[nagdu] to Tatyana

Sat Sep 3 22:44:26 UTC 2011

Tatyana,
Try to spend time with guide dog users and see how it is for them.  A guide 
dog isn't for everyone and they are perfectly comfortable in getting around 
with a cane.

A guide dog is a DOG in that it is a living animal that has needs and 
feelings.  They are more care than a cat.  A dog needs to eat, poops and 
pees - the poop must be picked up and thrown away.  They can get sick - 
vomit and diahrrea.  They can smell bad from being dirty or due to 
infections.  They shed hair all over the place.  WE are all taught proper 
dog care at the guide dog schools.  Properly groomed and cared for dogs 
rarely smell bad or shed lots of hair all over.

Some people, like us guide dog users, put up with or don't mind what it 
takes to take good care of a dog.  We don't mind dog hair on our clothes or 
in our houses.  We enjoy living with house animals.  Other people do not 
like these things and don't care to take on the responsibilities in dog or 
other animal care.  And this is valid.

While you take the time to determine if a guide dog is for you, ask anything 
you want of us - that's how you gain information with which to make a sound 
decision for yourself.  Like I said, spend time with guide dog users as much 
as you can and go places with them.  this will give you a realistic view as 
to what it means to have a guide dog.

BTW, your English is great for someone like you. You're a brave person to 
leave a coountry that is familiar and move to another one with a totally 
different culture and language.   English is a very hard language to learn 
with all it's crazy rules, words that sound alike but you spell them 
different depending on how you use the word.  My neice knows some Russian 
from when she lived in Ukraine while in the Peace Corps.  Your Cyrilic 
alphabet differs from the one we use for English and other languages.  Is 
Russian Braille different from American Braille - you know, the dot 
formations?

Anyway, welcome to the list and hope you come to the decision that is best 
for you.  Using the dog or cane is a personal decision and you are the one 
best to make it.  Many of us also use the cane - it is required for getting 
a dog.  You need good mobility skills to learn how to work with a dog.

I am Lyn and I've worked guide dogs sinse 1973.  I am on my eighth dog.  He 
is Landon, a red Lab/Golden cross from The Seeing Eye.  We live in San 
Diego, CA and do pet assisted therapy for work.

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tatyana" <tagriru at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] to Tatyana

> Hello Marilyn,
> I don't know whether  I like dogs or not, I don't have one to know. I 
> don't like cats. I had a small dog when I was a child, someone killed our 
> dog and for many years I felt that was the only doggy love in my life. I'm 
> not an advanced cane user. I thought with a dog I could do trips from my 
> town to D.C. and use subway and go any place I never went before. But an 
> improving my   mobility skills  using a cane may be a better  option. If I 
> could get more training in some advanced programs of NFB or something, I 
> don't know what programs are available, but any way may be I need to pay 
> more attention to my cane using skills.With a dog, I would get a companion 
> and loved being. I don't care responsibilities like  cleaning a house, 
> grooming and feeding a dog, but I care smell of my clothing from a dog. I 
> don't want a dog be aggressively attacked. I don't want argue with 
> attendance in public places. And I don't want to ruin a job   of many 
> people not training a dog myself, if I don't take a dog to unfamiliar 
> locations for example, so its  working abilities may be lost. I don't work 
> and I need to go to unknown places not often. But from other hand it may 
> be because I don't have a dog.
> Tatyana.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "marilyn" <t21114 at optonline.net>
> To: "nagdu" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 1:21 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] to Tatyana
>
>
>> Hi Tatyana,
>> I think for everyone its a personal decision about getting a guide dog. 
>> First and foremost you must love dogs and be willing to be responsible 
>> caring for one.
>> If you can private email me I would like to talk further to you. Also 
>> about Russia
>> Marilyn and Anna
>> T21114 at optonline.net
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>
>
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