[nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it doesn'tworkout with the first owner?

Fri Apr 15 02:31:50 UTC 2011

Britteny, that's what we're hear for.

Lisa and Bernie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brittney N. Mejico" <brittneymejico at verizon.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it 
doesn'tworkout with the first owner?

> You are all ausome!
> Thanks for all of your help.  I  have given everything that all of you 
> have said some thought and the positive outweigh the negative and I hate 
> using a cane.  Dogs are amazing, I can't immagion my life without Harvard 
> the more I think about it.  She has prevented me from getting hit  by a 
> car, a car came out of no where and she reacted perfectly.  The more I 
> think about everything I have no reason to complain.  Yes I totallywas 
> over reacting. Every dog has it falts like every human, they will make 
> mistakes and so will we.  I am learning to relax things happen.  I am a 
> new guide dog user and every new thing my dog does that the school didn't 
> talk about totally freaks me out.  Sometimes I wish that the class would 
> have been longer.  I guess the schools can't teach us everything some 
> things we have to learn on our own.    All of you have been so helpful I 
> can't thank you enough for your wonderful advice.
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Lyn Gwizdak
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 3:01 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it 
> doesn'tworkout with the first owner?
>
> I know a guy who had a guide who had been reissued.  This dog was with a 
> guy
> who got himself arrested and a jail term and the dog was taken from him 
> and
> my friend got this same dog.  Boy, what stories this dog could have told 
> if
> he could talk!  It was a very nice dog and she worked well for my friend 
> and
> she had a good long working life.
>
> Lyn and Landon
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Lisa Irving" <lirving1234 at cox.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 1:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it
> doesn'tworkout with the first owner?
>
>
>> Hi there, Tami and Brittney,
>>
>> The more I contemplate the re issuance of a guide dog, I keep thinking 
>> how much it means to me when someone gives me a second chance. Our dogs 
>> deserve as many chances as we can give them; first time out, or re 
>> issued.
>>
>> Lisa and Bernie
>> ----- 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, April 13, 2011 10:36 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it 
>> doesn'twork out with the first owner?
>>
>>
>>> Brittney,
>>>
>>> I'm glad you asked this question.  That's one of those program policies 
>>> I
>>> ran across while researching for owner-training, and my first response 
>>> to
>>> the notion was very negative.
>>>
>>> Since then, I've heard of enough positive experience with dogs who were
>>> reissued after being returned to have a more favorable view of the 
>>> practice.
>>> Most of what I've heard is from people who have done well with re-issued
>>> dogs or from people who know people...  /smile/  Still, I get it more 
>>> now
>>> and understand the reasoning others have explained, and it does seem to 
>>> work
>>> for the most part.  There will certainly be times when it doesn't, but 
>>> that
>>> is true of matches in general.
>>>
>>> As for whether you're over-reacting...  As a still pretty new and only
>>> somewhat experienced guide dog handler, also an owner-trainer then
>>> self-taught handler, I've been observing the attitudes and ways of 
>>> thinking
>>> of handlers at or just above my level of experience as closely as I have
>>> those of the long-timers.  I can watch my peers in that regard to give
>>> myself a reality check as to how I'm coming along not just in skill but 
>>> in
>>> maturity as a handler while I'm learning from those with much more
>>> experience.
>>>
>>> So here's my observation, based not just on myself but on a generalized
>>> group of other first time handlers going through or just coming past the
>>> team building phase:  We over-react.  To everything.  /lol/  The good, 
>>> the
>>> bad, the mundane...  It is all new and exciting and frightening and
>>> wonderful and awful, all beyond belief.  We popped out to dinner just 
>>> this
>>> evening, and at the restaurant there was just this one little thing that 
>>> no
>>> one would have noticed beyond our table...  Outwardly, I remained calm 
>>> and
>>> responded correctly and it was all okay.  Inwardly, what did I do? 
>>> /lol/
>>> OMG!  How can this be?  What can it mean?  Oh, no, this is so terrible!
>>> Then I noticed nothing had actually happened that was worth all the fuss 
>>> and
>>> got over it.  /smile/  More and more, it's all old hat, but apparently I 
>>> can
>>> still freak out just fine over absolutely nothing.
>>>
>>> As for working through bad habits in your re-issue dog...  I think 
>>> others
>>> are right in their observations that during the first year or so, there 
>>> will
>>> always be something that will make you absolutely crazy about your dog. 
>>> In
>>> your first dog, these will be far more magnified in your own mind than 
>>> in
>>> those you work with later on as a truly experience dhandler.  The bad 
>>> habits
>>> need to be dealt with and modified, certainly, but it's not really habit 
>>> for
>>> you yet to deal with those ups and downs.  So you really have to think 
>>> your
>>> way through it and notice every little thing and try to figure out how 
>>> to
>>> counteract and...  Well, on and on.  It just takes awhile for all of 
>>> that to
>>> become havit and natural.  I've only been there for a short while --  
>>> with
>>> minor blips where I freak out over nothing -- and that sure is nice!
>>>
>>> Good luck with your dog; sounds like you're coming through the tream
>>> building phase and are starting on the next one -- which is where it all
>>> falls together and you're just you working your guide.  /smile/  I'm 
>>> loving
>>> that, and trying to hold onto that feeling as I move into the taking it 
>>> all
>>> for granted phase.
>>>
>>> Tami Smith-Kinney
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
>>> Behalf
>>> Of Brittney N. Mejico
>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 3:20 PM
>>> To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
>>> Subject: [nagdu] should guides be given a second owner if it doesn't 
>>> work
>>> out with the first owner?
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>> My dog had another handler before me.  I don't think that guides should 
>>> be
>>> given another handlerbecause the dog picksup a lot of bad habits and 
>>> they
>>> are  really hard to get rid of.  I love my  dog very muchand harvard has
>>> changed my life, but it took me a year to stop a lot of her bad habbits, 
>>> and
>>> we still have some work to do.  What do you guys think? am I over 
>>> reacting?
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>
>
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