[Cagdu] edison

[Ken Volonte]

hi all.  I got Edison yesterday and went on two routes with him.  He's a great worker.  His curb work is especially accurate.  Two days with him and he's already off leash.  I've talked to his puppy raisers.  They're an older couple living in Carson City.  Today we worked down to my favorite restaurant down the street.  Emily told me stuff about how the streets would look to a dog in terms of complexity.  She said that not many guide dogs from any school could do this route.  Edison aced it first time out.

    I've been in correspondence with Michel Pouliot.  She has apologized for what I went through with Bryant.  She also said that the instruction as to food rewards was wrong and that she and Terry Berrit were going to correct this with all of the instructors at San Raphael.  We need to ask a lot more questions of San Raphael staff and administration.  There are things that don't make sense to me.  

    I'm going to alienate some people, but it's about time Shepherds were fazed out as guides.  I've never met one I liked.  

    I should say just a little more about Edison.  We're already at a place in terms of his work and our smoothness as a team where other dogs were at the space of six months to a year.  This guy is phenomenal in harness.  Out of harness, it's like living with a not very friendly cat.  He might be my best guide, but I don't see myself giving my heart to him.  He doesn't play.  He doesn't lick or run around the house.  He doesn't act like a Lab, but it is as if all signs of dogness have been stripped out of him accept for one thing.

    I wasn't feeling well after this afternoon's training in the rain, so I went to bed and to sleep.  I woke up to find that he was cuddled up to my back also asleep.  Maybe he's just settling in.  Bye for now.  Ken PS I hope I'm still on this list.  
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