[nagdu] what do you say?

[Michelle]

Hi Julie,

This is really a topic of interest isn't it! Well, I guess I'm blessed over 
the fact that I don't get many strange comments, but the most common one is 
almost a question rather than a statement. It's in the form of "Your dog 
doesn't bite does it?" Sometimes people may add "Ok so if your dog is near 
me it won't bite?" That add-on sounds very self-reassuring like, trying to 
be really certain that my guide dog won't bite them!

I get these sorts of questions when I'm on the bus mostly, and once last 
year when I had to get help to a bus stop at a terminal because I was in a 
bit of a rush at the time, the sighted guide asked me if the dog would bite 
her. She was very reassured when I said the dog would stay beside me! I find 
it funny how some people think that a guide dog is suddenly going to jump up 
and bite them, sometimes giving me a slight impression that Troy is somehow 
going to decide one day to give no heed to my leadership and just have a go 
at someone without letting up even if I were to command him to stop. But 
mostly it's the impression given that the dog will just jump up and bite so 
I'm apparently going to need to take good control of him just in case... 
What weird scenarios I know! But that's what people give me impressions of 
considering, and their questioning, somewhat frightened voice tones suggests 
this implication too.

I know that dogs are dogs, and any dog can bite, but from my personal 
understanding of Troy, he'll only bite you if you try to poke him somewhere, 
like in the eye or nose, or if someone he doesn't know deliberately gave him 
a hell of a scare, but even then chances aren't high. He'd most likely 
growl, bark and then run away and howl for help. But he'd most certainly 
bite if threatened and cornered with intent to be threatened. Noone has 
acted like this towards, and with that sort of explanation I give to people, 
they don't try to mess with him, and are much more reassured when I tell 
them things like this then simply "no he doesn't bite".

Funny the way some minds think!

Cheers,

Michelle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 12:01 PM
Subject: [nagdu] what do you say?


> The list is really quiet.  there for a bit I thought there were technical 
> difficulties! *smile* So I thought I'd toss out a question for discussion.
>
> What do you say to strange, obscure or just plain weird comments from the 
> public?
>
> This week I've gotten:
> "you were walking past my house the other day and your dog gave my husband 
> a dirty look."
> and at the end of a 2 hour meeting
> "He didn't even bark."  He meaning my guide dog Monty.
>
> Just some examples.  I'm sure you've heard stranger.  LOL
>
> Typically I can't think of anything in the moment, so I say nothing to the 
> totally strange comments.
>
> What do you say?
>
> Julie
>
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