Category: Animal House
hey people,
well i had to call the guide dog school pilot cause my consellor my rehab counsellor thinks that shiloh is a menace to everybody and every person or animal.
Well yes she still has her issue and i don't know if she feels threatened when the dogs come towards her to enter a room or if she's just protecting me when she walks past them and don't growl at them unless they get to close or if they start walking behind us when we walk around the lakes and through parks.
I've seen her behave with dogs, heck she does it in my apartment with the dogs here behaves and is nice to them well cept for the ones that attacked her.
But ray the head trainer for pilot says that this issue should have cleared up when i went there the second time and that she shouldnt still be growling at dogs in harness even when i correct her and move her away and make her sit to get her to calm down.
yesterday when i took her on a walk around the lake with my boyfriend she was growling at the dogs for know reason and all the dogs were doing was either walking along the same path we were or whining at her.
Ray told me that there probably isn't nothing else that i can try for her and that i'd most likely have to send her back.
I feel like i've failed her in some way and that i've not done the best i could for her.
I know i'm not giving up on her because i've had for a year and three months now, and it hasn't improved much.
I can tell you that she won't react if there really far away and she can see them, but if she sees them like when i went to a job interview this last week on thursday she was fine when the wheelchair dog was coming down the hall to go in to the lunch room where i was at wagging her tail.
So i was holding her leash which was connected to the prong collar and the gentle leader and i had the harness in my left hand and i showed her a milk bone and told her to stay and be quiet. well the further the dog and its owner came in to the room thats when she got up and started barking and growling at it.
so i had to correct her twice once to get her to lie back down and once to get her to stop barking i don't know if she was scared i was just sitting there talking to the people that worked at the job telling them how long i had shiloh for, and that she may react like that.
So i know that i'm not giving up on her cause if i were i wouldnt have taken her back when i went there the second time when they wanted to take her from me.
I just hope they can come up with some other ideas for us to try, because i love this dog, but if they can't then i guess i have to listen to the school cause there the trainers and i'm not, and i've had a friend from the school that got his dog there tell me i'm giving up on her and that there has to be other things i can try for her but as to what he of course didn't have the answer.
he suggested i go visit him and he could like take shiloh and let me use his dog while he tries to train her to see if he could figure out what was wrong with her, now i don't know if that'd even work or if she'd even listen to him or let alone if his dog would listen to me, but i'd rather listen to what the school suggests since there the ones that trained her to begin with.
Sorry i just had to vent, and i'm waiting for them to call me to tell me what i should do for her, and i'll tell you guys when i find out.
Thanks shelly and shiloh
hello to all,
well i talked to pilot dogs yesterday and i may be going back in two weeks to get my new furry guide dog friend!
I'd prefer a golden retriever but most likely i'll be getting a lab of some kind this is heartbreaking because i know that there has to be something they can do for my shiloh butthe school says that when we went back to the school the second time when she got attacked and cause she was trying to run past dogs behind fences that theres nothing else they can do for her.
So hopefully i'll be able to bring shiloh to the school with me via airplane and then they'd take her from me and give me my new dog!
And hopefully my new guide dog won't get attacked by those two pallmerrayneians that live in my building, and i did forewarn the lady with the dogs ahead of time so she knows i'm getting a new one and hopefully she'll do her job and keep her dogs away otherwise i'll call animal control agan on her!
And hopefully my new dog won't get all growly and barky if i take it on walks around the lake or take it to the job i may be getting where there's another service dog a wheelchair dog.
The school told me that i can still take her places just not places with other dogs so yeah...
And i know she knows something is up, i'm trying to act as normal around her as possible and to spen as much time with her as i can but she knows!
shelly
well guys, i'll be going to get my new lab guide dog on may 4.
God i'm gonna miss my goldie but maybe a lab will be a lot easier and less stress which i mean not as high maintinence and hopefully not as dog aggressive.
I wanted to wait for a goldie but they wouldnt have had one for probably six months or longer.
I was even willing to go to the length of doing possitive reinforcement training with my shiloh.
You know taking her to a park with dogs, and letting her walk around there for a bit in harness, and then taking her out of harness and keeping her on a leash and her gentle leader and prong collar.
and then bringing her towards dogs, and when she don't react to them let her play with a toy that she really loves and praise her a bunch.
I read about it on that guide dogs incorporated cite.
When i asked pilot yesterday if i could try this for two months just as a last resort to giving her up they told me that it'd be a waste of my time and that its been to long.
But she had the growling issue at the school towards a few dogs when i first got her, and when i had her home for a month and went to take her to the bank with my aunt to do my bills she growled at a wheelchair dog and the dog didn't do nothing to her, so i don't know if she had some problems as a puppy, and i guess i'll never know.
I'll be going back there for two weeks.
I'm really sorry you've got to deal with this.
Seems to me (and keep in mind that I'm only going by what you've posted) that the school has totally dropped the ball here. If you've been back for refresher training twice with no result, that should've been the end of it, right then and there. Heck, if Shiloh was showing aggression issues in class toward other dogs in class, *that* should've been the end of it, right then and there.
You've got much more patience than many handlers out there. After this kind of experience, many people would not give the school (whatever school, not just Pilot) another chance. I have heard very few good things about Pilot in recent years (this is not to say that they have never turned out a good dog ever... I know they have, obviously. I'm just saying that recently, it seems like their program is doing some major backsliding), but it seems like you're set on going back there, so I won't waste my energy explaining the merits of other schools.
Good luck with everything.
I agree with Tunedtochords. You should never have been put through all that grief. Sorry you put so much into it to end up with this result, but I think it really will be better for you stresswise.
Good luck and keep us posted.
it sounds like you're on a hiding to nothing with shillo. the dog obviously has an issue with other dogs, and that ain't good. I agree with those who said after the second visit to pilot you should have binned the venture and gone for another dog. hats off to you for perserveerance anyway. i once met a guidedog which had similar issues, and his owner coped with it for a year, but then binned the dog because he growled much like shillo seems to have been doing. this dog was a miserable sod and of course there is the added question, what would happen if you pushed that dog too far? would growling just end up with histerical barking, or worse? good luck with your new dog.
I gotta agree with Post 4 and 5. Good luck with your new dog. Lets hope eerything works out.
Hi Shelly:
First of all, your not giving up on your dog. I had to give up my first dog, but for different reasons. Second of all, like other posters have said, you should have given the dog back ages ago. Some dogs just aren't meant to be guides. I'm sorry you have to say goodbye, but hopefully you'll get a dog that'll cause you less stress. Good luck.
Kim and Voyager