[nagdu] Suggestions needed!

[Larry D. Keeler]

Tami, I think the formost issue with me is does the dog behave when asked 
and does the handler know how to handle the dog! Grooming and general health 
is also important because iether the dog may be bringing its own pets with 
it or sometimes, Not always, it can reflect badly on the handler. A handler 
may be slipping in maintaining the dogs appearance due to lack of money, 
time or just lack of interest. I know that many folks will disaggree with me 
but I also think that an ID, tradmark harness or for owner trained teams 
some kind of state issued sticker be obtained so that a service dog can be 
distinguished from any other dog. A perfect example is my dughters friend. 
She has a jack Russell terrier named Trouble! She is a owner trained hearing 
dog. The dog is cute and well behaved but, I can forsee many folks confusing 
her with a pet. For me, I wonder wher the line between being private about 
why you need a dog and what that dog does for you conflicts with the general 
publics seeming need to declare there dogs as service dogs! At some point, 
there has to be a clear line instead of the big grey void folks seem to have 
now. I met a woman at the train station last year on the way to convention. 
William and I were taking the train and I sure hope she wasn't! At least she 
wasn't in our car! Anyway, she had a little terier, and the thing barked, 
growled and tried to come at our dogs! She had to walk down the tracks quite 
away down the tracks and her dog was still going off! Interestingly, she 
claimed it was for PTSD. That thing would have caused it instead of 
relieving it! I really didn't know how to handle the situation other than 
william and I controlling our dogs while hers cut loose! I mean, who or how 
do you report a situation where the dog is clearly in dubious territory 
iether because of its or the handlers lack of controlling behavior? At least 
with guide dogs you can call a school or talk to a friend and check to see 
if the behavior is normal for a service dog! And, I can tell good owner 
trainers because they keep there dogs under control. I wonder what or how 
penalties can be assessed to folks who are not being truthful about the 
service or lack of services that the dog performs. As long as there is no 
requirment that can't be faked or we are not required to have some proof 
that the dog does the service. we'll always have folks sneaking nonservice 
animals under the wire!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tami Jarvis" <tami at poodlemutt.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 10:39 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Suggestions needed!


> Okay, following up on Ken's suggestion, I opened my mouth and now have a 
> writing project. I blame Ken! /grin/
>
> Seriously, I do think it might be nice to have some semi-formalized 
> collection of those rules of etiquette that most of us here just take for 
> granted and that we work so diligently to follow. The "responsibilities" 
> part of our rights and responsibilities. Most of those I have learned from 
> a lot of you, whether it's what you learned from your schools or the 
> experience of years of real world guide dog use. So this seemed a good 
> place to ask again! /smile/
>
> What do we -- with "we" being responsible, considerate service dog 
> users -- consider important when we take our dogs into public? What is 
> good etiquette in our dogs? What is good etiquette for us humans?
>
> I'm thinking of a couple of categories for the dogs:
>
> 1) Grooming and health
> 2) public behavior
>
> For the humans... I haven't figured out neat categories for that yet. I'm 
> thinking of good dog management -- keep the dog out of the aisle, stuff 
> like that. Maybe a bit about how to manage lines and so forth.
>
> I think I'll include a "what to do when..." As we have seen from the 
> convention debriefing... Not everybody knows that it's bad form to walk 
> off and leave the smelling mess for someone to step in. Ugh! And what 
> about those times your perfectly well trained dog goes klepto in the 
> supermarket? I say pay for it; others say, "oh, well." I've only had to 
> buy an unintended stuffed animal, if anyone is wondering. /lol/
>
> I have a few items I might address for interactions with other service dog 
> users... Hm...
>
> Anyway, if anyone has suggestions they would like to see included, you can 
> write me off list at tami at poodlemutt.com. It might also be fun to discuss 
> some of these things on the list. I'm thinking of the recent discussion 
> about riding in cabs. We all have different ways of doing the same thing 
> and smoothing over the rough spots we encounter in a crowded busy world.
>
> Tami
>
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