[nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time to

[Merry Schoch]

Hi Mardi,

I loved to use "follow" especially when travelling in a crowded mall.  With 
my first guide, my daughter was 12 years old.  We would head to the mall and 
I would have her zig zag and then make suddens stops.  We did this when the 
mall was not crowded, and also did it in a tasteful manner.  It was fun time 
for the three of us.  Also with this dog I would tell him to sit if anyone 
came to pet him, depending on where I was, if they continued I would either 
put him in a down or while he was in the sit I would remove their hand and 
place mine on the top of his head.  If I had to put him in a sit or down, I 
would always say "No, sit/down".  Usually, the person would apologize 
because they did like seeing the dog get corrected or told no; however, 
there are always those who "push the envelope".  Anyway, I was doing a 
walkathon one year for the guide dog school and I was in the hotel's lobby. 
One of the staff people stated to me that someone was approaching my dog and 
he backed away from them.  He was quite amazed to see the dog do this.  I 
beamed with pride.

Marion's dog is like your Nala, she just turns her head and could care less 
if anyone is petting her.  Due to this, he is more apt to let someone in 
public giver her a pat on the head; however, whenever I had a guide with me 
he would not do this because I don't let my dog get attention while working. 
Marion has this woman at his church who "pushes the envelope".  In the past, 
I have taken my old retired dog to his church (in harness) to get him out 
and let him work a bit.  Well, Marion would let her pet Louiza and I would 
not let her pet Sydney.  Last week he was at church, he had the harness off 
the dog, and the woman came up and unleashed his dog.  He asked her why she 
did that, and she said she wanted to pet her.  I would have lost my mind if 
she had done that, but Marion stayed calm and cool.  Hopefully, before the 
next national convention I'll have another guide and Marion will have to be 
on his best behavior when we work our dogs together (smile)!

Merry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mardi Hadfield" <wolfsinger.lakota at gmail.com>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:33 AM
Subject: [nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time to


> Hi every one,  I have been so busy these past few days, that I have not 
> had
> time to read or post. Now that I have caught up on the reading, I am going
> to attempt to catch up on my posting.  I have always trained my dogs to 
> find
> and to follow. I have found it to be very helpful.I also have noticed that
> when people pet Nala when she is in harness, She will turn her head away
> from them,as if she were tying to tell them to leave her alone,as she is
> working. People always want to pet the cute snow dog. I wonder if people
> will be so quick to pet Shaman, or will they refrain from petting him him
> because he is a large shepherd,who looks like he could remove a hand or 
> two.
> It will be interesting to see if there is any difference. When I go into a
> restaurant, I try to sit away from other people so no one will bother my
> dog. There have been times when this was not possible and I ended up 
> sitting
> next to kids who felt it their mission was to feed my dog french fries,
> which thankfully, she refuses,as I have taught her never to take food from
> any one but me.  I don't know which school it is but they have the rare
> black and tan labs. I think they are very beautiful, and would not mind
> having one of them. I like the black labs ,more than the yellow or 
> chocolate
> ones. I don't think they are different in temperament, it's just my color
> preference. However if I needed a dog and they were the only ones 
> available,
> I would be happy to have any dog that could do the job.I am wondering why
> non of the schools have tried the curly coated retrievers. They have a 
> curly
> coat that never needs trimming and they are retrievers. I would think they
> would have a similar temperament as a lab.I also wonder why the school 
> that
> train for wheelchair users haven't tried some huskies. I know for a fact
> that they are very trainable and always want to work and don't know what 
> the
> word tired means. They do mellow out  with age, but still have enough 
> energy
> to work all day and then some,with out being hyper. They always have that
> happy go lucky attitude and are never grouchy. They have a great sense of
> self preservation, which makes them good in traffic. They are very capable
> of thinking for them selves, and while I realize that they are not for 
> every
> one, they do make excellent guides. I would have preferred to get another
> husky, but I just could not find one the right age. They were either too
> young  or too old.The two husky crosses, I tried just did not work out. I
> have reservations that Shaman will have the same energy level that my
> huskies have , and wonder if he will be able to keep up with me. I guess
> time will tell.   Have a great day,  Mardi and Nala, semi-retired and
> Shaman, gdit
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