[NAGDU] Why I feel dog ownership is important

[Sharon S]

Hi all, I have been following this discussion with interest. The school I use do remain the owner of the dogs but I have never felt the need to see if this can be changed. My recent dog is the only one I have needed to worry about it for and that was only after I retired him. I received Rolo at an older age because he had a previous owner. The school told me his previous handler died and the family handed him back to the school. I have no reason not to believe this and he showed no signs of abuse when I got him. The only problem he had was some separation anxiety and that was understandable. He lost his owner, got taken to the local branch of the school, they had him for awhile before deciding they didn't have a suitable handler for him. Then he was sent to the head centre and put out to a carer until he was matched with me. He then came to me for one night to give us a test run. He then went back to the carer for a short time and then bought back to live with me. For the first little while if I left him in my room while I went to the bathroom he would cry. Over time this became less of a problem and now he is retired he doesn't worry about where I am. However, he does come and greet me when I come home  but he is happy enough watching me when I leave the house.

I was the one who made the decision to retire Rolo because he didn't appear to be enjoying work anymore and he was making mistakes that cause some falls for me. It will be interesting when I get my next dog if when Rolo sees the harness weather he will line up to put it on or maybe he will understand this younger dog has come to take over the job and he will just relax. It has been over a year since he retired but some times when I am about to go out somewhere Rolo will come to me and ask me to let him outside to toilet like we use to do when he was working.

I would have to dig out one of my old contracts to see exactly what they say about ownership but I seem to remember it said something about the school owning the dog for the first five years and after that the handler can request ownership but I might be remembering wrong because it has been quite some time since I read it.

I did meet one dog that had been taken back but that was because the handler's partner was hitting the dog so I understand that one. But I haven't heard of any others besides ones that fail working with a person.

Bye for now.
>From Shaz.
Canberra, Australia.