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

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Fri Apr 15 17:36:42 UTC 2011


Steve,

That is really fascinating.  I am glad you and Misha came together in the
end.

It's still morning here, so Mitzi won't start to sigh at me for another
couple of hours.  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Steven Johnson
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 4:12 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?

Hi Brittney,
That's what this list is for/smile!  I do want to disclose to you that my
current guide, Misha, is actually a career changed dog 2 times over.
Obviously, they saw something in her that they knew she wanted to work for a
living and earn human wages...or something like that!  When she was 6 months
old, she was being raised for mobility service, but her trainer said she was
too wild...show me a dog at that age that does not have energy?  Then, she
was sent to Dallas to learn detection work, but, didn't make the cut.  She
was then again sent back for another try at mobility service and this time,
she officially did not make it, so she was then sent on to become one of the
best guides I have had.  She has had a tough life in trying to find the
right work, but more importantly, to get someone to give her a chance.  Her
trainers did at her dog guide school, and I did too!  She just sighed, which
means I need to shut up!  

Have a great night,

Steve & Misha


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Brittney N. Mejico
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 5:46 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?

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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