[nagdu] Owner training

[Tami Kinney]

Katrin,

This is all too true, and quite daunting. Next time, I really do want to 
start with a young puppy -- 8 to 12 weeks -- for a number of reasons. 
Then I remember the eggs to basket ratio there, in light of the 
statistical odds of success and realize that this is a risky 
proposition, indeed.

Then there is serendipity and luck... Which is how I ended up with 
Mitzi, who is all of the above. She is a very mellow poodle, although 
she is still a poodle, so that is all relative. To me, the positives of 
some of the extra poodle challenges outweigh the negatives... And those 
negatives have been not all that difficult to mitigate and redirect 
toward the positive aspects of her essential poodleness... So she is 
very high-alert, and will have a startled reflex toward surprises, but 
it is small and she just goes right back to work. I understand it is a 
poodle trait that others have learned to deal with. The positive is that 
she can go around being aware of *everything* without running me into 
anything... If there's a squirrel, she might appear to be focused on it, 
prancing in harness, etc., etc., Meanwhile, I just walk along with her, 
smiling benignly, without a care in the world. Because I know she will 
be taking me around overheads and other obstacles, stopping at curbs, 
you name it, without eve seeming to be aware of them. Obviously, she 
is... I get the impression she is most comfortable planning a route well 
ahead of where we are actually walking. At first, I thought I was just 
being silly thinking that, but... I have seen her do some very undoglike 
advance planning and cannot deny that this consistently appears to be 
the case when she is working. Go figure. /smile/

The really interesting thing is DD's puppy Zay... Who came to us through 
sheer luck and serendipity... She is structurally sound, healthy... A 
mixed breed of unknown etiology, really, so that makes prediction of 
some things a bit unpredictable. But so far, she is growing well and 
nicely. She passes every temperament test in the book and then some! If 
I were out looking for the perfect guide dog prospect, I could not ask 
for better! She's just hitting the 16 week mark, so much remains to be 
seen. But I do find it fascinating that we just casually ended up with 
such a winner without trying... Also, I can play at the advanced 
training for fun because she is his dog, and Mitzi will only be 7.5 when 
Zay is 2... So I have fun with puppy training and learning Zay's ways 
and motivations and watching her understanding grow... Without having to 
worry about how it's all going to turn out, since all she needs to be is 
a nice dog for her dad and us curly girls. /smile/

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sorry you had to go through all 
that and am glad you have a good partner to travel with.

Tami

On 01/21/2012 04:03 AM, Katrin Andberg wrote:
> Hi Tracy
>
>
>
> I think that probably a dog who was "healthy, intelligent, sensible, and
> willing to work" would probably make it as a guide.  The crux is that there
> are many, many, many, many dogs who are not healthy, intelligent, sensible
> and willing to work.  The dogs I had to wash out one ended up with
> idiopathic epilepsy at age 6m, which shocked his breeder and I as we thought
> we knew his lines inside and out.  Another I had to wash out because she
> ended up with an aggression problem.  I had also evaluated and decided
> against other dogs due to temperament or structural issues that would have
> made them unsuitable.
>
> To make it as a guide dog the dog to start must be healthy, this means
> structurally sound and medically cleared.  So no hip or elbow dysplasia,
> eyes must past exam, knees must be sound, etc.  Lack of medical or
> structural soundness washes out a large chunk of program bred dogs who don't
> make it as guides.  After medically cleared then we get to temperamental
> soundness.  Dog can't be noise sensitive, or sensitive about surfaces.  He's
> got to be confident in changing and often times novel and stressful
> environments.  He has to have a good degree of intelligence and as you said,
> sensibility, and the dog has to be biddable, willing to work with a person
> and want to do right.  He can have no trace of aggressive behavior in
> stressful or unpleasant situations, he can't be spooky or nervous, he has to
> be mentally sound.
>
> Those criteria when one looks at the average dog, are pretty stringent.
> Most average dogs wouldn't meet the criteria.  Even lesser of dogs in
> shelters would meet those criteria as the most common dog found in a shelter
> is the one who has behaviors that a previous owner found intolerable.  They
> have behavior or lack of socialization issues that would immediately wash
> them out as a guide dog candidate.  So if one is looking for a dog with
> guide dog material one really is looking for that top 1% of dogs, as one
> needs a dog with sound structure, health, temperament and trainability all
> rolled into one.  That dog can often times be a challenge to find.
>
> Katrin
>
>
>
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