Home Interview

Today was my fateful home interview.

I woke up this morning and started my cleaning frenzy. I always hate having people think I live in a mess even though in reality my room is often cluttered. I cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, my room, and swept the flat. I also finished mowing the lawn. So...our flat was pretty frickin' clean by the time Graham and Jim got here.

It was all pretty standard. We talked for a while then Graham asked me some questions about the flat and my schedule. He asked me a few questions about raising in America. One of them was, "Are you as obsessed with making sure the dog doesn't relieve on walks as we are?" I did laugh at that. My group back home had a lot of bad relievers for a while so the simple answer was, "Yes, probably more so." Haha! He, as I suspected, had some concerns about our backyard but ultimately said that since I was just a boarder it should be just fine. Then we went for a walk with Vale. I'm glad I got to walk around with a dog that I knew well. It is still a little strange for me. I'm using commands I'm not use to using and the dog is allowed to pull a little.

I learned sort of how to handle the dog here, but I'm sure that I'll learn more throughout the next few months. Graham said that I handled well. That's good! Now all that has to be done is for the paperwork to become official. I was told that as soon as that happened I could have Vale for a week!

My only real question for his was, "Would it be easy for me to switch to being a puppy walker full time or would it take some real effort?" He said that it really would be just as simple as telling him that I wanted to be a puppy walker full time and he'd schedule me for a puppy. Hooray!

Better get to buying things like dog beds and toys and a crate.

Final Preperations

Well, November is upon us once again. November, for those of you who don't know, is national blogging month. The challenge: to write a coherent post every day of the month of November. Like last November I shall be taking on this challenge to write a post a month. I don't promise that they'll all be award winning posts, but they'll all be written and out there for the public to read. Today the fist post for National Blogging Month will be about my preparations for my Home Interview tomorrow.

It's been quite a long time since I had someone come into my home and inspect it to make sure that it was suitable for a Guide Dog puppy. The first time was way back in 2008 when I was preparing for my first little ball of fur who ended up being Freya. At this point it was my dad, my brother, and myself. Needless to say in this home run by men decorations were scarce and there was a bit of clutter...well, everywhere. My dad, brother, and I are all pack rats (a quality of mine own that I feel gets better when there's a puppy around because it's dangerous to do it). Basically, it was a matter of picking things up from puppy reach and fixing the hole in our backyard fence. Easy and simple enough.

The second time was when we merged families and my dad and step mom moved into a house together in 2009. I think this was more of, "We want to see your new house on the lake." rather than inspecting it. So, really at that time, I wasn't at all nervous about what they would say.

This time, I'm pretty darn nervous. I've never raised in an apartment before and I'm nervous that our little place won't make the cut. So, I've been pre-puppy proofing the flat for the last week. Today will be the final preparations which will include mowing the lawn (if the weather stays nice), vacuuming my room (as long as our vacuum cooperates), and cleaning my desk up. The rest of the flat is what it will be and I have realised that I won't be able to allow a puppy into our kitchen until he/she is very mature. and knows not to pick things off the floor.

Lots of work to do today with school and with puppy stuff, but I'm glad I'm finally getting into puppy raising here.

Puppy Class and the Date is Set

Puppy class was really, really fun today. I got to work with Vale again. Last time I was at a puppy class he was fresh off...well, I'm going to call it the puppy truck even though that's not really what it is. He's older now and was very good for me when we started out on obedience. Because I had Vale for the first few minutes I had a relaxing time. Then we were told to switch dogs and when I was handed the leash of a small, black lab female I didn't complain.

The puppy in question is Quiz. At first I was reminded a lot of Freya. She didn't walk; she ran. They do things a lot differently here I've realised and while I was doing everything I was taught to control a puppy who wouldn't walk your pace (i.e. stopping and pulling the puppy back and waiting until (s)he is under control so the puppy wouldn't think that all they had to do was pull to get their way), I'm thinking that it made me look inexperienced and clumsy. It seems to me that their approach to a rowdy puppy is to just let it happen and hopefully the puppy will grow out of it. I'm not sure of course as I haven't been briefed on commands and what not. Hopefully, that'll happen soon. I guess I've just been taught to tolerate no nonsense when they're little and then when they're older they won't be able to pull your arm out of your socket. Anyway, besides pulling and walking everywhere (including ramming herself into my leg) Quiz was also not the kind of girl who let her feelings go unknown. She barked almost the entire time I had her. I think the "leader" (I really don't know what to call him so from now on he's just Graham) felt a little sorry for me because I was doing everything possible to keep her quite. I gave her verbal corrections, then collar corrections, and on the rare occasion that she was quiet I gushed praise in her direction. I also did puppy handling when she wasn't barking to calm her down and to teach her that when she barks she gets corrections and when she's quiet she gets pets. Nothing worked. At least she continued to bark and whine when her raiser took her back (I was so afraid it was me). She was definitely a spitfire. Needless to say, I fell in love with her. Haha!

Really though, I really enjoyed myself. I do think that it will take a lot of time for me to get use to using the commands they use here and our differences in training techniques. I guess it's a good thing that I'm puppy sitting first.

Soon I will be an official puppy sitter here and can start sitting. In one week (that's November 2nd) I have my home interview. Graham is such a nice guy that I'm not terribly worried (plus, I'm told I'll get a manual which means I can start learning up on how to raiser puppy UK style). I am going to start puppy proofing the house a little. I'll be the first to admit that it's not the most puppy proof place in the world, but to be fair to Lisa and myself, we don't have a puppy. I know he'll probably catch a few things that I need to change, but I don't need anyone to tell me that a puppy couldn't easily mistake an empty soda bottle for a chew toy. We really need to get a recycling bin for the kitchen.

Gosh! It's been over three years since I had my last home interview! Alright, now I'm nervous.