[nagdu] How long is "successful"

[Julie J.]

Larry,

I'm with you.  Stopping at every little slight bump drives me nutty.  I'd 
never get anywhere because of all the stopping we'd be doing.  Monty will 
curve into the driveway and then back to the sidewalk if the walking path is 
not level.  By curving he avoids having to stop.  He prefers to keep moving 
and I wholeheartedly agree.  I've been criticized by others for letting him 
work driveways in this way.  It has never caused me a problem and thinking 
about it, I can't imagine how it could cause an issue.  Of course if there 
is a car backing out of the driveway that is an entirely different issue and 
Monty will work it accordingly.

About success...I tend to agree with Tracy that 2 to 3 years would be a 
number to start with.  Certainly there are lots of variables, but don't we 
all have our own list of what is success?  I mean we all seem to figure out 
when it isn't working and we need to move on.  So if we can recognize 
unsuccessful, why is success so difficult to define? I agree with Rebecca 
that there is a way to measure success, even given the differences in 
interpretation.  Isn't accounting for those differences what the matching 
process is all about?  If I go to guide dog school and say to them that I 
want a big crazy dog with excellent house manners, high initiative and who 
doesn't solicit attention for others and I get that sort of dog, well that 
is going to go a long, long way toward our success.  But if I get a pokey 
dog who needs a cheerleader, I'm not going to feel that's a success, even 
from day 1.

There are a lot of variables to success, but there are a lot of variables in 
other areas of our lives, why we buy what we do, why we marry certain 
people, why women who dress up get promoted more often,  why people use 
drugs, or a million other things.  It's just that there has been a boat load 
more research done in these other areas.

Julie