[Cagdu] more about the march

[Ken Volonte]

The alert reader will have noticed in one of my last posts that Billy, John
Vandervort's guide dog was, if not attacked, then certainly harassed.  A
Springer Spaniel lunged and growled at him.  What I didn't mention in that
post was a potential dog fight that might have occurred in the restaurant
where we were having breakfast.

    Billy was not nearly as close to John as he should have been.  He
stretched himself over to the next table and put his head on a gentleman's
foot.  The man responded in the only rational way he knew.  He gave Billy a
sausage.  So now Billy had a tasty morsel of food and Edison did not.
Fortunately, both dogs are well behaved, but there could have been extreme
trouble.  Velvet said, in a very loud voice, "no no no! Don't ever feed
these guide dogs.  The place went silent.  Then John took up the cause.
"Oh", he wined, "now she's made us out to be the bad guys.  that's just
swell.  Why are you even here Velvet"?

    Now I'm going to vent here, and if some of you are offended, well,
that's too bad.  From time to time, I get phone calls from guide dog
handlers who have been asked to leave restaurants or theaters.  When I have
gone with my dog, who ever that dog might be, there has been no trouble.
Without exception, the incident has been triggered or worsened by handlers,
usually with some sight who did not have their dogs under absolute control.
In a typical case, the handler would walk into a pizza joint and see a
listing of specials on the wall.  They would then drop the dog's leash and
harness handle and walk up to the wall where they could better see the menu
items under consideration.  The dog might follow them, or go over to lick a
little kid usually about age three.  The mother would yell, the child would
scream and the manager would ask the person with the offending guide dog to
leave.

    The second sinario has to do with control also.  There are some dog
handlers who never correct their dogs' bad behavior.  Indeed, I have heard
comments by such lax handlers as:  "I don't think it's healthy she has her
dog with her all the time".  For the record, our dogs are supposed to be
with us when we're using them.  Also for the record, a barking whining
growling Labridoodle isn't cute.  It isn't even ok.  It's just annoying.
It's a way of calling attention to yourself, and it doesn't do the cause for
full acceptance and integration into the larger society any good.  There.
I've said it.  I gotta go.  Ken