[CT-NFB] Guide dog story #4

[Isabel Rosario]

Good afternoon!
I hope you all have been enjoying the stories shared thus far! Today we
will be hearing about Kristen dockendorff’s experience with the hard
decision to retire her guide, written in the form of a beautiful letter -

Dear Emma ,

It is so hard to write this but that’s exactly why I need to. you are the
most outwardly enthusiastic dog that I have  ever met.  your  bubbly and
engaging  personality are the definition of who you are . One of the
trainers called you extremely solicitous. Yes,That wonderful smile I’m told
you have when you engage people,  leaves no doubt that you are a happy
girl. I wish we could have had a different kind of relationship. I just
realized I think I’m jealous of my friends who got to only experience your
pet dog side and not have to rely on you as a working dog. I hated having
to constantly ask you to do things that you were showing me by your actions
that you really didn’t want to do. You are an absolute expert at making
yourself happy but unfortunately that trait also lead to making our working
relationship very different than just enjoying the fact that You are a very
smart, engaging, happy, impulse driven, enthusiastic, physically strong,
loving,  dog.

>From the moment I met you , you came wiggling into my room at School  with
the instructor atta claiming “she’s very excited” and you went running
directly into the crate where somebody fed their previous dog, and went
running around the room with the mud mat shaking it all over the place. The
instructor says to me “I would discourage that behavior“you showed me how
unbelievable your sense of smell is. Throughout the time at  School !, your
impulsive  sense of smell and desire for food got you into many high collar
situation‘s. I often feel  that if I were a more experienced guide dog
handler I would have recognized those signs as something that was not
indicative of a dog that could ignore such impulses. you spent the next
four years proving to me just how much you did not want  The responsibility
of making me a priority. It’s too bad that you couldn’t have been a cadaver
dog or some other kind of scent dog because then  you would get rewarded
for your behavior instead of constantly being corrected for it. I am truly
sorry that I am the one who had to put those restrictions on you. It
literally took a phone pole to the head to knock some sense into me and say
“hey, this girl really needs to have her time to shine.” So my dear Emma,
you beautiful black beauty, it is with a very open heart,  that I give you
the freedom to be who you are with no restrictions or expectations. I will
miss our adventures and all the exciting friends and places we’ve shared
together but I know you will now be truly happy. You will continue to bring
your infectious joy to everyone you meet. With all my sincerest thanks and
love,  your mama, Kristen
-- 
Best regards,
Isabel Rosario
Co-chair|NABS Membership Committee
President| Connecticut Association of Blind Students
President| Connecticut Association of Guide Dog Users
A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut
www.nfbct.org
Check out my podcast:https://anchor.fm/brizzys-perspective
203-993-3045
insertion point between Committee and President|, at the 81st position
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230427/c427d0c4/attachment.html>