Today was the day!
Today I met Little Buddy!
I am exhausted but happy right now, writing this from bed with Little Buddy in their crate beside me, wagging their tail whenever I look their way. But let’s back up.
First of all, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’m not going to be sharing any specific details about my new pup just yet. There are a couple reasons for this. First, while I don’t think this will happen, and we certainly hope it won’t happen, there is a chance that this match doesn’t work out in the next few days and we have to start again. It’s not fair to you, me, the school, or my dog for the whole world to get excited about the new pup and then have to go through it all again. It’s too much scrutiny on everybody, and there are so many reasons why a match might not work out that are no one’s fault. Again, I don’t think this is what will happen, but it is always a possibility. More importantly at this point, I need to be focusing on my new pupper, not on social media. So I’m going to keep specific details about the pup to a minimum for a few days, and I appreciate your patience through this process.
So let’s talk about dog day!
I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night. Too much anticipation and excitement! I did get more sleep than I thought I would though, mostly because I played rain sounds on my phone to block out the sporadically rattling radiator in my room.
We were up at 5:45 today. They wake us up, and call us to different activities, with loudspeakers in all the rooms. The wake up calls come with music. I’ve kept track of the songs for each of my dog days. For Mopsy, it was “Haven’t Met You Yet.” For Neutron, it was “Happy.” For this pup, it was the match theme from the Dating Game, I’m told. I’ll have to look it up to find it and be sure.
We had breakfast at 6:45, then a lecture on dog fears and then handling a new dog.
Our instructors had finalized our matches yesterday afternoon, and while we were attending these lectures, our pups were getting baths over at the kennels.
After the lectures, we went back to our rooms, and we waited. And waited. And waited.
At least that’s what it felt like.
Our instructors were getting the dogs and bringing them to their students’ rooms one by one. There are four different wings of students, and we aren’t grouped together by instructor, so it could be a bit of a process, and you couldn’t guess that they were getting close to you by eavesdropping on when your neighbors were getting their dogs, though occasionally I would hear a knock and a squeal of excitement from one of my hallmates.
It felt like the scenes in a YA dystopian novel, waiting to take some kind of aptitude test or go through some kind of ceremony where you get your career chosen for you or something, except not evil. Excellent, in fact, because puppies! But here I was, sitting on the edge of my bed, so excited and nervous I was seriously wondering if I was going to be sick.
Finally, my instructor knocked on my door, and she brought in my new pup, who I’m going to call Little Buddy.
While I’m not sharing their name yet, I will say that it is a very good name, and it suits them perfectly. They are their name, in the same way my family dog Rocket is in fact a rocket.
Little Buddy was very enthusiastic. They jumped straight up on the bed, the better to lick my ears. I got them settled enough that I could attach my leash to their collar, and my instructor could take her leash off the collar. And then my instructor left us to get acquainted.
I spent the next hour sitting on the floor getting thoroughly inspected by Little Buddy. They sniffed me top to toe, gave me a complete facial, nibbled on my ears and my hair, and even stuck their tongue up my nose, which I admit was a first. I gave them a tour of my dorm room, letting them explore everything, especially their new crate. I held their bone for them while they chewed on it. Finally, they lay down and leaned against my leg while they chewed.
And then my instructor was back. We practiced walking our dogs on leash down to the dining room. It didn’t go that well, honestly. My instructor trained my dog, and Little Buddy is very very attached to my instructor. Little Buddy kept twisting around me to try to get back to her, and I felt like I was twirling my way down the hall. But I stayed patient, and we got to the dining room. We practiced settling Little Buddy at my seat under the table, while my instructor went to get the next student in our group. LIttle Buddy was doing great until our instructor was back, but then Little Buddy was up and at ‘em again.
Once our whole small group was in the dining room, we talked for a bit about the rest of the day and what to expect, then one by one we walked our dogs on leash back to our rooms. We had our mid-morning outside time, we call it “park time.” We’re basically teaching these dogs to relieve themselves on command, and also reminding them of their potty training expertise, given that they’ve spent the past several months in the kennels. Little Buddy circled me for a long time, getting very interested in other dogs and of course my instructor. They even barked at my instructor once, like “hey what are you doing over there! Who is this strange Jameyanne you left me with!” But eventually they did their business and we got out of the cold.
I’m not gonna lie, at this point I was feeling a bit worried. While both my previous dogs were and are very affectionate, especially Neutron who is definitely a velcro boy, I’ve never had a dog be so attached to a trainer that they would twist me around or bark at them. At least not that I remember. But after our mid-morning park time, I actually felt like Little Buddy and I turned a bit of a corner. Something about me giving them water and taking them out and giving them lots of praise when we got back inside, and they were climbing all over me, and also finally let me give them a belly rub.
After lunch, we went downtown, and we did our first trip with our new dogs guiding us in harness. It wasn’t the smoothest first trip I’ve ever had by any means, but after the morning it was way better than I’d been expecting. I wasn’t pirouetting down the sidewalk. In fact, my instructor unclipped her leash and let us go on our own fairly quickly, and there were several blocks where it felt like we were flying. Yes, Little Buddy was still distracted by our instructor, but when I called their focus back to me, they listened. My instructor was very happy at the end of this short trip and assured me that this was perfectly normal, even if it was new to me. And after our first working trip together, when my instructor offered me an arm to guide me back into the training center, for the first time Little Buddy stuck by my side and didn’t charge around me to get to her first. It felt like a real great step.
And things only improved from there. Little Buddy became even more affectionate after I fed them for the first time. They did their business right away at both our evening park times, and they didn’t even try to eat the grooming tools during our grooming lecture. By the end of the day, I was feeling really confident that they were listening to me as we walked around the house on leash. And while it certainly isn’t something I want to encourage, the persistent crying when I disappeared into my bathroom to take a quick shower before bed was a little gratifying. The enthusiastic tail wags that moved the whole crate when I reappeared even more-so. I think we’re well on our way from “who is this Jameyanne?” to “ok this Jameyanne might be okay” to “Jameyanne is a friend.” Hopefully soon we’ll be at “Jameyanne is my person.” My instructor says it will come, and once Little Buddy decides I’m their person, they’ll do anything I want.
It was a big day, with lots of ups and downs, but on the whole I’m feeling good about how it went and where we’re going. I can picture myself back in D.C. just flying down 1st Street on the way to work with this pup at my side. And I can tell they’re going to get along swimmingly with Neutron Star.
Because I want to focus most on the Little Buddy and building our bond, I’m not going to post for a couple days. We’ll be working a fairly straightforward route for a few days, and then on Sunday morning we’ll be doing that route on our own, our first solo. I think I’ll check in on Saturday afternoon, before the solo.
In the meantime, happy dog day friends!
