[nagdu] PBS program link

[Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)]

Julie, 
This is exactly what I wanted. Will watch and if I have anything to
share, will do so

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Julie J
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 8:54 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] PBS program link

Here's the link to the PBS program

http://video.pbs.org/video/1475527358

When I went to that link the video started playing automatically.   No
clue if that's just my settings or if it will do that for everyone.

My thoughts on the program...
I'm with Tracy, that bit at the beginning about how the dogs give the
person their life and happiness was disturbing.  I also noticed that
they used, "confined to a wheelchair" which is generally not accepted
among disability groups.  I was also very, very not impressed by a
statement toward the end of the program about the people not being
normal, then they get the dogs and can have a life and a job.

this particular service dog program seems to place a lot of dogs with
young children.  The video mentions 5 kids and only one adult.  It was
interesting to see how much the parents and other family members were
involved in the process.

I liked the trainer, Chris.  He uses positive training methods, mainly
luring.  It was really cool to see how he could use eye movement to cue
the dog, very useful for nonverbal people.

The program focuses a lot on the emotional aspects of service dogs.
Probably 95% of what they talked about were bonding and partnership
aspects and very little in actual tasks.

The matching process was very, very different from what is typical in
guide dog programs.  It seemed to me that they let all the dogs and
people mingle in one big room.  The dogs and people picked each other.
I'm not sure how big the class was, but there were two dog switches, one
during class and another a few weeks after returning home.  I like the
concept of choosing your own dog, to a point. I don't know that a free
for all matching process is the best way to go though.

JMO
Julie
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