[nagdu] Owner training your own dog

Fri Dec 10 16:54:24 UTC 2010

Yup!  Whenever people ask, the theme that comes shining through from all of
the owner-trainers who answer is that each and every one of them absolutely
*loves* doing it.

When people here and there ask me what it takes to become an owner-trainer
because they think they might like to, the questions are so often about the
dog itself.  Which is easy, if not simple.

But I'm still working towards a really good way to communicate that before
you go looking for a dog, you need to take a good look at you, take a good
look at what you're about to get yourself into and see if the two images
match.  Er...  Not the best metaphor, since the person is probably blind,
but I'm working on it.

I've decided the first trait the trainer needs to succeed is love of
training.  That much hard work and toil would do me in!  But when it's all
good, clean fun, that's a whole new ballgame!  The joys outweigh the
frustrations and exhaustion and keeps you getting up in the morning so you
can do it all some more!  Yay!  /lol/

Either that, or we're all completely nuts, you know.  I'm never quite sure.
/grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 4:57 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Owner training your own dog

Tami,

Yes!  I had forgotten the feelings of "why not?" in regard to training my 
own guide.  This is definitely how I felt in the very beginning.  Then as I 
trained my first dog, I realized why, because I love it.

Julie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 12:20 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Owner training your own dog

> Well, being an owner-trainer, can I also slam my school?  'Cause I tell 
> you
> that school has pulled some stuipd stunts...  /lol/
>
> Seriously, I have to say that in the end, it occurred to me owner-training
> was more convenient at the time, since I happened to have gotten this dog
> with "the right stuff."  Since I could train said newly acquired 
> adolescent
> poodle who appeared to have the traits I wanted in a guide to begin with,
> and since I truly do love training animals and working with them over 
> time,
> it suddenly occurred to me that it wasn't worth my whilte to go to a guide
> dog program at all.
>
> In other words, it wasn't so much that I answered the question "why
> owner-train" as that I had no answer at all to the question, "Why not?" 
> So
> I did.
>
> The answers to the how questions of choosing a dog and learning which 
> tasks
> and how to train them is very, very long, since it's all a process.  I was
> fortunate enough to find this list early on, which taught me a lot about
> guide dogs and what they dog and what issues I needed to learn...  And of
> course, the first person I met was Julie.  Who also told me about the
> vi-clicker-training list, where I met a number of others who are also on
> this list even if they don't owner train themselves, so that was way cool.
> Without all of those people, I'd still be sitting around scratching my 
> head
> trying to figure it out.  /lol/  Well, also, there was a lot of prior 
> study
> and reading in behaviorism and other training theories and what not, plus 
> a
> whole, whole lot more frantic reading and study and asking desperate
> questions and...  I like learning as much as I like training, so this was
> all just good fun to me.  Exhausting, grueling hard work, don't get me
> wrong, but I happen to enjoy that sort of thing.  And Mitzi is really a
> delight, despite the stories I tell on her sometimes.  Actually, the 
> stories
> stem from the "dark side" of the traits about her I adore the most and 
> that
> she uses so well in her work.
>
> Picking a dog?  Good luck!  /lol/  I've heard enough of the trials and
> tribulations of others by now to realize that you need to know what you're
> doing and be willing to look and watch and wait for the right one, then 
> know
> it when happens across your path.  I believe you need to have educated
> yourself ad infinitum in order to recognize the right dog when you find 
> it.
> It's just that the process of finding appears to be different for 
> everyone,
> fraught with heartache and hazard, then the seeker suddenly has a dog from
> somewhere that was not on the list to look.
>
> Me, I ordered my current guide dog over the phone because I had decided to
> get a nice, sensible cat, so I called some poodle breeders...
>
> I am not making that up.  Like I say, looking for a guide dog prospect.
> Good luck!  Literally.  /lol/  If someone knows the science of the 
> process,
> please do tell me, because like any self-respecting owner-trainer I've 
> been
> fretting about where to get my next pup since this one was just barely
> trained.  I know what I want, exactly, and I have the acquisition timed 
> down
> to the split second based on Mitzi's life expectancy, health, energy,
> wishful thinking.  /lol/
>
> Oh, as for finding guide dog programs being open to giving an 
> owner-trainer
> advice...  lolololol.  Ouch!  I just broke a rib!  Oh, you silly, silly 
> boy.
> /grin/
>
> Seriously, if you feel nobody's been rude enough to you lately, call a 
> guide
> dog program, tell them you're an owner trainer and you have a question...
> Then just sit back and listen.
>
> Have Xanax on hand.  Or maybe a good bottle of Scotch.
>
> Well, one such conversation was enough for me, and I ended up making it as
> short as possible before my phone melted from the steam coming out of my
> ears.  Someone else told of a conversation with that same program (perhaps
> even the same person) that sounded exactly the same but went on longer, to
> exactly where I had realized the conversation (I use the term loosely) I 
> had
> was going before I ended it.  So, more steaming ears for me.
>
> I would say guide dog programs are not supportive of owner-trainers.
> /smile/
>
>
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Jeffrey Young
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:53 PM
> To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
> 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
>
> Inter our weekly drawing for a free 16 OZ gourmet scented candle here.
> http://jeffyoung.scent-team.com/weeklydrawing/index.php
> Follow me on twitter:
> http://www.twitter.com/blindaction
>
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