[nagdu] Dogs misbehaving in Public

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Meghan,

That actually makes perfect sense.  Since I was owner-training my pup, I
didn't have a handy vest, but I learned to handle the necessary PR myself,
to let store or restaurant managers and staff know she was in training and
that I would voluntarily remove her if she became a disruption.  It worked
pretty well, really.

That being said, there were times -- not many, I'm glad to say -- when I did
have to remove her because I believed she was being too disruptive for the
setting.  So we would work on the behavior and go back again later.  I think
a time or two, we went back immediately after I got her settled down and
listening again.  For the most part, I could work with her in the situation,
although it could get pretty embarrassing, since everyone else there had to
stop and watch.  And laugh at some of her antics because she is such a
silly.  /smile/

I think the socialization part of guide dog training is incredibly imporant,
as it leads to the etiquette our dogs need to move around in the human world
without causing problemsor creating disturbances.  The only way you can
truly train a young dog how to behave in a high-stimulus environment is to
take it into the environment and work with it there.

Must be fun raising a guide dog pup...  I'm strongly learning toward getting
a young pup -- 12 weeks max -- next time, so that I can start the
socialization and obedience conditioniing when the critter is still young
and impressionable.  Mitzi's great, but she started out as a 7-month-old
blank slate, and had already started to develop her self-determination and
individualism....  There were times this made things a bit too
interesting... /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Meghan Whalen
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 7:17 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Dogs misbehaving in Public

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 


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