[nagdu] what is a good guide dog handler?

[Julie J]

I think everyone here knows that sometimes I think too much! *smile*  this mornings ponderings are about just exactly what makes up a *good* guide dog handler or dog owner in general.

I don't know that I have any really great answers.  I know for certain that we all have our own ideas of what is *good* and what isn't.

Sometimes my dogs drink out of the toilet.  Sometimes they eat poop in the yard.  I let Monty run off leash.  this year I used cedar bug repellant instead of a more toxic flea treatment from the vet. I only clean ears maybe twice a year.  I give them baths whenever I feel like it, not on a regular schedule.  I never use a tie down.  rarely do I use a crate anymore.  I play rough tug games with the dogs.  I let them wrestle and chew on each other to their hearts content.  Belle enjoys eating grasshoppers and I let her. I don't brush my dogs every day.  There's probably more but I'll stop.

It feels really cathartic to get all of that off my mind.  I used to get way more caught up in doing everything the *right* way.  I used to give the dogs baths every week.   I didn't used to let Monty run off leash.  I used to brush them every day.  I gave it up and decided to do what works for me.  I think we are all a lot happier with the new arrangement.

I no longer buy into what everyone else thinks is good or right or whatever.  I think we all have to decide individually what works for us, our particular dog and the situation we are in.  I'm sure that in another 5 years I will have an entirely different set of rules.

I still don't know what is good or right.  I only know what works for me.

Julie