[nagdu] Bus seating

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Sat Apr 3 20:33:06 UTC 2010


Rebecca,

True!  I'm surprised at how many people urge me to tell Mitzi to go ahead
and take a seat on the bus or in a waiting room.  Even once, on an airplane!
/smile/  She's fine with that, but I've trained her to do it "the right way"
first.  Whether I will relax on that or not, I haven't decided, but that for
her it's not out of the question to put her on a seat if occasion requires.
She's old enough now that she's pretty good about following the rules for a
context that I give her.  I'm still shocked by that now and then...  /grin/

When it comes to hotel rooms and the like, I'm more nonchalant with her than
I would be with a GSD, or even a lab or a dobie...  Don't know if dobies
shed as much as labs, really.  But since poodles don't shed, and since I
trim her up super short for travel so I can just wash her down with a
washcloth once a day or so, I don't worry about dirt and shedding and
anything else.  When she's fluffier, that's a different story!  You would
not believe what she picks up in those curls!  /lol/  Most of it stays in
them until I brush her, however.  So I cut her short when I travel so that I
won't have to brush her long curls in the hotel room to keep her clean.
/lol/  I keep her pretty trim around home, anyway, except for really tight
budget times.  Still, the longer the curls, the more they pick up in
transit.  Good grief.  Bright side?  She always *looks* clean so long as
there's nothing stuck to the ends of the curls.  Then I give her a bath and
wonder where all the mud came from.  But she doesn't shed!  /lol/

Anyway, the point is context and what works best for the dog.  When she was
a pup, I made sure she learned proper manners, although the process gave me
fits at times.  Quite the little princess, my girl.  Now that we can just
use them and keep reinforcing, I believe I can be more flexible.  Which is
not to say I'm going to be having her take a seat in the bus as a matter of
practice!  Good heavens, no!

Haven't done much hotel staying since the convention when she was 2, and
keeping her off the bed and chairs was tricky...  Then she stressed out, so
I got less adamant about it.  I do want to work with her on that next time
we travel in a more dedicated and focused way without a lot of extra stress.
She does need to know what's right!  Then I'll see if I want to be super
snooty about it or relax a bit on longer hotel stays.  Meanwhile, I practice
the concepts of "off" and "on" at home or in other contexts.  Like the
picnic tables at the dog park, which no one picnics on because of all the
dogs who like to get up there with the people and are allowed to stay along
with all those who want to see how long they get away with staying up there
before their human comes along to ruin their fun.  /smile/  Mitzi is one of
the latter, and of course, she likes to be cute when I tell her to get off,
which makes everybody laugh and coo...  So it's a game.  Now, though, she
saves a leap onto the table top for special occasions if I'm boring her by
standing around talking to long.  Then all I have to do is raise my eyebrows
and say, "Ahem? Poodle?" and she grins and gets right back down.  Everybody
thinks that cute, so they laugh and coo, which at least in this case
reinforces the behavior I want.  And it is practice on boundaries. /smile/

Other people's couches...  No!  She does pretty well, but I don't want her
getting wrong ideas about guest manners.  Etc.

But for me, it's all about what works best for us in our context so that the
two of us can do what we do without having to pay for damages or wonder why
we don't have any friends.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 11:26 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Bus seating

Jewel, 
All guide dogs *should* behave but that doesn't mean they do. Kind of
like all people should behave but that doesn't mean they do. 
And, how is behaving defined? Some people don't want their dogs on a
seat because they don't want their dog on any people furniture. My last
dog was one such dog, if I gave her an inch, she'd take a mile. So, no
bus seats for her. 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jewel S.
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 2:22 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Bus seating

I know Albert mentioned this as a joke, but I wanted to tell everyone
that you *can* offer your guide dog a seat. I spoke to several bus
drivers, and all of them said that as long as the bus was not overly
full and the dog behaved (which all guide dogs should!), they had no
problem with a guide dog sitting in a seat on the buses that don't
have room under the seat. I just thought I'd let people know that if
you ask, it may be allowed, and is therefore an option for people
whose buses don't have the underneath room for a poor squished guide
dog.

~Jewel

On 4/1/10, AnnaLisa Anderson <annalisa at sector14.net> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> The buses around here don't have anywhere for your dog to go in the
front or
> the back where the sideways facing seats are.  Therefore I very rarely
sit
> up front, unless either I'm only going a very short distance, or if
the bus
> is super crowded.  Sometimes I will sit in the sideways seats in the
back,
> not so worried about Sunny getting stepped on back there, but it still
> happens.  I much prefer the normal forward facing seats, and I usually
try
> to go 3 or 4 back on the right, so there is no wheelchair brace or
diagonal
> bar in the way.  And on the right so I can just have Sunny turn
slightly and
> back herself in.  She has gotten to be extremely good at backing in
and
> plopping herself down in the floor at the same time I am sitting down.
Then
> I put a leg on either side of her so she doesn't slide around, and
we're
> set.
>
> AnnaLisa and Sundance
>
>
>
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