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

Ashley Coleman amc05111 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 3 17:20:26 UTC 2013


I did not know the handler, and I heard from their roomate the dog was 
taken.
AC
On 6/3/2013 10:32 AM, Star Gazer wrote:
> People say all kinds of things. How do you know that what you were told was
> true? Did you know the handler? Did you know the dog was "taken" or did the
> handler decide to no longer use the dog for any number of reasons?
> Be careful of things you hear, all of us.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ashley Coleman
> Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2013 2:11 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.
>
> 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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