Presentations Galore

Tucker and I have been very busy the past few weeks.  He spent spring break with my parents while I was on a mission trip in Louisiana (oh, the stories they have to tell) and last week he "helped" me present my senior English/Honors thesis. 

For those readers who may not know, "thesis" is a big deal.  My English thesis was a joint project with my honors courses, so instead of being 25 pages, it was 40.  These 40 pages had to be condensed into a 20 minute presentation, which essentially means I had to reduce it down to 10 presentable pages.  I decided that I wanted to have Tucker come to the presentations, partially because I just enjoy showing him off and partially because he calms my nerves.  Knowing that sometimes puppies will be puppies, I planted a puppy-sitter in the crowd (thank you, Christy!) just in case he decided to act up while I was presenting.  He was doing alright sitting beside the podium until he saw my Mom move to take a picture.  As soon as he saw her, it was all over.  He stood up, wagged his tail, and got really excited.  Continuing to present, I leaned over, put him back in a down-stay, and kept going.  He then decided to jump up and bark.  I nodded to Christy who came up and took him from me and led him outside.  The rest of the presentation was fairly uneventful, and thankfully, my professors were all very understanding. 

The very next morning, Tucker and I hopped a plane to Baltimore, Maryland for the Super Regional Alpha Chi Conference.  As usual, he was a champ in the airport.  He did a great job at the security checkpoint, holding his sit-stay until I asked him to walk through the metal detector, and though he did get slightly distracted, he didn't make any noise as we passed by a very angry shih-tzu in one of the terminals.  When we (my classmates and professor) had all bought something for lunch, we returned to our terminal and I sat on the floor with Tucker to eat.  Although he thought he was starving to death (I don't give him breakfast when we fly) he never once tried to get my cheeseburger even though his head was resting on my foot and the cheeseburger was on my knee.  Jaws dropped as people passed and realized that a Labrador was sitting less than two feet away from food and not begging. :) 

Despite the fact that we told the travel agent we had a service dog in training with us, they failed to assign me to bulkhead seating.  Thankfully, on the way up, there was no one else in my row, so Tucker had plenty of room.  (The same cannot be said about the flight home - but more about that later.)

We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon on Thursday and stayed through Sunday morning.  Tucker did a wonderful job throughout the conference.  When I gave my presentation (The Furry Side of Service-Learning: Future Leader Dogs and the University) he curled into a ball beside the podium and slept, which was a definite improvement from my last presentation. ;) 

Okay, now for the funny stories of what happens when people fail to use the brains God gave them:

Though we had emailed back and forth with one of the hotel managers, the hotel staff seemed completely shocked when we walked in with Tucker.  Dr. Hobbs had to explain the whole situation to them again, and one of the managers said he had a few questions for me.  The strange thing was that when he walked over to ask said "questions," all he wanted to know was if we had arranged for Tucker beforehand (he had just asked Dr. Hobbs this question, so I think he was hoping to catch us in a lie or trip me up or something).  When I told him we had, and let him know that I had an ID and health certificate, he immediately became very apologetic and said everything was fine. 

Thinking we had settled all the puppy confusion, I was very surprised when I was stopped again that night by hotel security.  Around 11pm or so, my friend James and I decided to take Tuck out to park.  As we walked through the lobby, I could tell the night shift was keeping a close watch on me, but I didn't realize that they hadn't heard about Tuck.  When we came back inside, a very large and intimidating man with a Russian accent stopped me.  Our conversation went something like this (don't forget to insert your best Russian accent):  "What is about the puppy?"  .... "What?"   "What is about the puppy?"  .... "Do you mean why do I have him?"  "Yes."  "He's a future Leader Dog for the Blind.  I'm his puppy raiser and he goes everywhere with me."  "You have documentation?"  "What?"  "You have documentation?"  "If you mean his ID and health certificate, then yes, but it's up in the room.   I can go get it if you want, but when I checked in earlier they said it was fine and didn't want it."  "Oh, okay, sorry for confusion."  He then motioned to one of the men working the check in desk who very sheepishly nodded - apparently he was the one who wanted me to be questioned but was too afraid to do it himself. 

The next morning when I took Tucker out to park, the morning shift gave me strange looks as I walked through the lobby.  When I came back in, I was just thinking that if I had to explain myself to another security agent I was going to let somebody have it when one of the employees I had met during check in came up to me.  She said, "I'm sorry if you had some trouble last night."  My first thought - how did you know I had trouble last night?  She continued, "I saw what was going on and I figured I might have to step in at some point."  Keep in mind that she's telling me this at roughly 6:30 am.  I am tired - ergo, not a happy camper - and it was all I could do not to say, "You mean you saw the entire thing, knew exactly what was going on, and still refused to come save me from that lengthy and awkward exchange?"  I told her everything was fine but that I hoped everyone knew about us now so we could avoid going through that again. 

