[nagdu] Puppyraising for owner training

Tue May 4 02:05:50 UTC 2010

I've never heard of a Dalmatian guide, but I guess that it is possible.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "The Pawpower Pack" <pawpower4me at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Puppyraising for owner training

> All of my owner trained guides have been from rescue or high-kill 
> facilities.  Laveau-- my current Doberman mix guide is from the very 
> scary New Orleans inner-city high kill shelter and it was *not* my  intent 
> to get a dog from there.  I really wanted to go through a  breeder, but 
> Laveau has turned out to be one of the most unexpected  gifts I've ever 
> received.
> I did adopt her with the realization that she may not work out as a  guide 
> because regardless of her flawless temperament tests, she had  been in a 
> horrible inner city shelter for five weeks with minimal  outside contact. 
> Temperament tests done under these conditions are  hardly reliable and a 
> dog that looks like a fantastic candidate in the  shelter can review a 
> totally different side of itself once it lives in  the home and gets over 
> shelter shock.  However I knew I could find her  a home if she didn't make 
> it and she was such a wonderful dog that I  had to take the chance.  When 
> I took her in for her physical, half the  staff at my vets office were 
> praying for her to flunk the exam because  they wanted her.  Lucky for me, 
> unfortunately for them, she is healthy  as a horse aside from a few small 
> issues which are not a problem if  she gets her medication on a regular 
> schedule.
>
> She was around a year old when I got her.  My other dogs were between  10 
> months to a year when I got them as well.  I love this age to begin 
> training.
> However I must confess that I do harbor a secret fantasy of raising my 
> own puppy.  Not now, not maybe even my next dog.  However if I can  plan 
> Laveau's or next dog's retirement early enough, and if I'm lucky  enough 
> to be working from home by that point, and if I can find the  right kind 
> of golden retriever breeder, I'd love to raise my own  puppy.  I know it 
> would be a great deal of work and my husband is  trying to talk me out of 
> it-- he has been for several years now.
> However one of these days I'd love to have that opportunity.  Until  the 
> time is right however, I'd like to stick with dogs between the  ages of 
> 10-18 months.  I'd like my next dog to be another Doberman  because Laveau 
> has caused me to fall madly in love with the breed.   I'd also take a 
> golden retriever because they are tied with Dobe for  my favorite breed or 
> a Dalmatian because I really, really want one and  think they'd fit in 
> great with my lifestyle.  I almost got a Dal bitch  from a breeder this 
> time around but she flunked her temperament test  so here I am with the 
> Doberdog.
>
> Tami is right about how exhausting owner training is.  I kept a  journal 
> even before I got laveau of things that I needed to work on,  and once I 
> got her I was either writing in my journal, reading other's  journals, 
> training the dog, reviewing training sessions with other  owner trainers, 
> thinking about future training sessions, planning out  future training 
> sessions with other owner trainers, and the list just  goes on from there.
> You have to like dogs a lot! to be an owner trainer.  You have to be 
> interested in all of the tiniest minutiae of behavior and training to  be 
> an owner trainer.  You need to have good orientation and mobility  skills. 
> You also need to know your rights and responsibilities under  the law/s 
> and be a strong advocate for yourself because nobody else is  going to be 
> advocating for you.  A thick skin is also helpful because  you are going 
> to have to deal with ignorance from the sighted  community, the blind 
> community, professionals who work in the  blindness field and other PWD. 
> All of these people probably mean well  but many of them don't think a 
> blind person is capable of training an  assistance dog.  Your actions need 
> to speak louder than your words.   People will watch you, they will watch 
> your dog and they will make  judgements.
>
> I was the first owner trainer to work where I do and there were  several 
> program trained teams who entered our facilities every day and  I had to 
> consistently prove, time and time again that my dog was just  as well 
> trained as theirs.  That I was just as good a handler as they  were even 
> if I do things differently because I use strictly clicker  training and 
> most guide dog handlers don't.
> People will ask you questions about yourself, your choice to owner  train, 
> about your dog, how you trained it, where you got the harness  and the 
> list goes on and on.  If you think people invaded your privacy  and asked 
> you probing questions with a program trained dog, well it is  my personal 
> experience that I get even more questions now.
>
> Jessica, I'm not trying to discourage you from owner training.  It is 
> your right to have an individually trained assistance dog; however it  is 
> important to know what path lies ahead of you.
>
> I wish you the best, and I don't want to make it sound all gloom and  doom 
> and tedious toil.  I love my dog, and I love owner training.  I  will 
> probably owner train again in another million years when Laveau  gets old.
>
>
> 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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