[blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

My dog is ten years old now, and I don't know how long she'll work.  I've 
decided I won't go for another guide at least till my daughter is in school. 
If my current guide has to retire, I'll use my cane again for a time.  She 
has a fairly easy life, though, so she may go on working for another year or 
two.  I'm not sure I would work a new, young dog enough right now, and also, 
I think it will be easier on my daughter if she has a school routine to lean 
on instead of missing me all day the way she would right now.

Jo Elizabeth

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a 
song."  Maya Angelou

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jennifer Jackson" <jennifersjackson at att.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 12:59 PM
To: "'Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

> Actually I have always thought that a couple of the bigger schools should
> offer a program once a year where our kids could attend with us. This 
> would
> let us work out any travel issues with our children while we have a 
> trainer
> there. Obviously some kind of child care arrangement would have to be made
> for part of the day so we can focus on our dogs, but this just seems like 
> a
> workable plan. Especially for those people who live in a rural area and do
> not qualify for in home training.
>
> All that said, I did go for a dog when my oldest was four. I had planned 
> to
> hire someone to watch him during the day and make my husband juggle the 
> rest
> of the day. As it turned out, my mother found out about 6 weeks before I
> left that she was going to laid off right before I would be gone and she
> came and stayed at our home with him.
>
> The child who complained regularly about having to walk to school 
> apparently
> complained the entire time I was gone about his grandmother driving him to
> school. It was a little over half a mile one way to his school. She always
> acted like I should appreciate the opportunity to exercise when I 
> complained
> about the walk in August. :) I did not ask her why she was not 
> appreciating
> that opportunity in October. I also went to one of the two week training
> sessions. I think my son would have had a much more difficult time if I 
> had
> been gone longer, or if he had not been able to stay in his usual routine.
>
>
> Jennifer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Erin Rumer
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:49 PM
> To: NFB blind parent listserv
> Subject: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide
>
> Hello list,
>
>
>
> Thankfully, my current guide is only 4.5 years old and doing well, but I 
> got
> to thinking about when it does come time to get a new guide, what will 
> that
> mean for my family and particularly my son.  Assuming my guide now works a
> nice long life and retires around the age of 10, my son will then be 
> around
> 6 or 7.  I know that in-home training may be a possibility depending on 
> the
> circumstances, but have any of you gone through having to leave young
> children with family or friends while off getting a new guide and if so, 
> how
> did your kids fair?  Working at GDB for 3.5 years before my son came along
> gave me the opportunity to work with lots of folks coming through for a 
> new
> dog who have kids at home, but since I rarely got the chance to speak with
> the grads after they went home, I never really got the full picture of how
> the separation affected the kids, especially if the parent leaving was a
> stay-at-home mom or dad.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Erin
>
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