[nagdu] Guide dog starter age

[Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC Inc)]

Interesting. Can Tim or anyone speaking on his behalf talk more about
this? Why did he get a dog so young? What made him different from every
other nine-year-old? And, what made his dog use successful if indeed it
was? 
Finally, did his mom help him learn to be an advocate for himself or did
she impose her will on him. Hard to say "No, Mom, I don't want a dog
that will give me independence" at the age of nine, you know. 


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Charlene Ota
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 8:21 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide dog starter age

I have a friend who got his first guide dog from Pilot Dogs when he was
9.
His Mom really went to bat for him when he was growing up in the 60's in
many ways and he was a very independent kid and somehow managed to
convince
the powers that be that he get his dog and he's had dogs every since.

Charlene 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf
Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 9:55 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Guide dog starter age

Dave Loux, recently retired from TSE, got his first dog when he was 14. 
I've heard it was because of an unusually demanding route to school.
That
would have been in the 1970's, I guess.
I hear that schools occasionally make an exception to the 16-year-old
rule,
but there have to be unusual circumstances, and they don't advertise it.
Tracy


> I've heard of dogs being given to young kids like that, but usually 
> it's with kids that have other disabilities such as autism. Haven't 
> heard of a blind kid getting a guide dog, except in one case where the

> kid ended up leading the dog around school, and the district sent them

> back to be retrained after the first year. Turned out the teen didn't 
> need a dog to get around his school. I'm not sure how that ended up, 
> but it does illustrate that guide dog schools say 16 fora  reason.
>
> Wayne
>



_______________________________________________
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/caota%40hawaii.rr
.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/rebecca.pickrell%
40ngc.com