The fun and games continued as I sat in the conference room waiting for my presentation to begin.  One of the judges came into the room and began greeting the presenters.  When she came to me, she looked at Tucker, looked at me, and said, "Will you be okay getting to the podium?"  Tucker was positioned such a way that it was very easy to read his vest, which says, "puppy being RAISED for Leader Dogs for the Blind."  Again, I curbed my sarcasm and simply replied with, "Yes, ma'am I'll be fine."  Then she pulled my certificate out of the folder to give to me.  Again, she looked at Tucker, and then proceeded to rub her hand across my certificate, apparently looking for braille.  Finding none, she just stood there until I reached out and took it.  The look on her face leads me to believe that it wasn't until that moment that she realized I could actually see her. :) 

That afternoon, we decided to visit an old cemetery (Dr. Hobbs, our professor, studies gravestones as a hobby).  As soon as we got out of the cab, I saw the "NO PETS" sign.  I really didn't want to deal with angry cemetery personnel, so I parked Tucker outside the cemetery, put on his jacket, and walked in, keeping my gaze straight ahead.  Dr. Hobb's stepped inside the office to get maps, and when she returned, she said they had immediately told her the dog wasn't welcome, but that she explained he was a Leader Dog (she has a habit of accidentally leaving the "future" part off of that one).  About that time, I saw the woman appear at the window of the office, and she was looking straight at me.  Realizing I was being watched, and feeling slightly peckish, I decided to refrain from making eye contact with any of my peers, and whispered to them not to hand me anything to read.  The woman either temporarily bought it, or just came to terms with the idea of Tucker, and finally left the window.  After we had been walking through the cemetery for about half an hour or so, we inadvertently regrouped and stood talking on a pathway.  Tucker, angry that I was making him behave and wear his jacket in an outdoor setting, had already earned himself an afternoon in the gentle leader collar, and was NOT happy with me.  He flopped (yes, flopped) down onto the pavement, and did his best pitiful puppy impression.  Dr. Hobbs immediately asked me if he was alright, and although I tried to assure her that he was just being dramatic, my classmates weren't quite buying it.  Several of them asked if he needed water and even though I tried to tell them he didn't want it, I went ahead and gave it a try just to show them he was okay.  Each of them poured some of their water into the bowl I had and I put it down next to his head.  He barely lifted his head, looked at the bowl, and then flopped back down on the pavement with a sigh.  Laughter ensued and I made sure to point out that I did try to tell them that would be his reaction.  Not wanting to completely waste the water but having nowhere to store it, I lifted his lip and poured it into his mouth.  This brought on more hysterical laughter as he (head still sideways on the ground) tried to lazily lick up the water.  The group then decided to visit the Booth family monument (yes, John Wilkes Booth).  Tucker and I had already been by this monument with our friend Amy, so about halfway there, I spotted a nice shady spot and told them just to pick us up on their way back.  After a few lazy minutes under the shade of the tree, Tucker was back to his usual antics and all was well with the world. :) 

The next day, we again visited a cemetery, but this time to see the grave of Edgar Allen Poe.  My thesis involved comparing the relationship between Poe's detective stories and contemporary detective fiction, so this was a must see for me.  It was a rainy day, but it was still a fun outing (though Tucker did require a few minutes with the hairdryer when we got back to the room).  We ate lunch after that and then Tucker and I went back to the hotel to avoid getting any wetter than we already were.  For dinner, we went to a nice seafood place and Tucker slept like a rock under the table. In fact, one time he slid out from under the table, stretched, and then put himself right back under my chair. :) 

Sunday's plane ride was not quite as enjoyable as Thursdays.  Tucker still did a great job going through security (and ignoring another small dog), but we discovered that not only were we not in bulkhead again, but we were in the middle seat of a three person row in the "butt" of the plane.  I had a larger older gentleman on my left and good-sized younger woman on my right.  Oh, and did I mention that this plane was even smaller than the first?  Thankfully, Tucker did really well and stayed curled tightly at my feet for the majority of the flight.  We hit pretty steady turbulence for a while, and though he wasn't thrilled about it, Tucker also did a great job of handling it. 

So, overall, I'd say the weekend was a great success - the conference was fun, the people I was with were great, and my puppy was well behaved and didn't have any accidents in the airports or hotel!   

Being pitiful in the cemetery.

Posing at the end of the conference.

Presenting was hard work... so we took a nap. ;)

The plane ride home (before the other passengers boarded).

Visiting the grave of Edgar Allen Poe.