Huh, I always thought birds waited until there was a freshly cleaned car about to do their business.
Btw, how do you train pets to do these things? We received a young dog from some owners who always kept it at home where it’d poop. Getting the dog to poop outside or to hold it in between walks hasn’t been a problem. There’s no training involved, it’s just like an instinct. But we’re lazy and don’t really mind it pooping inside, as long as it’d do it in one place. So how do we train it to do that. Re urination, it just goes on those puppy matts.
:eek:
You gotta be shittin’ me.
To answer your question (assuming it was a question to me 
), no basically our animals, now a dog and a cat, don’t go outside at all. They are warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. They’ve got it made. And they eat and exercise very little, just like the humans of the household 
.
Well, I should add we certainly do take our animals to the vet if necessary. So far though, that hasn’t been a problem. The dog, although elderly, is doing quite well actually. And the cat, a siamese, is middle-aged now, and also apparently doing very well. But don’t worry. Our animals have life very good. Way too easy, in fact, as I have said.
And I should mention that I do take my dog outside and to the park to run around and enjoy the air, cuz I don’t think sitting at home all the time is really a good life. Certainly not a bad one, but kind of pergatory-like.
As an undergrad student way back when, I had a part-time job with the campus office of the Texas Commission for the Blind. (It was conveniently located inside the campus library, where I had my other part-time job.)
I noticed two schools of thought: Some of the students preferred canes alone, and only two had dogs. Of the dog users, one was a friendly but very smelly German shepherd. His owner lived off campus in a house with roommates. I’m assuming the roommates took care of the lawn stuff. The other dog was a yellow lab, very clean. It’s owner lived on campus in a dorm apartment reserved for those with disabilities. He let his dog out to go do its business anywhere on campus it wanted. I guess the groundskeepers took care of the aftermath.
The ones with canes alone were pretty much anti-dog, even though they enjoyed playing that one student’s Labrador. (They all complained that the German shepherd smelled like it had died.) They seemed to feel having a dog was too much trouble in general.
You have an interesting definition of the word “cool.” :dubious:
You got your answer above. It’s not that hard, really.
Guide and service dogs are trained to do their business on command. When they get down to it, usually the blind person will run their hand down the dog’s back to get an idea of where the dog is. Once the dog is done, they can pick up poop pretty easily. It’s not that complicated.
I have a service dog (seizure alert pooch, and he does some mobility work as well). While I’m not blind, I am night blind. If I am out and about with Pi late night and he needs to do his “dirty sinful business” (hardee har har har), I use the same technique taught by GDftB teaches its handlers, described above.
As for a dog that gets to run loose in the yard, then yes, the blind individual needs a sighted friend or someone to come do a regular yard clean-up.
It’s actually people who are wheelchair bound (not “wheelchair users”, but those who are actually wheelchair bound) who struggle the most when it comes to picking up doggy poop when a service dog is on duty. It’s often impossible for them to reach and pick up. For this reason, you’ll note that poop-and-scoop laws usually do not apply to working dogs. That said, all handlers I know do make one hell of an effort to pick up after their working partners.
Regarding “on the job accidents”, those should never happen. If they do, it’s often because the animal is ill and the handler didn’t know (especially in the case of a guide dog) – but when that happens, you’ll find the handler is as distressed as the dog. A handler who walks away not caring? Should be kicked in the shins a few times. Gives the rest of us a bad name. Often, too, you’ll find a bad self-trainer at the other end of the leash… and THAT just grinds my gears…