[nagdu] Ability versus perception

Jenine Stanley jeninems at wowway.com
Sun May 17 21:36:59 UTC 2009


Mike put it well in his message about perceived abuse versus
misunderstanding. 

To add to this debate, just putting myself in the shoes of those receiving
the dreaded health reports for an instance. 

Marion notes that if a school contacts someone based on something staff see
in a submitted health report, this assumes that person cannot care for the
dog due to blindness. 

I'd assert, based on how I've seen staff tackle this both at my current
employer and other schools, that it can go two ways. Yes, there are staff
who might make assumptions about one's ability based on what they know about
blindness and blindness skill levels. 

I can say though that if something is indeed mentioned by a staff member
about the dog's health report, it's usually done from the perspective of a
teacher remonstrating a former pupil. 

Either that or we discover from gathering this data that over half of the
dogs that graduate from our program gain over 10 pounds during their working
lives. Hmmm, what are we doing to breed such characteristics in our dogs? 

The thought process might look something like: ""We taught you while you
were here that anything more than a weight gain of X number of pounds is
cause for concern as an overweight dog is just waiting for all kinds of
health problems. Blindness has nothing to do with your ability to feed or
not feed your dog and we taught you how to monitor its weight without using
your sight. We want you to have that dog as a working guide for as long as
you  can so we feel it prudent to warn you about the weight gain we see in
your report." 

Now, reality says that some staff take this a little too far. I won't deny
that. I think they do get frustrated when seeing things that can be avoided
in health reports, like weight gain that is unchecked, etc. They know the
training we receive and that it is geared to take into account our blindness
so that it's not an issue in dog care. 

If you buy a dog for breeding or showing, you often sign a contract with
various stipulations. I've heard about breeders who will indeed rake you
over the coals if they see your dog is out of condition, or if they do not
receive required reports. Those are legally binding contracts between
individuals with all levels of skill and physical characteristics, sighted,
blind, hearing impaired, etc., and everyone gets the same treatment. 

Just something to consider. 
 Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com





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