[nagdu] presentation about blindness

[Julie J]

Thanks Linda!

I also get, "He must help you a lot."
I'm not sure what to say to that one.  Yes he is helpful or it would be 
ridiculous to have a guide dog, but I get the distinct impression they are 
meaning more along the lines of "taking care of" more so than actual "help".

And for some odd reason I often get comments about, "he is so good"  or "is 
he always well behaved" or some such thing.  I always answer those comments 
with usually.   It makes people laugh, but it's the truth.  I hate it when 
people think he's some sort of robot dog.  Yes, he's a good dog, but like 
all of us he has his moments.

And when people ask to pet I've been saying that he really doesn't enjoy 
being petted by strangers, which leads to some long conversations.  So I'm 
dumping that response and going with a much shorter, "no, but thank you for 
asking."   We'll see how it works.

I have no real plan about what to say to the Lions club next week.  I've 
gotten some really good ideas from another list that I plan to use.  I only 
have 15 minutes and they have specifically asked me to talk about how and/or 
why I trained my own guide dog.   That topic could fill an entire book. 
Hopefully I'll get some sort of inspiration between now and then.

Julie