From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: Seeing Eye's bad dogs
Fellow federationists and friends,
Tonight I come to you to share some thoughts about a conversation I had
with Michelle drollette, who is incharge of Student Counseling at the
Seeing Eye.  She is also a Seeing Eye graduate and has had four Seeing Eye
Dogs.
Those who read this echoe will recall that from time to time I shared my
challanges with my current guide dog Tim as around the house he tends to
be a bad boy, but in harness he's as good as gold and a suppurb guide.
Recently we had another round with Tim deficating in the hhouse and
feeling at our wits end I called sEeing Eye to discuss the matter.  For
one thing you can have difficulty reaching the training staff.  I found
th8is to be less so with other guide dog schools I have dedlt with in the
past.  It was after my attempt to reach the training staff failed that I
asked for Miss Drollette.  I shared with her the challanges I had had with
tim in the past year and a half.  I got some constructive suggestions for
combatting this deficating in the house, but Her mannor of dealing with me
was patronizing and demeaning.  All during our conversation I was made to
feel like Seeing Eye Dogs are never in the wrong.  RAther, it is the blind
person who has screwed up.  Put that against the fact that I had feww if
any problems with my last dog's behavior in the house, andlike Tim he too
was a great guide.  He insidently was from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Several points in our conversation made me really wonder about seeing
Eye's training practices.  For one thing I told Ms. Drolette that I would
like to know if Tim's raiser ever had trouble with him relieving in the
house.  Of course neither she nor myself didn't know.  She tried to
reasure me that any dog that is known to deficate constantly, and to
relieve itself in the wrong place at the wrong time consistancly is
rejected for training as a guide.  Another question comes to mind here and
that is did Tim's raiser evenconsider it important enough to report any
relieving problems to the school?  Here is a clear case of whare more
contact with graduates could impress upon these families the importance of
reporting such behaviors,  but what do you when the school forbids direct
contact between puppy raisers and graduates?
The other issue I diAnother issue I discussed with her was Tim's chewing.
He has managed to chew a hole in the carpitting in the corner whare he
sleeps.  We were finally able to stop it by placing a thrubber mat over
the area.Much to her credit Tim's raiser stated in a report to Seeing Eye
that his chewing was a problem in their home, but to what extent did it go
on?  Ms. Drolette told me that this is a puppy behavior and that no dog
should be rejected.  This put me at my wits end with this woman and I
abruptly ended the conversation in disgust.  He chews up the carpetting in
our bedroom today.  Perhaps some other dog given to one of our congressman
could chew up the fine rugs in the Senate Chambers tomorrow for example,
and this is all right by The seeing Eye.  Before hanging up the phone I
told Ms. Drollette that if I was running a guide dog school no dog that
was a perpetual chewer would be accepted for training.  While it is true
that it is the handler's job to ensure that a guide dog behaves itself in
all situations it is likely to be in during it's working life I believe
that the schools need to have tough standards for accepiting both guide
dog candidates and for blind persons who will be trained in the use of
such dogs.
at last year's meeting of The National associatin of Guide Dog Users,
peggie Eliot told us that it is up to us to insist that guide dog schools
like other agencies for the blind be held to as high a standards as
possible to ensure that the best possible teams are trained by these
schools, and thaat such teams are able to project a positive immage of
blindness and guide dog use to the general publicl.  I hope that in the
coming years that more intence culling is done to eliminate dogs with both
known and/or potential behavior problems so that blind persons desiring a
guide dog will not have to put up with being stuck with an instrument of
mass destruction, and that any missbehavior is minimul.  While it is the
owner's responsibility to keep ia missbehaving animal in line it is also
the job of the school to be allert to behavior problems that can make life
miserable for a future blind owner, and to work to turn out the best
possible working teams.
That's my sermon for tonight.  Guide dog users let's keep those thoughts
in mind during our National Convention should we be asked to consider
resolutions that will hopefully improve the quallity of the teams turned
out by our Nation's guide dog schools.  Let's not forget that while we all
love our dogs we must hold the training schools to a high level of
performance and make the future for the guide dog movement brighter in the
years to come.
Thanks for putting up with me.  Take care and have a good evening.
Peter donahue
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