[nagdu] Dogs and traffic lights

Mon Aug 22 17:10:39 UTC 2011

Well, I am blessed with two whole working ears, and I've done my fair
share of teary-eyed corner standing because I couldn't figure it
out. /lol/ If the wind happens to be blowing, I still sometimes just
want to jump up and down and scream while I'm waiting for some
definitive sound cue I can use to know what all them cars is doing out
there. I'm better, much better, of course than when I first started out,
but I have this thing about being sure before I cross the street. /lol/
Mitzi is surprisingly good at reading traffic patterns and letting me
know when *she* thinks it's safe to cross. She thinks it's silly of me
to keep insisting that that particular decision is my call, always.
Still, her suggestions on the matter are so consistently correct that I
have to keep reminding myself that she's a dog and it is not her
responsibility to decide when to cross the street. I've learned to heed
her tug along with all the listening and fretting Im doing and to ensure
that  am convinced it's safe before giving her the forward command. Like
me, she simply refuses to acknowledge commands from others, including
DD, so then I can reach the far cub only to have to stand around
listening to how my dog is going to get me killed because she doesn't
listen to what people tell her to do. I smile serenely and say, "That's
how I trained her," while affectionately ruffling her curly top and
tugging her ears and popping treats into her mouth. I used to attempt to
explain the whole list of pros and cons, but finally gave it up, since
simply rewarding my dog for doing what she is trained to do causes these
safety-conscious do-gooders to go off in what I can only describe as a
huff. They seem to feel that I refuse to listen to reason and if I want
to get myself killed that way, it's fine with them, only they just don't
think it's right to put my dog in danger, too. They seem especially
frustrated that there is no school to call about that to report me.
Apparently, someone who reported me to DD was -- or maybe still is --
considering calling animal control about how I'm abusing my dog by
crossing the street with her. /lol/ Also, the person does not consider
that whatever errand I was on when they saw me abusing my dog in this
fashion was legitimate enough to justify crossing the street with my
guide dog... Poor DD. He was too tactful to bring this up until the next
time I mentioned that I was getting ready to put on my walking shoes and
harness up the dog for a quick trip down to the corner store... This was
when our road was only really dangerous, before they did a lot of work
on it to make it just so totally dangerous that nobody wants to go near
it, even when they can see everything coming and are driving a car.
Hooray for progress! Sigh. Anyway, he suddenly couldn't stand it anymore
back then and tried to put the kibosh on my independent running of my
own errands using my chosen mobility tool, which surprised me to no end
and which I was not about to allow, not once. /grin/ Thus, the reason
for his upset came out. I shouldn't be using my dog to go to the store
because people might call animal control, especially if they decided my
errand was not a legitimate one. I gaped at him and blinked a few times,
then started asking questions about what could be considered a
legitimate errand. Cigarettes, I now knew, are not a reason to use my
guide dog to go to the store. Most especially, if while I'm there I pick
up beer to carry home in my backpack, with a bag of potato chips to eat
when I get home after burning off all the calories and salt I'm looking
forward to consuming. /smile/ The beer, it turns out, was an especially
problem for being in the backpack like that, since I should be using my
dog at all with that sort of thing going on. I blinked again. Would they
prefer, I asked him innocently, that I put the beer in me and not the
backpack in order to bring it home.  Poor DD. He's not stupid, though,
and was starting to catch on to what I was doing. Still, the sin of
telling me whether or not it's okay to use my guide dog as a guide dog
was not to go unpunished! Would it be okay, I continued innocently, if I
were carrying a gallon of milk in my backpack with the potato chips and
cigarettes? Grumble, grumble... Perhaps i should leave the chips at the
store and bring home produce instead, I suggested. Would that be okay
with everyone.  Grumble, fume! 

He finally accepted his comeuppance and that was when he added that if I
wanted to put my dog in danger, he wasn't going to stop me and that if
someone called animal control, then it was my fault. I smiled cheerfily.
"Okay! I'm off then!"

More grumbling and fuming! But when I got home, safe and sound, and my
little dog, too, we discussed it further in a rational way. Including
the part where I informed him rationally that if the neighbors or anyone
wanted to call animal control because I was using my guide dog, they
were welcome to for all of me. If animal control decides it's that
important, I'm sure someone will know where they can find me to discuss
it with me. Until then, I just can't worry so much about what the
neighbors are up to, honestly, as long as it doesn't involve spraying
bleach over the fence at our dogs or stealing from our front yard (and
everyone's) r throwing things in our yard or trespassing... Well,
generally, I care if what the neighbors are doing is somehow coming into
my space and property, rented or owned, especially if it's a danger to
my dog, in which case if it happens again, I will call animal control
and the cops because that's a crime that they are dying to put a stop
to.  Otherwise, if they neighbors want to call animal control because
I'm crossing the street with my guide dog, that's up to them. /evil
grin/

I would truly love to hear how that conversation goes for them. It would
be funny, don't you think? /lol/

Tami
On Mon, 2011-08-22 at 10:26 -0400, Dan Weiner wrote: 
> As usual, Tommy, a very entertaining and pleasant post.
> The misconception about guide dogs reading traffic lights seems to be the
> most persistent one.
> I don't get as  many comments on it  these days and that's  either because
> I'm doing better or people just don't give a darn--smile.
> 
> It used to happen all the damned time.
> I have explained that I hear only out of one ear.
> It goes in one ear and not out the other?--lol.
> So, telling whether the cars are in front or to the side of me has always
> been an interesting proposition.
> I remember when I was a kid and made my first ventures in to independent
> mobility.
> I'm not going to mince words, I'd just stand at the curb with tears in my
> eyes because I just couldn't tell.  I just figured out that you do the best
> you can and that's it.
> 
> I've developed my own techniques, but you know sooner or later something
> happens.
> And of course everyone's there to tell me that my dog crossed me against the
> light or something like that, why did the dog do that, isn't he/she trained?
> I think what irks me is not the question, but that half the time when I
> explain it they keep arguing?
> Oh, but aren't they supposed to tell you when it's red?
> I just explained that. Oh, but isn't it dangerous? Well, I explain that one
> too.
> 
> Once a guy debated with me, yes argued about it. He said he had a professor
> in college who told him that guide dogs cross when the light is the right
> color and so "I don't know who trained that dog, but those dogs do know".
> 
> Oy vay, as my Dad would have said.
> 
> And what's more, people who can't remember what they had for breakfast will
> remember for weeks that they saw you cross against the light.
> 
> Of course, they wouldn't ever consider, let's see..asking you if you needed
> assistance when it actually happened?
> 
> Go figure.
> 
> And where are they when I do it right? They are there probably saying "you
> see, that dog did know when the light's red".--lol
> 
> 
> Dan the man, Carter the nut
> 
>  
> 
> 
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