Telly's education

It surprises me that I haven't written about Telly at all yet. Puppyraising is certainly something that I have pored much time and energy into. It's strange to imagine saying goodbye to the people I've gotten to know through the Seeing Eye. And it's even stranger to imagine that I might never see them again, though I hope that isn't the case. It isn't really that I know them to any depth. Rarely when we see each other do we talk about much besides our puppies. But nevertheless there is a kind of bond formed. We share a similar experience. At the risk of being melodramatic, I can say that we've had the same hopes and fears, joys and disappointments, frustration and enjoyment. We share a passionate love of dogs and more importantly for the work of The Seeing Eye. And we all have really cute puppies. The adorable puppy in this picture is Telly, my sixth pup and first German Shepherd. She's eleven months old. I will probably have her until I go to college. If she isn't called back for training before then, my club leader will take her. Isn't she pretty?

Last Friday she came to school with me for the first time. All of my other puppies but the first were at school with me at one time or another. It's very good preparation for possible life as a guide dog. Being a guide isn't all about walking and leading. Lots of the time it's about being quietly obedient under a desk somewhere. It takes a lot of effort to teach puppies to be quietly obedient under a desk anywhere! No one said the job of a puppyraiser is easy.


I enjoyed having Telly at school with me, though I had forgotten how hard it was. There's the difficulty of walking down a crowded hallway, hanging onto the dog with the left hand and the pile of books with the right, trying to open the door, and hoping no kindergarteners are scared by a German Shepherd nearly as tall as they are. And then there are the harder things. I feel very acutely that my puppy's behavior reflects on me as her puppyraiser. (at least, I think it does.) The obvious result is that I can easily get overly concerned about how my puppy makes me look and what people think about me. Unfortunately some people think an eleven month puppy in a new place for the first time should act like a twelve year old dog at home. This is discouraging. Really Telly was quite good at school. She was especially well behaved in Great Books, Western Thought, and Music Appreciation. She was quite antsy in Calculus and Biology, but then so am I. I guess we have similar tastes.


Here's Telly posing after her first day of school. I think she looks quite somber and studious. Apparently she liked school because now she really wants to come with me every morning. So far she's been disappointed. Perhaps the week after next she'll come with me again. I think we'd both like that.