[nagdu] my presentation

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Wow!  That sounds like a lot of fun.  I like the example you use to put the
decision to owner train into perspective.

Those sound like really great questions.  Intelligent, thoughtful and
pertinent.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:37 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] my presentation

I did my owner training guide dog presentation to the Lions Club last night.
It went really, really well.  It was one of the best presentations I've
done.  I was only supposed to have 15-20 minutes.  I was very good and only
talked for that long, but of course there were lots and lots of questions.
It ended up being around 45 minutes total.

I started out with my background training dogs.  then I moved into the 3
ways to get a guide dog, using my kitchen cabinets as an example.  There are
basically 3 ways to get cabinets/a guide dog.  1 go to a large store and
choose from what they have to offer, 2 hire someone to make them for you and
3 build them yourself.   I hoped this example would put the choice to owner
train into perspective for them, so they could understand it in a way that
is familiar.   It wasn't perfect but I think it worked.  Then I went over
legal definitions that a service dog is a service dog when it is
individually trained to mitigate the disability of the handler.  Then I
moved into the pros and cons of owner training.  The bulk of the
presentation was the Q&A.  They asked lots of good questions,
how does the dog know when to cross the street?
and then, how do I know when to tell the dog to cross the street?
and then, would audible pedestrian signals be helpful?
how did I pick Monty out of all the dogs I looked at?
are we happy/have a strong connection/are a good team?
when/can we pet the dog?  previously I think they have had bad experiences
with another service dog team being pretty abrupt about the petting thing.
My answer about petting is always the same, ask.  I did outline when I might
allow petting and when I won't.  I think the example of the person petting
without asking when I was stepping off the curb to cross a street hit home.

There were questions about the length of time for training, breed, age etc.
Questions about using a cane and lots of other questions I can't remember.
I wish I would have recorded it. 

Then someone requested that I walk around with him so people could see him.
So we walked around the table to the corner area.  There was a door outside
there which Monty showed me.  Everyone thought this was funny.  Not sure
what else he was supposed to do, the door was the logical choice for our
next destination.  
Overall I tried to emphasize that each service dog and human is unique, that
the communication between dog and handler is very complex and subtle, that
dogs are dogs and they will make mistakes/have a bad day and that owner
training is a perfectly legitimate option.  

Those of you who have done presentations recently, how did they go?

Julie
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