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

Darla Rogers djrogers0628 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 3 01:26:16 UTC 2013 

That is probably true for someone 15 or 16, but 11, IMNHO, is too young, and
I think some of these schools are really out for a publicity ride as with a
couple of schools that have sprung up to train guide horses.
Darla


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sheila Leigland
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2013 2:31 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide dog school that offers guide dogs to children
between the ages of 11 & 17 years old.

/    I think when a person gets a dog is and should be a case by case 
decision.
/
On 6/2/2013 12:10 PM, Ashley Coleman wrote:
> Hi there,
> I received my first guide dog at the age of 20.
>
> In response to this topic I have to say that I have heard nothing but 
> negative from this organization. There was a student who attends the 
> same University as myself and people were telling me how the handeler 
> was treating the dog, and at one point I was told that that was the 
> way the dog was supposed to be treated, and I disagree.
>
> The handeler eventually had the dog taken from themself.
>
> Ashley
>
>  On 6/2/2013 12:56 PM, Rebecca Sabo wrote:
>> 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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