[NAGDU] Your Favorite Dog

Tue Apr 20 13:20:48 UTC 2021

Hi, something Brent didn't mention was that Jarvis looked like a small
horse. I met both Jarvis and his sister when I went to the school for
assessment. It was quite surprising the size difference in the two dogs.

I remember one time we were playing swish and Brent had tied Jarvis to a
small piano and someone asked if that would hold him? Brent replied probably
not if he really wanted to go somewhere.

This big dog suited Brent and Brent treated my Lena as a lap dog. I don't
know how he did it because Lena wouldn't even go on a couch when invited but
Brent could have her on his lap with no issues.

>From Shaz.
Canberra, Australia.

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Brent Franklin via NAGDU
Sent: Wednesday, 14 April 2021 3:16 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Brent Franklin <bfranklin at woolworths.com.au>
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Your Favorite Dog

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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