[nagdu] Welcome and Halti use

[wcmerritt at gmail.com]

Marti: have you checked out home training from The Seeing Eye or other
larger schools? I know that The Seeing Eye does do home training,
since I know someone that has had it done due to bad knees. I know
that they're working on wheelchair training but don't know how far
along they are with that.

Hth,
Wayne

On 2/7/09, Mardi Hadfield <wolfsinger.lakota at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi every one,   Welcome  Doug and Lisa.Interesting to hear your input. I
> live in Arizona. I have researched all of the guide dog schools that I have
> found on the Internet, but I have never heard of Occupaws.  I suppose there
> must be several small agencies that train guide dogs,but they are not widely
> known out side there area.There is a school that trains service dogs and
> guide dogs in Phoenix Arizona,called AZ Power Paws, but again they don't
> train guide dogs for wheelchair users and I would have to go there and
> stay.I tried to apply at the Eye Dog Foundation,hoping that they would train
> a dog for me,but they are not training at all now and I don't know what will
> become of that situation.Not being able to travel and be away for any time
> and the fact that I am a wheelchair user,is the problem.I don't feel that it
> is any harder to train a dog to guide from a wheelchair as I have trained
> 2,with the help of a trainer so far.  My trainer mainly trains search and
> rescue dogs. I don't mind having to train my own dogs, but It is expensive
> and time consuming, and finding the right dog to train has not been easy
> this time around.But when all is said and done, my dogs are customized to my
> needs, and if I have a problem, My trainer lives in the same town and is
> just a phone call away. I just wish it was not so time consuming.  Nicole, a
> Halti is a head colar.It is similar to a gentle leader except I prefer the
> Halti as it is not tight around the dogs face. My dogs walk on a loose leash
> and don't really need the halti, as it's main use is to prevent the dog from
> pulling and it gives the handler more control of the dog by  controlling the
> head rather than pulling on the dogs neck collar. I am deaf in my right
> ear,and even though I can still hear, I can not tell what direction the
> sound is coming from. By using the Halti, I can feel my dog move her head in
> the direction of the sound of traffic, and that tells me where the sound is
> comming from. It is easire to feel the leash in my hand move when the dog
> moves her head with the halti than it is from just using a neck collar.To me
> ,it is a very important piece of my dogs equipment. Yes I do use a regular
> guide dog harness,from LDS leather. I use a combination vest/harness on my
> trainees,and when the dog is ready to train with a harness, I attach a
> handle on it.I got the handle from Julie's  ON THE GO. The training
> vest/harness has a patch on bothe sides that says ,Guide Dog In Trainging,
> Do Not Pet. I like to give most of my dogs Lakota names,because I am half
> Lakota, and I want to keep the language alive. Too many Native Americans are
> no longer able to speak there own language, and the language of some tribes
> has been  lost forever. It is a part of my heritage.  Have a great day,
> Mardi and Nala,semi-retired, and Shaman, Gdit.
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