[nagdu] Puppyraising for owner training

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Rox,

I think that's a pretty good summing up of those very negative attitudes
towards owner-trainers so many people, sighted and blind alike, feel so free
to share with us.

Why some feel so free to go so far out of their way to share it so
aggressively and such a negative manner is beyond me.  /smile/

Really, though, I've been pleasantly surprised at how accepting most peole
are overall.  They ask questions, and they're clearly curious -- even
mystified -- but they don't take it upon themselves to gather the firewood
to burn me at the stake for my heresy.

When Mitzi was a wild pup running at the park and I would blurt out my plans
for her future, my closer acquaintances would ask in faux casual tone --
with only a bit of worry showing through -- if I was going to hire a
professional trainer.  /lol/  But they would accept my laugh -- watching the
same antics they were -- and my answer that I couldn't afford a professional
and anyway was confident I could do it myself.  /smile/  If they still
sounded concerned, I would toss off some training jargon of the
multisyllabic variety, which made them want to change the subject anyway.
/lol/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of The Pawpower Pack
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 5:27 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Puppyraising for owner training

I think that to some degree, the guide dog schools put forth a "father  
knows best" attitude; making it clear that if it weren't for them and  
the program and the puppy raisers, that the blind handler wouldn't be  
able to have a dog or travel as independently.  Certainly not all  
trainers and staff do this but it happens enough and I'm pretty sure  
it happens or has happened at every program.  Many people who have  
obtained their dogs from programs are very loyal and they tend--  
especially as first-time guide dog users-- to accept whatever the  
trainers say as gospel.  Combine that with stories in the media about  
people who have owner trained service pigs or who's owner trained dogs  
engaged in a horrible or socially unacceptable behavior in a very  
public fashion; you get an image of incompetence.

Also the guide dog programs put out quite a bit of propaganda  
basically saying that without the guide dog programs, blind people  
would be home, in the dark, friendless with out the ability to travel  
independently at all.  Many times guide dog program literature  
presents guide dog use this way-- as a necessity-- a gift bestowed by  
the kindness of the sighted.  Not as a different, and equally  
respectable travel choice as that of white cane use.
The material focuses on what the program does *for* the blind person  
and leaves the impression that someone has to do *for * us.

Also owner trainers make up a small percentage of an already small  
minority.  People are curious about it, they have lots of questions,  
and usually their eagerness to have them answered can outweigh any   
other matters at hand such as the appropriateness of the time/location  
of asking such questions.

Guide dogs and their handlers are unusual, once people know I'm an  
owner trainer than I become something even more unusual amongst the  
already unusual and Americans, as a culture, seem to think that it is  
our "right to know" things about people if they are at all different.

These are just my experiences for what they are worth.

Rox and the "Kitchen Bitches:"
Bristol (retired), Mill'E SD. and Laveau Guide Dog, CGC.
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
http://www.pawpowercreations.com/retreat.html
pawpower4me at gmail.com
AIM: Brissysgirl

_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comcast
.net