[nagdu] What do you do when you're angry with your dog?

[Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)]

I think the difference between dog v. toddler is that with atoddler, you
just don't have one. You can your baby changing and it changes in
increments. This may not apply to people who adopt/aquire older
children. 
Also, people expect toddlers to be learning and have bad days. We may
disagree all day about what is expected/appropriate, but people do allow
for some bad behavior. 
With guide dogs, one day we don't have one, the next day we do. Also,
John Q public as well as us get these dogs to help us. We know they
aren't perfect but there is knowing and then thre is knowing. 
Also, it can be hard knowing when to retire a dog and when not to. When
I was thinking of retiring my second dog after the birth of my daughter,
I had people say "But she's such a good dog" and "You have such good
memories and so much fun together" and "What if you retire her and then
decide you want her back" all of which were fair questions but were not
the problem I was trying to solve
With kids, you don't get to give them back/away except in extremely rare
circumstances 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jenine Stanley
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 11:03 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] What do you do when you're angry with your dog?

Lisa brings up a good issue here. What do you do when you're angry with
your
dog? 

 

I'm sure just about all of us have had those moments when we were
incredibly
angry with our dogs. Whether they chewed up a favorite possession, went
after some food for the millionth time or just went seemingly brain dead
during a guiding task, I'm sure we've all had pause to consider just
what to
do. Sometimes we don't pause and that can lead to all kinds of problems.


 

One of the things that really hit me when I got my first dog was that I
was
now responsible for another being, not only its care but its actions,
and I
couldn't always control those actions as well as I'd like. 

 

I wonder if this is what new parents feel like with toddlers? OK, all
you
parents, am I close? <grin> 

 

I'll pose the question here. Do you talk about anger and frustration
during
guide dog class? Did it surprise anyone when first encountering anger
toward
your dog? Do those of us who have had many dogs over time still feel
angry
and frustrated with the current dog over things or does that lessen like
it
seems to with kids, the youngest getting away with more things because
the
parents are either tired, or have just relaxed a bit with experience? 

 

If you were to craft a class lecture about anger management, what might
you
say? We can't all be Buddha all the time just for our dogs' sakes. 

 

We've all, I'm sure, seen someone whom we feel is over correcting
his/her
dog. How do you handle that, especially if you can tell it's out of
frustration? 

 

It's a good topic to discuss. Lisa, I feel for you here. My last dog was
a
champion at destroying things when out of harness. She chewed up a
Braille
watch, numerous bits of paper, including a dividend check for over $500,
and
the insoles of many a pair of shoes. I did everything to keep her from
these
exploits, but when allowed freedom, she exercised her superior Poodle
intelligence and Labrador tenacity by redecorating my house. I'm almost
pleased to hear that in her new home, when thoroughly bored, she's been
doing the same things. 

 

Jenine Stanley

jeninems at wowway.com

 

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