[nagdu] close call

Star Gazer pickrellrebecca at gmail.com
Mon Jul 29 14:27:47 UTC 2013


Rebecca, 
This is very well written. It explains the creep from "I can manage this" to
"no, this is not what I should be doing". 
I'm sorry this happened. 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rebecca Ilniski
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 6:20 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] close call

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


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