[nagdu] new

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Katrin,

Are you sure he's not a poodle in disguise?  /grin/  Actually, the theory is
that curly-coated retrievers and poodles are distantly related, so maybe
there is some commonality there.  I get mad as a wet hen if somebody goes on
about hoe my guide dog provides companionship I must need in my lonely
world, but the truth is that Mitzi is a kick in the pants and a really good
buddy to hang out with and play and laugh with when she's not working.
/smile/  She does the funniest, craziest things, too, and has an incredible
sense of humor.  So she's always cracking me up.  She's all business in
harness now, with only occasional distracted moments.

I ended up training her much as you describe your training James.  I got me
this puppy, she seems to have all the right stuff, I know how to train
animals and I've read a lot about guide and service dogs, so...  It wasn't
so much a questions of deciding why I should train her for guiding as it was
simply not being able to come up with an answer to the question, "Why *not*
train her?"  It's a whole new level, though, isn't it?

I'm glad you have good docotrs and that you've found a program to work with.
O&M training is a really good idea, too.  I have retinitis pigmentosa, which
means I'm losing my retinal cells from the outside in, and have been in the
process of losing that last central vision for about 10 years now.  The
process doesn't happen smoothly, so I'll adapt to a certain level when it's
stable for awhile, then lose some more and have to adapt...  That has gone a
lot more smoothly since I started just using my adaptive skills anyway,
although I tend to get lazy and use whatever level of vision I've adapted to
and then wonder why I go all to pieces and have horrible headaches when I
suddenly can't see...  So I can sorta relate to your ups and downs.  So much
of vision is in the brain, anyway!  If I have a really rapid progression, or
if a lot of small ones suddenly catch up with me for some reason, I'm
functionally way more "blind" that I would be on paper if an ophthamologist
looked into my eyes at that time.  Other times, I "see" way better than I
would on paper, just because my brain has adapted and learned to use the
visual information it's getting more efficiently.

Anyway, I've gotten a lot fewer concussion since I made the
mental/psychological crossover from "sighted but can't see too good" to
"blind."  Sometimes I find myself getting into trouble because mentally I'm
"using" my vision where it's not really usable, and then I use sunglasses or
sleepshade to retrain myself.

Having a guide dog really helps with orientation during these times.  When I
would go through them with my cane, my orientation would fall all to pieces
between one step and the next, and there I would be reeling down the
sidewalk like the proverbial drunken sailor!  So not cool!  /smile/  Also,
it would take forever to get where I was going that way, and I would be
really frazzled when I got there.  Ugh!  I keep up my cane skills as I lose
more vision and adapt, but when those moments of disorientation happen now,
I can just pay more attention to following my dog and trusting her, which
resolves the problem really quickly.  Whew!

How old is James?

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Katrin Andberg
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:10 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] new

Thanks Tami for the words of welcome.  Flat Coats aren't called the "Peter
Pan of the retriever world" for nothing.  James certainly has a joie de
vivre.  He does know the difference between work and play, and takes his job
helping me very seriously but for him he does love his 'off time' and
swimming in the pond, playing with a toy, or wrestling with his house mates
are all good fun.

 

"As for how the schools would look at your condition in evaluating you for

admission, I can't begin to guess.  Functionally and perceptionally, it

makes no difference whether the blindness is in your brain or your eyeballs.

You can see or you can't, and if you can't see, you're blind.  I hope you

can find a program that will see it that way.  Do you have a good

neurologist or ophthamologist who can write a letter explaining your form of

blindness?  Do you know if your condition has enough recognition that you

can provide informational material to help the admissions staff grasp the

issue?"

 

I do have a great neurologist and at my next appt I plan to bring this issue
of my next working guide up with him.  He's supported my use of James since
the beginning, so I don't see it as being an issue.  My opthamoligist
already sent a supporting letter to GDF saying I use a dog not for a problem
with my eyes but for a problem with my senses.  I also have another dr who
works with me on my sensory processing issues who is very much in support of
my using a guide and has seen James work in a number of situations and is
going to write a supporting letter as well.

 

I'm lucky in that I've been a dog trainer for 13 years and knew about
service and guide dogs and what some of the things those dogs could do for
people, and at the time James was a puppy who wanted a job and seemed well
suited for what I needed so I started training him as my guide and it worked
out very well and has worked well for the past 6 years.  We're definitely a
team and I trust him completely.  I'm now going through O&M training,
through a private instructor, as I've come to realize that it could probably
help me out immensely as well should something happen to James before I get
my next guide.  And help me around my house when James isn't 'on duty'.

 

It's all very much trial and error when no one, the medical folks included,
really understands the disorder, especially how it affects adults, and how
everyone I know with a sensory processing disorder it manifests differently.
Even for me, I have some days where the effect is less and I can walk around
my house and not walk into stuff, and some days it's very difficult to
navigate and I give myself a concussion due to hitting solid objects as I
walk by too quickly and some days where it's in between.  

 

Katrin & James 

 

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