[nagdu] Dogs misbehaving in Public

[Meghan Whalen]

I am currently raising a guide dog puppy.  He is about four and a half 
months old, and he needs to learn.  He is wearing a vest that says "guide 
dog in training".  Since he is in training, I think folks expect him to be 
learning.  His only disgression is occasionally barking when he sees other 
dogs.  I met a friend at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago.  She also has a 
dog.  He barked when he saw her guide, was corrected and taken from the 
restaurant.  We reentered, he did not bark when he saw my friend's guide, 
and we sat down.

Removing a badly behaving dog from a situation does not solve the problem, 
unless you're going to promptly readdress it.  My puppy has downgraded his 
barks when he sees other dogs to quiet little huffs under his breath most of 
the time.  I think that in a matter of weeks, he'll no longer react to other 
dogs.

The reason for reentering the restaurant was that he could demonstrate to me 
if he knew what he had done wrong, and he certainly did.

What I got from the new service animal laws recently posted here is that a 
service animal can be told to be removed by its handler if the handler does 
not appear to be correcting the bad behavior, not that they can tell the 
team to leave the moment the dog does something wrong.

I understand that my puppy in training is not a finished working dog, but at 
least in Wisconsin, he has access rights, and it is my responsibility to 
correct and shape the appropriate behavior.

Hope my rambling makes some sense.  Take care all.

Meghan