Homeward Bound

Given Prada's tendency towards hyperactivity in the mornings I rather expected to have quite a fight with her through the airport this morning, but as soon as we got out of the van at Newark she was all business (a trend, which I am proud to say, continues to this day.  Airports are workworkwork places!). I was so proud of her as she demonstrated to the instructor accompanying us that moving-object avoidance is her specialty; weaving and clearing people, suitcases, and those little electric car things.

Security had no problems with the instructor accompanying us to the gate, and Prada behaved wonderfully while she got patted down. I personally lean towards the idea that TSA does this just so they can pet the dog :). Prada certainly didn't mind.

At the gate area we accidentally seated ourselves next to someone allergic to dogs. While there is no legal weight to this situation, out of courtesy we decided to move so the instructor approached the gate agent and arranged for us to move up a couple of rows. We also discovered that the flight wasn't full so they blocked off an entire row for me and Prada (it makes life so much easier on us when this happens).
(We've even been moved up to first class once--what a treat!  At a later time I'll try and list some of our more comfortable aircraft types, since Prada and I fly at least a couple of times every year.)

This won't get posted until I get home to Salem; at the moment I'm seated in the airplane in an area on the tarmac known as "the ballpark.' The captain wasn't too specific about the origin of the name or what the ballpark is for, but I gather that it's some kind of holding area. Anyway, we're holding here for an hour due to inclement weather and general delays out of the NYC/Newark area. Prada slid right into her place underneath the window seat and is now sprawled out like a luxurious fur rug just to my right (I'm in the middle seat of a 3-seat row so we have plenty of room.) She didn't fuss or fight about sliding in at all, led me right down the jetway and in general showed off amazing training and good behavior (a trend that also continues to this day).  We're scoring points for the Dog Guide Reputation Team!

When the plane started to taxi over to the ballpark she didn't even raise her head, just kept on sleeping. I expect her to pop up and try to look out the window when we actually take off, but so far she's been a perfect angel. As I expected she didn't eat this morning, not even the reduced amount, so I saved a few kibbles in a baggy for a treat on the airplane if she gets upset. This is convenient for me because we're all the less likely to need to park until we get home. I plan on trying to park at the airport but I doubt she'll really need it.

This behavior on her first flight gives me great confidence in the breeding program and training that TSE puts into their dogs and I know I probably won't ever have major problems flying to and from school! Yay Prada!!!

Prayer Request from last night: Our Belgian student was denied permission to take her dog on the airplane in the cabin area because some Belgian bureaucrat remembered a weird detail of Belgian law: if there's a dog in the cabin they can't land the plane. ADA has no hold in Belgium and apparently their access laws are a bit limited. TSE is going to help fight this and the student said she was already preparing appeals and letters and phonecalls and visits and all that to get this law changed when she got home.

What they're doing for her is allowing her to crate the dog and have her ride underneath with the rest of the luggage. This will be extremely traumatic for the dog and the student is worried about crate usage after the flight is over. Will the dog be so traumatized that he won't go in the crate anymore? At least nobody's charging her to take the dog! So, she will get to go home and take the dog, but please pray about the access laws in Belgium.
(The reason this is more stressful for service dogs than regular pets--especially newly graduated service dogs--is because of their constant proximity to their handlers.  These dogs are by our sides 24/7 and see us as a fixture of life.  Even separation across a room is noteworthy to them.  But for a newly graduated service dog, with a new handler, this is even more difficult.  They've just experienced rejection froma  trainer and are only beginning to trust the new handler.  Flight separation to them could feel like total abandonment in a terrifying, loud, shaky machine)

Apparently both instructors and students have flown in and out of Belgium with Seeing Eye dogs and nobody's blinked at it but for some reason they decided to pay attention to the law this time and it's really ticking us all off. The entire school--even the housekeeping staff--is in a tizzy over it, and I know Michelle and Judy and Jim and all the other administrative staff are going to have a heyday this morning trying to get things fixed once and for all.

It's hard for me to imagine countries that don't have access laws like ours but I guess civil rights groups aren't as common in other countries (at the time I knew very little about social rights movements in other countries.  Now?  Well, I don’t know a whole lot more, but it’s on my list of topics to study after I graduate—in 17 days!).

Interesting problem when we get home. Today is the day that the people who are sealing and retopping our driveway picked to do their work so for a couple of days we can't walk, drive, park cars, or park doggies on the driveway. I planned on heeling Prada up to the house anyway, but this means we'll be going through the fields and up the hill--dragging my suitcase, too. Prada didn't seem to mind me dragging the suitcase behind us at the school but it'll be fun trying to get it through the grass. This will only last 2-3 days so it shouldn't be too inconvenient, but it'll make life interesting for a day or so.

I learned that you can bring dog food and dog cookies through security, whether they're in their original package or not. Can't do this with people food but apparently Kibble is an exception (TSA has since reduced its stringent regulation of bringing edibles and drinkables through security, for both people and doggies.  See airline/TSA websites for a comprehensive list of restrictions). TSE gave me a gallon ziploc bag of dog food to take home to get started will, and our night instructor fixed us all little flight emergency packs with park baggies, doggy cookies, and paper towels.

Mom assures me that she has dog food waiting for us but TSE gave me Purina Proplan and I had Mom buy Purina One so I'll probably end up mixing the two for a few days to get her used to the new food. I don't expect her to eat very regularly for the first few days, anyway, just like when I first got her. Big change for my little girl, here. New weather, new ground, new house, new people...the only familiar things will be her doggy gear and me.

Just got another announcement from the captain--apparently we're taking off at least 45 minutes to our time right now. It's about 9:40 Eastern and we were supposed to take off at 9am. I've flown out of Newark a few times and never had this problem before but I guess there's a first time for everything. I just feel sorry for the folks on board with small children. Prada's still napping, being such a good girl.

I really wish I could get into the airport's wireless network and post this for you, but the network doesn’t extend this far out.  Oh well.

And now I realize that I'm falling prey to writing just for the sake of entertaining myself so I should probably end this entry and go write something that I won't post so y'all won't have to read through my idle ramblings.