[nagdu] speaking too soon

Mon Nov 9 22:04:46 UTC 2009

Lora,

Yup.  That would be explosive energy, for sure.  /smile/  Duck and cover!
/lol/

I know I started an explanation about what I mean when I speak of Mitzi's
balance.  My own balance is currently out of whack, so I'll stick with a
nursery rhyme instead of coming up with a coherent explanation.  /smile/
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All play an no work makes Jack
something something and whatever."  You can tell I don't have kids, because
I don't remember the whole thing. /grin/

In the very early of our assessment and foundation training phase, I kept
that rhyme firmly in mind as a guiding principle in the refinement of my
training plan.  Also, Doogie Howser.  /grin/  And now I'm depressed because
I realize you may be too young to have seen that one.  Ouch!  Anyway, Doogie
Howser was the child prodigy teenage MD as the unlikely protagonist of a TV
series.  In other words, he was educated to the highest level there is for
his species and working in a demanding profession where mistakes are a
matter of life and death.  Mere kids in terms of that profession start out
10 or 20 years beyond Doogie's maturity and life experience.

This, too me, is the perfect metaphor for any newly minted guide dog setting
off into the wide world leading a blind handler.  Mitzi's been hauling this
newbie blind newbie handler aroud all over the place for more than a third
of her life now, and she's just barely old enough to drink!  She had the
skills down and was beginning to put them into practice before she was old
enough to get a learner's permit, let alone drive solo.  She still had a
ways to go before she could vote of join the military.

But there she was, zipping around, little old me in tow, on the job and on
the go!  I still have a long way to go before I call myself a guide dog
handler with a straight face.  I spend a lot of time feeling like baggage at
the other end of the harness!  /grin/  It's a lot of fun, to be honest, and
having to run so fast to catch up does keep me out of trouble a lot of the
time.  My dog has been taking around, over and through trouble since she was
still a child.  I can still count on the fingers of one hand the times she
has missed the mark in a way that put me too close to an close to an
obstacle or barrier to avoid a brush or minor trip.  She also understands
the warning, "Mitzi!  Clearance!"  Go figure.  /smile/  I can count more
brushes, strumbles and even a disastrously inconvenient sprained ankles
resulting from my ineptitude as a handler.  Sigh.  Still working on it, but
getting better all the time.

Anyway, The point there is that our dogs do amazing jobs under conditions
most fully adult humans would find impossible and psychologically crippline,
and they start out having to perform like pros before they're any more than
2-thirds of the way to psychosocial maturity.  Some start before they reach
full physical maturity!

I couldn't do what these dogs do at that age.  Could you?  Could anyone?
But they do it, and they shine!  I'm including Trice, BTW.  He may be
struggling to live up to the basics when compared to other guide dogs.
Compared to people -- or even to other dogs -- he's still in a pretty
rarified league.  Don't you think?

The poor kid was seriously underprepared, however.  So you're doing a whole
lot of work you didn't count on to help him overcome his disadvantages so
that he can find the limits of his true professional potential.

I'm getting carried away with the sheer metaphor of it all, aren't I?
/grin/  It's a personal flaw.

Anyway, the key to surviving and moving through periods of stress and
overwhelming challenge is balance.  You do this all the time without
thinking in the context of your own busy, challenging life so that you can
leave behind today's challenges for those that await you tomorrow and next
year and ten years from now...  You have grown and matured and achieved to
the point where more and more of those challenges are under your control,
which is also a key to balance.

Our guide dogs will never know that luxury!  Their lives and working
conditions are under our control, and that defines the conditions under
which they function.  There's nothing we can do to change that for them.

So, when it comes to Mitzi, I believe it is my responsibility to use my
control over her life and fate to ensure that she can achieve the personal
balance between work and play, reward and demand, joy and stress, and all
the other things that I control as her handler so that she can do her job to
the best of her ability.  I do this both because I love her and because I
depend on her.

Does that make any sense at all?  /smile/  Or have I simply demonstrate the
extent to which I am currently personally out of balance and incoherent.
/grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Lora
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 6:06 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] speaking too soon

What do you mean you can tell when Mitx balance goes out of whack without
play? Trice is EXPLOSIVE when he plays. You have to get out of his way when
he runs cause he'll run over or into you if you aren't careful. 55 lbs of
muscle not a good idea going into a leg of a human ow. If he wasn't a dog
guide he would do great as a sheep herder where he could run or a hunting
dog running is his favorite game especially whe he can carry something in
his mouth.

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:52 PM, Lora <blindhistory at gmail.com> wrote:

> AnnaLisa
> He is doing a little better. Sometimes he is still scared of traffic even
> when he can see it. He still startles just not as badly nor as often.
>
>   On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 7:24 PM, AnnaLisa Anderson <annalisa at sector14.net
> > wrote:
>
>> Lora,
>>
>> Man, I'm sorry this keeps happening and that you got such a high
>> maintenance
>> dog.  How's it going with walking on the other side of the road?  Is he
>> doing better with that?  I sure hope so for your sake.  Good luck trying
>> to
>> figure out the latest thing.  My thoughts are with you.
>>
>> AnnaLisa and Sundance
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nagdu mailing list
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nagdu:
>>
>>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/blindhistory%40gmail.
com
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Lora and Trice
>

-- 
Lora and Trice
_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comcast
.net