[nagdu] a couple questions

Mon Dec 6 19:12:57 UTC 2010

Nimer,

Thanks for sharing.  I always like to hear people's impressions of their
experiences with various guide dog programs.

I also enjoy hearing someone else mention when an issue they need to resolve
with their dog is, in truth, them instead of the dog.  /smile/  Don't get me
wrong, I hear more than enough stories of dog issues that the program people
will blame on the handler instead of admitting that the dog didn't come out
perfect for the real world outside the training environment.  Makes my hair
stand on end, honestly, even when I don't know enough to properly know
what's really going on.  My "blame the blind consumer" experiences have been
with my state's VR system, and it's ended up costing me a lot of more than
money, so I'm ever so slightly (ha!) over sensitive to that sort of thing.
/smile/

Still, for some reason, the only thing that makes me madder than being
blamed for the results of someone else's misdeeds (or whatever you want to
call it; that's the word that popped out just now) is when I screw up by not
listening to my dog with a consequence that someone else notices....  So
then they tell me all about how evil and rotten my dog is and how I need to
to get her properly trained and maybe I should just get a different dog who
knows how to....  Etc., etc.

If my dog leads me around something minor and I keep walking straight anyway
(or whatever) so that I have a minor bump or trip on the thing she was
taking me around....  I'm the idiot!

My current version of "love me, love my dog," sometimes seems to turn into
"insult me, don't insult my dog!"  /lol/  I know just how hard she has
worked to get where she is, and I won't have people dissing her for my
mistakes.

Then there are the times I'm reminding her about some point of proper guide
dog etiquette only to 14 people (including whomever I'm with, who should
know better) say, "Oh, she's fine!  She's not bothering anybody.  Just let
her..."  Sigh.  She's just so *kew-ute"!  It's never anything big, mind you.
It's just, say, I want her to lie down in a specific spot by where I'm
sitting in a metting in someone's home, only to discover that she is
apparently wanted sprawling (a 50 pound poodle can really sprawl!) in the
floor because everyone is just dying to step over and/or around her.  /lol/
With this dog, I have discovered it's easier on her nervers (and thus the
amount of vomit I have to clean up later) if we go with the flow, so long as
everyone is safe and happy.  I am very fortunate in that she can distinguish
levels of formality in a given milieu better than I can and will adjust
accordiingly.  So if we walk into a formal meeting, especially one that
might be tense (say with the OCB, which I'm done with, unless I need to deal
with them for leverage to get something done about them...), she lies down
under the conference table -- or in an out of the way spot beside my chair,
depending on setting -- and doesn't twitch unless she lets out a sigh after
the better part of an hour.  Excatly what a guide dog should do, and she
doesn't need reminding from me!

Strange creature, my poodle.  She is truly an absolutely delightfully,
wonderfully, even literally incredibly perfect total snot monster.  /lol/  I
will never understand her, I'm sure, but that's one of the things I've come
to love most about her.

As you may notice, I reserve the right to insult my dog at will.  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Nimer Jaber
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 9:57 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] a couple questions

Hello,

I Applied to all those schools. I only attended Seeing Eye. GDB would've 
been my second pick. Leaderdog has a very lengthy app and I believe they 
require six references and a video for their app, although I could be 
wrong about that. Also, I've known a few leaderdog teams, and they 
didn't work as well as, in my experience with knowing people, GDB and 
TSE. GDB's staff were extremely kind and their app process was very fast 
and smooth. TSE's a good school. My issues with them were as a result of 
issues with one or two staff members, and not the instructors, the 
training, the accommodations, or anything else about the school. The 
stay is very comfortable, the app process was very smooth, and the 
training was excellent and very individualized. Abbie is a great guide 
and more importantly a better dog. Any times I've had slight issues with 
navigation (most if not all were my fault), the support I received both 
over the phone and in person was very quick and always solved my 
problems in one or two calls. I've never needed more than one visit from 
an instructor to resolve a problem. I was able to get help from an 
instructor navigating a college campus as well as some pretty busy and 
complicated intersections near my place when I moved to Austin. So if 
you want my recommendation, I'd pick TSE because I haven't found anyone 
who has attended there and has had any major issues that were 
unresolvable. If you don't wish to, from what I've heard and observed, 
GDB is an excellent choice as well, and they do have two campuses, so 
you will get to choose whether you wish to work in a more populated area 
or in a more country setting, although from what I hear they still work 
hard, as TSE does, to put graduates in all types of different environments.

Thanks, and hope this helps.

Nimer J

On 12/05/2010 11:44 PM, Terra Syslo wrote:
> Hi. I am in the process to start applying to guide dog schools, and I
think
> I have it narrowed down to 2 or 3 schools I'm looking at. Can anyone give
me
> some information as to your experiences with Leader Dogs for the Blind?
I'm
> also considering GDF and maybe Seeing Eye. Thanks for any info.
>
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