Training Internship: Day 2

I arrived again at 8am and was greeted by all the staff and they always make you feel welcome! The staff there is amazing they are very appreciative of our help and are always explaining what goes on & how to do things, they are happy to answer any of my questions, and they are just fun to be around and work with!

I was quickly sent into kennel 2 and started cleaning the morning food bowls. Like I said before there is a never a dull or down moment when you are working, you are always walking around doing this, or getting that, or getting/taking a dog somewhere, etc. I finished dog bowls the went to one of the quads (one of the 4 groups of kennels in each kennel) and let all the dogs in and went out to their runs and scooped poop and started acceling (cleaning solution that they use to clean the runs with every morning) the runs and washing them out. I was pulled from cleaning to attend the daily CWT meeting at 9:30 and they just discussed how each kennel was doing with cleaning, staff, dogs, etc and if any kennel needed help and if any changes to the schedule needed to be made, it lasted about 5 min and then I went back to kennel 2 to finish my cleaning of the runs and a community run. Immediately following the cleaning of the runs and community run the dogs were let out in their runs and my mentor and I went out and did community run with a quad of dogs for about an hour. One dog was left behind for training this morning and he was not in the quad we did community run with, so my mentor and I took a black lab male on a walk around the campus. We walked him for about 15 min and we came back put him back in his kennel run and I went to go grab a female yellow lab and brought her out into the center of the kennels and spent about 10-15 min grooming & loving on her. A lot of the female labs I have worked with I call them "pocket labs" because they are tiny for a lab, and so loving & sweet, made me want raise a female in the future. By this time it was near 11:30 and I finished up grooming her and put her back in her run and now it was time to lock the dogs in their kennels and hand out enrichment. Enrichment is usually a large frozen peanut butter Kong with treats in it, that we hand out to the dogs that are in the kennels that are allowed to have them. Some dogs are not allowed enrichment due to many reasons or some dogs are simply out working with their instructors and miss it. Once all the enrichment got passed out I headed out to my lunch and went and grabbed Mojito from the receiving kennel, and hung out with him during my lunch.

I arrived back from my hour lunch and put Mo back in his kennel run and headed to kennel 1 to find my mentor and we headed over to kennel 3 (K3 is where all the career change dogs, breeder dogs, boarding breeders or boarding guides are, so basically no training dogs are in K3) and me and 3 other people took 4 dogs on what they call the cemetery walk. The San Rafael Cemetery backs right up to the campus and it's a nice 20-25 min walk that the dogs get, and it was hot!! I was surely sweating when we got back and the dogs drank water and passed out on the cool linoleum floor. We made sure all the dogs were doing well in K3 (kennel 3) and headed on back to K2 (kennel 2) and my mentor and I each locked a quad in and started the afternoon cleaning up of poop and spraying out the runs. My mentor then had to go to a meeting and there was no other CWT (canine welfare technician) for me to hang with in the kennels so I sat in K2 and read about all the signs of illnesses and what to look for when you think something is wrong with a dog. I finished up with that then walked up and down the kennel hallways and did some basic quiet work with the dogs (praising the dogs for being quiet and calm in the kennels, and quieting down the barkers). By not it was 3pm and that means dinner time for all the dogs that were left behind from training for whatever reason. We walked up and down the K2 hallways feeding the dogs that were there and then back tracking and getting all the empty bowls out of the kennels and placing them in the sink for washing and disinfecting. Between 3-5 the instructors are usually back and it is then their responsibility to feed their dogs. After dinner the dogs are given 10-15 min to relieve in their run and they are then locked in their kennel while the runs are scooped and sprayed out again.

My mentor made it back from his meetings (he's  kennel lead for K1 so he stays very busy running around, dealing with any problems in K1, going to meetings, and whatever else he gets called in to do) and we headed over to K3 again to do an afternoon walk with those dogs, all the dogs in K3 get an AM & PM walk. I leashed up a female yellow lab, and my mentor and another intern leashed up a dog and we went and walked the campus with them. I learned that all the dogs are walked on an EZ leash (it's a gentle leader and leash all in one that can be used for any dog in their kennels) and sometimes you see them being walked with a gentle leader and leash that usually the volunteers walk them on, but regardless all dogs are walked on a gentle leader, which makes walking all the dogs very easy because you might get a very easy walker or you might get a headstrong puller. Now it was 4:30 and I was due to leave in 30 min so we went back to kennel 1 and discussed what was going on tomorrow, made sure all the other training kennels were doing good, and just hung out and he let me go 5 min early.

The entire training dept. has a 3 hour dept meeting from 9-12 so no dogs are going out for training in the morning, and I get to attend the meeting! From what my mentor was telling me, a lot is going to be discussed and a few presentations. The dogs will be taken in with instructors and CWT's, so hopefully there will be a dog for me to take as well!

Sometime during the day blindfolds came up, which is volunteers/interns/staff gets put under blindfold with a class ready dog and the instructor right there and you get to be guided by the dog for a little bit. I asked my mentor is there was any way I would be able to do this and he said he would talk to his boss and we met up with her in the hallway and she said I was already on the schedule to go out to town next week (either downtown San Rafael or maybe San Francisco) with the instructors and would most likely get to experience blindfold. I was beyond excited when I heard this, this is the part I was looking forward to the most!

Mojito and I enjoyed his last night with me going on a picnic to Angel Isalnd and enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL view of San Francisco and The Golden Gate Bridge with my amazing host family! Pictures will follow soon!

~Katlynn & Mojito