[nagdu] Information about GDB

[Vanessa Lowery]

Ah, yes, the application process.  With The Seeing Eye, you fill out paper work and have your physician complete medical forms.  If it is your first time at The Seeing Eye, three reference letters are also needed.  During the application process, an instructor comes to visit you.  The instructor does a "Juno" walk wiht you.  You are probably familiar with that.  The instructor holds one end of a harness handle and you walk wiht the instructor so your preferred pace and pull can be figured out.  The instructor also asks you about your life and your family.  The instructor also uses this time to find out more about the town or city in which you live.  The instructor might have you walk a route using your cane to show that you have orientation and mobility skills.  Using this information along with things you have put in the written application, they ahve a better idea of what type of dog might work for you.

Now, for those coming back to The Seeing Eye for a successor dog, you no longer need the reference letters, but everything else is the same.  Even though the school folks know you, things could have changed.  Perhaps you live in a different town or city from where you used to live.  Perhaps you move quicker or slower now.  The instructor who visits you does the Juno walk and also talks with you about what you need.  Using this, coupled with the history that the school already has, a search for the best possible dog begins.

Additionally, some people, be it their first or third dog, as an example, have breed and gender preferences.  You can be that specific, but doing so may increase your waiting time for a possible match.  I, for example, may have to wait longer this time because I am being much more breed specific than usual.  Gender is not an issue, but I really want a GSD this time.  I have worked wiht two GSD (German Shepherd dogs) in the past.  I love my labs, and I have had three, but I am about labbed out.  My current dog has been especially bad about scavenging, and while I realize that Shepherds can be scavengers, that behavior is not as widely seen in Shepherds.  So a GSD is my first choice, and a lab or lab/golden cross are my very distant second and third choices.  



Vanessa Lowery, LGSW
Adult and Community Services Division
Adult Services Screening Unit
410-853-3550
VLowery at dhr.state.md.us



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