[nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

Fri May 14 16:17:11 UTC 2010

That's a facet of the guide dogs for kids scene I hadn't considered.  So
even if the kid at whatever early age is responsible enough for a dog and
even has that added level of maturity needed for a guide dog, the public
interactions with the dog could prove to be *very* problematic.  Huh.  It's
tough enough managing public interactions with my dog as a blind adult.  Why
should they listen to what I tell them about my dog?  I don't get it often,
thanks to the education GDB has done around here, but every once in awhile I
do have to work on cummunicating the rules and sometimes simply end up
reinforcing them because the intruder can neither see nor hear me.  Grrr!

It was pretty startling the first time someone rolled down their window so
say "Hi, Mitzi!"  /lol/  Especially since I didn't know who it was.  Mitzi
was still a pup, working on leash to the dog park, where we were just
beginning to pick up new friends.  Well, she was, anyway.  /grin/

Now I just answer to Mitzi, as well as to Tami, Tommy, Mitzi's mom...
Whatever.

Then again, for some reason over my adult life, I have always had best
friends who are recognized everywhere they go, while I am not....  Or we get
called by each other's names, or whatever, even if we look nothing alike.  I
used to worry about what that said about me when I was 19 and 20, then
finally just gave it up and started worrying about whatever other issues one
worries about at that age.  /smile/  So now answering for my dog when people
greet her just seems funny in a rather absurd, curious way.

I guess you can get used to anything.  /smile/  Even invisibility!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Buddy Brannan
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 5:26 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

See, part of my problem is with the way that we're portrayed by this
reporter. Not so much this one guy's view, which, well, it's his, and let's
face it, he experienced a loss, for which he grieved. But to project that
onto the rest of us, "look, this grown man had such a terrible time, imagine
what the children are going through." Well. Yeah. It trotted out every
single stereotype we've all worked so hard to overcome, every one, without
even overlooking a single one of them. And even so, even *with* the dog,
this guy's life seems pretty pathetic, really, if this article is to be
believed. Even so, people *still* don't recognize him, but instead roll down
their car windows and holler greetings at his dog. I don't know about you,
but when that happens to me, I feel very, very invisible, and I can't say
I'm grateful or pleased by this contact with the general public. 

The issue of kids getting guide dogs really is a lot more far-reaching than
it looks on its face. By the nature of our work with these dogs, we have to
be the dog's immediate partner. In many cases, this means we as the dog's
handler are the authority figure in this relationship. Kids simply aren't in
a position to buck authority figures who might interfere with their handling
of a dog, no matter how mature. What kind of position does this put a
pre-teen kid, much less a high school kid, when he has to tell an adult,
"You can't pet my dog, he's working", or "No you may not give my dog a
treat"? In far too many cases, the adult will just say, "Oh, he's a kid, I'm
the adult, I can do what I like, what does this rotten kid know anyway", and
pet or treat the kid's dog anyway, totally undermining the authority the kid
is supposed to have in this relationship. What does this do to the
relationship? How's a kid supposed to handle that? And let's not even talk
about the way other kids are likely to behave towards the dog at that age. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY

On May 13, 2010, at 8:18 PM, solsticesinger wrote:

