So far, a Whinner!

Guest blogger Mike Knezovich back. Thanks again to Chuck Gullett for his great post.

Now, back to New Jersey and Beth and The Seeing Eye: With all apologies to people named Whitney, everywhere, I think that Whitney sounds a little too preppy, a little too much like a girl who would hang with girls named Paige and Madison and the like. All perfectly nice names, they just don’t pair well with Knezovich, if you know what I mean.

And so, as far as I am concerned, her name shall be Whit, forevermore. And here she is:

There she is on a commuter train platform during training. Next stop, Chicago!

When she saw the picture, our friend Nancy described Whit as a cross between Harper and Hanni. Can’t argue there. Early reports have it that Whit loves to work so much that she doesn’t always know when to stop. Yesterday morning, anytime Whit approached a quiet intersection, or one where there was no traffic at the time, she’d slow down a bit but then blow right past the curb. She was so excited to see more sidewalk ahead to guide Beth on that she didn’t want to stop.

Part of the three-week training at the Seeing Eye is to remind Beth and the 18 other blind students in her class what they need to do when their new dogs make mistakes. Every time Whit blew a curb, Beth had to give Whit a quick leash correction, tell her “Pfui!” and take a few steps backward to the curb Whit missed. After commanding Whit to “sit,” Beth would tap the curb with her foot and say, “good girl,”  indicating that’s where she wanted Whit to stop. They’d step back a few steps then, rework the curb, and Whit always, always got it the second time around.

Later that afternoon Beth and Whit went on that same route with their trainer. Whit stopped at every curb, traffic or no traffic. Way to go, Whit!

Beth reports that Whit walks at a fast but not reckless clip, and that Whit is, umm, regular, which is a real plus for the partner of a working dog. And for the guy who takes the working dog out occasionally for its constitutional.