[nagdu] O&M, Ownership, & Leader

[Jenine Stanley]

Marion, 

I'd assert that even when graduates have ownership, such as most GDF grads
do, people are far too hesitant to contact the school about problems. Some
are embarrassed. Some truly do think we can still take the dog away, even
though we explain what factors would cause this to happen and how rare it
is. 

Might we suggest retirement? Certainly, but we can't force the issue unless
some extremely serious things have already happened. 

I'm not sure I completely understand the behavior of not wanting to call the
school for fear of having a dog taken away when people do legally own the
dog, but it happens. I've sadly had to talk to people who waited way, way
too late to call and then the issues were far beyond fixing and the dogs had
to be retired. When asked why they didn't call sooner, many of these people
said they were afraid we'd take the dog away. Well, because we weren't able
to offer any help, in any form, the dog had to be retired, so, person calls
school, dog has to retire, calling school is bad? Stranger things have been
proposed.