[nagdu] a new guide dog program

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Matt,

Yes, it is a joke!  The original message as an excellently done satire based
on some completely serious ongoing discussions about guide dog programs in
general and some of their policies and practices.  Because everyone feels so
strongly about their own program experiences and expectations, these
discussions can grow heated.

So Julie's original message about the satirical new guide dog program seems
to have been a good way to give us all a chance to poke fun at ourselves and
even each other a little by going to extremes of creativity.  Maybe now we
can also look at the serious side with a fresher perspective? 

Also, Julie, like me, is an owner-trainer -- that means she acquired a dog
and trained it herself.  So she was describing owner-training in the "new
guide dog program" description.  Except for the price tag!  We pay that in
time over the course of training our dogs to produce the equivalent of a
program-trained dog, but the dollar expenses don't add up to what the
financial reports of the programs state as the cost to produce each dog.
Which does average out at around $75,000 per successfully trained and
graduated guide dog.

Anyway, sorry to scare you like that1  /grin/  Welcome to the list.  Are you
a guide dog user yourself?  Are you looking into becoming one?

I'm working my owner-trained poodle guide Mitzi, who will turn 5 in June.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Matt Moran
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 10:20 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] a new guide dog program

Hi,

Is this a joke?

Please write back.

Matt

-- 
Matt

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