Truffie and I are speaking to a group of girl scouts in two weeks. We will be talking about GDB and puppy raising. These kids are around 10 and up. For those of you who have done this before, what are the typical questions they usually have? Any thing that would impress them? Any other suggestions? We only have 20 mins.
thanks
Carrie
5 comments:
10+ ages tend to have better and more intellegent question. You'll probably get the, "What does she eat?" and silly things like that. I try to turn around silly questions into a question that will teach them something. Like with the "What do they eat?" I take out a piece of kibble from the bait bag and say, "They eat this and only this. We are not allowed to give them people food as it might cause problems in further training. So if you ever see a working dog, don't try and feed them a chip or a piece or your cookie." I find that having the dog do a "Sit, Down, Stay" while you walk away from him/her impresses kids a lot. I had Rocco do his Puppy Push-Ups because he is really good at them. Sometimes I have kids line up in a row and walk the puppy past them and encourage them to try and distract the puppy by shouting and petting and what not. Then after that exercise I tell them that they should never do that with a working dog out in public (because they puppy usually gets a little distracted so you can say you don't want the Guide Dog to get distracted while Guiding). I love speaking to children about GDB! Hope you guys have fun!
I suspect they would be impressed by tricks Cabana can do and one or two of them would like to work with her even if it is just to walk in a big circle around the classroom.
Mango Momma
One question we got to a group of kids that age was "How do they know if they are male or female?" I'll never forget that one! :) I'm sure you'll do a great job!
Ha ha, Mango Momma said Cabana by accident. I only spoke to a kids' group once when Cabana was in training, so I don't have much experience. But I think the kids were impressed with just "sit" and "down". I also think it's a good time to educate kids about asking before petting, then after getting permission, the best way to introduce themselves to a dog. I also like to give a tip or two to those who have their own family dogs. We have such great training information from GDB, and it always surprises me that people don't know basics like not repeating commands over and over or not "wasting" the come command.
I know the classes I've visited with my guide dog pups, always enjoy you showing them the dogs commands (mainly "different" commands that most pets don't know).
Some questions I've gotten are:
- "where all do the pups go, with you?"
- "how old is he/she?"
- "how long do you have her/him?"
- "how many commands does she/he know?"
- "what happens if she/he has an accident while inside a store?"
- "how do you give them up?"
- "does she/he ever go to the vet?"
- "do they ever get to play?"
And much, much more :)
I would really try and add a short training session though... the kids always enjoy seeing the dog do some commands!
Rudy's Raiser
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