[Ag-eq] guide dogs

[Jewel]

Nella!  Having a population of only 5 million with, as would be expected, a similarly small blind 
community, New Zealand has only one guide dog school, so we do not have a choice:  it is "you takes 
what you get, like it or lump it!"
Now as for your question of why did I decide to train my own dog?  Thereby, hangs a tale and it is 
not a short one!
I first learned of guide dogs in the 1940s, when, at the age of 7 years,  I lost my sight and was 
sent, grudginly, to the only school for blind children:  the New Zealand Institute for the Blind, 
now, the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB):  situated in Auckland.
One of our house mistresses, Miss Whitehill, used to read us juniors stories before the dormitory 
light was turned out, and one of these was simply called "Pat" and was about a German Shepherd who 
had been an United States army dog and then, after the war, he was trained as a "Seeing Eye Dog":  a 
genuine Seeing Eye guide dog!
As the story went, it happened that the man with whom Pat was partnered turned out to be his army 
handler who had been blinded by a blow from a sword weilded by a Japanese soldier:  no doubt, a 
descendant of the ancient order of Samurai!
There had always been an instinctive attachment between myself and dogs, so this story, and others, 
set the pattern of my future life.
My first assay into training, if it could be called such, came when I was 16 or 17.  Mrs. Campbell, 
the matron of McCoy House, the Foundation's residential hostels for young women:  called the Foundry 
by the irreverent and the inmates were , * foundlings:  had a dog and she agreed in those, 
supposedly, repressive times:  times which I never found to be in the least * repressive:  for me to 
take Peter with me up to Mt Hobson:  a nearby extinct/dormant volcano with which Auckland is, 
richly, endowed:  I think that, in all, there are 35 ancient and not so ancient, volcanic cones on 
which Auckland is built;  the last erruption was of Mt Rangatoto, an island volcano in the Hauraki 
Gulf, just a hop, step and jump from the main city area, and that took place a mere 600 years ago.
I had formed an idea of what a guide dog harness looked like so I hand-stitched one with leather 
strapping from the crafts department of Epsom Girls Grammar School, the state secondary school that 
I attended.
To get to Mt Hobson, Peter and I had to cross several heavily-used streets and make our way through 
Newmarket which was then, and still is, a very busy suburb.
As it has been with all the dogs I have trained: 8 I think:  I seemed to do very little:  I put the 
harness on the dog,and, really, from excursion #1, he/she did the right thing, with, the occasional, 
suggestive pointer from me!
The end of 1959 hove into view when I was to leave Auckland for good and return to my parental home 
in Christchurch.
The concept of dogs leading the blind was still in its infancy in the southern hemisphere, the first 
guide dog school having been established by an englishwoman, Betty Bridge in Perth West Australia, 
in, circa, the early 50s;  by 1958, Betty Bridge's West Australian school had gone and had been 
replaced by 2 schools in Melbourne, Jack Davy Memorial:  later to become Royal guide dogs of 
Australia, and the Lady Nell "Seeing Eye"  dog school.  Yes, it really did have "Seeing Eye" in its 
name.  I asked Mrs. Gration, the blind owner and director of training about the inclusion of Seeing 
Eye and she told me that she had permission from Morristown to use it, but that is why it is written 
between quotation marks.  however, by 1959, there were still only a very fiew guide dog teams and 
certainly there was no thought, at that time, of New Zealanders getting guide dogs, but I was 
determined, no matter what it took, to have one!
It just so happened that one of my schoolmates, Lynette Simon, nee Brown,  had a friend, Mrs 
Cashmore who was very interested in the concept of guide dogs, and Lynette told her of my ambition.
Mrs Cashmore had just acquired a German Shepherd puppy bitch from a secondhand car yard where she 
was supposed to be a guard dog, but proving herself to be unsuited for that job, she was advertised 
in  the newspaper as being available to a new home.
Mr Cashmore was none too pleased when his better half came home with another large dog as they 
already had a Labrador., so to keep the peace, Mrs Cashmore offered Mitzi to me to train as a guide 
dog, and from my position of knowing zilch to very little about training dogs to do anything, I said 
that she was perfect!
I returned to Christchurch, told my, horrified,  parents of my plans, and Mitzi joined me shortly 
after and the rest is history.  Mitzi was a wonderful guide and retired at the age of 12 years.
in brief:  HAA HAA: there you have it!
Mitzi's replacement in 1971 was the only school-trained dog I have had.
My reason for training all my dogs but Emma was because I knew that I could do it on my ear, and 
make as good, and in my exalted opinion, a far better job than NZ Guide Dog Services which was 
founded in 1973.  New Zealanders had been able to go to and get Australian guide dogs since 1962 or 
was it 4? I was offered the chance to get a dog from Ausie, but I felt that it would be disloyal to 
Mitzi, and I could not visualise how a school-trained dog could be any better than she was!

         Jewel  --------------------------------------------------
From: <nfoster at extremezone.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 5:09 AM
To: "Jewel" <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>; "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" 
<ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Ag-eq] guide dogs


Jewel:

that's good advice.

Do you have many guide dog training programs in New Zealand?

Also what made you decide to train your own dog rather than getting one from a
guide dog school?

Nella
Quoting Jewel <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>:

> Nella!  If you are getting a new dog, make your requirements, very clear, to
> the school e.g. you need
> the dog to be able to adjust it walking speed at a command:  slow, normal or
> fast
> !  Take no bull from them!  It is, perfectly possible, though the trainers
> may tell you differently,
> for a dog to work, quite efficiently, at any speed, although you mnay have to
> take a little more
> care over maintaining your dog's focus when it is creeping along like an
> elderly and
> arthritically-challenged snail!
>
>           Jewel
> --------------------------------------------------