[nagdu] The new GDB

[Deanna Lewis]

Hi everyone,
I was actually in the trial class at GDB to see if the 3 week training would work for first timers. I went to the campus in San Rafael, CA in late April of 2009. Pascal is my first guide dog, so I can not compare my class with a previous one.
At first, when I heard I was doing a three week class instead of four, I was worried I would not learn enough. But it was nice and I felt like it was almost too long by the end. We were running out of things to do and issues to address. My class of first timers was a group of 10, we lost one after the first week due to health problems. We had 3 instructors so, each instructor had 3 students.
We received our class lectures on CD several weeks before class, so we could study and get familiar with owning a guide dog. Then every morning we had a class lecture together, broke into our training groups, and worked individually with our dogs and trainers. Most of the time, we only had to wait about 30-45 minutes for each group. In that time you could brush your dog, clean his teeth, catch up on email, eat, etc. We also went to fun places like coffee shops, and ice cream parlors to wait at. We would head back to campus for lunch then do another class lecture and workout. After dinner we had another class, usually care, like teeth brushing or dog massage.
There wasn't a lot of downtime and I feel like I learned all I needed to by the end of the second week. The third week was just more practice. And if you need more training at home, they are more than willing to travel across the country to check on you.
If anyone has more specific questions, don't hesitate to email me at deannakay618 at yahoo.com

Thanks!
Deanna and Pascal