[nagdu] Do's and Don't's

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Good question, Nicole!

As an owner-trainer, I've gone out of my way to learn every nitpicky do and
don't every conceived so that I would have a fighting chance of achieving a
reasonable level of etiquette in my teamwork with my then-guide-to-be.  As I
have frequently told Mitzi, we need to know the rules before we start
breaking them.  /grin/

It also helps to know the reason(s) for the rules.  I know people who
express horror that I "free" feed my dog.  I put down the measured amount
and let her decide when to eat. As she grew older, I started using praise to
encourage her to eat when she needed to.  "Good eat your dinner, Mitzi!"
Same with drinking and pottying (I got stuck with that one before I
discovered why guide dog users prefer the more dignified "park" or "busy").
She was a pup, of course, when I made those decisions, so I had to "let" her
learn that there are times she needs to eat or she will be hungry.  She
learned to eat up her neglected breakfast whenever she saw me showing signs
of getting ready to go out.  A couple of times I had to wait for her, since
she is the world's slowest eater!  /lol/  Very dainty and ladylike, and she
chews each bite five times, then swallows, then waits a beat or two before
taking the next bite.  Good grief!  Then again, I don't have constant
worries about bloat.  Since we moved in with Ms. Daisy, Mitzi eats when
dinner is put down, and most often eats breakfast, too, when I put the food
down.  That's because the dogs engage in "power eating" and have built up
quite a ritual.  Which changes every time I think I have it figured out.
Apparently, I need to be present for the ritual; they just don't bother to
inform me when the script has changed.  /lol/

Anyway... OMG!  Do you know what will happen if you leave your dog's food
down more than 5 minutes?  Havoc!  That's what!  The dog won't accept your
dominance in the pack order, she will gorge uncontrollably every time she
gets a chance, then she will get fat, and we can't have that, and what about
bloat!  She will raid diners at restaurants and run wild in the kitchen!
She will run you into things, and drop you into manholes, and arrange to
have you tumble down long flights of cement stairs and off of high cliffs...
It's a recipe for disaster.

Upon further questioning, it generally turns out the people who are so
generous about imparting their expertise to such an ignoramus as myself,
have a roommate with a dog, so they know about obedience from their
roommate's taking the dog to a 5-week basic obedience class...  Okay.
Clearly, they know more than I!  What can one learn on a working ranch
surrounded by more species of animal -- most larger than you -- and dealing
safely with all of them since you could go out and get yourself into trouble
with them?  Of course, my concept of the ins and outs of urban obedience
were formulated by listening to friends who had their urban pet dogs in
5-week obedience classes...  /lol/  So I got to learn the hard way that
openly admitting one's deficits in asking questions -- especially when
you've just naively announced that you believe your shiny new pup is so cool
you plan to go ahead and train her to be a guide dog! -- is a good way to
learn to love condescension.  /lol/  And to hear repeated warnings about the
dangers of just letting your dog eat however much she wants whenever she
wants.

Well, that's not a very functional answer, but a lot of my philosophy about
the sacred do's and don'ts has grown out of that.  I actually joined the
NAGDU list to learn about "real" guide dog use so that I could train Mitzi
-- and me! -- in proper etiquette and manners and maybe learn enough to
learn a thing or two without having to make the mistake behind the rule
first.  This is me we're talking about, so I just go out and make new
mistakes to learn from.  /grin/  But I have tried to teach both of us a high
enough level of etiquette that we can be respectable when we need to be.
We're both country girls at heart, though, so if you ever catch us putting
on those high-falutin' city-slicker airs, be assured it's only only the
surface.  /grin/

One do I am glad we finally are both in agreement upon is going "under" in
public.  Ms. Rebel just started doing that without warning a few months ago,
and my public excursions are much more relaxing ever since.  Whew!  I was
seriously beginning to wonder if I was going to have to spend the rest of
Mitzi's career nagging and cajoling and bribing and standing on her leash at
the join with the Halti whenever I wanted to sit down for a sip of coffee
somewhere.  Or get a dog that could mind, of course.  /smile/  The first
time I went to a meeting in a restaurant only to have my snotty brat
disappear quietly when I said, hopelessly, "Under," I couldn't figure out
what happened.  /lol/  Honestly!  The person I was meeting had to tell me
gently what had happened. "Oh!" I said, genuinely shocked.  "That's what
she's supposed to do."  /lol/  These days I can go out to lunch, dinner,
coffee, whatever, with not a worry in my head about who my dog might trip
and what sort of disaster it might cause.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Nicole B. Torcolini
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 2:39 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Do's and Don't's

    Just out of curiosity, what do people think of the various do's and
don't's that some people use, like dogs on tie downs, dogs on furniture,
dogs in beds, etc?
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