[nagdu] PBS program link

[Linda Gwizdak]

Yeah, Julie, I saw that comment at the end of the show - missed the 
beginning.  I thought, "Well, if a dog gets you a job - hey, where's my 
job!!" Hahaha!

It seems that everything about disabled and dogs have this component of 
"AAAAAHHH! How warm and fuzzy!"  And how we disabled have no lives unless we 
are partnered with a dog. They NEVER show us living our lives as normal 
people and that the dogs do enhance what is already there in our lives. Not 
create our lives.  So many times people will tell me that it's great I have 
such a neat "best friend" as if I had no friends other than Landon. I smile 
and tell them that he is my best CANINE friend - to assume I have best HUMAN 
friends!

This all happens because it's the NON blind or disabled people who make 
these films and NOT us who live with the blindness or disability.  I wish 
our communities had the money to make films about our own lives from the 
viewpoint of a blind or disabled person. Without the warm fuzzy stuff that 
generates money to the programs.

It all seemed strange with all the people and dogs running around in that 
room.  I saw toddlers running around as well. It seemed like alot of 
distraction there and how could they really make the best matches of dog and 
person?

I like how we get matched at guide dog school.

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 5:53 AM
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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