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

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Having others criticize my dog is *the* number one irritant for me.  It just
makes steam come out of my ears!  Especially when she's doing the right
thing for safety by ignoring or retrainslating a command.  Or when I make a
handling mistake, and some fool blames the dog and tells me it's time for
her to go back to school.  So then it's hard not to transfer my emotions to
Mitzi, although I guess we've learned to deal so that she knows she's doing
right and can be quite smug about it.  I wonder if she gives her critics
that sh*t-eating grin of hers.  /lol/

After a super dull and boring winter, we're getting back to the point where
we can afford to get out some and maybe even do a bit of travel with Daisy's
Dog House.  I can already tell I'm going to have my work cut out for me
re-educating DD about letting the dog do her job.  Grr!  He's pragmatic
enough that it's not that difficult to communicate, only he's as stubborn as
a, well, poodle, so just snapping at him has the opposite effect of the
desired one.  /lol/  He's gotten used to Portland, where everybody is all
dog-friendly and used to having guide dogs around, so he's not used to
public reactions in places where the guide dog is an unfamiliar sight and
not always a welcome one.  Sigh.  Probably a blind person with a cane would
be an equally shocking and unwelcome sight.  Hm...  So does this mean he's
experiencing a belated cane shame, only with the dog?  I'm talking him
through it, using the Socratic method, or a modified version of it.  /lol/

"There are over a hundred people here who don't like having a guide dog in
the place," he will grumble.

"Oh?"  I raise an eyebrow.  "And that's my problem how?"  /lol/

Once he's taken a couple of seconds to reach the obvious conclusion, I can
remind him gently that it's my responsibility to look after me and the guide
dog, while listening to what my guide dog is telling me, in addition to
starting off by making sure she's clean, groomed, flea-free, properly
trained, etc., etc.  This keeps me plenty busy, I assure him.  I do not have
time for other people's feelings.  They can feel and thing whatever they
want, for all of me, just so long as they don't mess with my dog or with me.

He gets that, but he still kinda grumbles awhile.  Silly man!  Now to train
him to let the dog show me the stairs and curbs, or to let me find them with
my cane or to feel them as we do sighted guide...  One of these days I'm
going to fall on my nose because he interrupted my rhythm.  Or he will fall
on his nose watching to make sure I don't.  /lol/

So I guess the real problem I have is that it's not the dog who loses her
training when we're not working enough.  It's the humans!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 5:23 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Do you ever get angry with your dogs
andhowtocontroleit?

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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