13. ru & ro: guide dogs vs. pet dogs

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hi hello hey, it’s a Tuesday!

Here at Rare with Flair, we are passionate about lots of things: disability advocacy, style, and music, to name a few you already know. However, this week, we’re delving into our babies, our dogs! Since Cass has a guide dog and Case has a lovely lil pet dog, we wanted to compare and contrast our experiences with our dogs, including how we got them and how their lifestyles might differ. It’s pretty fitting that our longest episode to date is about our dogs, but we’re sure you’ll enjoy this both informative and adorable episode!

episode summary

First, we update our listeners on how our January goals are going (not too shabby!). Then, we start by each telling the stories of how we got our respective dogs and what it was like meeting them for the first time. Then, we talk about how we named our dogs (or didn’t!), and what a typical non-Covid day-in-the-life looks like for us and our pups. Afterward, we explain how we trained or maintain our dog’s training. Cass gets a little serious explaining how guide dog retirement works, but we quickly move on to telling some of our funniest moments with our dogs being dogs. Finally, we end on a game where we rapid-fire questions about some of our dogs’ favorite and least favorite things.

As alwasy, thanks for listening, and if you have questions, comments, thoughts, or pictures of your dog, please send them to hello@rarewithflair.com!

show notes

• As promised, the link to Cass’ relaxing spa playlist on Spotify called “Meditate to the Sounds of Nature,” full of nature sounds and singing bowls lol
• We STILL need more ratings to reach our goal of 100 Apple Podcast ratings! Please, if you like us, give us 5 stars and maybe even write a few words on how much you enjoy this podcast! When we hit 100, Casey will bless us with her “dog voice” which is truly a treat and took a lot of self-control for her not to do it on this episode 😉
• Casey talks about getting Rupert from a reputable breeder. Find a reputable breeder on The American Kennel Club.
• Case and Cass remind our listeners that functional vision for people with albinism may be less than what gets measured at an optometrist’s office since our vision is not correctable and measured in an ideal environment. Being extremely light sensitive as well as other factors make this difficult to measure. To learn more, check out how albinism affects the eye by VisionAware 
• Cass tells her story about getting Ro from Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, CA. To hear this story more fully, check out episode 2.
• Cass also tells the story of meeting Romana for the first time, which you can read on her personal blog

• Case talks about how she picked her dog’s name from Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy Wiki)
• Cass again plugs Guide Dogs for the Blind’s documentaries “Pick of the Litter”, the movie-length version of which shows puppies in their puppy-raising homes (available on Amazon Prime, Hulu, and now Netflix), and a docu-series showing the process when the puppies leave the homes and go to “dog college,” aka formal guide dog training (available on Disney+)
• Cass talks about how guide dogs are named which varies by school. Here are links to other guide dog schools, Guiding Eyes for the Blind (Facebook) and The Seeing Eye about their dog naming process

• Case speaks on fake service dogs and passing off your untrained pet as a service dog, but check out the end of episode 2 for a great rant on it with more facts
• Cass describes clicker training for dogs. To hear about how its used at Guide Dogs for the Blind, here’s clicker training part 1 and part 2
• Case gives her tip on potty training a dog: watch them like a hawk, and take them outside as soon as they squat
• Cass talks about guide dog retirement. Here’s a story from another GDB grad on retiring her first guide dog
• Cass mentions the dog food container she uses to keep Romana’s food fresh that is also weather-proof called The Vittles Vault
• Case mentions Rupert’s dog bff, Groot, who has an instagram presence, @GrootTheDood so give him a follow!