AMONG the celebrations during last week\u2019s International Guide Dog Day on Wednesday, 28 April was an important lesson for pet dog owners.<\/p>\n
Regional team leader for Guide Dogs Victoria in Bendigo Justin Marshall said the organisation is calling on lockdown puppy owners to familiarise themselves and their pups with proper \u2018petiquette\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cPetiquette is basically etiquette for your dog and what you need to do when you see a guide dog coming,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is building on not distracting the [guide] dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see a guide dog user coming towards you make sure you put your dog on a short lead [and] move off the footpath to let them go by.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just basic manners, that\u2019s what we\u2019re after,\u201d Mr Marshall said.<\/p>\n
Distractions like these happen \u201call the time\u201d to 27-year-old Mel Stephens, who makes up part of the 40 percent of handlers who have experienced an increase in such situations while out with their guide dogs in the last year, as reported by Guide Dogs Victoria.<\/p>\n
While Ms Stephens, her mother and her previous guide dog were lost at a train station, the family were approached by a member of the public who tried taking charge of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were travelling through Southern Cross Station in Melbourne one time and we were getting lost and someone actually came up to my mum and said \u2018I\u2019ll show you which way to go\u2019 and grabbed her dog\u2019s harness and tried to pull her by the dog,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat happens all the time, people come up to you and start patting your dog. I used to work in the city and I\u2019d be sitting on a train and I\u2019d put my hand down to pat my dog myself and there\u2019d be all these hands already on the dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very to the point and I think it\u2019s important to make people understand that these are working dogs, these are not cute Labradors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes six months to train them and six weeks to ruin them, so I want people to know that when they see a person with a guide dog, talk to the person first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a lot less communication from the public when we\u2019re travelling with our white canes than we do with our dogs. Learn to treat the dogs like you treat the cane, like it\u2019s not there, because at the end of the day the dog can\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying. We can.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re lost it\u2019s us that need the guidance, not the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AMONG the celebrations during last week\u2019s International Guide Dog Day on Wednesday, 28 April was an important lesson for pet dog owners. Regional team leader for Guide Dogs Victoria in Bendigo Justin Marshall said the organisation is calling on lockdown puppy owners to familiarise themselves and their pups with proper \u2018petiquette\u2019. \u201cPetiquette is basically etiquette […]<\/p>\n