[nagdu] To Hannah about Poodles and GDF

[Jenine Stanley]

Hi Hannah, 

At GDF you must provide us with a doctor's note that either you or someone
in your immediate household has dog allergies severe enough to need a
Poodle. The current wait for Poodles is between 1 year and 18 months.
Poodles are also not particularly easy dogs to work with. They are very
intelligent and though we try to breed dogs who are very stable in their
personalities and reactions, Poodles are very alert generally and can become
vocal or frightened at times of the oddest things. This can happen to any
dog though and so I'm not singling Poodles out but compared to retrievers,
they are quite different in their approach to life. 

When people say they want to get into class quickly, I have to note that
when working with a guide dog school, your main concern shouldn't be about
how quickly you can get in but how well the school understands you to find
that right dog for your abilities and needs. Sometimes this takes longer
than you might want. So, quicker isn't always better. Just something to
think about. 

As for what to do regarding your other plans, I would say that most schools
will want you to be as independent as possible and have as many blindness
skills as possible before receiving your dog. After all, you are going to be
responsible for the care of another living being as well as working with
your dog. I've seen many people who come to class post sight loss or post
living with family to help them who struggle with the simplest blindness
tasks while trying to learn to work with their dogs. On the other hand
sometimes it works the opposite way and people find inspiration and
confidence in learning to work with the dog first. Either way it's not as
easy as if you have a good foundation of skills going in. 

Heck, I learned from a fellow student when getting my second dog at Pilot
Dogs years ago how to use a Braille writer, because no rehab program in my
area taught Braille. 
Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com