[nagdu] ideas?

[Julie J.]

Jessica,

Congratulations on the new baby!  That's exciting news!  There's a 
NFBnet list for blind parents that is quite active.  I subscribed to it 
for quite a few years when my Kiddo was younger.  It was a lot of help 
to me.

I could be wrong here, but I don't know of any program that has poodles 
and will do home training for a first time handler.  If I'm remembering 
correctly you had a dog before.  If that's correct, the best bet would 
probably be to see if they would do home training for you.  The only 
other thing I can think of would be to request to the places that have 
poodles for home training.  sometimes they will do home training for 
specific circumstances.  If you've had a guide dog from a different 
program sometimes the new program will count you as being a retrain.  
There's no way to know what's possible until you contact the various 
programs directly and see what they are willing to do.

I've noticed that there seems to be a longer wait both for poodles and 
for home training.  I'd imagine that a poodle through home training 
would be an even longer wait.  I'd be very interested to hear what you 
find out.

On the subject of hiring a private trainer...I've never done it, 
although I've thought about it and did look around to see what the 
options were.   I never found anyone I was even remotely satisfied 
with.  Most dog trainers have no clue what guide dogs actually do and 
they have even less knowledge about blindness.  I talked with a few 
trainers and their ideas of what a guide should do were interesting.  It 
was also going to be very expensive, as in the several thousand dollar 
range.  Even if I found a trainer I liked and could afford, I'd still 
have to find a suitable dog or raise a puppy.  In the end I didn't see 
enough benefit of using a private trainer to go that route.  I do know 
of a couple of people who have had their mini horses privately trained.  
Marti on this list has a private trainer help her but she mainly does 
the training herself.  I'm thinking I've heard of others with guide dogs 
who had private trainers, but none are coming to mind at the moment.

I think a private trainer could work if you had a very close 
relationship with him/her and a good knowledge of exactly what you 
wanted the dog to do.  I'm thinking something where you could work with 
the dog and the trainer throughout the process to make sure the training 
fit your needs and you were getting what you're paying for.  It'd be 
tough to find the right combination of people and circumstances to make 
it work well though.  At least that's how I see it.

Good luck!
Julie









On 11/2/2011 2:45 PM, Jessica Pitzer wrote:
> I am looking for only poodles or poodle crosses so fedelco isn't an
> option for me.
>
> On 11/2/11, Shannon Dyer<solsticesinger at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Hi, Jessica.
>>
>> Some of the schools are doing in-home training now. I know GDF does this on
>> a case by case basis. You could definitely look into that. Fidelco only does
>> in-home training, but they only use German shepherds. If you're okay with
>> that, they might be an option for you too.
>>
>> How soon were you hoping to get a dog? Obviously, the application process
>> will take time, and it seems to take longer for home placements than for
>> actual class dates.
>>
>> I'm sorry, but I know nothing about private trainers. Maybe someone else
>> here can speak to that.
>>
>> Solstice Singer
>>
>> If you're a Pagan, Goddess-centered woman wishing to build community, write
>> to
>> WomenOfTheGoddess-subscribe at quitelikely.com
>>
>> On Nov 2, 2011, at 1:47 PM, Jessica Pitzer wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all.
>>> I'm writing in hopes of receiving some ideas.
>>> this is my situation.
>>> I have a 5 week old baby who is nursing.
>>> I want another dog.
>>> Obviously I can't just go off to training and leave this baby with
>>> someone.
>>> I'm wondering if anyone knows of schools that might work with me or
>>> how I might find a private trainer to train a dog for me.
>>> thanks
>>> Jessica
>>>
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