by Sarah J. Blake
(Editor’s Note: Here is the last installment in Sarah Blake’s story of retiring one guide dog and learning to work with another. We hope that you have enjoyed Sarah’s story, and we wish her and three-year-old Dori well.)
It’s hard to believe that Dori has been home for over a year now. She turned three in November, not quite a month after the one-year anniversary of her homecoming. As I reflect on our first year together, I realize how much she (and I) have changed with almost no awareness on my part that we were both changing and growing each day. As I predicted shortly after our first plane ride together more than a year ago, flying never emerged as a significant problem for us. That first experience, with a terrified Dori perched on my lap, is just one of many past events that I’m beginning to forget, as Dori matures and “mellows out.”
Our time in our tiny first apartment was a very positive experience. Recently, circumstances have led me to move back into my parents’ home for a while, and it is here that I have come to realize how valuable our time together in the apartment was. Without other people around to distract her, Dori bonded with me and some of her less desirable behaviors began to fade away.
So gradual was the change, and so matter-of-factly had I and members of my family come to expect consistently good behavior from Dori that after Dori and I had moved back in with my parents, it was several days before any of us realized, with a surprised recognition and just a slight bit of nostalgia for the adolescent who had come home with us from Seeing Eye, that she had not once eaten the cat food or retrieved any empty toilet paper rolls from the trash can in the bathroom! My niece, who had once been frightened by Dori’s exuberance, began to play with her and to ask whenever we were preparing to go out, “Can Dori sit in the back seat with me?”
Dori accompanied me to the ACB national convention in July and to a smaller but much busier professional convention in November. She worked well through the crowded hotels; however, the atmosphere was very stressful for her. These convention experiences taught me that down time was vital for Dori if I intended to take her on trips with me. It wasn’t just the down time per se, it was the down time with me! Dori needed my reassurance that she was doing well. I learned while at these conventions that her undesirable behavior was often a sign of stress and that I should interpret it as Dori’s attempt to communicate her needs in the only way she could. Increasing the strength of my corrections was not beneficial at these times. In fact, this often caused Dori to experience more anxiety. As I began to respond more appropriately to Dori’s signals and provide her the reassurance she needed, her behavior improved dramatically. Learning to be patient and consistently gentle with Dori is an ongoing process, but I am now beginning to see the rewards.
Dori’s calm temperament has allowed me to do something I had wished to do for a long time: go back to work in the church nursery. Last spring, I was hired to do just that. Dori had been exposed to young children during her training, and her behavior while working in their presence is very good. She is a steady, faithful presence in the room, and the children often look to her for comfort when they are unhappy.
Getting my second dog was in many ways more difficult than getting my first one. I still have momentary lapses when I feel as though I betrayed Elli, but, intellectually, I know that I didn’t. Dori is now finally becoming what I knew she could be. She is, indeed, a different dog from the impetuous puppy I brought home from Seeing Eye. Dori is a wonderful dog. We are an efficient, competent team. Our work together is good, and we thoroughly enjoy one another’s company and companionship.
Elli is a wonderful dog too. She is now settled happily into the role of my parents’ pet, enjoying marshmallows and grapes as occasional treats and even occasionally romping in the house or the yard. As Lukas Franck put it, I’m able to enjoy both dogs fully and be proud of who they are and who they have helped me to become.