[nagdu] The Seeing Eye & Ownership

Tue Feb 1 11:11:30 UTC 2011

Dear All,
    Let me begin by saying I am not a seeing Eye consumer. It is my opinion 
that The Seeing Eye has it right, as it relates to ownership. In short, TSE 
believes that the dog belongs to the consumer and it is the consumer's right 
to make all decisions as it pertains to the dog. This includes both early 
and end-of-work retirement,even after the consumer makes the difficult 
choice to surrender the dog, as illustrated by Peggy's experience.
    One untruth Mr. Russman stated during our telephone conversation, when I 
asserted that TSE grants full ownership upon completion of training, was 
that TSE does not offer any sort of follow-up. I told him I knew too many 
TSE consumers and that he was absolutely wrong. Then he qualified his 
statement by saying something like, "Well, not to the level of Fidelco!" If, 
by that he means the type of follow-up in which they call and say, "I am 
five minutes from your house and I am coming over to see your dog!", he is 
right! I feel no guide dog program should impose themselves upon their 
consumers. Such tactics are very intimidating and paternalistic!

Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peggy" <pshald at neb.rr.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 11:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide Dog Handler Bill of Rights


> With Se, once you leave the school with that dog it's yours to do what you 
> wish with, hopefully work it.  But when it retires, no matter when that 
> is, you can choose to keep him/her or give him/her to a friend or family, 
> or send him/her back to SE.  When I gave up my first dog, a yellow lab, 
> that was having some definate anxiety issues, I had only worked her for a 
> year and a half ... I could have kept her, given her to someone ... what I 
> chose to do was send her back to SE to see if they could work with her and 
> maybe she could continue guide dog work.  She did retire and they notified 
> me that she could not be retrained and even asked if I wanted her back as 
> a pet. Just thought I'd share because I saw at the end of the post you 
> said you weren't sure if after a short time they'd still let you keep the 
> dog ... at least I thought that's what you meant.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Cindy Ray
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 4:00 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide Dog Handler Bill of Rights
>
> If you get a dog at TSE and within the first year you find that the dog is 
> not working out for you, they will replace it and apply the fee to the 
> next dog and call it an adjustment. In such a case, it would be only right 
> for you to return the dog to them. Jordan's is the only story I have ever 
> heard of a repossession, and I suspect there is more to the story that we 
> don't know and probably don't have a right to know, but it seems like 
> aserioius allegation given that this is not their policy and the dog is 
> yours upon leaving the school. To say they don't care is really what you 
> perceive, many of the rest of us do not see that. When I hae not been able 
> to continue with a dog (and I two such within a year's period that had to 
> return) I would never have found the dog a home but, rather, would hve 
> wanted to return it there for their evaluation. The two with which I 
> experienced it were retired, far as I know, and the one I had for two 
> years and returned, I did because I thought he might be a better fit for 
> someone else. I think I could have given him away if I had wanted to. 
> Never tested out this theory.
>
>
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