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

Mon Jun 3 17:18:00 UTC 2013

I received my informaiton through the people who managed the dorm the 
dog and handeler were living. Some of the things I was are, the dog went 
days with out being fed because the handeler did not have food, and one 
of the employees went and bought food for the dog. When the dog was 
releiving the handeler kicked the dog in the head. The handeler would 
not listen to the dog or follow it when it was working.
AC

On 6/3/2013 9:55 AM, Nicole Torcolini wrote:
> You wrote that it was your understanding. How or through whom or what did
> you come by this information? I am not saying that I disagree with you;
> however, you are not giving enough of the story to be evidence to support
> your statements or allow for us to draw our own conclusions .
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ashley Coleman
> Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2013 2:16 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide dog school that offers guide dogs to
> childrenbetween the ages of 11 & 17 years old.
>
>   From my understanding; the dog was under wait, and the handeler sometimes
> was very forceful with the dog.
> AC
> On 6/2/2013 4:15 PM, Sarah wrote:
>> What were the handler's action? How was he/she treating the dog?
>>
>> Sarah and Wizard
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Ashley Coleman <amc05111 at gmail.com
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> Date sent: Sun, 02 Jun 2013 14:10:55 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide dog school that offers guide dogs to
>> childrenbetween the ages of 11 & 17 years old.
>>
>> 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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