I continued waking early in the morning – earlier than I had to. I’d spend some of that time in the early mornings in some combination of bonding with “Juno”, working on my laptop, drinking coffee, and reading audiobooks or watching Forensic Files on Amazon Prime (the latter more for the background noise than anything else). Park-Feed-water-park. Eat breakfast. Head to Alumni Hall for morning obedience session with escalating distractions. Go back to my room to make sure I had what I needed for the day. Load up in the van – all the way to the back – and head off for walking training sessions in various locations.

“Juno” made friends with another dog in class – the dog working with my classmate in the room beside mine. The two dogs would politely but very clearly cuddle in the back of the van, while my friend and classmate and I chatted. The routine changed only in the activities we did or the location we traveled. One day we went to a mall to work on indoor travel, tucking under tables while we had coffee or smoothies or whatever, and escalator work. In the mall is where I discovered “Juno”‘s hidden talents – her astounding ability to find washrooms, her willingness to show me all kinds of little things that may make travel less efficient but more informed, and her “deciding” where I should go. She very clearly decided I needed a new t-shirt; now, I think I’m more disappointed than she was that I never bought a new one.

We changed up the routine one day by changing primary trainers. This was valuable; another set of eyes can see how the team is working, and offer reinforcement or a new perspective on things. It was a nice change on an otherwise gray and cloudy day. That afternoon, we switched things up further by working on clicker training. This was a new thing for me; Jenny was never great at clicker training because she would focus so much on the treats that she’d lose focus on what I wanted her to do (but throw her a praise party and she was happy as a clam!) “Juno” loves her treats, so much so that I had to watch the words I used when talking to the trainer because she’d associate the word “Yes” as a marker that told her a treat was forthcoming… I had no idea I used the word “yes” so much! But clicker training and targeting was different from how I had ever worked before, so I struggled with getting the timing right. Thankfully, “Juno” is an impatiently patient student.

In amidst the routine which was both constant and ever-changing, there was fun, too. We had inside jokes among our class based on songs we heard in the van. “Bony Fingers” was particularly hilarious. My classmates were personable and funny, and I enjoyed spending time with them. Seeing the dogs interact, both at work and at leisure, gave me such joy.

I also had a ton of fun with riddles about the dogs in class. The first little bit of class we could not broadcast the dogs’ names or info on social media or in public forums. This is because puppy raisers need to be notified, and in the event of a dog switch, retracting or changing dogs’ info would be emotional and heartbreaking on a number of fronts. But I had SO much fun with my riddles! I sent the riddles to the office, and posted them on social media, knowing full well that my dog’s name would be by far the hardest to guess, if anyone could guess it at all. My riddle went something like this:

Because I am having FAR too much fun with this…
In my class, there are four Labs. One is yellow, three are black. Three are female and one is male. Two of the dogs are different in different ways.
One dog might be considered lucky, another is named after a fictional world traveler, one is a designer you’d wear if your future looked bright, and the other looks like someone typed a woman’s name and hit one key to the right on the first letter but decided they liked the name anyway.
All dogs have two-syllable names.
Juno is a lot like Jenny, just in a different body.
Based on these clues, tell me:
1) The makeup of the dogs in class (male and female, yellow and black)
2) The names of all the dogs in class.
3) Who/what is MY dog?
(If you know any of these details, you are NOT allowed to comment based on what you know!)
Have fun! I’ll come back later!

And my people had fun! 🙂 You, dear blog readers, know “Juno” is yellow and female, but only because I’ve blogged about it before… but one year ago, I felt that this brain teaser would be fun… I had fun, anyway!

And on Saturday night, my classmate and I hung out in Alumni Hall, and tried to order wings because our supper of chicken tacos were both super messy and not nearly filling enough. we still waited more than an hour for the wings to get delivered to us, and when we got them, they were just OK… but we had fun chatting and playing cards while we waited!

The next day would be Sunday, a day of rest, something I truly needed after seven days of intensity. When I closed my eyes, I dreamed of spending the day lounging in my comfiest clothes, going nowhere, and recharging my physical and mental batteries.