[nagdu] Guide dog school that offers guide dogs to children between the ages of 11 & 17 years old.

Sun Jun 2 16:56:17 UTC 2013

Hi all,
I got my first guide dog when I was 18.  I thought I was ready for a guide dog at that time.  I retired the dog when I was at the Colorado center for the blind in Colorado.  I waited a couple of years to get another dog.  I am on my fourth dog.  I do not no of anyone who got a dog at a young age.  You have to be ready to take care of a guide dog .  It is like having a child.
BeckySabo 
On Jun 1, 2013, at 8:39 PM, rhonda cruz <rhondaprincess at gmail.com> wrote:

> hi i got my dog when i was 22. years old. and it worked out good. i  have never seen a younger person get a dog. from a program. i only have older friends. that have them. but i think it is up to the person.
> it is like taking care of a kid.
> 
> On May 31, 2013, at 8:28 PM, Nicole Torcolini wrote:
> 
>> First, let me say that I know someone who received a dog at a young  age (I
>> cannot remember the exact age) from a Canadian organization, probably the
>> one mentioned in this article. I cannot remember the whole story, but I
>> think that, eventually, there was some sort of problem with the dog, but it
>> was the dog, and not the person. So, although I agree that the cases where
>> getting a guide dog at a young age may be few, they do exist.
>> 
>> In general I think that it could probably be said that, as you lower the
>> age, the number of cases were getting a guide dog works out well gets lower
>> and lower. I agree that eleven is too low, but I also think that sixteen is
>> also a little to high. I think that people should at least be able to be
>> evaluated for a guide dog around thirteen or fourteen. Sometimes, there can
>> be more things that need to be worked out before a person can get a dog than
>> the person thought, and having a year or two to work those out would be
>> nice.
>> 
>> I agree that having a dog around other people, especially kids, might be
>> hard for a child. Most children are still in elementary school at age
>> eleven, and elementary schools usually have at least first graders if not
>> kindergarteners.
>> 
>> The whole thing about people talking about only the dog I think is not
>> always a problem. JMHO, if someone wants to talk just about my dog and
>> nothing else, then I don't want to talk to them. I have met very few people
>> who insisted on talking about nothing but the dog, and, for most of those
>> people, I have gotten it through to them that the dog is not the main
>> concern at the moment and that there are other things that need to be done.
>> Even for those people who start by talking about the dog, they do not seem
>> to mind when I change the subject; they sometimes change it themselves.
>> Would this be the same for a child? I really cannot say. I think that
>> younger children may want to stick more to the topic of dogs, but I think
>> that teenagers would not so much.
>> 
>> I definitely agree that good O&M skills are a must before getting a guide
>> dog. That does not just include knowing how to use a cane but also knowing
>> where you are and which direction you are pointing relative to your
>> surroundings. I do see how a child might try to avoid using a cane just
>> because having a dog is cooler. No, I don't necessarily like my cane, but
>> that has nothing to do with the fact that the cane means that I am blind.
>> 
>> I don't really know what to say about things not working out with the
>> family. I think that there would need to be some kind of information for the
>> family, and some way for the representatives from the guide dog school to
>> talk to the child about how things are going without parents skewing the
>> information. Sometimes, when I have to keep reminding people about things
>> about my guide dog, I joke about sending them to the guide dog training just
>> so that they can learn the rules.
>> 
>> I do agree that responsibility for the dog can be a problem, but I think
>> that it should be considered on a case by case basis. Perhaps a strongly
>> recommended prerequisite for a child getting a guide dog is that the child
>> has to be able to take care of a family pet almost independently before
>> getting a guide dog. When I was eleven, my family got a pet dog, and,
>> although I did not do everything, I could do most of the tasks for taking
>> care of her on my own. Had push come to shove, I would have found a way to
>> do the other tasks. But my parents have always encouraged my independence,
>> so I certainly see where it could be more of a problem of parents wanting to
>> help too much. Perhaps there could be some sort of paperwork for the parents
>> as well saying that the dog is the responsibility of the child and the
>> parents are not supposed to help too much. I do definitely agree that this
>> is important for a good working relation with the dog, especially in the
>> first few months.
>> 
>> I agree that it needs to be the choice of the child to get a guide dog. It
>> most certainly was me, not my parents, who decided that I would get a guide
>> dog. They most certainly were not against it, but it was my decision, and
>> they have always been mostly supportive of letting make my own personal
>> choices.
>> 
>> I also agree that having a child get a guide dog because the child is
