[nagdu] Third party reporting by other guide dog users

[Tami Kinney]

Bibi,

What a hoot Odie is! Love the ears moving to answer. /smile/ Mitzi has 
her ways of letting me know what is what, but not code like that. 
/smile/ When she does tell me, I had better listen. Or else! /lol/ What 
is funny is watching how the puppy learns to communicate her wants and 
needs. She takes a lot from Mitzi, but she is definitely developing her 
own style. Not all of her attempts to show me what she wants or where 
she wants me to go have been appreciated, however. Ripping my sweats or 
nearly pulling my feet out from under me by grabbing my jeans -- or even 
trying the socks and pulling them off, then making me chase her for them 
-- weren't the approved method around here. Now that she is tall enough 
(!), she puts her short, wide snout into my palm and directs me when she 
wants me to go somewhere or find something or let her out. Interesting. 
Well, before that, she would grab my hand in her sharp puppy teeth... 
This stopped being cute in a hurry! /lol/ Mitzi has other ways of 
communicating the same things, so it's fun seeing our growing youngster 
develop her own style. /smile/

I'm so familiar now with Mitzi's ways of communicating back and forth 
for me, I don't think I could describe them if I tried. I just know what 
she's telling me... She's very good that way in harness, too, which is 
neat. But it's something that has grown up and evolved over the years, 
so I now just know. Couldn't describe it for the life of me. Fun.

The sighted people we pass seem to fret sometimes because of how zippy 
we can be. Sometimes I get the impression someone who is talking to me 
about my dog is just *looking* for somethin out of line. /lol/ I don't 
worry about it, though, and few come up with anything. Except the nosy 
neighbor stuff I've mentioned, where they report to DD... I guess 
they've given up because he doesn't give them the attention they're 
looking for. /grin/

Mostly, when people talk to me directly about whatever it is, I just 
answer and don't worry too much... I would be offended if they started 
going on about a supposed health problem, however. How rude! But we all 
know blind people can't take care of their dogs properly because we 
can't see... Ha! /lol/ Mostly, people worry at me about how my dog knows 
to cross the street with the light, since dogs are color blind... Stuff 
like that. If somebody did raise a concern that was realistic and had 
something to do with real guide dogs in the real world, the shock might 
do me in. /lol/ But it can turn into a fun way to talk to people while 
whiling away the time at a stop light... Then waiting for the next round 
because they were talking and I didn't hear when to cross... Oh, well. 
Folks is folks.

The malice and going to cause harm is troubling, but then again that's 
folks being folks, too. Sigh.

Tami



On 06/10/2012 03:40 PM, Criminal Justice Major wrote:
> Hi, Tami and all,
> It is sad and disgusting how people as a whole have to be so disrespectful towards each other and I see it not just only with those amongst the disabled community, but also in the sighted era as a whole.
> Although I do give suggestions to other guide/assistance dog handlers, I will tell them always to stick to what they've learned from their training school or even call the school directly.
> What annoys me the most are the people who just think they know it all and that they're at a higher level than others.
> One time when I was doing some shopping ath a super Wal-Mart on Hampden and Dayton on the border or Auror/Denver, Colorado, I was hanging on to the handle bar at the front of the cart heeling Odie and my assistant was pulling the cart, some lady came up to me, claiming that she was a vet tech and stated how something was wrong with Odie's back legs just because he was walking slow.
> My shopper assistant told me Odie seemed fine and he was walking slow because the two of us were moving slow.
> I phoned my vet and told them what happened.
> Boy! They were mad at the other individual, the so-called vet tech for making up false claims.
> The vet told me that if there was something gruely wrong, Odie would have already let me know.
> Although he can't verbally talk, he does use body language.
> When I want to know how Odie feels or what his answers are, I'm always feeling his head.
> He moves both of his ears for yes and one for no.
> I also like to feel his mouth opening when he smiles or yawns.
> Bibi
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