[nagdu] Surviving the dog days

Fri Nov 6 16:39:45 UTC 2009

Oh, beautiful.  What fun read!  I love it.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ginger Kutsch
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:02 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] Surviving the dog days

Source:
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/844610

Surviving the dog days
Published Tuesday November 3rd, 2009 
Services: Woman tells tale of navigating streets of Toronto with
precocious new guide
By Michelle McQuigge 
THE CANADIAN PRESS 
TORONTO - In less than a minute, my new dog had jumped in my lap,
licked my face and flopped on her back in hopes of a tummy rub.
She gave me a thorough once-over with her nose, danced around in
an ungainly four-step and made an abortive attempt to visit with
a passing dog.

Enlarge Photo The Canadian PressMichelle McQuigge walks with her
two-year-old Labrador retriever guide dog named Reva in Toronto.
In a prospective pet, such antics would steal even the most
hardened heart. But this was Reva, my new guide dog - the animal
that was supposed to lead me through the streets of Toronto,
keeping me safe from oncoming traffic and the city's surging
crowds.

Reva's carefree, puppy-like antics filled me with shock and
anxiety. I dabbed at my eyes and wondered to myself - can this
really work?

Each time she corkscrewed her head around to investigate a nearby
noise, I fought to suppress unfair comparisons to McClure, the
dignified golden retriever who had walked by my side for more
than eight years and who had retired just days before due to old
age.

I felt sure that Reva, a two-year-old black lab, would never
equal his skill as a guide - or fill the emotional void he had
left.

But over the next three weeks, as I underwent intensive training
with my new partner, I was forced to discard my gloomy
predictions and accept the fact that I had underestimated both
her innate abilities and the school that had shaped her into a
first-rate guide and companion.

I ought to have had greater faith in The Seeing Eye, the
organization in Morristown, N.J., where Reva and I were matched.
North America's first guide dog school was founded in 1929, has
evolved into an industry leader and was responsible for my own
first successful pairing.

Still, when I returned to the school for my latest round of
training, my doubts persisted.

I couldn't help but wonder if the two days at the beginning of
class would be enough time in which to accurately assess my
optimal walking pace, determine the amount of pull I could handle
and analyze my personality. All of these factors come into play
when matching handlers and guide dogs, and I entertained private
doubts that such a swift process could result in a second happy
partnership.

Fortunately, Reva set to work dispelling my doubts on our very
first excursion.

The very sight of her specialized harness - which signals that
she's on duty - immediately transformed the aforementioned
squirming puppy into a focused, alert adult. Once it was slipped
over her head, she ceased her sniffing and shunned other dogs.
Only her tail maintained its perpetual motion as she shifted her
attention to the work she clearly loved to do.

In our first of many walks through the streets of downtown
Morristown, Reva executed flawless turns, stopped on a dime at
every street corner, kept me clear of all oncoming traffic and
finessed her way through crowds without allowing me to so much as
graze my elbow.

She never got distracted by the constant verbal and physical
praise I heaped on her and managed to suppress all her playful
instincts for the duration of our trip.

Removing the harness was like flicking a switch. Reva's frisky
nature came back to the fore immediately, but by then she had
earned the chance to play.

Over the next three weeks, we logged up to five kilometres a day
during our twice-daily excursions and deliberately worked through
every possible scenario a guide dog might encounter in a bustling
urban environment.

Seeing Eye staff led us through busy streets and peaceful parks,
shopping malls and drug stores, taught us to take public transit
and showed us how to handle the challenges posed by escalators
and revolving doors.

On one memorable day, Reva even braved the subways and streets of
downtown Manhattan where she wove through dense crowds and hectic
traffic with unruffled aplomb.

She did it all at a pace that reacquainted me with muscles I
forgot I had and with an enthusiasm that won me over faster than
I thought possible.

Between outings, my fellow students and I attended a series of
exhaustive lectures designed to teach us more about our
four-legged companions. Instructors addressed a variety of topics
including the way a dog's senses work, common canine fears and
how animals interpret commands.

By helping us to understand the way our dogs' minds worked, the
staff gave us the tools to continue the training begun at the
school. We were frequently reminded that guide dogs, while
exceptional in many ways, are still creatures that operate on
instinct and would revert to undisciplined behaviour if allowed
to do so.

As one seasoned instructor put it, "these dogs are as good as you
make them and as bad as you let them be."

I remembered his words a month after returning to Toronto - a
time during which both Reva and I had been forced to adjust to a
bewildering variety of changes.

She showed great patience as I tried to get her acquainted with
my familiar haunts, which sometimes felt completely foreign to me
as I adapted to her different guiding style.

The challenge came not from navigating the streets of a bustling
metropolis like Toronto, but from learning to trust a whole new
set of instincts. Placing faith in an animal Seeing Eye says has
the average intelligence of a three-year-old human is inherently
difficult, and the myriad distractions in the hectic streets gave
me ample opportunity to question both Reva's judgment and my own.

It was hard, for instance, to determine whether she was swerving
on a sidewalk to avoid an oncoming baby carriage or to
investigate an abandoned pizza crust. But eventually it became
abundantly clear that Reva was doing nothing but rising to the
occasion.

She put up with my repetitive efforts to get her comfortable on
my common routes and submitted cheerfully to the litany of rules
I put in place to help ease her adjustment to her new home.

Reva never flinched and scarcely seemed to pay attention; she
simply sidled closer to me and pressed her head against my knee.

Sure, she licked my hand when I reached down to pet her, but this
time I didn't mind. I knew it was going to work.

- Michelle McQuigge is a reporter-editor with The Canadian Press
in Toronto

Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ

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