[nagdu] Treatment of People with Guide Dogs

[I. C. Bray]

There is only ONE person alive currently who is allowed to grab, snatch, or 
otherwise get interactive with my cane while it is in my hand.  That 
particular person is my O&M Instructor, and even he knows how much I hate 
it!!

Kent gets a pass -- ev'body else gets thwacked!


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicole Torcolini" <ntorcolini at wavecable.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 1:53 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Treatment of People with Guide Dogs


: Luckily, I haven't had too many people try to give Lexia directions. But,
: yes, I know the whole thing about people somehow thinking that our canes 
or
: dogs can't do the job, so they have to tell us everything. There are 
certain
: people who do this to me whenever they are around. One of the people did 
it
: once when I was using my cane instead of Lexia, so I walked faster to get
: ahead of that person. However, I forgot that, for me, cane speed is not 
dog
: speed, and I ended up whacking my hip on a railing that was sticking out
: into the sidewalk that Lexia would have usually taken me around.
:
: -----Original Message-----
: From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tami Jarvis
: Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 7:25 AM
: To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
: 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
: > _______________________________________________
: > nagdu mailing list
: > nagdu at nfbnet.org
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: > om
: >
:
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