handling dogs with Physical disablities

I'll have to answer this later cos it won't be short, but I live this.  But it will be evening before I can really answer you.

I have a lot of students with varying degrees of disability.  One of the beauties of clicker training is that many people can train their dogs without having to manhandle them around.  I have people who have no strength in their hands, so they use waist leashes.  I have elders with large dogs who walk them in Gentle Leaders whether they need them or not, just in case.  I also have my fair share of disabled dogs.  Their handlers learn to train them in different ways (deaf dogs with a vibration collar, blind dogs by placing scent so they can find their way around the house.)  I like to think that training and handling is all about maximizing ability rather than thinking too much about disability.

Two years ago, I watched a woman with both arms missing from above the elbow compete at an agility trial.  She directed the dog with her body language and her voice.  They did an amazing job.  When I was into retrievers, I knew many people with various physical limitations, some severe.  They found a way to do what they loved.  The dogs sure don't care and that's what inspires many people with disabilities, the dog's willingness to learn in whatever way a person is able to communicate.

poodleOwned

I am really after hearing what people with minor and major disabilities do with handling dogs. My latest choice of dog was quite a bit formed from losing quite a lot of strength down the LH of my body, and i have not much sight in my left eye. While i still handle larger dogs, it is nice ot give them back to their owners. My LH face is kept going with botox after nerve damage. I was also born with a Syndrome which makes me pretty clumsy and i have a pretty weird gait without some thought plus high anxiety levels.I can suffer pretty debilitationg panic attacks, once in a tracking trial. My dog is so dam good that she sat with me for 5 minutes and then carried on...

hmmmm -- you may be asking an entirely different question than I thot.  You're talking about "handling" -- as in competitive sports, shows, "events" generally?

I'm thinking day to day handling of life.  I'm not **at all** into dog sports, shows, events, etc.  So I'm zero help there.  We do pet therapy with our dogs and we take them everywhere.  Any walking past a few feet and I have to use a wheelchair.  I can't "stand" at all for longer than literally a few seconds. 

So, when I'm in obedience class I have to sit.  I carry my own folding chair with me everywhere we go otherwise (a wheelchair sucks over grassy ground -- it just plain doesn't work and I'm just not going to give in to an ECV all the time -- or I'll lose what mobility I have).

My rules are simple -- I have to create as hands-free an environment as possible. 

Right now Kee Shu is worse off than I am -- she just can't walk very far (and she topples over after a few steps), so I carry an over the shoulder bag when I take her anywhere -- I literally put her in a fabric bag that I can sling over my shoulder bandolier style so that I can then have my hands free to hold onto the railing as I go down the stairs and get into the car.

For a bigger dog (like up to 35 pounds) I like a baby-style swaddle/sling

Go here baby slings

My favorite leashes go around my waist -- and those can be hard to find.  I have ordered from Ryans Products MANY times -- he is really good.  He makes all this kind of stuff himself - will make a 1" wide leash or a 1/2" wide leash in several colors.:

Ryans Products  

Ha ha -- while I was there I had to go ahead and order some extra leashes.

My dogs always have to learn to walk on both sides of me -- that's completely contrary to basic obedience, but there are days when I'm less stable on one side than on the other -- that causes obedience instructors no end of problem because it completely fouls up their "thing" but it's a fact of life for me.

Certain commands are absolute necessity at our house:  "slow" .... "gentle" ... "no galumping" (that one is priceless -- it means don't just bash into somebody) and is usually used either for me or in relation to Kee Shu -- my little old senior girl who is so easily offset from her feet.

Another command we use ALL the time is "That way" (pointing) -- as in "Go THAT way" or "Move THAT way" to get a dog out from under my feet or in a particular direction so I can navigate.  They CAN learn to follow a pointed finger.  You just have to be consistent.

spiritdogs

I like to think that training and handling is all about maximizing ability rather than thinking too much about disability.

I say it differently, i say that i don't live in what i can't do but what i can do. But not to acknowledge some of the difficulites i have and work my way around them has sometimes been intensely frustrating.

