[nagdu] Introduction and Questions

[Tami Kinney]

Sheila,

To owner-train, you do not need sighted help. There are certain key 
training areas where that would be nice, but getting sighted help is 
difficult, at best. It can easily turn out to be quite unhelpful, 
despite the best of intentions of the "helper." Yikes!

So, when you decide to owner-train, you can simply assume you are on 
your own, all the way. If that turns out to be not the case, so much the 
better. /smile/ You are also on your own financially. You are on your 
own in selecting the dog, although you may find people who can give you 
information to help with your choice. But the choice of dog is yours. 
You will be living with it, training it, paying its bills, feeding it, 
cleaning up after it, buying gear for it... Just you.

Also, you can expect that every decision you make, large or small, will 
be second guessed, probably by more than one person. Most of whose 
opinion you will not have asked. They will tell you, though, and the way 
in which they tell you will not be positive. Yet you have to keep your 
own confidence in what you are doing, knowing that you may or may not 
succeed because the dog you have chosen that you are putting all of this 
time, effort, love, energy, learning, money into may just not have what 
it takes after all. You won't know until you know. /smile/

If you make a misjudgment, you will end up under a bus. You must keep 
that firmly in mind at all times. Also, your young and stupid dog, with 
all its promise, could end up under the bus with you. That would be 
worse than you ending up under the bus. But that is what you are facing 
if you screw it up.

Sound fun yet? /lol/

Training the dog will require a lot of patience, true, but... You will 
be much too exhausted all of the time to work up anything like 
impatience, so you're safe there. /lol/

If you don't think the enjoyment of it all is worth it, though... Well, 
It's a great thing that there are professionals all over who train for 
organizations dedicated to providing guide dogs for blind people with 
more sense than the do-it-yourself types like me. /grin/

Oh, you bet I want to do it again! Well, unless Mitzi remembers to obey 
my permanent "stay young and live forever" command. /grin/

Tami

On 01/30/2012 04:55 PM, Sheila Leigland wrote:
> Robert i know that self training is not for me. I don't have the personality or patience for that. I've wondered about some of the same things that you have. I don't know how much sighted help you need to self train. I think is is an interesting topic.
>
> sheila leigland
>
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