Training Internship: Day 1

Today was busy, busy, busy to say the least. I started my day off by arriving at 8:00a.m. and checking Mojito into kennel reception so he could be boarded during the day, then I headed off to meet the head of the interns, and from there she took us 3 interns to our departments, and me and another young women headed off to training!

Most of my morning was spent going behind the scenes of GDB, watching a video about hazardous chemicals, and reading about the chemicals GDB uses and how to properly use them, dispose of them, precautions to take, dangers, etc. It was definitely not the highlight of my day but you always have to learn the ground work before you get to do the fun stuff. After I finished reading I was taken out with a CWT (Canine Welfare Technician) and was taught how to be a distraction for a working team (a trainer and their dog) which I found out there was 3 levels of distractions. I didn't get to put those skills to the test yet, but I'm sure within the 2 weeks I will! I was told I will perform distractions around the campus and downtown San Rafael. Right after distraction training I hooked back up with my CWT mentor and he took me and showed me how to clean/disinfect runs, clean/disinfect food bowls & toys. It's a lot more then you think, but it really made me feel that our dogs that we loved for the past year are really well cared for and all the staff loves them as much or more as we did. That was pretty much my morning, and I headed off for my 30 min lunch. Guide Dogs is very flexible, any employee or intern can take a 30 min or an hour lunch and when you have worked your 8 hours you are free to go home, I thought that was really cool that they are really that flexible!

I spent my 30 min lunch with the other training intern in the staff lounge and boy did the 30 min fly by!  I couldn't complain I was more they happy to go back to work! I spend my afternoon helping another CWT prepping for the recall dogs coming in on Aug 11, which is way more then you would ever think! We spent 2 hours making collars, writing kennel tags (which included the dogs name, tattoo #, Micro Chip #, Sex, Color, & Breed), writing paper work with the same info as the kennel tags, and other misc. kennel tags that were needed for 39 incoming dogs. I never thought about all the work and prep that goes into recall dogs. I headed back to the kennels to return all the ready packets. I found my mentor in my kennel and he briefly taught me how to properly put on their 2 in 1 leash/gentle leader to any dog in the kennel in case I ever needed to grab a dog for whatever reason, then it was off to learning how to prep food for that kennel! Food is prepped around 2:30p.m. and by the time you scoop all the food and scoop the special diets for the dogs that need it, it's around 3 and you start at one end of the kennel and work your way down to the other end feeding the dogs that were left behind when the trainers went out for the afternoon and watching/separating any dogs that it applied to, and about that time the trainers are back and bringing their dogs in and we back track and feed those or the trainers take care of it. I then went back to where I started and collected the empty dog bowls and took them to the sink where they would be cleaned. The dogs are given about 15-20 min after being fed to go out in their runs and "do their business" and after that time they are locked in and the runs are cleaned and sprayed out for the 3rd time that day, and I got the privilege of doing that again, I really didn't mind I actually enjoyed it! After the runs were cleaned out and sprayed down in my kennel, my mentor took my to get a dog and showed me more behind the scenes of the campus.

By now it was near 4:15  and everyone is winding down and getting ready to leave and making sure they wrote down any needed info about dogs in their kennel in the logs or on the whiteboard. What I took away from today is GDB is very organized/scheduled orientated and you need to learn/love/live that schedule to survive a day there! It was a very busy day of learning and experiencing what goes in the 3 training departments and how to communicate with the employees and that it's extremely  important to read and understand all the kennel tags that could be on a kennel. I was dismissed at exactly 4:30 and I went into the receiving kennel and grabbed Mojito and headed on home for the night where I enjoyed a delicious homemade meal! I am NOT a morning person but waking up at 6:15 in the morning for the next 2 weeks I will not mind doing at all, I throughly enjoyed my day and can't wait for what's coming!

On another note I was informed Mojito is flying to Oregon on Wednesday at 11am and will be arriving there around 4pm. GDB is hoping to have a volunteer fly with him in the passenger area but if not he will be placed in a kennel and picked up in Portland!

~Katlynn & Mojito