[blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

Thu Jun 7 04:46:06 UTC 2012

Hi,

Jessica, can you write me off list regarding pilot dogs?  I'm applying there 
and I'd like to talk to a student who's attended their program before about 
the things that are worked on during the stay, the accomidations, etc.

my email is
tcl189 at rogers.com

Thanks in advance:

Tammy

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jessica Pitzer
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 11:31 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide

I'm planning to go to pilot dogs, I got my first dog form there, and I
really wanna go back, I'm just waiting on a class date, and I hope its
sooner than later since he's at the prefect age right now, I've been
waiting since the end of december, but at first I only wanted a
poodle, but recently I told them I'd take a lab or golden too so they
said I'd probably get in pretty soon, I'm hoping either for june,
juuly, or august, but i'll take whatever.
Jessica

On 6/6/12, Jo Elizabeth Pinto <jopinto at msn.com> wrote:
> We don't live our lives in a vacuum, and I think training in a vacuum 
> makes
>
> for a lot of follow-up visits when graduates and dogs go home.  When I was
> in class with my first dog, I talked to a woman who was on her fifth or
> sixth, I think.  She said that when she got her first guide, the schools
> wouldn't even let the handlers play with their dogs at all.  They were
> working dogs, and play was strongly discouraged.  Now the trainers say 
> that
>
> the dogs deserve to play after all the work they do.  So bit by bit, maybe
> too slowly, the schools are catching up with the times.
>
> 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 8:46 PM
> To: "'Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide
>
>> I hear what you're saying and I was thrilled to see how far GDB has come
>> concerning those issues.  I can tell you that if we had a person coming
>> into
>> training who has young kids, we would make sure to work the dogs while
>> pulling a stroller to ensure the dogs had exposure and a chance to get
>> used
>> to it before the client came into class.  We also worked dogs while
>> pulling
>> grocery carts, walking with a support or white cane and more.  Slowly but
>> surely some of the schools are coming around and seeing how crucial these
>> aspects of our lives are when working a dog.
>>
>> Erin
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Tammy
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:30 PM
>> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] leaving family to get a dog guide
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Your idea about our kid's training with us is a very good one except that
>> many of the schools don't believe our kids have any part in our training,
>>
>> to
>> the point where we shouldn't even be holding their hands or using a
>> stroller.  These are all ridiculous things for the schools to think, and
>> when I asked them what I was supposed to do with my child while I worked
>> my
>> dog even at home after training, they said, oh carry him in a backpack or
>> have someone with you who can take him.  That of course is not what I did
>> because it was impractical,  I used a stroller and the dog got used to it
>> and got really good at walking with the stroller behind us.
>> Unfortunately
>> the school I went to did not give the dog enough credit, and also said I
>> shouldn't let the dog and my son interact.  I did listen to that warning
>> and
>> was very careful to let them play in a very supervized limited
>> environment,
>> where the dog could go in to his crate whenever he felt the need to do so
>> which wasn't often I can tell you.  But if we were allowed to train with
>> the
>> dogs and our children the schools might get a really good idea some of
>> the
>> pitfalls of certain matches and it might result in less home visits after
>> training ends.
>>
>> Tammy
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jennifer Jackson
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 2:59 PM
>> To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
>> 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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