>> supposedly safer is not a valid reason for a child to get a guide dog,
>> especially if the parents expect the dog to protect the child.
>> 
>> I do agree that some people are probably not mature enough at thirteen or
>> fourteen to get a guide dog, but I am sure that some do exist. Again, it is
>> something that needs to be considered differently for each situation.
>> 
>> It is not *horrible* to wait till you are sixteen, but I certainly would
>> have enjoyed a guide dog a little sooner than I got one. I find travel that
>> much easier and more enjoyable with a dog rather than a cane.
>> 
>> Perhaps one way of trying to make sure that the dog was actually used as a
>> guide dog and did not just become a pet would be to have stricter vision
>> requirements for younger children as I feel that younger children are more
>> likely to use (or try to use) any remaining vision that they have. This gets
>> back to that a person needs to have accepted his/her blindness before
>> getting a guide dog.
>> 
>> I also don't like that people think that children can be more independent
>> just because they have a guide dog. There is nothing that keeps a parent
>> from reaching over and holding on to his/her child if the child has a dog
>> any more than if the child has a cane. I am an adult, and people still try
>> to hold onto and direct me when I am using my dog.
>> 
>> Returning to the point about children having to tell people, including
>> people older than him/her, not to pet the dog, I can definitely tell where
>> this would be a problem. However, if it is junior high and not elementary
>> school, I would think that the school staff could come to understand the
>> rules, even if it had to come from someone other than the child, such as a
>> rep from the guide dog school.
>> 
>> As a closing case, I will say that, although I reference my experiences in
>> this email, my experiences certainly are not those of every blind child.
>> 
>> Nicole
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deanna Lewis
>> Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 5:05 AM
>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog
>> Users(nagdu at nfbnet.org)
>> Subject: [nagdu] Guide dog school that offers guide dogs to children between
>> the ages of 11 & 17 years old.
>> 
>> What do you all think about this...
>> Deanna and Pascal
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> MIRA - The only organization in the United States dedicated to providing
>> guide dogs to blind children and youth between the ages of 11-17.
>> 
>> MIRA: from the Spanish "look", "to have one's sights set on", was the
>> nickname of a favorite guide dog trained by Eric St. Pierre, founder of MIRA
>> Canada. MIRA Foundation USA takes its name from its collaboration with MIRA
>> Canada, a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 upon the belief that all
>> individuals, regardless of their physical challenges, should be able to set
>> their sights on the same goals as those people born without handicaps.
>> 
>> Today, MIRA Canada is recognized as a global leader in the breeding,
>> selection, and training of guide and service dogs. MIRA USA was created in
>> 
>> 2008 as a legally separate entity, but with close ties to MIRA Canada, where
>> our dogs are currently trained.
>> 
>> Our mission is to offer blind children in the United States between the ages
>> of 11-17 the opportunity to receive guide dogs free of charge, to provide
>> targeted educational outreach to promote public awareness, and, as we
>> continue to grow, to offer support services to the adult population of blind
>> and their families.
>> 
>> It is our experience that blind children, for the most part, are highly
>> adaptive, fiercely determined, and seek to have many of the same
>> opportunities as their sighted peers. Although a cane provides an adequate
>> degree of mobility for the blind and severely visually impaired, there
>> remain some serious limitations. For example, it is impossible to navigate
>> with a cane when there is no tactical information such as what is provided
>> by sidewalks. A child living in a rural area is severely challenged by this
>> restriction.
>> 
>> Furthermore, a cane tends to be isolating, whereas a dog provides a social
>> bridge to the sighted community. Not only are dogs social creatures, they
>> also provide stability and a level of protection through their visual
>> awareness training that a cane could never replicate.
>> 
>> Finally, a guide dog provides a young blind person with a greater level of
>> self-reliance at an early age. Although a very young student is not going to
>> be out on the streets alone with their dog, having the ability to navigate
>> without holding a parent's hand is crucial to developing maturity and
>> confidence. The student's freedom and mobility are especially enhanced in
>> the school environment with the assistance of a guide dog. Although there is
>> no cure for blindness, there can be hope, and we at MIRA witness it every
>> day through the service of a MIRA guide dog.
>> 
>> http://www.mirausa.org/
>> 
>> 
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>> 
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> 
> 
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