[nagdu] Guide dog schools

[lizzy]

Hi Tracy and all,
I was at The Seeing Eye this passed summer and I have to admit I 
did see a few instructors do some scolding and barking.  I'm not 
saying that it was unwarranted, but it did happen.  Some of the 
new handlers were shall we say, rebels, and wanted to question 
everything that the instructors told them to do while breaking 
rules that they did not find important.  Fortunately, I was not 
one of these handlers so did not receive a reprimand which is 
good because I don't respond very well to those.
Another thing that I noticed is that certain trainers like for 
you to do things without variation, my trainer was awesome in 
that she had an open mind her philosophy seemed to be that as 
long as I wasn't damaging the dog or its training slight 
variations were fine.  An example of this was how to wrap the 
leash around my leg while sitting, (it really doesn't matter how 
handlers choose to do this but I had instructors try to tell me 
to do it their way which just wasn't comfortable for me).  I 
could see GEB trainers telling you how they wrap the leash but 
ultimately leaving the decision up to you (because it won't 
effect your dog or its work either way).
In the end, I got a fantastic dog from TSE and learned a lot 
while there, so of course I'm grateful.  But, I have to say that 
although they've come a long way from how they once were, TSE is 
not the relaxed family environment that GEB is and that's totally 
fine.  It gives people the ability to choose the one that they 
like the most.
Lizzy