[nagdu] Agility

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Bryan.
I don't see any problems being created by his guide learning agility.
People who do it say it increases their dog's self-confidence, and brings
dog and handler into a closer partnership.  It would also give his young dog
a way to burn off excess energy.  If his dog started guiding him into
tunnels and up ladders, well, he knows how to correct and say "not now".
Though I think that's pretty unlikely.
I know a person who does field dog work with her guide, retrieving birds,
basically, and it hasn't harmed her dog's work at all.  It gives him a
chance to express his golden-ness.

Julie, thanks.  I'll pass it on.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Gearry via
nagdu
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 8:50 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Bryan Gearry; Tracy Carcione
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Agility

Good Morning Tracy, I just read your post and the first thing that came to
mind was sensory or work overload. I am a first time Guide dog handler and I
find it takes all my concentration to make sure my Guide is working for the
safety issues. I would think that agility training might be counter
productive for the Guide training. I have my Guide for
5 years and I learn every day, but I have to pay attention all the time. 
I'm no authority, it just seems that our Guides have one job and that is for
our safety and navigation. It seems like agility training which would
probably be a lot of fun for the dog is also like multi-tasking....possibly.
Hopefully some of the experienced and long time handlers will chime in on
this and give you a better answer to your question. I think it might be like
using a retriever as a Guide and then go out bird hunting with them. They
might not understand the difference....I'm just saying. I will be watching
for the responses as it is a very good question.


On 7/17/2015 4:32 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
> My brother wants to know if anyone has done agility training with 
> their dog, and how a blind person does it?  He has a puppy he wants to 
> do it with, and he's also thinking of doing it with his young guide.
>
> If you want to reply offlist, my email is carcione at access.net.
>
> Tracy
>
>   
>
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