[nagdu] petting and interaction.

Marsha Drenth marsha.drenth at gmail.com
Sun Feb 10 02:37:36 UTC 2013


Daniel, 

My answer is going to be my opinion only, so others might have a different way of doing things. Once at home, once out of harness, my pup is a dog. She does dog like things, has dog like behavior. If I am at home, and I have friends around, if I am asking the pup to do something, like sit, or stay, then that is what I expect. Just as if there were no friends around. But if I am allowing the dog to play with friends or whomever then great. I guess what I am saying, as long as you can expect your dog to behave, with friends around or without friends, then that is what matters. I would also say that when it comes to your dog, you have authority, not your friends, not your family. 

I will give you an example of this. i lived in Baltimore for a short time, had an apartment. One long weekend I had a group of friends over to stay. One of the persons who I thought was my friend, thought that letting my shepard up on the couch was okay. So that person encouraged it. I was fairly new in my working relationship with this pup, I would say under a year at this point. But from this point on, I had to fight to keep her, the pup off couches at home, or any home we went too. it was because I allowed this person to be my dogs master, abnd she ran with it. I know its not going to be this way with every dog. But as much as good meaning friends can be, its not always the right thing for you and your dog, and create habits that you will then live with forever. 

In a long way about it, Yes your dog can be a dog. Hope that helps, 

Marsha drenth  
Sent with my IPhone 
http://adventureswith2feet4paws.blogspot.com 

On Feb 9, 2013, at 9:17 PM, "daniel" <gutz2020 at gmail.com> wrote:

> hey guys, a recent conversation on petting brought this question to my mind.
> As a person who is about to get a guide dog I'm worried about not being able to ever leave my dog alone. I've read posts about how you have to limit the interaction with other people for the first month or so, so the dog will get attached to you and learn to follow your commands. But what about after that? Can I ever leave him/her alone? Like for example If I'm in informal settings with my friends and I want to step out for a second to do something, do I need to worry about telling people not to pet him/her at all (even if there out of harnis)?
> I think what I'm really really trying to say is, (and I don't know how to articulate this any more elegantly) can my guide be a real dog? like, do I have to worry about her playing with other people too much?
> Thanks for (hopefully) clearing this up a bit!
> 
> Dan 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/marsha.drenth%40gmail.com




More information about the NAGDU mailing list