[nagdu] Treatment of People with Guide Dogs

[I. C. Bray]

Tommy,

What an amazing descriptive, discourse on social experimentation!!!
I honestly found myself smiling & laughing out loud!

I am relatively new to cane travel, but I took to it like a ducck to water. 
I had an overwhelming traffic anxiety when I lost my vision, and my mobility 
instructor ( who is f'n amazing!! ) helped me not only get over that, but 
has me correcting vehicles who happen to find themselves in MY crosswalk 
with my cane.  He's pretty ruthless when it comes to "Whack A M-Bile".  LOL!

I -still- have to resist walking with crowds and listening to the "Hey, it's 
safe to cross now" comments from people downtown where I live.
I mean, I didn't spend 5+ months in daily training for nothing, or did I???
Regardless... I do not have a dog yet, but have been accepted to what I 
think is a wonderful school, and will be going in March for my furry, 
four-footed, pair of eyes!
I joined the list to listen & experience from you all what I'm signing up 
for.  I'm soo excited... and I've kept my cane skills up because I know 
there will be problems... and I can't wait for them, honestly.
I have met some amazing dogs lately... and handlers too, but a few dogs in 
particular have me nervous that I'm going to be let down by mine.
One in particular is a ginormous yellow lab who is so faithful to his 
handler...  I know my pup won't be him, but he certainly will be learning 
from him.
There are other spoiled, misbehaving dogs in my building, and I'm wary about 
encountering them, but that goes with the territory I guess.

I am probably going to be a total harness natzi with  my pup... but I also 
know it's for the best.  I've alway had dogs as pets... and haven't had one 
for many year because I couldn't take them with me everywhere... now that I 
am blind, and need one... I think the whole dynamic will be completely new, 
amazing, and wonderful for us both.

Ian


----- 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, September 13, 2013 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Treatment of People with Guide Dogs


: Nicole,
:
: Interesting observations. Human interactions are very different for me
: with the dog than with the cane... I was still getting used to different
: interactions from the presence of the cane when I started going around
: with dog, so I feel like I've been in a crazy sociology experiment. /lol/
:
: With the dog, people will call her and give her directions, but I have
: trained her to ignore them (mostly). With the cane, people give me
: directions that are often silly and may be more likely to try to take my
: arm or something when I don't want them to. The dog has learned to help
: me out when the directions involve the phrase "over there." Whichever
: tool I am using, people still seem to think they need to tell me about
: every curb and step. People are more likely to talk to me at random when
: I'm using the guide dog, but they will often talk to or about the dog.
: I've kind of learned some techniques to then guide conversation into
: non-dog topics and get the focus away from her if I want to. If I'm lazy
: and not that interested in connecting, then a nice chat about the dog is
: fine. /smile/
:
: It used to bug me that people seemed horrified that the dog might make a
: mistake because that would be awful somehow. Then I noticed that people
: are terrified I will make a mistake with the cane because that will be
: awful somehow. The annoying thing when I'm using the cane is when there
: are people around who are terrified the cane might touch something,
: especially if they are the type to insist that I watch where I'm going
: and where I'm swinging that thing! This doesn't happen often, but
: sometimes there will be gasps of terror or shock when my cane taps a
: pole or something. OMG! I ran into it! /lol/ I guess there have been a
: few times when I've missed a bit stepping up a curb with my dog and
: heard the gasps. But in general, with the dog, I do not appear to be
: running into things by tapping them with her.
:
: Hm... Standing at street corners with the dog often means discussing how
: she knows how to cross the street since dogs are color blind or
: something like that. I'm trying to remember if I've ever stood at a
: street corner trying to explain how I cross with the cane. Seems I have
: at one time or another. Maybe it's that Portland friendliness? If you
: don't say something weird to someone standing at the same corner, you're
: just not with it in Portland! Refreshingly, people seem as likely to say
: something outlandish and controversial about politics, religion or even
: the weather as they are about the dog or the cane. /lol/
:
: Tami
:
: On 09/12/2013 05:42 PM, Nicole Torcolini wrote:
: > Some of the recent threads have made me think of something kind of
: > interesting. No, you don't interact with someone who has a guide dog the
: > same way that you interact with someone who has a cane, but, if people 
would
: > treat us more like we were using canes instead of dogs, we would not 
have as
: > many problems. For example, some people have problems with people trying 
to
: > give their dog directions. When someone has a cane instead of a dog, 
this
: > problem does not happen. The same goes for interacting with the dog. You
: > don't hear about people messing with canes as often as you hear about 
people
: > messing with dogs. What do people think of this?
: >
: > Nicole
: > _______________________________________________
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: >
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