From: William.Wilson@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (William Wilson)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Doggie News
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:20:11 GMT
Reply-To: William.Wilson@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA

Index Number: 20921

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 CC> These dogs are *all* individuals.  What my dog or Carol's dog
 CC> or Willie's dog or anyone else's dog does or doesn't do or need
 CC> may be completely different from the behavior and needs of your
 CC> dog.

Carla,
    Your advice to Bill was of course excellent, and I couldn't agree
more that no matter what all the guide dog users here tell him, it will
be only of limited value till he goes through the training and receives
his pooch.  Not only are there very few hard and fast rules, each dog
and person is different, and thus the relationship in each case is quite
unique!
     For example, you explained to Bill how people food is a no no, and
how Chance developed an attraction to popcorn due to your room mates
feeding it to him while you were a college student.  Well, it is my
theory that this attraction is built into the canine species, and short
of a doggie lobotomy, there ain't no way you're going to get rid of this
one!  I never fed Strider or LeeRoy table scraps or anything like that,
but bring a bowl of Orville Reddenbacher out in front of either of them,
and it was starving labrador act time!  PPizza could sit on the coffee
table untouched and be basically ignored, and chips and dip didn't even
provoke a rise from the floor, but POPCORN...now that was a different
matter.
     Strider, as you insinuated, sort of learned that other people food
was in general not something he could even consider, while LeeRoy is
more specific in his descrimination.  That is, he has learned that
nothing in the kitchen is fair game, and most definitely, anything on
the coffee table is off limits, but untill recently, he must have
thought the end tables were ok territory!  I have never put the munchies
there myself, but at a board meeting of our VIPACE group here last
weekend, somebody decided to place the cheese dip on the end table.  A
few minutes later, one of the winks commented, "Oh, I guess LeeRoy likes
the dip!", and when I checked out the scene, he was standing there,
quite gently for him I might add, lapping up the mixture!
     He obviously got a reprimand that should implant in his mind the
fact that the end table is off limits as well, and I can guess by his
behavior that he won't make this mistake again.  Unlike his
predecessor, however, I don't think he'll ever make the global
conclusion that people food is a no no!
     I'm not trying to say that LeeRoy is stupider than Strider was, as
he honestly does learn some things very quickly, and some things he does
causes me to think I underestimate his cranium power.  He just doesn't
seem to be able to generalize very well though, and his avoidance of any
food substance seems based more upon where the item is than WHAT the
item is!
     Thank goodness he does seem to realize that the steak on that guys
plate next to us in the restaurant isn't a reward for him getting me to
the table in one piece, and even that it isn't polite to crawl under the
adjoining booth to get that french frie that somebody dropped, but
develope the overall conclusion that such things arn't for him in any
situation???  Well, I ain't holding my breath!

     Anyways, thanks for the excellent message Carla, and give old
Chance a pat for me, will ya?
                                                        Willie

... Have you smooched your pooch today?

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