[nagdu] Pilot Dogs

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Bibi.
Thanks for your detailed description.  It was very interesting.
Do you feed the dogs outside during class?

I can't imagine bathing the dog as a bonding experience.  More like
starting off with a fight.  But I'm not a great dog-bather, so maybe it's
just me.

Good luck with getting any additional training you need, and getting into
GDF.
Tracy


> Hi, Tracy,
> Both times I was at Pilot, I did have a good experience there.
> Columbus doesn't have any subways or monarails, but they do have bus
> service
> though.
> I'll try my best to describe how the building is designed.
> There are two day rooms on each side of the building.
> One has a small kitchen and a television set and radio it it while the
> second one is the same, but somewhat smaller.
> In each day room, there are seating booths connected to a table where you
> can practice putting your dog down and under.
> There as a set of rooms on one side of the building while there's another
> wing with rooms on the other side that goes toward the laundry room and
> exercising room.
> Each side has a room for bathing and feeding.
> They do have a brailler and typewriter that can be used during off
> training
> hoursand videos to watch as well as braille reading material like books or
> magazines.
> In the lobby area of the school, there's a church pew to practice putting
> your dog down and under as well, a large dining room and staff offices
> toward the back and another room which is used for retrains or first
> timers
> to meet in with an instructor for going over things in class like the
> achievement walk.
> The achievement walk is where an instructor can observe to see how you and
> your dog work together as a team upon that you and your guide can safely
> travel together.
> They usually do a route directly from the school to the Columbus shopping
> mall or even a Deli along with a CBS store.
> The bedrooms have double occupancy with two beds, a double wooden wardrobe
> to hang clothes up and store shoes in.
> In between the two wooden wardrobes are some dresser drawers to store
> socks
> or other private matters in: a total of four drawers, a small table with
> drawers,two chairs on each side, phone, radio and bathroom with shower.
> The lobby is large upon  having two sets of doors.
> Outtside the lobby doors is a courtyard where students feed their dogs or
> can do grooming and a small flat concreete like relieving area.
> In the center of the courtyard is some grass and a tall tree.
> For students who do need to have a quick smoke break, they would go out
> into
> the same area.
> There are ashtrays as well as buckets to throw dog hair away in once
> grooming has been done.
> Sometimes, instructors will have students do obedience training in the
> courtyard.
> In the first week of training like other schools or rather similar, you
> are
> given initial equipment like leash, harness or other training things like
> a
> tie down, bowl for feeding and watering, haulty, prong or smart collar and
> a
> regular slip training collar.
> They used to have a hook in the wall for connecting a tie down to, but
> they
> now have kennels for the dogs to go into.
> Once partnered with your dog, handler, instructor and dog go for a walk
> around the block and then bathing process happens.
> The bathing part is to help you and your dog with bonding.
> An instructor is there to assist if you need help.
> The school has a small park that you can go out to for relaxing on some
> binches and enjoying the outtdoors.
> The laundry room has three washers and three dryers.
> You don't have to put quarters in either machine to wash or dry.
> They are all like a regular washer and dryer that you'd have at home.
> You can wash your own laundry or have a custodian worker do it for you.
> In the beginning of training, you start off with a used leash and harness
> and at the end, you're given a new harness and leash to go home with.
> They have two different styles of harness now where as in the beginning,
> they only had an American style.
> Now, they also have the martingail style too.
> I like their working leash as it has an adjustable buckle, two clasps, two
> D
> rings and an area that has a snap on it if you need to create a temporary
> muzzle out of the leash directly.
> Only thing I didn agree with during training and I hope this has changed
> is
> that when we used the city buses, the dog were required to be muzzled at
> all
> times.
> I don't know if it was the rule of COTA Columbus Transportation Authority
> or
> the school's policy directly.
> My whole experience wasn't negative but a positive one to say at least.
> When my second guide dog but the first one from Pilot Freedom david Berry
> didn't work out, the staff took responsibility for insuring I was matched
> with a successor dog that would work out for me.
> Freedom David Berry was scared of trafic, stressed out and very aggressive
> toward men.
> I suspected he was raised in a female prison setting where some bad things
> happened and he had to witness them upon probably getting hit by a man.
> I'll probably never know the real truth behind it all.
> The executive directo of Pilot told me during training when I got Odie was
> that Freedom should never have been put out as a guide dog and that
> problems
> with him could have been caught sooner during training.
> Odie and I had some minor things in the beginning that need to be worked
> out, but we happily worked as a team for five and a half years.
> In all, the food was fantastic and I found all but one staff member who
> were
> very supportive.
> Odie Harley Davidson retired early because of degenerative disc disease in
> his lower back.
> He's now a medical alert service dog and wears a vest which specifies his
> working task.
> I'd like to go back to Pilot for another guide, but because of my medical
> circumstances, I'm having to go to another school like GDF.
> Right now, I'm working on trying to get Vocational Rehab out here in
> Colorado to help me refresh my orientation and mobility as GDF claimed
> they
> were good enough and they wouldn't accept me.
> Sometimes, I wonder if it is more because of  my ballance as I can admit
> that I do tend to woddle from one side to the other.
> They wanted me to go through Vocational Rehab to do more mobility.
> Although I have rumitory arthritis, chronic severe asthma and a convulsive
> grandmal seizure disorder, neither of that deminishes me getting out and
> having to travel or do what I need to.
> I do have to use a support cane or a walker at times.
> Still, I'm not going to give up, despite how much pain I can be in on a
> daily basis.
> Pilot doesn't train the dogs to guide someone who uses a walker or a
> wheelchair.
> I asked why that wasn't an ideal for training and was told it would stress
> the dog out too much.
> Things may be different now from the times I've been there.
> I was hoping to go to GDF though to where I can have a guide dog that is
> crossed trained to not only guide me, but also help with ballance upon
> upon
> being able to handle guiding me at times when I do have to use the support
> cane or walker.
> Amnot sure how much longer that battle will go on with them, but I'm sure
> I'll wint it.
> Sorry that this email is extremely long and I didn't mind sharing my
> experiences with Pilot Dogs.
> Bibi and retired Odie
> the happy spirited bounty labra wolf
>
>
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