[nagdu] Seeing Eye Class Length Shortened

[Cindy Ray]

The schools, or many of them, believe that the first days of bonding with your dog are very important. It is harder if you have life at home in the way. That may not be as true as they once thought, but I think they still believe this. I personally concur. After two weeks you are often doing "free lance" that simulates what you would be doing at home. This might be better done at home, but they like to continue to watch the relationship grow. Frankly, it is cheaper to have the people all in one space than to send out instructors to lots of places. That might work out fine in highly populated areas; it wouldn't work so well in those that weren't so much. For instance, The Seeing Eye has three or four graduates in the Des Moines and Ames area. It takes us longer to get follow up than it does people further East. With retrains they might be more amenable; but with new people they are going to be a little less flexible. If  you have children or are a care giver or a job where there is no way you would ever get off work for that long, they might work something out. This last time was the most difficult for me because I was working as a temporary. They could conceivably have replaced me with a different temp. Of course, I was specialized enough that this wasn't an issue. I would get no pay for the period. I got home on Tuesday and thought to go to work on Thursday but I hand a bad cold and my boss told me to stay the rest of the week at home so I could truly break in the pup. She is a dog user herself.

But I digress. I am not privy to the reasons that would be agreeable, and that would vary with schools. Therefore, all of the above is speculation.
Cindy Lou