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

Sun Mar 28 08:41:15 UTC 2010

Hi Tami,

Sometimes when I'm crossing a road with my guide dog, I stop too far in the 
road instead of in the very middle where the traffic islands are, and my 
fear and feelings of mistrust immediately snap Troy out of his 
absent-mindedness, and it's the last time he'll allow himself to walk past 
the traffic islands for a very, very very very long time!

A couple of days ago, Troy veered into a road and walked down it instead of 
crossing straight across, so I pulled him up and chastised him a little, and 
he worked well after that. He did this again a couple of hours later when I 
was working while an instructor was watching us learn how to get to a job 
agency for disabilities, and after being chastised by both me and the 
instructor, Troy never did this again! It didn't involve biting Troy's head 
off, we just got an urgent, stern tone in our voices. These mistakes are 
very rare though, because I nip them in the bud immediately and give no 
second chances.

I agree with you too, when you say that a dog having a dangerous day is 
another matter. I don't accept bad days which are dangerous. That's not on 
and the dog isn't given any excuses for being a dangerous guide dog. Never, 
ever. I always tell myself that my dog had better toe the line right now 
before I let him go out into the middle of the road! But I don't really make 
him get hurt because that's just not me. Once when a car was coming, I made 
out that I was pushing the dog into the road, but didn't go all the way with 
it, and the poor thing was very cautious for quite a while. There's one 
thing that will certainly work though: Make sure you sound pained, very 
frightened and very defenceless afterwards. Then come back to your normal 
self, then the next time you cross a road, get a mixture of being 
defenceless, but you really mean business, in your voice while telling the 
dog to go straight across, then you'll get a dog that says "O sorry Mummy! I 
didn't mean to harm you! I'll do my best this time, I promise!" This being, 
for a very very long time.

Keep well,

Michelle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 1:08 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] What do you do when you're angry with your dog?

> Dar,
>
> I would be shaken by that, too.  It's one thing for a dog to have a bad 
> day,
> but when it's a dangerous day...  That's a whole 'nother ball game!  And I
> have a hard enough time getting my trust in Mitzi back when she's just
> having a sniffy day, although I'm getting better at it once she decides to
> settle down and work.  That's aggravating, but it's not the same as 
> blowing
> the big stuff.
>
> What I would do, exactly, I don't know.  She's too big to throw into
> traffic...  When she's seriously in a mood and going too far with it, I do
> tend to crack down by giving a couple of sharper harness checks than I 
> would
> normally use.  Then, if she's still determined to be a monster, I stop her
> and grab her around the body and do some dominance stuff and talk to her 
> in
> a firm voice.  I make a point to look her directly in the face, whether I
> can find her eyes or not that day.  Then I maintain my gentle but firm
> restraining hold until she starts to relax and accept it.  Then I will do
> little stuff like tug her ears lightly, then slowly relax and then stand 
> on
> a wait for a few seconds, making sure to be stern and to make it very
> clearly that she is under my command...  Since I'm not faking the stern, 
> she
> picks up on it and will finally become a good little worker girl!  /smile/
> Then I praise her, of course, and once we've safely done whatever it was 
> she
> was too cool to do right before, I will give her a simple task to praise 
> and
> rewward, etc.
>
> Oh, and at the moment of panic in a situation like that, I go ahead and 
> let
> myself gasp or shriek or just generally let it all out.  For some reason,
> Mitzi responds more to that emotional expression of fear/anger/whatever 
> than
> she does to all the obedience stuff in the world.  I've never been one to 
> go
> around shrieking in terror, but I've gotten pretty good at it.  /smile/
>
> It's sort of a long, involved way to go about things, but it's what works
> with her when she really has her attitude on.  Fortunately, she doesn't
> fudge the big stuff any more, or at least almost never.  Now that I've 
> said
> that, I can only imagine she will make a liar out of me the very  next 
> time
> she has a chance.  /smile/
>
> Don't know if that helps at all.  But you're right that there are some
> things you take seriously and do *not* "blow off."  You do, however, have 
> to
> keep your cool and work it through, which is tough to do when you've just
> been scared out of your wits with good reason!  And when you suddenly have
> lost all trust, it's tough to just suck it up and go on for the rest of 
> the
> day, even once you have the problem solved.  It is for me anyway!
>
> Glad you got it worked out and have been safe!
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of d m gina
> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 10:10 AM
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] What do you do when you're angry with your dog?
>
> Last year I went to the school working with Mike Sargent, on behalf of
> the walking harness.
> Sure came in handy this year.
> Getting back to that.
> One day they were doing car checks.
> My dog was so mad from the day before, because he had to walk in the
> rain he wasn't going to do a car check for me or anyone else.
> Now it was another instructor doing this, where they truly had to honk
> the horn in order for my dog to even look at the car.
> I was so badly shaken, that when I saw Mike I just started crying.
> The instructor who was with me said it was OK, my dog was having a bad 
> day.
> I shared rite then and there, I can't have a bad day with my dog on the
> street, it scared me to much.
> Now that I am a diabetic, I don't know with reading all of the articles
> on folks getting hit, or anything like that if it gives me more of a
> scare I don't know.
> Mike was kind to me, and said you just have to blow it off.
> Now I disagree, when if I had been alone, I can't just blow it off.
> I shared if my dog did this to often he had to become retired.
> I didn't know how else to get the message across that I needed to be
> safe out there.
> What would you folks have done if this had happened to you.
>
> -- 
> --Dar
> skype: dmgina23
>  FB: dmgina
> www.twitter.com/dmgina
> every saint has a past
> every sinner has a future
>
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