Question: A couple weeks ago on the subway and man and his black seeing-eye-dog labrador retriever boarded the same car as me. The guy could be legally blind, and had at least some vision to pet his dog in specific places (like right under the dog’s eye to wipe off some eye boogers). The man was offered the seat next to me, and he used his hands to get his dog to down-stay under his seat. They sat facing sideways, I sat facing forwards right next to them. The dog was perfectly well behaved, except when: The dog put his head on my knee for about 10 seconds (leaving a little drool behind:)) and had an expression very similar to the dog pictured. And later the dog pawed at the back of the pants of a standing man. Very harmless innocuous behaviors–I didn’t complain, the man didn’t seem to notice, and the owner didn’t correct his dog.
But, aren’t seeing-eye-dogs not trained to do stuff like that? Could the dog still be in training? Was it a call for help? The dog had the usual harness I see seeing-eye-dogs wear, and didn’t have a “in training” sign like I see on younger dogs.
I don’t know what goes into training these pups, and I don’t mind a little doggie drool, especially from such a cute guy, but in my limited experience in watching working dogs, I’ve never seen one act in that way so I was wondering who of youses out there knew any better.
–gnad
Andy and I used to ride the bus everyday with a blind man and his dog. And the dog would go under the seat and immediately start eating whatever he could find. And every once in a while (like maybe one or twice in a year) I’d see the dog do something goofy–like try to investigate a passenger.
I actually looked this link up a long time ago, partially from the interest based from watching that guy and his dog:
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/guide-dog2.htm