[nagdu] crowd work

Tue Feb 16 16:49:54 UTC 2010

Cheryl,

Oops!  Sorry about that.  Must remember to engage brain before moving
fingers.

I think I was referring more to stereotypes than actual dogs.

I must confess, though, that the stereotype got pretty exaggerated in my
mind because of the sharp contrast between my busy, busy trainee, then
novice guide and the famously mellow GDB labs of similar age and newness one
so frequently encounters about town and hears about when the subject of
guide dogs comes up.  /smile/  To most people on this side of the state, the
mellow disposition of those GDB labs is legendary, a sort of local urban
myth.

Which is not to say they are not very good dogs with great temperaments.
Even the career change dogs who are pets of people I've known are raved
about for their manners and easy personalities.

I'm just not sure they're as many notches beyond perfect as people seem to
believe.  /grin/

Then there's Mitzi...  /grin/  Poodle people used to go out of their way to
gush about what a well-mannered, mellow pup she was.  Whereas peole who knew
or had observed the GDB dogs would feel inspired to start a conversation by
telling me about every single move by every single other guide dog they've
ever met, pointedly stressing the mellowness and obedience of those dogs.
/smile/  It was all in the nature of polite conversation, but while we were
discussing the perfectly obedient mellowness of those mythical GDB
creatures, my beast would be dancing and sniffing and looking for any
trouble she could find because she was bored with all the chit chat.

Now that she's settled in and has wrangled her handler into some degree of
competency, the GDB trainees we enounter are simply very nice soon-to-be
guide dogs doing a great job of learning their stuff.  I can even spare
attention away from wondering what my dog is up to to notice the mellow
yellow labs that are black. /smile/  It takes awhile to recognize the dog
under the harness that appears to be floating in midair, but I can get a
pretty good idea of it and how its working if I can watch long enough.  The
experienced lab guides I've met are wonderfully workmanlike in their
approach to the job, while each is different in its approach to guiding and
in its relationship with its handler.

I still can't imagine one of them spending a good five or ten minutes on a
street corner arguing about which way to go while people walk by audibly
snickering.  /smile/  Then again, they're being trained by experienced
trainers who know what they're doing and don't lose track of where they are
in the first place.  Owner-training one's first guide gives one a certain
sense of accomplishment, but not a great deal of dignity.

Ben sounds charmingly Mitzi like.  Which just goes to show you about
stereotypes.  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:08 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] crowd work

Tami, I don't know where you got the idea that labs wait around to be told
what to do.  Mine certainly don't.  It's true that, when I get a new dog,
I take pains to encourage initiative, if it seems to be somewhat lacking,
but they catch on quick.
Maybe it's that I've lived in the New York City area for more than 20
years now, so I get what a friend calls "pushy urban dogs", but my labs
are great with crowds.  Darned good thing too, as midtown Manhattan has a
lot of them.  Ben does particularly well.  He's very smart, and the more
challenging the situation, the more focussed he gets.
We came into the City for the first time during class at TSE.  That very
same day, the president decided to come to town, and to have some
whooptydoo at the library, right where we were walking by, at lunchtime. 
All the office workers who'd gone out to lunch were prohibited from
returning to their offices, and were milling around everywhere.  Benny
raised the tail flag straight in the air and did his stuff like a pro, and
I realized he was the right dog for me!
Tracy

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