[nagdu] schools

[Pickrell, Rebecca M (IT)]

The other thing is that a dog that is returned by one person may work
well with someone else. 
There is also no way to quantify the number of people from a given
school that may not return a dog but may be very displeased. 
It's a difficult thing to quantify objectively. 
Tracy's note does offer some good suggestions for selecting a school. 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:33 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] schools

Hi Bob.
I think the Council of Guide Dog Schools has some kind of standards its
members are supposed to adhere to, but, within that, I think there is a
wide variance.  Like, Princeton and Montana State are both accredited
universities, but they're very different.  But people can attend one or
the other, and be very happy.  Or attend the one that's supposed to be
better, and be very unhappy, I suppose.

The Eames's book A Guide to Guide Dog Schools, in the edition I read 20
years ago, tried to give statistics about dogs returned and such, but I
don't know how successful their attempt as objective assessment was.  I
do remember that it made schools I think are bad look good, and schools
I think are good look bad.

It would be nice to have some kind of objective assessment of schools'
quality, but, as with colleges, maybe it's a hard thing to do.  I guess
the best way to assess a school is still to talk to graduates, decide
for yourself if their dogs do what you think a guide dog should, and
talk to the school staff, and decide if you feel they are treating you
as you wish to be treated.  All highly subjective.
But it would be nice if one could get some idea of how successful School
X is.  Like, what percentage of their dogs are returned, or retire
young, due to work or health reasons?  That might be a fairly useful
statistic, if one could get it.

Tracy

> Good Morning:
>
> I believe that there are approximately 10 certified schools in the 
> United States.  Is anyone aware of any qualitative assessment of these

> various schools?
>
> Thank you in advance for your input.
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