[nagdu] Matching

[Tracy Carcione]

The program about service animals did seem like they just put all the dogs
and people together and let them pick each other out.  They said all their
dogs did the same things, so what the hey, essentially.  That seems odd to
me.  Surely a dog that will need to pull a wheelchair is different than a
seizure dog, because the pulling dog has to be of a sufficient size and
weight for the job.
But anyway, it made me think about guide dog matching.  There seems to be
a bit of a mystique about it, which sometimes I buy, and sometimes I
don't.  My friends and I have running jokes about it--they pick by what
names go cutest together, or they pull the names out of a hat.

It would be interesting, and fun, to meet all the dogs the trainers have
in mind for me, and pick out the one I like the best.  But I'm not sure
that would really be the best method.  I might like my dog better right
away, but only a little, probably.  I like dogs; I've never been matched
with one I didn't like.  And I'm not sure my pick would actually be better
than the trainers', who know their dogs pretty well.
Take Ben for an example.  Before I came, I told TSE that I work in the Big
City 2 or 3 days a week, and the rest of the time from home.  I told them
I needed a dog who could walk 3 miles some days, and 5 or 6 blocks other
days.  And they gave me Ben.  Ben is a fairly low-energy dog.  He likes to
work, but if he's asked to make his best efforts for more than 2 or 3 days
in a row, he starts getting tired.  He wouldn't work out for a busy
college student, say.  He wouldn't have worked out for me, in the bad old
days when I had an hour-and-a-half commute each way, every day.  But Ben
wouldn't really work out for someone in the Land of the Car either,
because he's real smart, and he needs regular challenges or he gets bored
and starts looking for his own entertainment.  So my life suits him very
well, with the challenge of Manhattan for a couple days, followed by
walking around suburbia.
But I didn't know any of these things when I met him.  I'm not sure how
much his trainer knew; she didn't tell me much about him.  I'm not sure I
would have picked Ben out of a crowd.  It took us a while to click.  It
took me more than a week to even start to understand his nature, and it
took more than a year for us to start working well as a team.  Probably
there are people out there who Ben would like better.  Probably there are
dogs out there I would like better.  But we like each other well enough
(really, I adore him, despite his bad self), and he is a great match for
what I need him to do.
Kind of like an arranged marriage, I suppose.  You get presented with each
other, and try to make the best of it.
And really, I'm astonished at how well TSE did, picking out my Benny boy
for me.  His doggy lifestyle suits my needs amazingly well. I'll request
some different characteristics next time around, but there are definitely
some I want to keep, too.

The topic of matching interests me, so I've gone on a bit.
Tracy