[nagdu] Drop-offs

Sat Mar 14 18:20:13 UTC 2009

Wayne,

I have given myself any  number of unplanned "drop offs" by falling asleep
on the bus.  Or chatting with another rider and totally spacing the
announcements.  /smile/  That can turn into an educational yet exhausting
oops!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Wayne Merritt
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 3:05 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Drop-offs

AS for if you're being monitored, no. In reality, when you're out you
could ask as many questions as you wanted, since it's just your word
against what they know. And no, the question can't be "Can I call a
cab?" I'm not sure if this is still done at the Centers, but probably
so. At the end of your program, after 6-9 months, there are a series
of travel related tests you have to complete. The drop is only one of
them. The other is to compose and plan a route that takes you to 4
cities/towns in your given area, going to one place in particular in
each city/town. This is referred to as the "monster route." This task
took me all day and into the night to complete and I was one tired
puppy when I got back to my apartment. I actually got off the bus at
the wrong stop but fortunately the bus came back to get me. I think
someone was watching out for me during that process. I was doing good
just staying awake while on the bus, much less getting off at the
right stop. You're allowed to ask as many questions as you want on the
monster route, which I did. For me, the monster was the day after my
drop, so I felt like the monster made up for the drop, at least in
terms of number of questions asked. The goal here is to plan trips to
and visit places you've never been to before. We had to write out our
trips and routes in Braile ahead of time, and we had to be specific
too, such as catch the number 23 on the northeast corner of Main and
Second at 12:34. The good thing was that after all was planned and we
had our O&M person check it, we took the Braille agenda with us on the
route, which was also good given all the details that I had to keep
track of and bus times.

I remember getting back to my apartment after the monster route at
8:30 at night, finding a message from a family member on my answering
machine requesting me to call them right away when I got back, and my
thought was, "Heck no, I'm going to bed," which I did. The only thing
that's monitored on the drop is if you take the blindfold off if
you're low vision, after being dropped off. There were stories among
students that the staff person who dropped you off, drove off a ways
and sat there initially jus to  see if you'd whip the blindfold off. I
don't know if the staff person did anything in that event, since that
didn't apply to me, but nonetheless that's the extent of their
monitoring. It was quite humbling for me to hear the car rapidly drive
away and then have the thought of, "I'm out in the middle of nowhere,
what do I do?" I stood there getting more and more upset at this
prospect, until finally the thought crossed my mind, "Well, I can
either go that way, or that way," and I suddenly drinned and struck
out in one direction.

These are standard things at the NFB Centers and are not likely to
change anytime soon. I know the drop sounds daunting, but believe me,
by that point in your training, you can handle it. And the one
question rule really doesn't matter, since one of the ideas of being
at an NFB Center in the first place is learning how to travel in any
circumstance, whetehr it be city, country, sidewalks or no, etc.

Wayne

On 3/13/09, Lora <blindhistory at gmail.com> wrote:
> Marty-
> I think it depends on the trainer because I never had to do thatand I went
> to class in July of last year.
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 6:25 PM, Marty Rahn <marty.rahn at juno.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>> What AnnaLisa says is true about Leader.  When I went in June of last
year
>> to get Monty, we were dropped off in pairs to find our way back to the
>> downtown training center toward the end of the last week of class.  They
>> drop you off in an area where you've previously worked, so you have some
>> familiarity with where you are.
>> MartyWith Leader Dog Monty
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "AnnaLisa Anderson" <
>> annalisa at sector14.net>
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 10:51 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Drop-offs
>>
>>
>> Hi Jenine and all,
>>>
>>> Some of the trainers at Leader do drop offs for the new students.  I
>>> think
>>> they did in my team after we retrains, or whatever you call us, left.  I
>>> believe if they're going to do it, it's something they do the very last
>>> week
>>> of class, and the students do it in pairs, as I understand it.  We
didn't
>>> have that in my first class there in 1991 though.  I think it depends on
>>> the
>>> training team.  I don't think they make it too difficult though, meaning
>>> they are dropped off in a familiar area where they have worked before,
>>> and
>>> they work their way back to the training center downtown.  I think they
>>> do
>>> post trainers along the route back, but they keep their distance,
however
>>> they will help if you get in a real jam or if a problem comes up with
the
>>> dog or something.  Don't quote me on this, I've heard about it
secondhand
>>> from students who did have drop offs, and I'm probably not remembering
it
>>> accurately.  It's getting late too and my brain isn't functioning at
full
>>> capacity right now either. <smile>
>>>
>>> AnnaLisa and Sundance
>>>
>>>
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>
> --
> Lora
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-- 
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www.whitecaneday.org

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