A sore shoulder and a future guide dog raiser in the making

This is Sara, one one my nieces. She is one of those people who are just naturally good with animals. Both of my nieces stayed the night with us on Saturday, and we took Reyna and Starling for a walk. My left shoulder was really hurting, so Sara offered to walk Reyna and my niece Emily wanted to walk Starling. So off we went on a walk down the canal trail.

The amazing thing was that I wasn’t giving Sara a bunch of instructions about what to do with Reyna. She just naturally keep her on a loose leash, and she corrected Reyna (for sniffing) at the precise moment she needed a correction. Sara was even praising Reyna along the way. How awesome is that! Sara walked Reyna better than many of the puppy raisers I have seen. I think we really have a guide dog puppy raiser in the making.

Look at how nicely Sara had Reyna walking on a loose leash. Reyna was not puling or trying to take advantage of a new, younger handler. That was really important because Reyna has had a history of testing new handlers and losing her self control a little bit just to see what she could get away with. I have noticed quite a bit of maturing with Reyna in the past month, so it made sense that she maintained her composure with a new handler. But in any event, I was happy to see her doing so well.

We past several dogs on the trail. There were a lot of small yippe dogs as well as an absolutely beautiful blood hound. For those of you who do not know, I have a soft spot for hounds :) Sara was great about correcting Reyna when she became a little dog interested. The best thing was that Sara just kept Reyna moving forward with any issues. Starling, was of course an angel for Emily as usual. Nothing new there. Starling is a very special dog that way. She sure would have made an exceptional guide if it wasn’t for that cataract. But who’s complaining, certainly not me!

We stopped about half way through the walk and got this photo of the girls with Starling and Reyna in a field of wild mustard.

We all got thirsty so we stopped by a little market to get some water. Needless to say, Reyna drank half of my water. What can I say, all the walking made that little pup thirsty. This photo was taken outside of the market. I don’t know about you, but I think we have a little guide dog puppy raiser in the making. Thank you Sara for doing such a good job and for giving your aunties shoulder a much needed rest!