Some of that is personality, i am highly competitive and refuse to give up.

I can avoid levels of obedience here that use leads and go straight to levels that don't.

I have taken positions publically here that haven't always been that popular. One was a pretty simple letter to our controlling organisation suggesting that reinforcement is a good idea. I am still wondering why i a hven't seen a huge number of these people who were so vocal in their opposition in the ring with their dogs showing what they are made off, after all they are only competing with a wrong headed bloke who can barely walk straight and of course dogs trained all the wrong way...

poodleOwned

But not to acknowledge some of the difficulites i have and work my way around them has sometimes been intensely frustrating.

Well that's a relief -- you're HUMAN!!!  I'm not making fun of you - it's too much how I have to cope with things.  And often the "frustration" is mamde worse because you have to include in *your* workaround something to make it less of a target as a 'flaw' by others.

Seriously -- I understand totally.   But honestly, I think it makes us more creative people.  Because I can tell -- you're more than a bit like me -- you don't look at something and whine 'Oh I can't DO that".   You look at it and say ... now *how* am I gonna accomplish this?"

Giving up nets you nothing in the long run ... 

At one point we had a dog who was deaf (he'd had both ears removed in bi-lateral ear ablations).  This dog was a BORN therapy dog -- and I was simply trying to get him certified so we could take him in the higher level places like hospitals.  He was already CGC, etc. but beyond the work he loeve with deaf kids I knew he needed to work in hospitals.

I butted heads BIG time with the local Delta Society chapter.  they wouldn't even *consider* testing him -- because if he was facing away from me I had to use a TOUCH command (duh -- he's deaf -- what was I supposed to do?  Snap my fingers?)

The kicker tho was when they told me *I* couldn't qualify for their program either because when they go to a hospiptal they see 120 people in 3 hours and I "probably couldn't keep up". 

First of all -- 120 people in 3 hours?  Even for a team of 3?  Thats' not pet therapy - that's a marathon!!

 Well since they were such twerps about accommodating me, I went thru Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc. - and they were awesome to work with.   I've since decided that the people who stir up a fuss usually are contributing anything positive anyway. 

calliecritturs

Well that's a relief -- you're HUMAN!!!  I'm not making fun of you - it's too much how I have to cope with things.  And often the "frustration" is mamde worse because you have to include in *your* workaround something to make it less of a target as a 'flaw' by others.

Seriously -- I understand totally.   But honestly, I think it makes us more creative people.  Because I can tell -- you're more than a bit like me -- you don't look at something and whine 'Oh I can't DO that".   You look at it and say ... now *how* am I gonna accomplish this?"

I think that often even outside of dogs :) people have no idea of what is equitable. I recently was doing a degree part time, and part of it was that i would have to do some practical work that i just had no hope of doing . I did all the right things a semester before the paper came up, for heavens sake i was doing this thing to make sure that i din't ever have to do anything practical ever again!

I hassled and hassled. Six weeks into the semester, i finally got an answer from the course director that was so onerous and ridiculous and so late that i had no hope of doing it. I went right to the top and went into a meeting and basically opened my mouth and let my tongue do some walking. Much better conditions were imposed that were highly workable and enjoyable . The trouble was that i had lost the semester..  The course director was shall we say very careful around me and was in a much more consultative frame of mind for the rest of the course. In the meeting i was no longer a nameless faceless person, but an equal with an intellect and feelings and emotions that had a whole lot to offer. I have a favourite question.. I need to speak to the person in your organistaion that can give me a different answer. Works wonders.

I think that you got the same treatment from the delta people. They kind of saw themselves as superman . What a ridiculous thing! 130 odd people in how long ?  Why the hell bother?  What you were meant to do was run of into the sunset and never be heard of again. They could say they had been fair..

 In the process of writing this , i realised that i was a little ashamed of yet another hassle that means that things aren't alwasy easy for me. I have a pretty significant tremor. When i get really bad, i have to get others to undo my dog leads for me. Most of the time i am ok though. My stuff is a long list of seemingly minor ailments that adds up to a significant pain in the ...