Weekend with Caddie

November 2021

My first Guide Dog boarder has been a black Labrador/Retriever cross called Caddie, 18 months old and about six weeks into her Guide Dog training. I was introduced to her at the training centre where she seemed very pleased to meet me, jumping up and generally being far too excited for quite a long time. This was mentioned as something that might be a problem if I were introducing her to visitors, but I reassured the trainer that I wasn't expecting any visitors. 

As a boarding volunteer I was given a collar, leash and harness for the dog, which I keep afterwards for any future dogs. I was also given a bag containing food for the weekend already weighed into bags, some poo bags, a sachet of special treats (disgusting stinky whole dried sprats), some food-based toys and three of Caddie's favourite soft toys - a moose, a duck and a big teddy. I was shown how to put the harness on her (it's a bit complicated) and how to get her in and out of the car. We practised that a few times. There was a lot to remember! Then off we went, and I began to feel the responsibility of what I had taken on.

As I drove the short distance home, I realised that I would need to plan my approach when we got there - how was I going to safely get the car in the garage and the dog out of the car and carry all the bags and shut the garage door and open the front door with only two hands?

After I'd managed all that, I introduced Caddie gradually to the downstairs rooms and the garden. Thankfully she didn't show any interest in going upstairs, at least not to start with. Of course she definitely preferred lying on the carpets and rugs to the tiles, hard wood and laminate flooring. She understood where her bed was, and didn't try to get up on the furniture, and was calm and quiet and didn't get excited at all while she was in the house with me, not even when there were fireworks going off and she was in the garden. I decided to sit down and have a cup of tea and think about what to do next, and she brought her toys and had a lie down next to me. It couldn't have got off to a better start.

The evening continued without incident, and because I'd been told not to leave her overnight in a room with a sofa, her bed had to be in the hall. Either I would have to shut her in there, in which case I wouldn't be able to hear her if there was a problem, or I could make up a bed for myself on the living room sofa. It's a very large and comfortable sofa so it wasn't a problem for me to sleep there on Friday and on Saturday, and everything was fine, and Caddie kindly brought me a toy when she could hear that I'd woken up. On Sunday night I shut her in and slept upstairs, and that was fine too even though I didn't get a toy brought to me in the morning.

On Saturday I'd arranged to go for a walk with friends who have been boarding Guide Dogs for a little while - they now have their third dog, who happens to be Caddie's brother from the same litter. They were very excited to meet each other, but calmed down a bit while they walked. Caddie wasn't walking with a loose leash like I'd been shown at the centre, but I put it down to the excitement of being with her brother. It was a long walk, and I was pulled along the whole time, but I thought I'd address it the following day when we'd go for a quieter walk on our own.

Well, the pulling continued on Sunday. I tried all the techniques I'd been shown - standing still, doing a complicated figure of eight move, using the relevant command ('Steady') but nothing worked. Worse still, whenever a dog appeared (and there are A LOT of dogs in Leamington on a Sunday) Caddie pulled as hard as she could to get up close and play and wouldn't pay any attention to anything else while the dog was there. I'd planned to do a longish circuit of the common but cut the whole thing short and brought her back after about 20 minutes. The worst thing is that all the pulling has brought back the right hip and left knee pain that was previously caused by running and which I spent so long sorting out with rest and physiotherapy.

Monday morning came and I was more confident of reversing the whole process of opening front door, opening garage, bag and dog into car. Except that Caddie had other ideas, and really didn't fancy jumping into the car. I had the opportunity to chat with a couple of my lovely neighbours who happened to be passing while this situation developed, but when they'd gone I got out one of the horrible stinky dried fish treats (which I had to touch with my actual hand) and in she went like a dream.

I've given a bit of feedback to the trainer, and asked her to call me if she wants the full story. Then I'll be waiting to hear from the volunteer coordinator about what happens next.

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth