[nagdu] matching

[Mardi Hadfield]

Hi every one,  I can't say anything about school matching as I have never
had a program dog. However, I can tell you that I have had 3 guides now and
every one of them have been different. Lily was a hand full. She loved
working but, could be very stubborn at times.She was a service dog at first
and then was trained to guide. In her early days,before she was trained as a
guide dog, she was stolen from my yard and managed to get away from the guy.
She was hit by a car trying to find her way home. She had a head injury, a
fractured vertebrae in her dorsal spine and contusions in her heart and
lungs. She had a micro chip but when  animal control picked her up, they did
not check for one. I had been out looking for her along with my neighbors
and finally called animal control several hours later. They did not tell me
she had been injured. She lay in a filthy, wet kennel until I found a ride
to get her 4 hours later. She had brain damage and could not walk or even
recognize her own name. It took many months and my near financial ruin for
her to recover. I had to totally retrain her all over again.Her personality
had changed. she was more aggressive and stubborn. Nick, my trainer and I
worked for 6 months and managed to get her pretty much back to her old
self.Then she was trained to guide me. She worked another 4 years before
Vally Fever took it's toll and I had to retire her. She died before I found
another dog to  train. I tried out a rescued Border Collie, but he had been
too abused  and could not handle being out in public.He was career changed
early on. Then I got Nala, and in 4 months she was a reliable guide dog. It
was like she just knew what to do and was so easy to train. Like she had
been doing it all her life. She was 2 years old when we began her training.
She guided me for 7 pretty perfect years. She is a tuff act to follow. Then
I got Wanagi.She was learning fast and was similar in personality to Nala.
Unfortunately, she turned up lame with an old hip injury, so she was career
changed. I tried out so many dogs after that and I thought I was not going
to find another dog that would work. Finally, I tried out a Belgian
Tervuren, and he showed promise. Shaman is very different than Lily or Nala.
Being a Shepherd, he definitely was not like the Huskies I was used to. He
is working out well as my 3rd guide. Some times I have to be that Drill
Sargent though. I had to get used to that way of handling. Shaman is not a
soft dog. Lily and Nala were both very soft dogs. Even though Shaman is very
different than what I was used to, I think he will be a good guide for me.
Have a great day,  Mardi, and Shaman,and Nala,retired.

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http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/