[blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

Thu Jun 7 03:52:55 UTC 2012

Oh, then they have loosened up at GDB since I was last there in 2003.  Back 
then--wow, that makes me sound like such a geezer--visitors were only 
permitted on Sundays, period.  End of story.  They said the evening times 
after dinner were to be spent bonding with the dogs and having them right at 
our sides, even if we were doing other activities like watching movies or 
using the computers, but that visitors would disrupt the bond formation or 
some such nonsense.  I'm glad they've made more accommodations for people 
with families to see each other.

Jo Elizabeth

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

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Erin Rumer" <erinrumer at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 9:39 PM
To: "'Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

> 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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>>
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>
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