[nagdu] Owner training your own dog

[Julie J]

Jeff,

I find my dogs by contacting everyone within a 100 mile radius who has a dog 
that needs a new home.  I also contact a few places out of that range but 
that look promising.  I have talked with breeders, breed rescue, people with 
ads in the newspaper, small shelters and huge high kill shelters.  I drag my 
family all over the countryside looking at dogs until they are at the brink 
of insanity.  It's fun, for me at least, if a bit tedious.  finding the 
right dog is the hardest part.

I learned everything I would need to know by asking anyone and everyone that 
would answer me.  I read everything I could find that had anything even 
remotely related to guide dogs and guide dog training.  I ended up mostly 
reading about other types of service dog training because that was all that 
was available.  The rest I learned by trial and error.

No, guide dog schools are not open to having anything to do with owner 
training.  Sometimes it's a definite issue of superiority.  And sometimes 
it's just that the trainer from a program can't work with someone that's not 
from their school.  I have talked with trainers from TSE and GDF about 
general guide dog issues and they were interested and respectful.  I have 
never heard of a guide dog trainer from any of the programs assisting in any 
way with owner training.

You're right it is time consuming and a lot of work.  It would probably be 
easier to go through a program.  I wasn't so interested in easy though.  For 
me owner training is something that comes from my heart.  I do it because I 
love it, not because it's easy or convenient.

And for the rest of the story you have to wait for the book! *smile*

HTH
Julie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey Young" <jeff.young8806 at gmail.com>
To: "the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 6:52 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Owner training your own dog


> Hi guys,
>
> I'm curious about owner training dogs. How do you find a dog? How do you 
> learn to know everything you should teach a dog? Have you found GuideDog 
> schools open to giving someone advice as far as training a dog?
>
> It just seems like it would take so much time and effort that it could be 
> more worth your wile to just find a school.
> Note that I'm looking for responses from people who have actually owner 
> trained their dogs or are in the process of doing so. I'm not really 
> interested in someone who wants to promote their school of choice wile 
> slamming the practice of owner training. Unless said person has experience 
> with owner training, but prefers one of the established schools.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jeff Young
> Independent Scent-sations Distributor
>
> Email: jeff.young8806 at gmail.com
> Phone: (318) 243-3003
> Website: http://www.jeffyoung.scent-team.com
>
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