[nagdu] Ownership

[Jenine Stanley]

Thanks Steve for that rational view of being asked to turn in medical
reports. At GDF, doing so is indeed voluntary. We would hope that people do
turn in their vet reports as a way for us to track the health of breeding
lines in general, not to police each person's actions with his or her dog. 

That said, we all can cite cases of dogs whose health is poorly managed from
excessive weight gain to lack of attention to skin conditions, etc. If we
assume that people are indeed mature adults when issued dogs and that people
do fully understand the implications of allowing a dog to become overweight,
do we as fellow handlers just sit back and allow it to happen? I realize no
one can force anyone else to do anything necessarily, ownership or not, and
certainly if we look at parents with severely overweight or out of control
children, what do we do there? 

The hardest thing for a guide dog instructor, or other school staffer, to
see is a team that has become unhealthy or out of control, especially after
numerous discussions about the matter. I'm sure it's just as difficult for
people from Seeing Eye as any other school, ownership policy or not. 

Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com