[nagdu] close call

[Rebecca Ilniski]

Back in 2010 I had a dog that was aggressive as he would lunge and growl 
at other dogs.  I worked for 3 years from 07 to 2010 trying to work with 
him as he did well in all other situations.  I knew that I could never 
go to a convention or somewhere where I knew there would be a lot of 
dogs around.  I worked with a trainer that had worked for a long time at 
the school.  There were three things that went on.  In 08 I was pulled 
down when I attempted to relieve my dog as he went after a guy who had 2 
dogs across the street.   I sprained my ankle.  In 09 I went to New York 
to visit a friend.  While I was drinking a soda and sitting on a bench, 
my dog took off growling at a lady who had a small dog.  Yes I was 
sitting on my dog's leash but since he pulled hard he got away and 
almost ran in to the road.  I called the school and wanted to have him 
go back for some extensive training.  When I spoke to the trainer I was 
working with, he stated that I needed to find a different way of holding 
him and yada yada yada.  I told him if I had another episode that the 
dog was going to be retired immediately and no uncertain terms was I 
going to continue working this dog.  The final straw came on August 13, 
2010 on my way to Williamsport to visit my parents.  I had gotten off of 
the bus to relieve my dog and transfer buses.  As I stood there, someone 
with a dog came up and I was immediately pulled down.  No growling from 
either dog took place.  The driver was shocked and told the guy to take 
his dog out of the area as I was being drug in the parking lot among 
buses.  I never let go of the leash and am lucky I only sustained some 
scrapes.  The driver was shocked as he didn't think service dogs were 
supposed to behave this way.  I stated that he was a dog and dogs will 
be dogs and said they are generally not supposed to do these types of 
things.  That afternoon I called the school and spoke to the head of 
training and he was retired.  I placed him in a nice home and still hear 
stories about him sometimes.  I to this day have no idea how he made it 
through training.  That's my experience of guide dogs that are 
aggressive.  I think he wanted to play as he never bit a dog but when I 
heard him growl it sure didn't sound like it.

-- 
Rebecca and Zeb
email: rilniski at gmail.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/rebeccai5
Zeb's facebook: www.facebook.com/zeb.ilniski