[nagdu] To use or not to use the dog in certain situations

[Julie J.]

Robert,

Are you by chance a sociologist?   *smile*  I always love reading your 
messages.  They are thought provoking and contain many layers.   I 
thought I was the only one who reads sociology papers for entertainment.

My short answer is that you already have your answer.  You are doing 
what you need to do to get crap done.  At the end of the day isn't that 
what really matters?

The longer answer...Firstly I don't know of any blind folks that shop at 
a brick and mortar store without sighted assistance. Meaning those bar 
code reader thingies are quite nifty, but scanning every item on one 
shelf would be pretty daunting, let alone an entire aisle and I can't 
think about the whole store.  We all have better things to do with our 
time, not to mention the time you would spend answering questions from 
curious passers by.

In a store Monty keeps with the people I came in with.  He doesn't do a 
true follow, but he will parallel their course, usually.  Sometimes 
someone has to tell me that I missed a turn.  Of course if I want to go 
some other way Monty is quite willing to do that too.  I know some 
people prefer to hold onto the shopping cart with dog at heel and have 
the sighted helper pull the cart from the front.

There are other times I have Monty in harness or even sometimes I have 
my cane and choose to go with a sighted guide for some portion of our 
travels. I can't think of a time when someone has commented on my 
choices though.  This morning I was at the middle school presenting a 
prevention lesson.  It was super hot on the way up there and the school 
isn't terribly liberal in the air conditioning so I had taken Monty's 
harness off for the extra bit of coolness and comfort.  He was laying on 
the slightly cooler floor while I walked about the room without cane or 
dog.  It's fairly open and I've been there quite a bit so I felt 
reasonably comfortable letting him cool off while I worked with the kids.

I think the longer a person has been blind and has answered just about 
every strange, intrusive and redundant question  the more comfortable 
you get with answering questions or not answering them.  As the years go 
by I find myself talking less and less about blindness and the dog with 
people I meet.  It still comes up, but it feels like we move on to more 
interesting things more quickly than say even ten years ago.  Perhaps 
this is because I am more comfortable with my blindness and working with 
a dog.  Or perhaps I've become skilled in answering questions 
succinctly.  Or perhaps it is so redundant to be answering the same 
questions over and over that I've sort gone into a hypnotic state, like 
when you do any sort of repeated task...washing the dishes, tieing your 
shoes and that sort of thing.  You don't really remember it because you 
aren't putting a lot of mental energy into the task.  Or perhaps people 
are more informed about guide dogs these days and there are less 
questions?  Or maybe I don't get out much and the people I'm around all 
the time have gotten all their questions answered long ago?  *smile*

At any rate you keep keeping on and keep posting your pondering.  I love 
to read them!
Julie