[nagdu] cane skills as prerequisite for guide dog

[David Andrews]

Tracy:

As I understand it -- most of the Dog Guide schools say that people 
need good cane skills in order to be accepted.  It sounds like this 
isn't necessarily true, which I have always suspected.

Dave

At 01:32 PM 4/2/2010, you wrote:
>Marion, I don't necessarily agree that good cane skills should be a
>prerequisite for getting a guide dog.  It's a nice theory.  It would
>certainly be helpful.  But I know too many people who don't have
>spectacular cane skills, but do great with a dog.  Some of them are older
>people, who started getting dogs when cane training was not very
>available.  Some of them are from places where services for blind people
>are not very good.  Some of them went blind as senior citizens, and quite
>a few agencies don't serve that population very well, since they won't be
>employed.  Should we tell these people they have to wait until they can
>somehow get cane training?  I don't think so. I've met enough people for
>whom the dog was the thing that got them back out, living their lives, and
>I think getting out and living one's life is a great thing. I'm not
>willing to stand in someone's way over whether or not their cane skills
>measure up to some philosophical mark.
>
>Should we take good orientation as good enough?  Or should the guide dog
>schools offer cane training to prospective applicants who they feel should
>have it? They seem like reasonable approaches to me, and I believe they
>are
>the ones being carried out. Encouraging good cane skills is fine, but I
>wouldn't make it a prerequisite for a guide dog.
>Tracy