[nagdu] Congratulations / Michel's question

[Mardi Hadfield]

Hi every one,    Congratulations Angie!   for those who worry about all the
practices.......Don't ya know?...........Practice Makes
Perfect............LOL       I once called GDB to ask some questions about
getting a dog from them. When I mentioned that I was a wheelchair user, I
was told that they only trained guides for their graduates who used
wheelchairs. I mentioned that I had a dog that had been privately trained to
guide me from my chair and they told me, that if it wasn't trained by a
school,it was not considered a guide dog. When I mentioned that the dog had
been a husky, this person laughed and said huskies are not guide dogs and
never will be. I was asked if my trainer had even been licenced. I told her
that my trainer and I lived in Arizona, not California, and she said that I
had no business training this dog and calling it a guide dog. I asked her
what she thought I should do to get a guide dog. She said,she didn't know
but I should not continue to train my own. I told her that the ADA said that
I could train my own dog. She said that under the ADA, my dog was considered
a service dog, and not a guide dog. She then asked what kind of harness I
used on my dog, because if I was using a guide dog harness,that was illegal.
I thanked her for the information and hung up.  At first, I felt like maybe
I had done something wrong, and that I would never be able to get a guide
dog from a school.This person made me feel that she was laughing at me and
that I was some idiot that was claiming that I had a legitimate guide
dog,that was really a fake. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got,
and decided that she really did not know the ADA, and she certainly did not
know any thing about my vision diagnosis or the ability of my trainer. Nick
said he would be more than willing to train another dog for me and we found
Nala and the rest is history. I have since talked to other people who have
trained their own dogs , including one man that always trains his own Husky
guide dogs. I also found this list and the rest you all know.  I am so glad
I found this list and did not listen to the woman from GDB. I do not know
who she was as I can't remember her name, and this was my only experience
with a school. I never got any calls back from the Eye Dog Foundation, so I
don't know how they would have responded to me about my husky guide dog or
even about getting a dog from them. The experience turned me off to guide
dog schools for a while. I have since talked with a few others, but did not
mention any thing about my dog. Who knows, maybe some day there will be a
school willing to home train a wheelchair guide dog for me.Until then I will
continue to train my own. Have a great day,  Mardi and Nala,semi-retired and
Shaman, gdit

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http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/