[nagdu] elements of class, matching and escaping

Jenine Stanley jeninems at wowway.com
Tue Feb 1 23:15:02 UTC 2011


Trying to combine two topics here. This is info about how things work at GDF
if you are on class. 

First off, input into the match starts with your application as it does at
every school. It continues to the phone interview that everyone has with an
instructor. This is also pretty standard. Some people receive a home
interview, if we have an instructor in their area. This is yet another time
to give input to the match. 

A couple things to keep in mind about being specific. Though it's great to
be very specific, it's also good to either be flexible to a point or to say
that you are more than willing to wait for what you want. I'm a good
example. I would prefer a male Golden and need a dog with a specific type of
gait, very smooth. I'm also a medium to fast walker.  That's not an easy
combination to find so I agreed to widen my choices to include crosses, as
long as there was some Golden in there somewhere. I got the perfect match in
Swap. I was also willing to wait for that match. 

Sometimes, the more strident you are about your desires, the more
instructors fear matching you with a dog who might be close but might not
meet every exact need. This is where those conversations about the potential
dogs come in handy. We don't always do this, I'll admit. It's not a part of
our standard contact procedure that is. Some instructors will discuss
potential matches with students to clarify points and some may not. 

We have a time on class, usually during Monday or Tuesday, with people
arriving on Monday and receiving their dogs usually on Wednesday, when
instructors bring a variety of dogs in. Some are class-ready dogs and some
are puppies. The puppies are pure fun. The older dogs, depending on the
instructors, may be set free to walk around the room and interact with
people or may be given to each person and then that team is observed. You
might be asked to have the dog do some obedience, no leash guiding, but that
too might depend. 

Sometimes if the instructors have several dogs they might be considering,
they may have them interact with you during this process to see which fits
best. Just like instructors can be kennel blind, so can we when looking at
potential dogs. It's always good to get the big picture on a dog before
saying "This is the one." That would include a walk or two and a couple days
to get to know each other. 

Being able to interact with dogs during that down time of early class though
is great. It also shows the instructors how you deal with dogs of all types,
which believe me is more helpful than you know. 

At GDf we have a pre-dog meeting during those first two days where you talk
one-on-one with the instructor about your needs once more, go over anything
and discuss potential dogs. That that point it's down to at least one and
possibly more dogs if you don't have any special training needs or things
like breed requests. We also have a mid-class interview during which you can
discuss any issues you are having and plan how to handle them through the
remainder of class and beyond. 

When it comes to escaping, or leaving campus at GDF, you can do so at any
time you are not officially doing training activities like lectures or
actual training. As long as you are there to feed and break your dog and are
ready to go for daily training, we are fine with you going out at night or
on weekend afternoons. If we see that there is a problem developing with
your dog such as separation anxiety, we will work with you on that as an
individual. 

We do have people practice leaving their dogs in the rooms and go over how
to leave your dog unattended during class. 

We also have a core of volunteers to provide transportation to shopping,
restaurants and other locations on weekends if requested. 

I don't think these things are necessarily unique to GDF. I'd wager many
schools have such provisions. Many schools, due to property costs, are not
located within easy walking distance of things either and many don't have
access to public transit, so you need to find transportation off campus, but
in our case, we're happy to give you local taxi numbers. 

Like most of you have said, I'm usually too tired during class to go
anywhere, save for a weekend afternoon. 
Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com







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