Last time I told you how impressed I was that Guide Dog Normandy was so
comfortable when we were travelling recently. Today, I want to give you a
glimpse of what that actually looked like. And what better way to do that than
with a short video.
Let’s go back one step.
I’ve always known that Normandy has a particular strength navigating the
interior of large buildings. I discovered it when we were learning to find
particular stores in our local shopping mall. He seemed to have no difficulty
identifying the route from one store to another, and in finding the various
escalators we needed to use. Okay, I admit he was a tad over-enthusiastic
about guiding me to every escalator we encountered just in case it was the one
I needed, but we soon managed to teach him the specific one I was looking for.
So it was no surprise that he took to navigating airports with the same skill.
But what did startle me was how intuitively he figured out what was required
of him.
To put it simply, on arriving at our destination, Normandy instinctively started
following the other disembarking passengers from the airplane into the
airport. He followed them right the way into the arrival hall, not even allowing
himself to be distracted by the scents of the food hall.
It felt so seamless and easy as we moved from one place to another. I can’t tell
you how proud I was by the end of that route. I wanted to jump up and down
and shout at the top of my voice to tell everyone around me how proud I was
of my gorgeous boy. Instead, I limited myself to giving him a huge hug, and he
gave me a lick to let me know he was equally proud of me.
To give you just a teeny glimpse of how superbly Normandy did, here is a short
video of him guiding me down a ramp at Cape Town Airport on our way to the
boarding gate. Bear in mind that at this stage he wasn’t able to follow other
passengers, merely following Craig or being directed by my verbal commands.
Here’s that video – I’ll try to add another one to the same playlist soon.
