[nagdu] Growling and your guide dog school

[Charlene Ota]

Jenine, you really put it well.  The talk gets around so fast, too! People
start talking about someone who retired their dog because it barked and they
have no idea what really was going on and it just escalates from there.
Sometimes, I wish the good news traveled even a quarter as fast as the bad
news does!  (smile!) 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jenine Stanley
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:19 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] Growling and your guide dog school

OK, my 2.5 cents worth here, not as a school employee, but as a handler
first and foremost. 

I completely understand behaviors like a bark or two out of surprise or at
home at the doorbell. You can even train this as a controlled behavior. 

Growling, and this is just me, again really depends but is more serious. A
startled growl at a strange object or person appearing from nowhere, once in
a while probably isn't anything to worry about, but something to be aware of
and track. 

Things really change depending on what you do for a living too. The average
guide dog handler, working in an office, might not think much of the
occasional growl, until coworkers start to complain or avoid him/her because
of the dog. This is happening to someone I know now with a mostly black
shepherd who growls and barks now and then at people in the office. People
are terrified of the dog though he's wagging his tail all the while. 

If you work in an occupation where you have to deal with the public a lot,
like sales, floor shows, things like that, the suspicion growls or barks now
and then don't help your personal image. Trust me, even before my work with
the school, I sold jewelry at conventions and a growling dog under the booth
wasn't exactly helping sales, even if she only growled once. Word spreads
fast, especially among blind people and handlers are a pretty judgmental
group, rightly or wrongly. 

I've had a growling dog who started out with small growls when dogs were
inappropriately poking their heads under my display table at conventions.
This quickly escalated and I never  knew exactly which dogs she'd growl at
or why. I observed, tracked, had instructors observe, and there seemed no
rhyme or reason to why she disliked certain dogs and not others. 

When this behavior began, I was on the board of directors at my school. I
owned my dog outright. They made suggestions about considering retirement,
only after giving me tons of help on how to stop the growling. We tried
everything and just when I thought I had it stopped for good, something else
would spark another growl and it would escalate from there. 

I know people were upset, especially those whose dogs had been attacked by
other dogs, both loose and in harness. Yes, guide dogs and service dogs do
attack each other, sadly. I could completely understand the outright fear my
dog's innocent growl of warning sent through them. I often said though, as
did others, that if she'd had pointy ears, people would have just chalked
her behavior up to being a shepherd, but even shepherd handlers said that
talking is one thing, but growling suspiciously is quite another and not
acceptable. 

My dog got to the point that she was beginning to snap at other dogs. By
this time the behavior had some predictable aspects, confinement being the
most obvious. 

This is not the case for every dog of course. Some just bark or growl now
and then. That brings up though, your job or volunteer work. 

Say you work at a school or volunteer with children. Those barks and growls
quickly get misinterpreted. Giant stories start about that horrible guide
dog from School X and how it bit someone, whether it did or not. 

My dog was accused of biting another guide when she growled at it. I
happened to be walking with an instructor who tried to explain to the very
upset person that my dog was 6 feet away from hers and could not have
possibly bitten her dog, but she would not listen and swore my dog bit hers.
I again completely understand this level of irrationality if your dog has
been attacked before as hers had. There were probably at least 6 other guide
dogs around her, most much closer than mine,  and not one of them growled. 

I personally as a handler don't want to live that way, even with a
spectacular dog like the one I had. I was tense because I didn't know when
she'd go off and I felt an obligation to other handlers not to pose even a
perceived threat. I wouldn't want someone just blithely working a dog who
might be excellent at the work but very suspicious of other dogs or just a
growler for no reason. Aren't our dogs generally supposed to be quiet in
public, save for the odd startled response? 

Things changed for me when I became an employee of the school. They never
said, "Jenine, you will retire that dog." they did say that she could not
work with me during school events and since that was when she did most of
her work, well, the prudent thing for all involved was to retire her. 

Think about this. When you see a representative of a guide dog school, you
don't expect the dog to be perfect, but you also don't look favorably on a
dog who growls, barks or is otherwise not under good control. Sometimes it's
the dog. Sometimes it's the handler, but what's the impression of that
school? "Oh, that's School X. the dog I saw from there growled and lunged at
other dogs. I hope all their dogs aren't like that." 

This summer in the exhibit hall at NFB, a generally great place for the dogs
btw, there were a couple scraps. What was the first thing people asked?
"Where was that dog from?" meaning which school. 

You have to think about this if you do volunteer work for your school as
well. Even if your dog growls only a few times a year, if it does so at a
school event, or if you're not sure, you're a risk to the school. That's not
meant as a slap to you or your dog. It's just the reality of PR. 

You have a couple choices. I did and I know my school gives these choices to
others in the same situation. 

1. I continue to work my dog but do not bring her to any school events or
times when I volunteer for the school.
2. I retire my dog. 

At that point it's up to me. 

The guilt, anger, frustration and yes even fear accompanying retiring a dog
for growling and barking are so huge they'd take up many other posts. I have
to say that retiring Molly really messed with my head. Was I not a good
enough handler to stop her behavior? Why did the school put out such a dog?
She didn't start growling until about 1.5 years into our partnership btw.
How dare they tell me to retire her? She was a perfectly good guide. 

I had to get past those stages and look at a bigger picture. You give
something up when a problem like growling or barking is persistent enough
that people know you by it. I've cringed at school events when volunteers'
dogs have growled, when my dog growled. I know both the public embarrassment
of the school and the private frustration and embarrassment of the handler
and instructors. 

None of it's easy but you really do have to think beyond yourself in some
circumstances, your work, your volunteer activities, etc. 

Again, these are not the opinions of GDF or anyone on staff. I'm speaking as
a handler who happens to be an employee. 

 Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com


_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/caota%40hawaii.rr.com