[nagdu] contact with puppy raisers/walkers

[Peter Donahue]

Good afternoon everyone,

    Yet every other guide dog school does permit some kind of puppy 
raiser-guide dog handler communication. Undoubtedly things like what you 
described happen and get worked out. If the other schools can work through 
these situations so can SE.

    Now before you tell me or anyone on this list that if they don't like 
SE's policy concerning puppy raiser contact any guide dog program I would 
choose to attend must meet the following criteria. It must:
1. Give its graduates full ownership of its dogs upon graduation;
2. It must permit direct contact between graduates and puppy raisers 
desiring such contact;
3. Students in training must be permitted to work their dogs off of the 
school grounds unaccompanied prior to graduation;
4. The school must employ blind guide dog trainers in addition to its other 
blind employees;
5. The school must incorporate sleepshade training in its program;
6. The school must use the Structured-Discovery Model in its programs;
7. The program's philosophy of blindness must be that of the NFB;

    GDB meets some of those criteria but not all of them. After reading the 
above list you'll know that you're telling the wrong person to "Switch 
schools" if they don't like a particular policy.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenine Stanley" <jeninems at wowway.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 3:59 PM
Subject: [nagdu] contact with puppy raisers/walkers


Although GDF does allow contact with puppy raisers/walker, I do feel the
need to defend TSE's no-contact policy. It has nothing, absolutely nothing,
to do with you being an adult. It's about the principle of anonymous giving,
selfless giving.

I've been in a workshop where a puppy raiser actually said "I raised these
dogs. I'm entitled to pet them whenever I want. You people are too mean to
them, never write back and don't deserve them."

The man who said this totally embarrassed his family and does not represent
all puppy raisers/walkers, but his opinion, or variations thereof, are out
there and make up the wide reasons people do raise puppies.

Also, not everything your dog does now is a result of things it did as a
puppy or was illegally allowed to do. I've heard from puppy walkers who were
crushed when hearing about their dogs' behavior as guides and were berated
by the handlers for allowing X, Y or Z when they did no such thing.

I think those who have issue with TSE's puppy contact policy should read in
the literature exactly why it was established. It screams respect for the
adult nature of blind people.

Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com



_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/pdonahue2%40satx.rr.com