[nagdu] Owner training your own dog

Fri Dec 10 12:56:54 UTC 2010

Tami,

Yes!  I had forgotten the feelings of "why not?" in regard to training my 
own guide.  This is definitely how I felt in the very beginning.  Then as I 
trained my first dog, I realized why, because I love it.

Julie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 12:20 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Owner training your own dog

> Well, being an owner-trainer, can I also slam my school?  'Cause I tell 
> you
> that school has pulled some stuipd stunts...  /lol/
>
> Seriously, I have to say that in the end, it occurred to me owner-training
> was more convenient at the time, since I happened to have gotten this dog
> with "the right stuff."  Since I could train said newly acquired 
> adolescent
> poodle who appeared to have the traits I wanted in a guide to begin with,
> and since I truly do love training animals and working with them over 
> time,
> it suddenly occurred to me that it wasn't worth my whilte to go to a guide
> dog program at all.
>
> In other words, it wasn't so much that I answered the question "why
> owner-train" as that I had no answer at all to the question, "Why not?" 
> So
> I did.
>
> The answers to the how questions of choosing a dog and learning which 
> tasks
> and how to train them is very, very long, since it's all a process.  I was
> fortunate enough to find this list early on, which taught me a lot about
> guide dogs and what they dog and what issues I needed to learn...  And of
> course, the first person I met was Julie.  Who also told me about the
> vi-clicker-training list, where I met a number of others who are also on
> this list even if they don't owner train themselves, so that was way cool.
> Without all of those people, I'd still be sitting around scratching my 
> head
> trying to figure it out.  /lol/  Well, also, there was a lot of prior 
> study
> and reading in behaviorism and other training theories and what not, plus 
> a
> whole, whole lot more frantic reading and study and asking desperate
> questions and...  I like learning as much as I like training, so this was
> all just good fun to me.  Exhausting, grueling hard work, don't get me
> wrong, but I happen to enjoy that sort of thing.  And Mitzi is really a
> delight, despite the stories I tell on her sometimes.  Actually, the 
> stories
> stem from the "dark side" of the traits about her I adore the most and 
> that
> she uses so well in her work.
>
> Picking a dog?  Good luck!  /lol/  I've heard enough of the trials and
> tribulations of others by now to realize that you need to know what you're
> doing and be willing to look and watch and wait for the right one, then 
> know
> it when happens across your path.  I believe you need to have educated
> yourself ad infinitum in order to recognize the right dog when you find 
> it.
> It's just that the process of finding appears to be different for 
> everyone,
> fraught with heartache and hazard, then the seeker suddenly has a dog from
> somewhere that was not on the list to look.
>
> Me, I ordered my current guide dog over the phone because I had decided to
> get a nice, sensible cat, so I called some poodle breeders...
>
> I am not making that up.  Like I say, looking for a guide dog prospect.
> Good luck!  Literally.  /lol/  If someone knows the science of the 
> process,
> please do tell me, because like any self-respecting owner-trainer I've 
> been
> fretting about where to get my next pup since this one was just barely
> trained.  I know what I want, exactly, and I have the acquisition timed 
> down
> to the split second based on Mitzi's life expectancy, health, energy,
> wishful thinking.  /lol/
>
> Oh, as for finding guide dog programs being open to giving an 
> owner-trainer
> advice...  lolololol.  Ouch!  I just broke a rib!  Oh, you silly, silly 
> boy.
> /grin/
>
> Seriously, if you feel nobody's been rude enough to you lately, call a 
> guide
> dog program, tell them you're an owner trainer and you have a question...
> Then just sit back and listen.
>
> Have Xanax on hand.  Or maybe a good bottle of Scotch.
>
> Well, one such conversation was enough for me, and I ended up making it as
> short as possible before my phone melted from the steam coming out of my
> ears.  Someone else told of a conversation with that same program (perhaps
> even the same person) that sounded exactly the same but went on longer, to
> exactly where I had realized the conversation (I use the term loosely) I 
> had
> was going before I ended it.  So, more steaming ears for me.
>
> I would say guide dog programs are not supportive of owner-trainers.
> /smile/
>
>
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Jeffrey Young
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:53 PM
> To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
> Subject: [nagdu] Owner training your own dog
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I'm curious about owner training dogs. How do you find a dog? How do you
> learn to know everything you should teach a dog? Have you found GuideDog
> schools open to giving someone advice as far as training a dog?
>
> It just seems like it would take so much time and effort that it could be
> more worth your wile to just find a school.
> Note that I'm looking for responses from people who have actually owner
> trained their dogs or are in the process of doing so. I'm not really
> interested in someone who wants to promote their school of choice wile
> slamming the practice of owner training. Unless said person has experience
> with owner training, but prefers one of the established schools.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jeff Young
> Independent Scent-sations Distributor
>
> Email: jeff.young8806 at gmail.com
> Phone: (318) 243-3003
> Website: http://www.jeffyoung.scent-team.com
>
> Inter our weekly drawing for a free 16 OZ gourmet scented candle here.
> http://jeffyoung.scent-team.com/weeklydrawing/index.php
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>
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