home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!know!mips2!news.bbn.com!olivea!bunker!sheldev.shel.isc-br.com!wtm
- From: mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew)
- Newsgroups: misc.handicap
- Subject: Petting Guide Dogs
- Message-ID: <25623@handicap.news>
- Date: 16 Nov 92 22:15:07 GMT
- References: <25588@handicap.news>
- Sender: news@bunker.shel.isc-br.com
- Reply-To: mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew)
- Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
- Lines: 29
- Approved: wtm@hnews.fidonet.org
- X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference
- Originator: wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com
-
- Index Number: 25623
-
- CA> I am very picky about people petting my dog when he is out in public.
-
- DH>Me too. I sometimes feel like I shouldn't be so picky, next to
- DH>some other guide dog users who are not. It's my experience that
- DH>if people pet my dog, even stare at her or talk to her, that she
- DH>becoems excited,even somewhat, and it makes more work for me.
-
- One of the adjustments my wife had to make when she got her
- second guide dog was to stop letting people pet her dog. With
- her first dog, being petted never seemed to distract her, so
- Michelle got in the habit of letting people pet her when they
- asked. Her new dog, however, gets terribly distracted when
- people pet her (and not just when she's being petted--it's also
- when she wants people to pet her). Not allowing people to pet
- her when she's on duty has made an enormous improvement in her
- behaviour.
-
- I think part of the problem with people petting guide dogs is
- that generally the "don't pet the dog" rule is justified to kids
- on the grounds of safety; it might be a vicious. Guide dogs are
- obviously not vicious, so it's considered safe. Things might be
- different if the "don't pet the dog" rule were justified on the
- grounds of courtesy, but I've never heard it justified that way
- to a kid with a non-working dog.
-
- Darin.McGrew@Eng.Sun.COM Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
- Soli Deo Gloria! but righteousness delivers from death.
-