[nagdu] Welcome Haben

Mon Feb 9 22:52:09 UTC 2009

Hi Haben,
There is no web page for Paws That Heal.  We are a 3 year old program that 
is run out of the Health & Wellness Department for the Naval Medical Center 
of San Diego.  The program manager is their Diabetes Instructor. She is 
visually impaired with a guide dog and she started the program after an 
encounter in the elevator with a Wounded Warrior in her building.  The 
servicemember had a profound stutter and it took him five minutes to stutter 
out, "May I pet your dog?"  My friend - the instructor - allowed him to pet 
her dog and the stutter went away just like that!  He then shared his war 
experiences with her - the servicemember was wounded in Iraq.

Anyway, the Diabetes instructor happens to have been a friend of mine for 
years.  She also knows several of the other guide dog users in the San Diego 
area who already had a program with the local blind center where we bring 
our dogs to an outdoor, fenced in dog park to allow the guide dogs play time 
together.  We had exclusive use of one of the fenced in areas for two hours 
once a month.  The friend of mine worked with us and her chain of command at 
the hospital and permission was granted to bring several wounded 
servicemembers to the park to play with our dogs - and Paws That Heal was 
born.  We also have a portion of the program where we go to the locked 
mental health ward to work with the servicemembers with PTSD and depression. 
More great stuff happened as well.

I do have a flyer for the program but it is in a PDF file and turned 
sideways - don't know if a screen reader can desipher it!

The program manager has written to Marion Gwizdala and he in turn had her 
contact Mike Hingson about the program. We are looking for some new teams to 
work with us who live in the San Diego area.  The Paws program happens three 
times a month at the hospital so we need people who can get there, can 
commit the time, and pass the interviewing process - both human and dog.

I forgot, where do you live?

HTH

Linda and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Welcome Haben

> Linda, those volunteer programs sound awesome! Would you send me the web 
> address for Paws that Heal? I'd love to read more about it.
>
> thanks,
> Haben
>
> lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com wrote:
>> Welcome to the list, Haben.
>>
>> I'm Linda and I live in San Diego - soon to move to Vermont.  Landon is 
>> my 3 year old red Lab/Golden cross from The Seeing Eye.  I got him in the 
>> October 2007 class. I am 58 years young and have not had a paid job in 
>> eons. I've done lots of volunteer jobs to get experience to put on a 
>> resume!  Right now, Landon and I work at two pet therapy programs.  One 
>> for the Humane Society where we visit various facilities for disabled 
>> kids and adults. Landon is certified by the AKC's Canine Good Citizenship 
>> Test.  Landon is their program's first actual working assistance dog 
>> they've had.  Lots of guide dog and service dog pups, but we are their 
>> first working team to be in the program.  The other one is a program 
>> called Paws That Heal that is at the Naval Medical Center of SD.  Both 
>> Landon and I had to pass a series of interviews for this.  We do a combo 
>> pet therapy, socialization, and reintegration work with our Wounded 
>> Warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan.  We work mainly with the patients on 
>> the mental health ward.
>>
>> Haben, you'll enjoy this list - it's alot of fun.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Linda and Landon
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 9:27 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Welcome Haben
>>
>>
>>> Hi Mardi, thanks for the explanations. I love the names of your dogs. I 
>>> actually don't have a dog, I'm in the application process for a Seeing 
>>> Eye dog right now. So, I'm patiently waiting to learn my fate.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Haben
>>>
>>> Mardi Hadfield wrote:
>>>>  Hi every one,     Welcome Haben.   No, I don't live in Alaska.  My 
>>>> Huskies
>>>> are "south paws"  We live in Tucson, Arizona.  When I first needed a 
>>>> guide
>>>> dog, I was told that the schools did not train for wheelchair 
>>>> users.Since I
>>>> already had a service dog, who was a husky, I hired a trainer to help 
>>>> me
>>>> train Lily  to guide me. I had to retire her at age 8 as she had health
>>>> issues and she died month later, leaving me with out a guide dog.  I 
>>>> tried
>>>> out a border collie and he did not work out as he had been abused 
>>>> before I
>>>> got him and he could not handle being out in public. Then I got another
>>>> husky, Nala,who was a fantastic guide. She will soon be 10 years old 
>>>> and has
>>>> health issues now.She has guided me for 8 years and it has been hard to
>>>> retire her as she does not want to retire. When she sees me getting 
>>>> ready to
>>>> go out, she brings me her harness and get all excited. She started 
>>>> picking
>>>> fights with Wanagi, the dog that I was training to take over for Nala. 
>>>> She
>>>> is a lot happier now that she is working again part time. Wanagi came 
>>>> up
>>>> lame with a hip problem, so she was  career changed. I am keeping her 
>>>> as a
>>>> pet. I have been looking for a dog to take over as my new guide for 
>>>> over 10
>>>> months. I think I have finally found a dog.I would love to get a dog 
>>>> from
>>>> Fidelco,but when I asked about it ,I was told that they don't train for
>>>> wheelchair users.I would have to pay my way to and from South Eastern 
>>>> Guide
>>>> Dogs, which I could not afford, and really can't be away that long. 
>>>> Guide
>>>> Dogs for the Blind would take me ,but again, I can't be away  from my 
>>>> home
>>>> and business that long. So I guess I will just continue to train my own
>>>> guides with the help of my trainer.  Haben, do you have a guide dog? If 
>>>> so ,
>>>> what breed is it? I love hearing from others and about their dogs. 
>>>> Have a
>>>> great day,  Mardi and Nala,semi-retired, and Shaman , possible trainee.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> nagdu mailing list
>>>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>>>> nagdu:
>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/habnkid%40aol.com
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nagdu mailing list
>>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>>> nagdu:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/lindagwizdak%40peoplepc.com
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nagdu mailing list
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> nagdu:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/habnkid%40aol.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/lindagwizdak%40peoplepc.com
> 