[blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

[Erin Rumer]

Yes, thankfully a lot of dog guide schools are in pretty cool areas with
lots to see and do that could be either costly or free depending on what is
done.  I know that at GDB family could visit for times before class in the
morning starting at 8:15 in the morning, at lunch time for an hour and
any-time after 4:30 at night.  They used to be more strict about having to
be there for meal times but have become much more lax about this and
understanding for folks individual needs.  Even for the couple of night
routes that are done, GDB is relaxed enough to probably be pretty cool with
family hanging around on the side-lines as long as they're not in the way of
other working teams or interfering with the lesson for the client.  After
the afternoon lessons let out on Saturdays clients could get together with
family and all of Sunday is free as well.  The only major thing to be
considered is that until graduation the dogs are not permitted to be taken
off campus by the client so one wouldn't want to leave their dog for very
long and would have to do most of their visiting with family on the school's
campus which is quite limiting in some respects but not a big deal
especially for only a two week program.

Erin

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:27 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

Depending on the school, the hotel idea might be pretty difficult.  When I
was at GDB, there were only certain very limited times when we could leave
the school or have visitors.  It also might be hard for your kid to be taken
out of his routine for such a long time, depending on his age.  Eleven days
is an eternity to stay in a hotel unless there are a lot of things nearby
that your mom and child could do, which would add to the expenses.  For
older kids, I like the day camp idea that was mentioned.  It would give the
kids something to focus on besides missing Mom.

Jo Elizabeth

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

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jessica Pitzer" <rolosgirl at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:55 PM
To: "Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

> I'm very interested in this subject as i'm applying for a successor 
> dog righ tnow, and my son is 8 months old. I'll  be going for 2 weeks, 
> when the time comes, and the school of my choosing seems to be of the 
> mind you figure it out as far as the kids go.
> Right now, my thoughts are eithe rot have my mom and partner watch him 
> together depending on when I go, becuase my mom is between jobs, and 
> if she's working to ahve the fiancee watch during the day and my mom 
> helpin in the evenings and at night. My other option which i'm 
> checking into is having my mom fly up with me, and back and paying for 
> her a hotel so that I can see them both while i'm in the 2 week 
> training. its really only 11 days I'll be there, 13 with the travel 
> days, but I don't wanna be away that long, so we'll see what happens.
> Jessica
>
> On 6/6/12, Bernadetta Pracon <bernadetta_pracon at samobile.net> wrote:
>> erin, there already is such a school. Fidelco does only in-home 
>> training. There's another one called freedom guides or something to 
>> that effect; They also only do in-home training. The only thing about 
>> Fidelco is that they only train shepherds. I personally love 
>> shepherds and I hope my next guide will be a shepherd, but I know 
>> many people don't want one of those for one reason or another.
>> I am also thinking of getting another guide dog at some point, though 
>> I don't know when. My first guide retired during the time I was pregnant.
>> I always imagined I'd never again be without a guide, but 
>> circumstances made it so that I couldn't get a replacement right 
>> away, for obvious reasons. And though I miss working with a dog very 
>> much, to the point where I  feel awkward with a cane now, I can't get 
>> a dog anytime in the near future. My partner and I decided that 
>> having a new dog alongside a new baby would probably be impracticle 
>> and most likely too chaotic for us to handle. Not to mention, he also 
>> has a seeing eye dog, which further detracts me from the idea of 
>> getting my own. Two dogs and a baby seems like something I don't 
>> necessarily want to deal with at the moment. And that's too bad because I
long to have my own guide again.
>> Bernadetta
>>
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