[nagdu] Barking - revisited?

[Daryl Marie]

Hey, Nicole,

Thanks for this.  I think part of my hesitance and wishing for her to stop the behavior is because at the beginning of our partnership she used to bark for no reason, and I don't want her getting into the habit again.  But now that you mention it, she only ever barks at someone at a bus stop when we are by ourselves and a transient approaches.  I am not sure if they are giving her prolonged eye contact, but that has been my understanding from a couple of instances where the person she barks at makes a comment like, "Oh, I figured she would know me" or somethign like that.

It's just hard when I am alone and don't have all the information to be able to notice complete patterns in this.  As for the mall instance, I don't blame her one bit!

Daryl
----- Original Message -----
From: Nicole Torcolini <ntorcolini at wavecable.com>
To: 'Daryl Marie' <crazymusician at shaw.ca>, 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users' <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 11:38:40 -0700 (MST)
Subject: RE: [nagdu] Barking - revisited?

Usually, I would say that barking is a bad thing and should not be allowed.
Lexia was not a barker. However, I think that this is very different. I do
not know if Jenny is doing it primarily for herself or for both of you, but
I would not try to stop the behavior. I would not even tell her to stop the
first time as allowing her to bark may prevent the people from petting or
talking to her. If she is uncomfortable, then she needs a way to show/tell
it. It sounds as though she sometimes to do something else before barking,
such as moving away, but some people are not taking the hint. As already
said, our dogs are trained to not be aggressive, but every dog has him/her
limits, and, pushed to far, might lunge or bite, especially if the dog felt
threatened. You could try to move her away from the people, but I would also
continue to pay attention to the people as well as they sound like the kind
of people that I would not want around me. If certain people continue to
bother you, and you think that things are getting out of hand, you might
consider getting the police involved. Are there other people at the bus
stop? If so, try to stand near them as people who are alone are more of
targets than people in a group.

Nicole

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Daryl Marie via
nagdu
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2014 6:48 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Barking - revisited?

Hi, guys!
I just wanted to discuss barking in harness... again.  This does not often
happen, but it happens enough that I think I need more than a "Quiet"
command.  Let me start off by saying that the barking is not constant, but
it is 1-3 "Woof!"s.  based on what I can piece together from her body
language, Jenny is not overly friendly, but not overly hostile when she does
this...

Occasionally, Jenny will bark in harness.  This almost always happens when
we are waiting for a bus.  it seems to be only if someone is making
prolonged eye contact with her (just a guess on my part), and this seems to
be primarily done by members of the homeless population in this particular
neighborhood.  She will bark once or twice, I say "No" or "Quiet", she
quiets down, but then the person will try and talk to her or pet her, which
causes her to either bark again or move away if she can.  It is usually a
quick exchange, but I can't seem to find any further patterns than what I
have described, except this tends to happen more after work...

but last night I was having supper with a friend in a mall food court, when
someone who was definitely under the influence of alcohol - perhaps
something else as well? - approached our table.  Jenny is not normally
affected by intoxicated people, but he bent down to her level.  The minute
he touched her, she tried to back away, and let out a bark when she couldn't
move any further away.  I told him to not pet the dog, Jenny quieted down,
but then he started talking to her, which got her barking again.

I am not sure what to do here... would love any suggestions.

Daryl

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