[nagdu] Catching up / Re: Owner training

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Mardi,

Good to hear from you.  /smile/  Glad Shaman is over his fear and moving on.
Brave boy!

Keep up the good work.  You would not believe some of the huskies showing up
this year at the dog park!  The economy, you know.  Pound hounds and rescues
are apparently really high-quality dogs these days.  Sad for the people who
had to give them up or abandon them, but I've met some great ones with great
new homes whose owners really lucked out.  So I worry about the dogs who
would have been the average ph/rescue dog...  So sad!  Where are their
homes?

Anyway, great huskies out here in Oregon.  So when you're looking again, if
you can't find one there in AZ, let me know!  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Mardi Hadfield
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 2:14 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Catching up / Re: Owner training

Hi every one, I have been so busy and I have finally gotten caught up on my
emails.  Shaman is now working around other guides and other dogs with no
problems. He has gotten over his pit bull attack and is no longer afraid to
be around other dogs.He is working perfectly.It took some time and patience
to get him over his fear but it has been successful.Jessica,when I decided
to train my first guide,I thought because Lily was already a service dog,
how hard could it be to train her to guide me.It turned out to be harder
than I first thought. I was told that there were no schools that trained
guides for wheelchair users so I felt I had no choice but to train my
own.Lily was a white Siberian Husky. I read every thing I could get my hands
on and started training Lily to leash lead me.After making some mistakes,I
decided to consult a trainer. The trainer worked with me and we managed to
train Lily to be a decent guide dog. I invested in a guide harness that was
less than adequate,but managed to make it work until I could afford a better
one. Lily died 1 month after I retired her,leaving me with out a guide or
even a good prospect for training. Enter Maximus,the abused Border Collie.
He washed out as he could not handle being out in public. Then I bought Nala
from a breeder.She is a dark gray Siberian Husky. I really lucked out with
this dog as she was a very fast learner and seemed to really enjoy guide
work.Again,working with a trainer, It only took  4 months for Nala to be
working as a trustworthy guide. She seemed to pick up the training on the
first try and it was like she had been doing this her entire life. Nala is
now retired due to some age related problems,but does still work
occasionally. She has never forgotten any of her training and I feel that
she has been my best guide so far. I chose Huskies because they have an
excellent work ethic and great endurance as a wheelchair guide. I really
wanted another husky but I could not find one.I could not afford to buy from
a breeder this time so I looked at a lot of rescues and dogs that people
were getting rid of for various reasons. I just could not find the right
dog. This is the hardest part of owner training. Trying to find the right
dog to train. I thought I had found it in a white husky that I adopted from
our local shelter but alas,it was discovered that Wanagi had a hip problem
and also suffered from valley fever,which is what killed my beloved Lily. I
kept looking for this ever elusive husky but to no avail.I reluctantly
expanded my search to include other breeds.After 1.5 years,I found Shaman.
Shaman is a Belgian shepherd and he has long hair,which I wasn't sure if
this would be good in the hot Arizona summer months. But this dog was the
first dog that I had looked at that had any real potential to be a guide. He
at least had the right temperament and passed all  the health exams. He came
out of a shelter and had no training at all. First I started the obedience
training,house manners and the socialization. Then on to guide training. I
had to do more of the training on this dog as my trainer had gone back to
school to work with computers.He wasn't making enough to live on training
dogs. After 6 months of training, Shaman Passed the blindfold test. We have
had some set backs as there are a lot of pit bulls in my neighborhood and
Shaman was attacked by one. He is now working very well and I am glad that I
did not have to career change him.I do not want to go through the selection
process again any time soon. I hope we will have many good long years as a
team.I would love to have a program dog as I am getting older now and
training is not as easy on me at 63 years young! I will probably end up
Training my next guide as I can not travel away from home and there are very
few programs that do home training and I don't know of any who would train
for a wheelchair user.It may take me from now until Shaman retires to find a
female Siberian Husky that is right for training, but I want my next guide
to be a husky! I love my huskies.  Have a great day, Mardi and Shaman and
Nala,retired.

-- 
http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/
http://wolfsinger2-thegoldendragon.blogspot.com
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