[nagdu] PBS program link

Sat Apr 24 11:43:32 UTC 2010

Ann,

Nothing more to add except to say bravo for putting it so perfectly. I agree
with you and your take on the documentary, you obviously got into the deeper
message of the documentary and what it meant to convey. Hope and opportunity
for people through a dedicated and capable canine! What do you say we find
funding to do something for guides, both horses and dogs!!?

Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
CEO/Founder
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
PH: 917-553-0347
Fax: 212-858-5759
"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it."

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-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ann Edie
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 12:17 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] PBS program link

Hi, All,

I thought the "Through a Dog's Eyes" program was very well done, and not too

bad in the pity department.  Yes, they did emphasize the bond between the 
people and the dogs, perhaps over the actual physical help the dog can be by

performing tasks.  But I think they were correct that the task training does

no good in the long run if the bond and relationship aren't there.

I also think they did a very good job of showing all the hard work that goes

into building a working team after the new partners go home from the 
training program.  I thought the program showed very realistically how 
careful a family has to be to foster and nurture the relationship between 
the intended handler and the new dog in order to make the team a success, 
especially when the intended handler is a child.  As they showed, dogs will 
naturally gravitate to the most nurturing person in the family, especially 
if the dog is less confident itself, and in most cases, it takes a lot of 
work to teach a child to be the nurturer of the dog, especially if an adult 
is doing a lot of the routine care of the dog because the child cannot 
physically do it, and even more so if the dog is not going to school with 
the child but is staying at home all day with the parent.  The fact that 
left to their own devices, many of the dogs do choose a child with special 
needs to be their person and to mutually nurture and support is truly 
amazing and wonderful.

And I think they did a great job of showing that things don't always work 
out, and that it is not the fault of the new handler, or the dog, or anyone,

it just happens, and no one is necessarily to blame.  I think perhaps the 
guide dog training schools might take a leaf from this program's book and 
openly admit the percentages of graduate teams that end in the first few 
months or years.  When was the last time you saw in a video from a guide dog

program several cases of guide relations that didn't work out?--and 
presented as just a normal part of the process!

I do think it is a great idea to let the intended handlers and the dogs find

and choose each other.  I think the success rate, even in the case of 
long-established guide dog programs, would be at least as high using this 
method as it is using instructor-matching .  When I went to TSE for the 
first time, the instructors had a dog in the "house" which was there because

his person was incapacitated for a while.  I volunteered to groom and keep 
that dog company before we got matched, and, given the choice, I would have 
taken that dog home.  He was a GSD, just the breed I wanted, and had the 
characteristics I wanted temperamentally and behaviorally.  And we just felt

comfortable together from the first moment.  Of course, that dog wasn't 
available, and the dog I went home with worked out just fine, although we 
did not have that instant bond.

But I do think the dogs should have a chance to choose their people, more 
than that the people should have a chance to choose the dogs.  I think 
people have preconceived notions of what kind of dog they want.  But the 
dogs go much more on "feel" and "energy."  People can be so influenced by 
what is fashionable, or by what status they think a particular size, or 
color, or breed of dog will confer on them, or by how the particular dog 
will affect their image.  But dogs choose their people on how comfortable 
they feel with that person, by how their energies match, and by how they 
complement each other's strengths and needs.

And I didn't get the impression that it was a complete free-for-all in the 
matching process.  I got the impression that the dogs are introduced to the 
people in a somewhat structured and controlled way, with trainers observing 
and noting the dogs' and the people's responses to each other, and that 
after seeing how all the dogs and people respond to each other, that it 
gradually becomes apparent where most of the matches lie.  Then, as 
described in the program, there may be a couple of more tricky matches that 
the trainers need to be creatively involved in facilitating.

I think the guide dog training programs might consider adopting something 
like this system by letting prospective handlers interact with several dogs 
over those first couple of days at the school, perhaps let them groom, play 
with, or take the dogs for a leisure walk or take them to meals with them. 
I think it would soon become apparent which people were beaming and which 
dogs had eyes for only that one person.

Another thing I really liked about this program was the description of their

training and handling philosophy.  They realized that the old dominance 
theory of dog training was not going to work for their handlers, and they 
have adopted a positive reinforcement based training method that doesn't 
rely on force, and which takes advantage of a dog's willingness to please 
and to work happily for rewards that are meaningful to the dog.

I do disagree with one point in this program, and that is that dogs are the 
only species that can have this special bond with people.  I know from 
experience that the same kind of bond can grow between a person and a horse,

and I suspect that the same goes for other species which have been in 
millennia long close relationships with human beings.  Horses, too, seem to 
be able to read our thoughts.  They do seem to understand that it is their 
job to keep us from harm in certain ways.  And they seem to accept us as 
their "family" and to adopt roles that they might fill in their packs or 
"bands" in the case of horses.

I don't blame the makers of the TV program or the people from the assistance

dog program for having this canine-centric point of view.  After all, how 
many people in this day and age have had the opportunity to develop a close 
relationship with a horse, or a camel, or a llama, or an elephant, for that 
matter?  Yet I believe that if we accept the animal for what it is and we 
respect the animal and its "culture" and how it sees the world, we will find

that we can have deep and caring relationships with individuals of a number 
of species and that these animals show amazing responsiveness and awareness 
of us and our needs.

Anyway, it seemed to me that this service dog training program was applying 
refreshingly creative thinking to the challenges of pairing people with 
disabilities with dogs and fostering good working and companion 
relationships between them.  They obviously didn't just go and observe some 
guide dog training programs and model their program on what was decided in 
the 1930's and 1940's.  So I give both the Canine Assistants program and the

PBS producers high marks for producing a very interesting and 
thought-provoking piece.

Best,
Ann

----- 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 8:53 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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