[nagdu] Changing my Petting Policy

[Courtney Vuoncino]

Hi, everyone!

I will apologize now for the length of my post, but after reading what
everyone else was writing, I couldn't resist participating in the
conversation.

As quite a few people have already said, the whole petting policy is
dependent on many things-the situation, the guide dog owner's preference,
the personality of the dog. The dog's age and amount of time he/she has been
with a handler can be factors as well. With both my dogs, I didn't allow
anyone to pet them while in harness for the first year I had them. This way,
the distinction of "work time" and "play/meet and greet time" were firmly in
place.

My first dog, Xavior, was very professional-he walked around with his head
held high, knowing what a gorgeous Golden he was, but he didn't try to get
attention with his harness on. If he saw someone we know, his tail would wag
like crazy and, if I told him to "find"  that person, he would take me right
to them. If people tried to sneak pet him, he would back away or move closer
to me-that was how I knew. 

With my current dog, Amelia, it's a whole different ball game. She is a
Lab/Golden cross, super, super, super friendly and much more vocal (she will
whine if she sees someone we know and the tail will still go crazy). I have
to tell her to ignore the person if I don't want her to take me to them.
Believe me, she gets lots of love and attention from me on and off harness,
but she feels that, how did someone else put it, people are in existence to
admire and love her. LOL For this reason, I had to find a balance, which
included being a bit more strict with her until I had her for a few years.

Generally, my policy is that children under 4  are allowed to pet her
because it is a bit difficult to explain the "no petting with harness on"
rules to kids so young, especially if I don't know them and am not sure how
mature their understanding of the explanation would be. If I am waiting for
a ride or sitting down somewhere and someone asks to pet her, I  assess how
excitable she might get if I say "yes" to them. Making her remain
seated/lying down if someone else pets her is a great tactic and stopping
the petting session if she gets up/starts to get too excited is a must. I,
too, allow blind individuals to "see" what she looks like in the typical
blind person way (by touch); it's only fair, really. :)

As part of my job, I educate members of the community about individuals with
disabilities and having a guide dog (a very obvious indicator of a
disability) causes this educator role to continue in my personal life as
well. Education is key and who better to do it than someone with a
disability and a service animal to boot? Granted, if I'm in a rush, walking
or waiting to cross the street, I don't launch into long explanations, but
if I'm waiting somewhere or have a few minutes to spare, I will take
advantage of the time to explain the importance of the harness and the
training that goes along with it. I find that most people just don't know
because they have never actually met someone with a disability/guide dog,
though they may have seen one walking down the street or on a
bus/train/airplane. It is natural to be curious and asking questions to
learn is much better than assuming they know. While I completely understand
that not everyone has the time or patience to play the role of teacher, it
is crucial to be polite about saying "no" to others; first impressions are
everything and tend to last-would you want someone's first impression of a
blind person to be that of a nasty, bitter individual? I sure wouldn't.

Finally, I will just say that at the end of the community  presentations I
do for work, I take Amelia's harness off in order to show how amazing and
instantaneous she changes from calmly sitting by my side, to wagging her
tail and walking up to the first person she can get to for pets. The "oohs"
and "aahs" of the audience are quite rewarding and tell me that now, they
understand and will pass what they learned on to others. 

Thanks for reading my lengthy post! 

Courtney and Amelia Rose



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