I couldn't ask for anything more.