[nagdu] Ismael not doing things right

[Terrie Terlau]

Hi Ramona,
I have had five dogs from the Seeing Eye and at times I had to be assertive
to get someone out when I needed them. Trust yourself in this. If I was
experiencing what you are, I would insist that I get someone out and insist
that I was not safe in traffic. I would take it up the line from the person
on the phone to their supervisor if need be. I would also call back again if
the first person I talked to did not seem to understand. I say this to offer
validation of your right to have help when you need it. It does not matter
whether you are new or have been out for a lot of years. If this stuff is
going on, then you need someone from the school to see it and help. You
might ask your O&M instructor to call Seeing Eye and back you up on your
need for help, telling them that she thinks the dog's current behavior is
not safe. Please don't blame yourself. Things happen for the oddest reasons;
you may never know why your dog started doing these things. What matters is
that you get the help you need. I had to get help twice in my early months
with my first dog many years ago, and we turned out to be a great team. But
we would not have if I had not insisted that I needed someone to come out. I
also know that it can be uncomfortable and hard to be assertive. But I
encourage you and your mobility instructor to talk with Seeing Eye and get
them to understand what you are going through so that they can help.
With warm regards,
Terrie Terlau 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ramona Davidson
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 4:04 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Ismael not doing things right

I am so stressed at this point i'm really not sure what to do.
ismaels guide work has been less than desirable as of late. last
saturday i took him to the vet for an ear infection which is all
cleared up now. we started having serious issues around that time, not
going all the way to kurbs, extreme vearing when crossing streets, and
just not listening to me. i chocked it up to the ear infection but
gave tse a call anyway, they told me that i should probably not walk
with my son for a wile to see if ismaels attention issue would clear
up, so i was pritty sure my son was the distraction. a few days ago
ismael started vearing extremely off course  i thought he was just
asuming I was wanting to go to places we had been before so i worried
about it but once again chocked it up to my son being with us.

today, I did some ONM on the college campus and my son stayed at home
with his daddy. I would have to say this has been the worss day yet.
wile crossing streets: I would feel him vearing and try to correct him
but he wouldn't listen. then we decided to do the street crossing
sighted guide and i did the sit, praze, good boy, tap my foot thing at
the kurbs  and it didn't work. we showed him exactly where we wanted
him to go and he still did not cross strate.
another issue, every time we would walk down the sidewalk and get up
to the intersection instead of taking me to the kurb he'd cut the
corner turn right and keep going down the street. i corrected him time
and time again, took him to the kurb, made him sit, tapped it with my
foot told him good boy, I must have done this about a million times,
he still would not go to the kurb.
we then did some clicker training to the pole thinking that if i could
at least get him to go to the pole  instead of going to the right than
i could at least get my self the rest of the way to the kurb, as long
as the treats were flowing and the clicker was out he went directly to
that pole every single time, as soon as the training was finished he
started zooming right past the pole again. i'm so frustrated.

I seriously want to bang my head against the wall right now. the onm
instructor says I seem to be doing everything right and she says i
need to get the seeing eye to come out but they keep  blowing it off
saying it's because we are still new, well i have tryed everything
they suggested and still no change.

is there anything i could be doing wrong??

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