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

[Lisa Irving]

If I'm in a snippy mood, I ask is the politest voice, oh, you're a guide dog 
trainer?

Lisa and Bernie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Do you ever get angry with your dogs 
andhowtocontroleit?


> 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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