[nagdu] always taking the dog was guide dogs

Sun Mar 14 18:24:02 UTC 2010

Oh, she is too funny!  Having a "thinking" dog is very entertaining, if not
completely maddening at times.  Mitzi used to hide my shoes and socks when
we were getting ready to go out and play, when she was a puppy.  She finally
figured out this would delay us, so she gave it up and began to help me find
misplaced shoes and socks.  I had suspicions about how they came to be
misplaced to begin with, but she was very helpful about showing me "the
other" shoe, sock or glove.

Last week, the dogs stashed their favorite squeaky ball, which is also the
one I take to the park for Mitzi.  I asked them to find it, I asked them
where it is, I made play motions and asked them to bring it...  Not a clue
from either dog they had a clue what I was talking about.  Shadow ball?
What could that be?  /lol/  I tried looking for the dang thing once a day or
so, because I hate trying to play soccer with park balls -- usually ratty
old tennis balls.  I can't hear them at all, so kicking them for her doesn't
work so well.  /smile/  Anyway, one day I looked absolutely everywhere, with
the dogs watching avidly and encouraging me every step of the way.  If it
looked like I might be flagging in my efforts, they would peer into and
under whereever I was looking, as if to say, "It's right there!  Look again!
You missed it by an inch."  Goobers.

That evening, about the time I was ready to fall into bed and sleep, guess
what I heard Mitzi bringing into my room so I would play with her?  She was
very pleased with herself, I tell you.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Wayne Merritt
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:26 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] always taking the dog was guide dogs

Though my Gucci isn't trained for laundry work, she will pull things
out of the clothes hamper that I've just put there, sometimes right
after and other times when I'm in the shower. And then I find a stray
sock, T-shirt, or other item on the floor as I'm walking back over to
the dresser for something. She will also pull my socks off the couch
right after I've taken them off. Really, one day I pulled my socks
off, turned to put the shoes under my coffee table, and when I turned
back, not 5 seconds later, the socks were gone. She's good. One of her
classic clothes relocation incidents happened when we were still in
training in fall of 2008. I had dropped a pair of socks one day, and
though I found one almost immediately, I didn't find the other one. At
that time I didn't know about her clothes relocating tendencies. So I
looked all around the place for that stray sock, and even brought my
instructor and one of the house maids into look for the sock with no
result. It wasn't until I was packing to leave the next day, when I
was pulling stuff out of the crate she had been using for the last
week or so, that I found the stray sock in the corner of the crate.
I'm sure that when I looked at her, she had this total blank look on
her face like, "What? I didn't do anything." I sat back and laughed. I
think somehow I knew that she was going to be different than my first
guide. though my first guide would have moved clothes, he would not
have stolen a stray sock and kept it for his own benefit. I'm
convinced that Gucci does htis mainly to be sarcastic and to prove
that she can. It doesn't matter that I slap the hamper and tell her
no, she will still pull things out for her and my own enjoyment, or i
should say for her enjoyment of seeing me go, "Now where did I put
that thing?" That's a thinking dog for you, grin. I also have to be
mindful of where she is and where I drop clothes that i'm pulling out
of the dryer, lest she get a hold of something and relocate it
somewhere else, grin. Sometimes I'll put her on the tie down chain to
try and prevent this from happening, only to have her steel a stray
sockt that I missed and take it somewhere, grin. I have to give her
credit though, she knows to relocate things to be in my more frequent
walking paths so that I'll step on it and then do a doubletake. The
very few times that she's made messes in the apartment, she's done
them in places that are just outside of my normal walking paths, as if
she's saying, "hahahaha, this shows you not to neglect me a park time
or take me out later than usual." that devil, grin.

Wayne

On 3/10/10, Tamara Smith-Kinney <tamara.8024 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Rox,
>
> /lol/  Mill'E is too, too funny!  I wonder if Laveau will pick up some of
> those ways of entertaining herself?
>
> I did some starter teaching with Mitzi on laundry-related tasks, but she
> just used what I taught her to mess with me or to invent new games.  So we
> were entertained, and I didn't have to worry about really training her to
do
> actual useful tasks or anything.  /grin/  I keep threatening to do the
same
> with Daisy, again to keep her amused.  But I get lazy...  Huh.  We all
have
> cabin fever on top of spring fever...
>
> I love the towel snapping. /grin/  Are you sure she doesn't think she's
your
> teenage brother or something?
>
> Mitzi invented a new game with her ball last night.  She stood on the edge
> of my bed and bounced it to me so I could catch it and bounce it back.
That
> strange, quirky mind of hers will never cease to amaze me.  /smile/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of The Pawpower Pack
> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 1:16 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] always taking the dog was guide dogs
>
> Lyn,
>
> Mill'E's favorite chore ever! is doing laundry.  Specifically-- she
> loves emptying the dryer, then crawling in and taking a nap in the
> warm dryer once it's empty.  She has found ways to keep laundry
> entertaining; she pulls towels out, and smacks me with the end; same
> with blue jeans.  She has also figured out how to nudge all the small-
> clothes into a pile and take them out in bunches rather than one by
> one.  She loves laundry!
> I am lucky because I have one "pet" dog-- my twelve-year-old golden
> Bristol so I already have to look for pet-friendly housing and the
> landlords don't seem to care.  I do find that it makes things less
> intense for the dogs if they can have time to just be a dog.  All of
> my dogs have a fantastic work ethic and love to work.  I want to keep
> it that way.
>
> Rox and the Kitchen Bitches
> Bristol (retired), Mill'E SD. and Laveau Guide Dog, CGC.
> "It's wildly irritating to have invented something as revolutionary as
> sarcasm, only to have it abused by amateurs." -- Christopher Moore
> pawpower4me at gmail.com
>
> Windows Live Only: Brisomania at hotmail.com
> AIM: Brissysgirl Yahoo: lillebriss
>
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