> I wondered if I was the only person angered by this article. Who just sort

> of bumbles around, ploughing into things? This article makes us sound like

> we'd all be helpless and endangered without our dogs.
> 
> Also, I really do think eleven is too young for a dog. I was seventeen
when 
> I got my first guide, and it was a real challenge, taking her into a
public 
> school. I was pretty mature for my age, but not all of my classmates were.
I 
> can only imagine how much worse this would be in a middle-school setting.
> 
> Shannon and Caroline
> Are you a fan of Women's music? If so, join me each Wednesday evening from
7 
> until 10 eastern  for The Eclectic Collection: a Celebration of Women In 
> Music.
> http://mojoradio.us:9090
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Buddy Brannan" <buddy at brannan.name>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
> 
> 
> Wow. This article makes me angry on so many levels. I'm sure I don't need
to 
> elaborate.
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
> 
> 
> 
> On May 13, 2010, at 8:22 AM, Ginger Kutsch wrote:
> 
>> Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>> Published Thu, May 13, 2010 05:02 AM
>> 
>> 
>> SOUTHERN PINES -- As a blind man, Bob Baillie walks down busy
>> Broad Street often enough to know it is 75 steps from the corner
>> of Pennsylvania Avenue to the first dip in the sidewalk. When he
>> hits the first crack, it's 60 steps to the corner.
>> 
>> This intimacy with the concrete would be impossible without
>> Devon, a 110-pound Bernese mountain dog who works for cookies and
>> ear scratches. Before Devon, Baillie would knock into light
>> poles, wander into traffic and curse the surgical accident that
>> left him in the dark three years ago.
>> 
>> Freed and inspired by his wet-nosed companion, Baillie, a
>> Southern Pines businessman, decided to connect blind people
>> nationwide with their own guide dogs, focusing on children as
>> young as 11. In a little more than a year, his Aberdeen-based
>> Mira Foundation USA has arranged trained animals for an
>> 11-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, and five North Carolina
>> teenagers wait in the pipeline.
>> 
>> "I thought it was a wonderful idea," said Cricket Bidleman, the
>> 11-year old, in San Diego. "I'll be a lot safer at school, and
>> I'll have a friend to talk to at home."
>> 
>> Baillie's work is expensive and uncommon. Guide dogs cost roughly
>> $60,000 once training is complete, putting their help beyond the
>> reach of many families. Also, guide dog groups often require that
>> blind children be 16 or at least in high school before getting
>> dogs, making rare exceptions.
>> 
>> For Baillie, it's a chance to lift depression out of his own life
>> and fill a gap for potentially hundreds more. He hopes his
>> foundation will grow into a charity that places 30 dogs a year,
>> one wagging tail at a time.
>> 
>> "Very few of us get the opportunity to really do something for
>> human beings," said Baillie, 66. "Just the fact that you can get
>> up in the morning, grab your dog and go for a walk by yourself."
>> 
>> In North Carolina, more than 200,000 people report visual loss, a
>> definition that runs from total blindness to serious difficulty
>> seeing even while wearing glasses, according to a 2008 report
>> from the American Foundation for the Blind.
>> 
>> Of that group, more than 11,000 are ages 5 to 17.
>> 
>> Blind children aren't typically thought to be mature enough to
>> handle a guide dog before they're 16, though exceptions have been
>> made for 14-year-olds, said William Krol, spokesman for the New
>> York-based Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.
>> 
>> "When you're a guide dog handler, you have a commitment not only
>> to yourself, but also to your dog," he said.
>> 
>> Sally Bidleman, Cricket's mom, argued that guide dogs should be
>> provided according to need and ability rather than age. She tried
>> every agency in the country, she said, before finding Mira.
>> Cricket navigates the halls of her school, including the stairs,
>> on her own each day. When her dog arrives this summer, the school
>> will hold an assembly to orient Cricket's classmates on how to
>> approach her companion.
>> 
>> "It's like somebody getting eyes, almost," she said. "It's like
>> getting another sense."
>> 
>> 'You'd rather be dead'
>> 
>> Baillie's blindness struck three years ago during what was
>> supposed to be a simple bypass surgery. The incision cut an
>> artery, he said, and he lost blood to his eyes while he bled. He
>> knew the surgery might be fatal but never received any warning
>> about blindness. To date, Baillie has received no compensation
>> and believes he will have to fight to get any.
>> 
>> "Taking a choice between croaking and being blind," Baillie said,
>> "for the first couple of days, you'd rather be dead. Try crossing
>> the street with your eyes closed."
>> 
>> Before the surgery, Baillie worked in both dentistry and real
>> estate. For the first year, he struggled with a cane, forcing
>> himself to listen to traffic - a requirement, he said, for
>> getting a dog.
>> 
>> "He would just plow into things and he never slowed down," said
>> Kathy Szyja, his director of operations at Mira. "He needed this
>> dog to keep him safe."
>> 
>> Devon came from the Mira Foundation in Quebec, and while Baillie
>> was there, learning to walk with him, he learned that children in
>> America rarely get dogs. When he asked about it, he said, he
>> heard an it's-always-been-that-way explanation. So borrowing the
>> Canadian name for his own group, he started Mira USA.
>> 
>> 'Dinner in the Dark'
>> 
>> It operates as a nonprofit out of an office in Aberdeen with
>> minimal staff. Fundraiser meals and runs boosted its treasury.
>> Now, to raise money, Mira hosts dinners (there's one on Friday)
>> where the guests eat blindfolded. The dogs all come from Mira in
>> Canada and a lot of the expense comes from flying eligible
>> children to Canada, and the trainers to their homes. As Mira
>> grows in Moore County, Baillie hopes to train dogs there.
>> 
>> For now, he and Devon rise each morning and make the three-mile
>> trek from his horse-country house to downtown Southern Pines. For
>> the first mile, there are no sidewalks. Before they reach a
>> sidewalk, Baillie and Devon cross four streets.
>> 
>> But on Broad Street, everyone knows them.
>> 
>> "When you see a person walking up and down the street with a
>> cane," Baillie said, "you're not likely to say hello. But when
>> you walk up and down the street with a dog, let me tell you, it
>> makes a huge difference. People driving by will roll down their
>> window and yell, 'Hey, Devon!' Never mind Bob."
>> 
>> Staff researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.
>> 
>> josh.shaffer at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
>> Source:
>> http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/13/v-print/479987/mans-dogs-s
>> et-blind-kids-free.html
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ginger Bennett Kutsch
>> Morristown, NJ
>> 
>> 
>> 
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