[nagdu] Going out during training

[Jenine Stanley]

One thing to consider in this discussion is that regardless of whether one
receives home training, a combination of school-based and home-based
training or training exclusively at the school facility, the school owns
that dog until it deems you have finished training. Just as you can dictate
what happens with a dog once you legally own it, so the school can dictate
what happens with it prior to that change of ownership. You can't have it
both ways. 

 

Now, it can be argued, if one does so sensibly, that people who receive home
training do work their dogs without any supervision, outside of scheduled
training times, often even when not advised to do so. Often though, doing so
is part of the home training. Why there and not at the school? One simple
reason. During a home portion of training you, the handler, are in familiar
areas to you and I would hope, by virtue of being qualified for training,
that you know your way around these areas fairly well. 

 

I've done combination training twice now and both times I've gone out after
our training. In both cases I worked the dog over routes we had done during
the training day or places we had been during the training thus far. I did
not try anything I hadn't yet done with the dog because, as I said in an
earlier post on this subject, it takes me a while to read a new dog. 

 

Once I had done so though with input from the instructor to check myself, I
felt comfortable doing whatever it was solo. 

 

Yes, the idea of being able to go out on independent trips, either as part
of training itself, say during a daylong lesson or after training, is great
in theory. It could even work in practice but yes, there are factors when
working with groups of people that make this difficult to manage. 

 

What if I think I'm doing perfectly fine with my dog, yet the instructors
don't agree, and have communicated that to me, hopefully giving me things to
work on to improve our teamwork. Several of my fellow classmates are given
the opportunity to go out by themselves with their dogs toward the end of
training but I am not. I'm angry, embarrassed, and yes, complain loudly and
threaten to sue everyone in sight, playing every card in my hand. 

 

Don't laugh. It's happened for lesser infractions. 

Jenine Stanley

jeninems at wowway.com

 

From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Cindy Ray
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 8:36 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Going out during training

 

Peter, I really wasn't going to respond to this message that I saw of yours,
about the research and all. But I have to. Here's the deal. Many of us here
are Federationists, and in a black and white world where all is as it should
be with no variables, what you are asking would be an option. There is not
research that has the data you are seeking, or not enough to make it valid.
You come on here and you spout off philosophy, valuable philosophy, but
often irrelevant to the situation. It is a serious problem if a dog is
removed from a person and there is no just cause given. But most of us are
not damaged by not being allowed to leave the dog training school whenever
we feel we want to do that. How would you handle the minors who attend some
if not all of the schools? Imagine the competitiveness that could develop
between and among those students who might well be capable after a few days
of taking the dogs out and those who really would not be. Doesn't everyone
there deserve the right to be treated pretty much equally while there? Many
folks leave there with newfound confidence that might not be found if some
of their brothers and sisters were leaving right away with their dogs.
Others have mentioned the driving analogy, and trust me, each dog is a
totally different kind of car. LOL. You need to do some thinking before you
post. Don't just spout off philosophy; consider what it means sometimes in
the real world. People mostly leave the schools as responsible handlers and
that's because they are taught to walk before they learn to run. How long
are we really there?
CL


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