[nagdu] those comments from the public

Tami Jarvis via nagdu nagdu at nfbnet.org
Fri May 16 20:37:28 UTC 2014


Craig,

I always think of that Pink Panther "does your dog bite" routine, too! 
And it always makes me giggle, so I can never get the satisfaction of 
popping off a snappy answer. Sigh. Then again, the one time I managed to 
be serious and tell someone on the sidewalk all about it, someone else 
came up and asked, so I explained it seriously, then someone else came 
up and asked and... Then there was a small crowd, and they were 
explaining it to each other for me, and I was thinking that dog-friendly 
Portland is too weird a place to go about with a dog trying to be 
seriuos about it. Then a small, timid voice at the edge of the crowd 
said, "Is that a pit bull?" and I nearly fell on the ground laughing 
while folks explained it all to her. Probably a good thing I was 
laughing too hard to answer because all I could think of to say was, 
"Yes! The pointy-nosed, curly-coated kind, and they're *really* 
dangerous!" /lol/

Training her and working her at first so near to GDB's Boring facility, 
I got plenty of commentary from people who knew all about guide dogs 
because they had seen a puppy with a raiser or knew someone who knew 
someone who knew a puppy raiser or... When the mythology of guide dogs 
gets conglomerated with the mythology of guide dog puppies and it's all 
known for true fact, the things people say can be pretty funny. Or 
pretty annoying when they're pushy about it because they know so much. /lol/

Tami

On 05/16/2014 10:55 AM, Craig Heaps via nagdu wrote:
> Sherry:
>
> That's a funny story.  I haven't had Chase quite a year yet, but I
> realize how ignorant I was about guide dogs before I began looking into
> getting one and went through the training.  (Not to mention the real
> life experience of having a guide dog.)
>
> People often ask if I'm training Chase.  I think it's because I have a
> little bit of useable vision and wear glasses (massively thick though
> they may be).  I tried to come up with some clever response.  But I have
> found it was just quicker and easier to say,  "No, I'm legally blind and
> he's my guide."  I usually try to smile and say something like, "he does
> a great job of keeping me safe."
>
> Maybe it's because I'm still kind of new at this, but I enjoy the
> conversations, even the ones that seem a little dumb.  Occasionally I
> get the weird question.  A rough looking guy on BART one day asked,
> "Does he bite?".  For a moment I thbought of Peter Sellers in the Pink
> Panther.  I said, "He's trained to do what I tell him to do." and left
> it at that.
>
> I have also concluded there must be a gazillion puppy raisers out there.
> About five times a week (small exaggeration) someone says, "My sisters
> used to raise guide dog puppies" or "I used to raise guide dog puppies
> for 4-H" or "We had a career change dog.  It was the best dog we ever had."
>
> Craig and Chase (who is still training me)
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sherry Gomes via nagdu"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 10:35 AM
> Subject: [nagdu] those comments from the public
>
>
>> On the subject of the public and their comments, good or bad. I had the
>> strangest conversation once, strangest I ever had. I was out shopping
>> with a
>> friend who was a GDB puppy raiser. at the time, I was quite involved
>> with a
>> local puppy raising club, and she and I had decided to do some
>> shopping at a
>> local mall. I was with my then guide Bianca. Bianca was doing her job
>> beautifully, when suddenly this woman I was with stuck her arm out in
>> front
>> of me, like you do with kids in a car when you come to an abrupt stop.
>>
>> "stop, there's a planter in front of you," she cried.
>>
>> I looked at her in bewilderment. GDB puppy raisers have lots of
>> opportunities to interact with handlers if they both want to, and
>> having me
>> and my best friend around the club a lot had given all of them reasons to
>> see guides in action. So, I just answered that she needed to let
>> Bianca do
>> her job, and that Bianca would lead me around the planter. which of
>> course
>> she did. So, this woman then said,
>>
>> "You mean, you actually trust her to do that?"
>>
>> :Of course I do."
>>
>> "You even go out on the street and cross streets, even busy streets on
>> your
>> own? Just you and your dog?"
>>
>> "Of course I do," I said again, "Why else do you think I have the dog?
>> What
>> do you think she does?"
>>
>> She didn't really have an answer for that. I guess she just thought
>> Bianca
>> acted as a pet or emotional support animal or something, in spite of
>> having
>> seen her in action several times before. It sure was weird.
>>
>> Sherry
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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