Paws 4 Thought:
Rula: A Labrador -golden retriever,with medium length ginger hair covering most of her body, had deep brown eyes, a pink nose and shades of cream hair around her feet, tail and chest. She was introduced to me in the Christmas of 1994, but we weren’t to meet again until our training in February 1995.
Her birthday was 16 March 1993. She was born in Leicester and fulfilled her puppy walking training with a family in Torquay in Devon, England.
Rula went on to undergo her guide dog instruction in the training centre at Cardiff, and that’s where we met for the second time.
The course which Rula and I completed together, normally covered a four week duration. However, for some reason we were able to successfully finish the course in three weeks!
Amazing!
Obviously, the course consisted of numerous things: Putting my full confidence & trust in a dog, allowing her to guide me through and around obstacles, letting her find curbs and steps, finding the way from A to B and so on.
[As the bond is built between dog and owner, the guide dog relies on instructions or commands from the owner.]
Anyway, on one such training day, our assignment was to venture into Cardiff, a bustling city with many commuters with crowded streets and traffic jams!
And so, my instructions received from my tutor, were to walk into the centre of Cardiff and then ask some one the directions to our intended destination.
In part; this was to build my confidence in approaching people at the same time as handling a guide dog.
Wow!
As we ventured through the open air shopping mall, I eventually managed to ask someone for directions to our intended destination.
Out of all the people I could have possibly come across, was a little old lady.
Bless her!
“Smile.”
On asking her for directions to our designated location, she paused quite briefly, and thought for a moment. She then stooped and whispered into Rula’s ear the directions for finding the way ahead!
Promptly, the little old lady left us, thinking she had done her good deed for the day.
But, evidently I was non the wiser. By this time I was joined by my instructor. Evaluating the experience we laughed in an uncontrollable manner!
Furthermore, we never reached our destination!
Can’t imagine why!!