[nagdu] Do you ever get angry with your dogs and howtocontroleit?

[GARY STEEVES]

Hi Julie:

Yes, Bogart does that thing with not gong forward sometimes too. Being a fairly new dog user I do find it frustrating at times. I do what you do which is simply take the leash  with my right hand and move it forward, like leading a horse. Thatr usually gets him going. The funny thing is that he has his preferred after work walks. Basically I have to take a cross town bus and then either walk or another bus to go north. We often take the cross town bus and then walk home on some nice residential streets in the rich part of town. However, yesterday I felt like taking the north south road just at my corner where I work. I noticed this last year that Bogart doesn't seem to like this route. He works much more slowly. I used to get frustrated but now I just try to encourage him and go with the flow. He eventually worked his way up to average bogart speed and got in the groove.

I guess I find it challenging sometimes when he doesn't react as quickly as I would like but I've had to learn that sometimes we have to miss a light cycle since it is better to be safe than sorry.

However, I too find those comments from the public about "is he in training?" or the corner is this way ... This happened yesterday. I'm not stupid. I know that my silly dog has gone onto the grass rather than to the curb. When the woman said the corner is this way Bogart was more than happy to turn and follow the nice woman (he really likes women) which is great except we weren't going that way. Sometimes Bogart thinks he is being helpful by going onto the grass to the big light post in case there happens to be a cross walk push button there. I'm working on that one still. :)

Anyway, I liked the comment that I'm the one being trained. that's the truth.

Gary


----- Original Message -----
From: Julie J <julielj at neb.rr.com>
Date: Thursday, March 3, 2011 5:39 am
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Do you ever get angry with your dogs and howtocontroleit?
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>

> You know just yesterday I was leaving a coffee shop with friends 
> and Monty refused to go forward.  He does this sometimes 
> and it aggravates me to no end.  Usually it is because 
> there is something that he feels requires caution about half a 
> block ahead.   All I need to do is take the leash in 
> my right hand, gesture forward with it and give him a bit of 
> encouragement. The entire event from stopping to going again 
> occurs in about a second and a half.   Yesterday 
> though, someone passing says, "oh, he's in training." That 
> really aggravates me.  It's like he's supposed to be 
> perfect every. single. second.  And honestly I don't 
> consider stopping a mistake, it's just being overly cautious
> 
> I walked to the end of the block with my friends.  Monty 
> stopped at the curb.  I told him to turn left so we could 
> line up with where we needed to cross.  One of the friends 
> says, "he didn't turn."  Like that was a mistake. He isn't 
> supposed to turn.  He does sometimes if it's a very 
> familiar route, but I don't expect it.  Still it aggravates 
> me that we are constantly judged and found lacking.
> 
> Both very small things and not worth my energy.  I know, 
> but I do think that sometimes it's good to vent.  It keeps 
> me sane and it helps others know they are perfectly normal for 
> getting irritated too. *smile*
> 
> Julie
> 
> 
> 
> 
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