[nagdu] guide dogs

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Jennifer,

Caring about what other people think is a good thing.  /smile/  Letting
others make your decisions for you is another matter altogether.

You are fortunate to have a close enough family that it does matter to you
how they will respond to your dog.  That same closeness may make it more
difficult for you to draw new lines with them when it comes to the dog
because you care more about their feelings and opinions than you might for
joe blow on the street.

Since you have another six months or so to work on it, you can keep
preparing yourself and them.  And perhaps you can begin to get a better feel
for how you want your guide to fit into the family context.

As you gather information and talk more with them, you will also have time
to better understand your own feelings and perspective in the matter.  For
instance, you may start to get a feel for how deep a line in the sand you're
willing to draw when it comes to their attitudes towards the dog, and how
flexible you're willing to be to compromise without giving up your
independence.

It is a tricky problem, especially with a guide dog, since others see our
dogs so differently than we do.  They may know a whole lot about how a guide
dog works and what it does, but they can't know how it is to actually take
that harness handle and say, "forward," and go whizzing off into the world
like we know where we're going.  /smile/  They can't really experience the
difference between a dog and a cane or a human guide.  They can't truly
grasp how fatiguing it can be to swing a cane for hours, or how much less
mentally fatiguing it can be to follow your dog confidently around obstacles
without having to worry about them.  For me, even just crossing the street
is much more relaxing when I know that I'm going in a straight line to the
curb and can listen to traffic and other sounds for safety along the way and
that I will end up where I want to be on the sidewalk even if there's some
hairy construction going on I would have to stop and be confused over as the
traffic light changed.  And so on.  Those sorts of things are a big deal for
me, but difficult to explain to others who can see what's up ahead and look
to see where all the cars are. /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jennifer L Finley
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 4:45 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] guide dogs

I hate the fact that I care about what other people think, but I guess that
I will over come this when I get my dog.  I guess it's where me and my
family are so close.  I mean I am sure that all of you have had to deal with
the same things that I am going through.
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