[nagdu] schools

Fri Feb 20 12:00:00 UTC 2009

    Even the "standards" of the International Federation of Guide dog 
Schools is questionable. I know of one school that had their site visit by 
IFGDS on a Friday and on Monday released nearly 50% of their training staff. 
When IFGDS was alerted to this fact, to the best of my knowledge, they took 
no action and still accredited the school.

Fraternally,
Marion Gwizdala


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Weiner" <dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] schools


> Hi, guys.
>
> This brings up another interesting question.
> Bob mentioned "certified schools". Now those of you who know me know I'm 
> not
> somewhat who splits hairs, but I would ask "certified by whom"?  As far as 
> I
> can tell, the guide dog industry is a self-regulating  industry here in 
> the
> US at any rate.
> The only certification I could think of other than the US council of Guide
> Dogs schools here would be that many of the schools are members of the
> International Federation of Guide Dog Schools.
>
> Also, would we want schools certified, I mean regulated, and then by whom?
> Do we want the government involved like in some countries?
> I suspect not but I'm just throwing it out as it's an interesting 
> question.
>
> I know the state of California has a guide dog board, but to be blunt what
> I've heard about it is that it's a rubber stamp pretty much for the
> California schools.
> Enough for now but I have more thoughts on this.
> For example, let's say someone got bad service and many people from a
> particular school got bad service.  There's no certification or regulation
> so what stops a particular school from producing more slip-shod work.
> I'm not citing anyone here as I've met people with dogs from all the US
> schools, I think, well with the exception of Ocupaws, and I've met people
> who've had stellar experiences with all of them and people who have had
> really, really bad luck from any and all.
>
> We really have no way of knowing, for example, if let's say school X has a
> lot of dissatisfied customers and as a result their applications go way 
> down
> one year, do we?
> What if, say, a lot of people had unsafe dogs from School X and were
> retiring them, we wouldn't know that either, you get my drift, I think.
>
>
> Dan W. and the happy hounds
> -----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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>
>
>
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