[nagdu] navigating without your cane

[Cindy Ray]

Margo, I'm with you RE school and cane. I think it makes perfect sense. 
On Oct 8, 2011, at 2:05 PM, Margo and Arrow wrote:

> the Seeing eye let us use the cane prior to getting the dog and I doubt I'd go to a school which did not allow me to use my cane prior to getting the dog.
> 
> Also, at the Seeing Eye, we use the harness in the building starting at suppertime on the Wednesday after the monday we receive our dogs.
> 
> Margo andArrow
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jenine Stanley" <jeninems at wowway.com>
> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 1:42 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] navigating without your cane
> 
> 
>> Julie,
>> 
>> One of the reasons guide dog programs ask that you navigate without your
>> cane prior to receiving your dog, say during those first few days on class,
>> is to in part observe your skill at orientation and mobility and also get
>> you used to not having that cane input as you move around spaces. Most
>> schools have you walk with your dog at heel in the building. When you do
>> progress to harness work indoors, you're used to that form of input, but
>> initially while heeling the dog, you are in charge of movement, orientation,
>> etc.
>> 
>> At GDF we have the dogs guide on leash from the beginning and very rarely do
>> we ask you to heel your dog and simply walk around.
>> 
>> For some people changing the input from the cane to the dog is hard, harder
>> than they thought. When traveling with a dog, we do lose important sound
>> cues initially, replacing them with others eventually, but we also lose cues
>> about proximity to obstacles that we have to relearn with new inputs.
>> 
>> Hope that makes sense.
>> 
>> We do allow people to use their canes in the building prior to receiving
>> their dogs but there are times when we do ask that canes be put away. Once
>> the dogs are issued, unless someone really needs it, we ask that all canes
>> other than support canes be put away when working the dogs and when moving
>> around the building.
>> 
>> Jenine Stanley
>> jeninems at wowway.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
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> 
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