Memories of Maya

Interrupting this (not so) regular broadcast to bring you a special entry, which has traveled here all the way from Saturday, January 20th, 2007, the first night I spent with Maya. The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to my family during Team Training in January, 2007:

Hello to everyone from somewhat sunny Santa Rosa. I'm on my bed typing away on my laptop, and curled up in my lap is my little Canine Companions pre-match. She fits in here perfectly, breathing contentedly with one furry ear draped over my jeans, her head burrowed into the bed. Every once in a while, she re-adjusts herself and settles in again with a loud sigh.   

She is a two-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, compact and extremely small at perhaps 50 lbs. Her coat is a light, light shade of blonde - a far cry from the dark-haired Golden Retrievers I've loved in past years - and her silky ears are just a slightly darker shade of gold. She has a couple of subtle bands of golden hair across her shoulders, round golden whorls at her elbows, and her tail looks like a short blonde paintbrush with the endpoint tipped in golden paint. Again, I emphasize the "small and compact" part because she comes up just to my knees. This little girl thumps her thick tail loudly inside her kennel while greeting approaching people, and strolls calmly through the world at a slow, confident pace. 

She has a band of gold hair running across her muzzle, just inches beneath her eyes, as though she's been wearing a Gentle Leader for awhile. But that little band is in fact the overlapping of two light ridges of golden hair growing against each other like converging tectonic plates. The result is an intermingling ridge of darker golden hair. Surprisingly, her nose is somewhat pink in color... related to the weather or living in the kennels? She has gorgeous teeth, and I intend to keep them that way.  

We had some more bonding time today, including a stroll through the big fenced-in dog park, a few tries around the agility course on campus, a teeth-brushing and grooming session, and now this curling-up time. We also fit in several hours of sound-work practice in the Gittinger Hall Hearing Dog "apartment" suite, set up with kitchen, bed, bathroom, and living room to look just like a real apartment. This way we can familiarize the dogs with something resembling our home environment while extending their sound-alerting skills into a new place. Little girl did excellently, a hearing dog who combines high self-motivation, intelligence and problem-solving ability with an extremely chilled-out demeanor and unflappable personality. Far more often you'll find one or the other, an energetic and excitable dog who does sound alerts well but tends toward higher energy, or a chill and low-key dog who may lack sufficient motivation to initiate and follow-through with soundwork. Add to this her compact size (perfect for public transit and apartment living), totally laid-back personality and easygoing nature (great for long DOWN-STAYS under my desk), and sweet disposition, which makes for great cuddling. Welcome, Little Girl.

It's humbling to read these words from seven years ago, when I had little inkling of how much I would come to love sweet, soulful Maya. Remembering her invokes her presence, and fills and surrounds me with feelings of warmth and safety.

Now I think of little Karma, and her smiling face, the spirited way she watched over me during our time together.

While gazing down at the dog with whom I've been snuggling this evening, I feel relaxed and at peace. With a paw on my foot and heavy head resting on my leg, I experience New Dog as steady and grounded.

A few nights before flying out to California to begin this Team Training, I was at my computer working on this blog and sending emails. In the corner of my mind's eye I "saw" Maya's tail happily wagging, as if she was standing there behind my computer, waiting for me to acknowledge her. It reminded me how much I longed to love and work with a dog once again, how vital that connection was and remains. Somewhere at that moment, I felt with conviction, "Maya" was wagging her tail, and she was happy for me.

Day Four: The First Night Together

Day Four of Team Training began with an introduction to the various pieces of equipment that Canine Companions for Independence assistance dog teams may use when at home and out in public. In particular, the instructors explained, different collars may be used at different times and in different settings, depending in part on the team's needs, the dog's responsiveness, and the handler's skill and comfort level. Notably, during equipment introductions, clear emphasis was placed on the importance of upholding the assistance dog image in the public eye, always an issue of relevance but especially critical in today's times.

True to their word, the instructors delegated greater responsibility for the care of the dogs to their new handlers over time, explaining that on this day students would be keeping their pre-matched dogs during the lunch hour (rather than returning them to their crates as done for the previous three days). Come noontime, students would be responsible for toileting their dogs and maintaining their dogs' behavior while also eating lunch, an approximation of a very real scenario soon to come. 

The morning continued with a simulated "lunch" scenario, followed by soundwork practice. At this point we are still working on the door chime sound with our respective dogs, consistently advancing our expectations of the intensity and/or persistence of their alerts while also introducing new conditions (such as increasing the distance between ourselves and the sound or ourselves and the dogs). A lecture on canine health rounded out the morning's events. Graduates and dog-lovers may also have felt apprehensive or worried after learning about the many potential threats to our dogs' health that are lurking out there.

Following lunch (again, thank you, amazing Voluncheers!), the instructors began to prepare students for the first night to be spent at home (or in the dorms) with their respective pre-matched dogs. A lecture on dogs' daily needs was then presented, culminating with an activity in which students were asked to draw their future daily schedules with ample time given for toileting, feeding, exercising, grooming, and training. 

Afterward, we commenced soundwork practice with our dogs, this time with a second sound, that of a timer beeping. The dogs have already had substantial practice alerting their trainers to this sound, but at this time they were asked to alert their new handlers instead. In turn, the students applied what they had learned about soundwork and their respective dogs in order to problem-solve and support their dogs in this novel arrangement. We are encouraged to remember that our dogs are learning at all times, all the time.

Day Four wrapped up with an additional round of command practice as well as the introduction of commands which would prove handy that night at home/the dorm rooms. Quizzes on the day's lectures were then handed out, and class was dismissed.