[NAGDU] Your Favorite Dog

Wed Apr 14 05:15:51 UTC 2021

Hello Cindy,

I have been told by instructors that we shouldn't have a favorite dog,
however that being said I think they say it in the hope we will all give
new dogs a fair chance.

That beint the case my favorite dog was Jarvis, my second dog. I'm not
going to say exactly what breed he was, because the school purchased him
from a very dodgy breeder. His papers said something, but more than one
vet told me it wasn't the case.

What I will say is he was amazing, he'd walked with several people as part
of the matching process before I claimed him. He was slightly older than
the usual dog going out because another client had gone to train with him
and it hadn't worked out. Insteadof the school finding a dog for a client,
poor old Jarvis was sitting there waiting for the right client to come
along which happened to be myself. The school had only just found him a
home, three days later and he would have been kicked out of the program,
because of not having a match. The school had made arrangements for him to
go ande live on a farm. They then had to very quickly ring that farming
family and deliver bad news, the nice dog they were about to pick up and
take as a pet had met me and we were a match.

>From my first meeting him we clicked, that matching walk before training
started he was telling me all he wanted to do was work. I put the harness
on for the matching walk, and this dog did not put a step wrong, he payed
particular attention to make sure he wasn't walking to fast. This was
because of the bad experience he'd had with the client he'd been matched
to. I needed him to speed up because I'm a fast walker, at first he was
walking so slow.

I thought this dog needs to walk faster, the instructor told me he could,
so I set about convincing him to speed up. Once he did his head was right
up in the air, we just walked perfectly, he didn't put a foot wrong. I
noticed he was paying very good attention to area's where I might slip,
He'd move his body against my leg to tell me to watch my step. The
instructor told me he hadn't seen him take such good care of anyone, it
was all due to his bad experience.

I decided to take him, my class was then booked. The amazing thing was I
didn't have to show this dog anything more than once, once was more than
enough he picked everything up first time around.

When I purchased my house in an area I didn't know, I had no mobility
instructor come to work with me, I got all directions to shops from local
neighbors, that is thecomplete truth.

Jarvis was my second dog, and it got to the stage where I didn't need to
correct him for anything, and this was very early on in the relationship,
he worked out what I expected and he delivered.

When training with my current guide the instructor asked who'd shown me
the neighborhood I explained Jarvis did, and he was amazed, but it was the
truth, no help from family, just local neighbors giving me directions.
We'd get out and explor, we learnt so much.

Another instructor filmed us walking home, me listening to music, putting
complete trust in my dog, I did not speak one word the 17 minute walk to
my home from the time I got off the train. We had busy roads to cross, and
my dog did it all without an instruction from me. The instructor who
filmed this told me in his 40 years as an instructor he'd never seen
anything like this.

I very much doubt I will ever get another dog as good, it just couldn't
happen to that degree with another dog.

Cheers.

Brent.

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cindy Ray via
NAGDU
Sent: Saturday, 10 April 2021 11:51 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Cindy Ray
Subject: [NAGDU] Your Favorite Dog

Good morning,
I love to hear our stories about our dogs. So I have some questions. I
will preface it by saying that once while I was training, probably with my
first dog, my instructor said that he believed everyone had a favorite
dog, and this would be true even if you truly love working with each of
them. So tell me:
Who was your favorite dog and why? This would include some of the little
things that made his work so good.
Did you train that dog? If not, from which school did it come?
How long did you have her?
Thank you.
Cindy Ray
cindyray at gmail.com <mailto:cindyray at gmail.com>

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