In a November 13 article in the Washington Post entitled “A Blind Eye Toward Guide Dog Discrimination?”, John Kelly writes about how the Equal Rights Center (ERC) contacted one hundred rental properties in Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia, “first by an advance caller who asked about availability and made no mention of having a guide dog, then by a person who said he had a guide dog.” “In all,” Kelly writes, “ERC says about a third of the rental properties…..
The behavior of dogs has fascinated me since growing up around black Labs and golden retrievers. It has continued through my adulthood working with five wonderfully stubborn and quirky guide dogs.
When I moved to Columbia, Missouri, to marry Lisa, my prior guide dog, a black Lab named Jules, vied for dominance with Luke, a cantankerous, kingly standard poodle currently ten years old. After several days of noisy posturing, they seemed to decide to ignore each other. Yet Luke learned…..