[nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

Fri May 29 22:15:47 UTC 2009

Oh yes...Lexia does not, but some animals just love to mess with your head!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

As long as I keep Mitzi trimmed short, she's very easy to clean up.  I just
use a damp wash cloth on her before I put on her work clothes.  /smile/  And
I brush her regularaly, although not so much as I should, especially when
she's really short after a cut.  I just have to remember not to take her to
run in the muddy park before I stop by the grocery store if I don't have a
towel and wet ones with me.  /lol/  She always looks fine to me.

Dogs that run loose, even in small towns, can have drastically short life
spans, although they learn the dangers and the smart ones live as long as
more protected dogs.  Although I have heard of packs of street dogs hanging
about the parks and cafes of European cities, visiting with the people.

I would think a guide dog would require more structured off-leash time and
would have to have good enough off-leash manners to stay in bounds and not
get itself done in.  As for keeping track of it, you can put a bell or
listen to the jingle on the collar.  I can hear Mitzi from quite a ways away
in a park setting, and I've come to know her particular jingle even when
other dogs have similar tags and jingles.  When I can't hear her, I call her
back, although that can be fodder for teasing when there are other peole and
dogs around.  Every now and then I used to suddenly notice I didn't hear her
jingling and would call out to her in alarm and get all ancy and OMG!  Where
is she?  What's happened to her?  /lol/  Finally someone would say in a
voice heavy with suppressed laughter, "She's beside you.  About three inches
from your right hand."  So I would reach out, and she would move around to
my other side, and it would become a game, with the people telling me where
she was while she stayed just out of reach and refused to jingle.  When I
asked if she was grinning, someone would say, "Oh, yeah.  She's messing with
you."  /lol/  Mitzi has been very good for my humility.

I'll have to look up those European guide dogs.  I also keep hearing tales
of poodle guides everywhere in France, but I have been unable to verify the
truth of that one, either.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Pickrell, Rebecca M (IS)
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 7:26 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

Tami,
I do tend to agree with you and have seen the same thing.
Thing is, a suburban dog can't be both an outdoor dog and be clean
enough for people to want it around doing suburban things, going out to
eat, being kept indoors, stuff like that.
Also, I think outdoor dogs and dogs allowed to run free had shorter
lifespans then a suburban Fido would because more accidents have the
potential to happen.
Would still love to hear from European guide dog users about off-leash
time. Seems that it is required if you want a guide dog in Europe to
ensure they have off-leash time. If so, how is this managed at the
end-user level? Are you provided with trustworthy sighted assistance?
Are there more open spaces for a dog to run?
Is there anybody out there?anybody?

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Tamara Smith-Kinney
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 1:03 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

Rebecca,

I don't know about Europe, but since I grew up in the uncivilized rural
part of the west, I get really huffy about all the city
rules/laws/customs that don't acknowledge that dogs are dogs.  Also the
assumption that any dog not on leash is going to automatically cause
trouble or get itself killed.  When I point out the "under control" side
of most leash laws, people just seem to think that means having the dog
tied to you by a leash.  Out in the small towns, of course, dogs pretty
much run around at will, and they're expected to have reasonable manners
while they're doing it and to not get themselves hit by cars.  It
happens, of course, but usually because the driver is speeding or not
watching out.  Drivers are expected, informally, at least, to watch out
for dogs, cats, cows, horses, flocks of sheep, etc., as they are for
kids.  Or as city drivers are for bikes.

So maybe it's just a cultural difference in how dogs are seen, like the
difference between our American cultural view and the Islamic view, in
which they are unclean just by being dogs.

Dogs are such social animals, and they have had long years of being
social with humans, so I think that letting them be dogs in a human
society is fine, as long as the humans aren't weird about it.  If a
human can't be responsible for his/her dog, then blame the human, not
the dog.  Of course, once the human has ruined the dog, the dog does
have to be dealt with.
Sigh.  But where I grew up the social consequences of not knowing how to
be with your dog are pretty harsh.  /smile/

Of course, more urban environments do require different habits and ways
of managing any animal, or kid, or bicycle.  On the busy road we walk
along or cross to get to our favorite playground, it would be madness to
not have a death grip on the leash, with a few extra wraps around the
wrist just to be sure...  Sometimes when we're back in less hazardous
territory, it takes me forever to escape the leash myself.  Letting a
dog run through a mall at will -- especially if there's a food court --
would create havoc, especially if everyone did it.  Then again, if the
dogs are all conditioned socially not to raid the food court and if the
people are used to having dogs walk around in that context, I suppose it
could work...  Dunno.

Well, those are just some thougts.  It's an interesting question.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Pickrell, Rebecca M (IS)
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:45 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

I find this interesting too.
I think, and I'd really like input from European folks on this that dogs
are allowed to run off-leash for the following reasons; 1. There are
more places for both pet as well as working dogs to run safely, i.e. not
as much traffic of either human or vehicular nature.
2. The expectation is that sighted help and sighted help of an
appropriate nature is always obtainable at the time it is needed.
Anybody want to talk to this?

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Julie J
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 7:00 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

I find it interesting that guide dogs in other countries are allowed to
run off leash.  the programs there train a totally reliable recall with
a whistle.

Monty has an amazing recall.  But I really can't claim credit, he came
to me with it.  I've just practiced it.  He has gotten out three times,
I think.
I just call him and he comes immediately to me at top speed.

Julie

----- Original Message -----
From: "The Pawpower Pack" <pawpower4me at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Missing guide dog found struck by car

> Tami,
>
> I agree with you about lots of off leash time for training purposes.
I
> think, sometimes, especially with assistance dogs that off leash  time
is
> such a rare treat that when a dog gets loose he is too busy
experiencing
> all those fun things like sniffing and running free and  doing those
> things is not as rewarding as returning to the handler.
>
> I work on recall from day one with my dogs, and make the recall a very

> high-value exercise.
>
> Also with my border collie, I did some herding and I needed to be able
to
> call her off of the sheep to return to me; training her to do this
> ensured she has a fantastic recall.
>
> I do think it's important to keep dogs secured etc. but accidents do
> happen, sadly.
>
>
> Rox and the Kitchen Bitches
>
> Bristol (retired), Mill'E SD. and Laveau Guide Dog, CGC.
> "Life breaks us all, but afterwards, many of us are strongest at the
> broken places." -- Ernest Hemingway
>  pawpower4me at gmail.com
>
> MSN: Brisomania at Hotmail.com
> AIM: Brissysgirl Yahoo: lillebriss
> _______________________________________________
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