[nagdu] Refusing to Work

Wayne Merritt wcmerritt at gmail.com
Wed Jun 10 18:53:58 UTC 2009


Sorry for the late reply. I've got some mail from a couple of weeks
ago that I'm just now getting to. My Gucci is a pretty good leash
guider as well, whether she's wearing the harness or not. There have
even been times when she's pulled to the left or right to guide around
an object, or in the case of a car being parked right up on the ramp
to our apartment, she stopped altogether. I figured that she must have
stopped for a good reason and when I felt forward, I found the car.
She got lots of verbal praise at that point.

It's interesting how they assume the guiding position even when not
working. She will guide pretty well, but then casually glance over at
something as if to remind me that she's not really guiding, but then
she goes right back to the guide position.

Wayne

On 5/27/09, Tamara Smith-Kinney <tamara.8024 at comcast.net> wrote:
> I wonder about that hyper-vigilance, too, and if it can cause too much
> stress for the dog.  Mitzi is one of those, even when it seems like she has
> her head in the clouds and it is filled with butterflies.  I make a lot of
> effort to give her off-duty time when we just play and have fun together,
> and will take her on errands just on leash, with me using the cane, so she
> gets to experience working situations without the full responsibility for my
> nagivation and safety.  But she still leash guides, even in stores.  If
> she's on a tight heel but sees something that might be in my way, she just
> pulls me around it and goes back to heel.  I praise her, of course, then
> worry that I'm reinforcing too much responsibility into her.  I guess time
> will tell.
>
> She has only refused to work a couple of times, and that was because I was
> too sharp in correcting her, and she melted down.  Apparentlyl, that's a
> poodle thing.  It also keeps me from getting lazy and resorting to negative
> correction because it's quick when a more strategic response to a behavior
> is far more effective in the long run.
>
> She does like to play hard to get when I bring out the harness, and I'm
> afraid I get a little overindulgent in playing along.  Until she pushes it
> too far, in which case I just hang up the harness and grab my cane and go
> without her.  That shapes her right up!  Just a few minutes ago, she pulled
> a new one.  A friend stopped by on the way to the store, and it occurred to
> me that it would be a good chance to throw Mitzi's harness on and go along.
> The route is pretty dangerous, so working it with a sighted companion is
> more relaxing and allows us to "practice" for when we're doing it on out
> own.  So I grabbed the harness, and Mitzi went out the open door to the yard
> and gave me that *up yours* grin when I called her.  Brat!  So I had a
> quandary.  I didn't want a two mile walk with the cane because my hands and
> arms arent up to that much cane work yet.  So I couldn't negatively
> reinforce her 'tude by leaving her at home.  /lol/  I finally decided to
> give it up and shut the door with her outside for awhile so that I wasn't
> totally rewarding her.  Snot!
>
> Also, because of her temperament, even as a super-mellow poodle, I want to
> give her the option of not working, just so long as she knows it means she
> won't get to go everywhere all the time.  I love having her as a guide dog,
> and our teamwork is finally clicking in and getting really smooth as it
> becomes automatic for me to just trust her.  A recent progression of vision
> loss has helped me learn to sit up straight and fly right, because I'm all
> discombobulated if I try to watch where I'm going.  But I think it's a good
> idea to pay attention to such things and allow the dog to opt out when the
> time comes instead of trying to force an unwilling dog.
>
> It's just that, with her, it's not always easy to tell if she's just funning
> with me or if she's refusing on some sort of principle.  Sigh.  Goober dog!
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Buddy Brannan
> Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 4:18 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Refusing to Work
>
>
> On May 24, 2009, at 6:55 PM, Julie J wrote:
>
>> Yup.  I have.   It's not a sign of good things to come.
>
> I'd agree with Julie on this one. Having said that, the question is
> fairly general. Do you mean that your dog refuses to work (i.e. you
> get the harness, he isn't interested and won't go at all), or he
> refuses to work in specific situations, specific areas, or under
> specific conditions?
>
> It's not a good sign in either case. How can you assure you won't run
> into said specific conditions, for instance? Depending on what those
> conditions are, it might be possible for you to avoid working your dog
> in those situations. But then you had better watch for generalizing of
> the behavior anyway.
>
> My first dog had a bladder infection. After about three weeks of it
> not going away, he started standing across the room from me and not
> coming when I got the harness, very out of character for him at the
> time. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he was
> telling me he was done. Miraculously, right after the retirement, his
> bladder infection went away. One thing about Karl was that he was
> always on, even when he was off. I mean, even out of harness, he was
> still watching and seemed to feel on duty and responsible. Constant
> vigilance like that undoubtedly takes its toll and causes its own
> special brand of stress, and I'm sure that that contributed to his
> somewhat shortened working career; he worked for six and a half years
> and retired roughly six more before his passing. (Chet doesn't suffer
> from hypervigilance; when the harness is off, I could fall down a well
> and, unlike Lassie, he probably wouldn't notice. In harness, however,
> he's super and loves his work.)
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 746-4127 or 888-75-BUDDY
>
>
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-- 
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