[nagdu] cane skills as prerequisite for guide dog

[cheryl echevarria]

I am hoping Jeanine Stanly from GDF might give us an update on this issue or 
maybe one of the other schools that are on this list, and give in on there 
rules here, or maybe again, this would be a good question to bring up at the 
convention this year when the schools give there reports.

Cheryl Echevarria
Independent Travel Consultant
http://Echevarriatravel.com
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Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel CST-1018299-10


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] cane skills as prerequisite for guide dog


> 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
>
>
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