[nagdu] Sad news

[Debby Phillips]

Hello everyone.  I'm feeling hesitant to share this with you all, 
and actually thought about not sharing for awhile.  But things 
are going faster than I want now, and it seems that ow might as 
well just get this shared.

For some time now, Neena and I have been having trouble with dog 
distractions.  And some other things, too.  I was also finding 
myself feeling more and more uncomfortable working with her.  But 
I wanted to give it the six months to a year thing.  Anyway, a 
few days ago I got a call from an instructor at Seeing Eye.  He 
said that he was going to be in my area, and did I have any 
issues? I said, well, she's pretty dog distracted.  We agreed on 
a time to work together.  We went out on Monday afternoon, and 
there were two German Shepherds behind their fence, barking like 
crazy.  Neena went right toward them.  I corrected.  Nothing.  
The dogs began trying to climb over the fence.  So we went on to 
walk past that house and around my neighborhood.  Neena did this 
thing that she sometimes does where she walks totally in front of 
me.  So we were going to get an offset handle, thinking that 
might solve that problem.  We walked in some areas where there is 
quite a bit of traffic, and it's close to the sidewalk.  Neena 
has been startling when cars come up behind her.

So we went out yesterday again, and many of the same reactions.  
The instructor said that she looked like she was overwhelmed by 
all the traffic.  I would not have picked up on that.  The other 
stuff I knew about, but I really just kept thinking that if I 
worked with her long enough she'd outgrow some of this stuff.  
But in the end, she is not a safe dog, and will be going back to 
the school tomorrow.  I am kind of numb, then I'm sad, then I'm 
relieved.  I have put in another application, because it's easier 
to stop one in process than it is to decide down the road that 
hey, I'm ready and then have to wait a bunch of months.  I have a 
funky folding cane, which is very heavy so I ordered a cane 
today.  I don't know when I'll get it.  The folding one is very 
short, so I'll use it until the new one comes.  People keep 
asking me if I want to talk about it.  Right now, I just feel 
like what's there to say?    Peace,    Debby