[nagdu] Dirty Busses

Sat Nov 6 01:40:44 UTC 2010

Lyn,

That's pretty much what I do with Mitzi, too.  Or I will have her sit
between my feet without scooching her back, if there's space and the floor
under the seat seems iffy to me.  Just depends.  ,My focus in positioning
Mitzi on the bus is primarily her safety, then her general comfort within
the safety zone, then not having her stick to the floor and leave patches of
glossy black curls when it's time to get off the bus.  /lol/  She's pretty
good about communicating with me on the subject of safety vs. comfort, so
that helps.  Keeping her safe means keeping her out of the way of other
people's feet, bags, wheelchairs, walkers, whatever, so the spirit of proper
etiquette is served.  Whew!  It took me a ridiculously long time to align my
way of thinking to that balance, since I was so busy trying to solve the
problem of getting my poodle to curl up in a neat ball under my seat the way
everyone knows guide dogs are supposed to do.  /lol/  The only solution to
getting her into the correct physical arrangement, especially in the space
allotted, involved corrective surgery to have an extra joint installed in
those wonderfully long legs of hers so that they could fold correctly.  I
would also need to have some extra hooks and stays to keep her curled up in
a ball without popping out here and there like a horizontal jack-in-the-box.
/grin/

Anyway, once she figured out that stayiing out of the way was a good way not
to get stepped on, etc., we were home free!  She has become very good a
finding a place relative to me where she can be safely out of the way, still
watch what is going on, and just generally let me get on with my business
without fuss.  And isn't that the point, really?

I love the way you describe your work with guide dogs over the course of
your life as a partial.  I find that even my real life work with a cane
tends to be very adaptive to my needs of the time and lighting conditions,
as opposed to following the strict rules of cane use...  So with Mitzi.
Actually, she's more able to adapt to my losses of vision or even changes in
lighting than I am able to independently adjust my cane use to fit my
situation.  Cool dog!  I still get a little too uptight when we're going
through alternating light and shadow sometimes, which annoys her.  If I
remember to flip my little mental switch for those conditions and just let
her do her job without get all nervous wondering if she's doing her job, it
all goes smooth as silk.  If I'm being stupid, she has to go to a lot of
extra effort to save me from myself.  Sucks being her!  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Lyn Gwizdak
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 9:15 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Dirty Busses

Hey Elizabeth,
Ahhhh, the ahem - joys of bus riding! LOL!!  I have to say this was quite 
the experience of riding Boston transit where they don't care if you eat and

drink on the bus.  Here in San Diego, our transit company does not allow 
eating and drinking on the buses or trolleys.  People are pretty good at 
following this rule as it has been in effect for many, many years.  But, you

do get the few who think the rules are for someone else and not them.

When I ride the bus and sit in the aisle facing seats, I scoot Landon's butt

under the seat with his head between my feet.  that way, he can't snarf 
anything under the seat.

What is a "pencil skirt"?  Is it a miniskirt the girls wore in the 1960s? 
Most women I know who like skirts don't wear that kind - they wear a longer,

loose type of skirt or the just wear pants when they have to ride public 
transit.

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth Rene" <emrene at earthlink.net>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 12:22 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Dirty Busses

> Has anyone encountered this situation?:
>
> You board the bus and sit on the isle-facing, pull-down bench designated 
> for passengers with wheelchairs, guide dogs, strollers, etc.  Your guide 
> dog kennels under the bench per your direction, keeping his paws and tail 
> out of the path of passengers' feet.
>
> Then you hear him chomping away at some trashy goody tossed there by the 
> last passenger.  Or he dives under the seat, rump to the world, with his 
> nose wildly sniffing unknown substances under the bench, with his collar 
> and leash at an angle   no leash correction can counteract without drama. 
> Or your nicely groomed dog emerges from the bus with something gross stuck

> to his haunch.  Or someone at work asks you if your dog has cut himself, 
> and you discover a wad of stickiness the shape of a slash along his leg 
> that cleans off with no underlying wound.  Or your dog's jaws are working 
> eagerly when you check on him under that bus bench and you correct him, 
> reach in, and pull out something ghastly.  Or you rise from that bus bench

> to disembark only to realize that the back thigh of one   of your pant 
> legs where you've sat has become, er, moist!
>
> All of this has happened to Alvin and me during the past few months, on a 
> busline that originates in my very nice neighborhood, then goes across 
> town and back.
>
> Never before in Seattle or in other cities have I encountered such dirty 
> busses.  Never have I had to worry about my dog getting into trouble, or 
> my being grossed out, because passengers threw their garbage under the 
> seats or the busses weren't cleaned .
>
> I keep Alvin under the bus seat because Seattle's  electrified busses 
> lurch all the time, go up and down steep hills, and are hazardous for a 
> sitting guide not clamped firmly between his handler's knees (hard to do 
> in a pencil skirt!).  Alvin's too big to squeeze into the space between 
> the front-facing seats, or I'd have him sit there with me, next to the 
> window.
>
> I shudder to think about having to sweep the bus seat with my hand before 
> sitting to make sure it's dry!
>
> I'm about to write to Metro Transit about this situation, but don't expect

> much more than sympathy, owing to budget cuts county-wide that have 
> probably caused Metro to cut corners on cleaning.
>
> Anyone have the same beef?
>
> Taxi, please,
>
> Elizabeth
>
>
>
>
>
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