July 12th, 2023
This morning started with me waking up at 6 AM like I did the previous morning. Around 7 AM, I headed up to breakfast with my classmates. After breakfast, we were instructed to go back to our rooms until about 8:30 am when we would participate in the dog day ceremony. Our dog day ceremony was different from the others because it was being filmed by HBO.
During the dog day ceremony, important staff members introduced themselves while also allowing us to share a little bit of our story’s. After the introductions concluded, one of the instructors announced the dog’s names, breeds, colors, and genders to us. For me I was matched with a black lab female named Eve.
After this was done, we were instructed to go back to our rooms so that the instructors could bring us our dogs. I remember shortly after 9:05 AM I got a knock at my door from my instructor with a very excited Eve. After each student was brought their dogs, they were given a half an hour to get to know them. Once the time was up each student was taken individually to complete basic obedience and in door work. These activities were completed so that our dogs could better respond to us as they’re new handlers.
Eve in a sit shortly after Lindsay received her.
Before lunch we were also instructed to give our dogs two cups of water and an opportunity to go outside.
At about 12 PM I headed up to lunch with Eve. In order to get to lunch safely and without incident, the instructors were nearby to assist. Once getting to our seats, it took each student about 37 times in one meal to settle their dogs.
Once everybody finished their meal, we were instructed to go back to our rooms to grab whatever we needed for our afternoon route. This afternoon route consisted of us going to a different lounge in Yorktown in order to work a very simple square route. During this route, our main focus was to improve our footwork and mechanics, while also feeling the leash corrections that our instructors would give periodically through their support leashes.
After this route, we returned to campus where we gave our dogs food, water, and another opportunity to go to the bathroom. Once this was all done, we were given the opportunity to have downtime with our dogs until dinner.
When heading to dinner, we were instructed to take our dogs with us. Dinner went a little bit better than lunch, but the dogs still got up several times.
After dinner, we went back to our rooms for a little while until we were instructed to give our dogs water and take them out. We were also instructed to take them out one more time around 9:30 PM. After this 9:30 PM bathroom break, I was pretty tired, so I went to bed.
