[nagdu] An Indian with a million Questions
Julie J.
julielj at neb.rr.com
Fri Aug 1 11:52:01 UTC 2014
I love your cultural ramblings! I also love your humor, honesty and
willingness to do for yourself!
My thoughts in no particular order...I live in a tiny town that is in the
middle of a vast agricultural area. My husband is a farmer. We don't have
buffalo, but there are cows, horses, goats and llamas. My dog will look at,
but is not distracted by cows, horses and goats. The llamas, however, scare
him badly. Mostly I am able to avoid the llamas, so it works. If I lived
around them, I'm not sure what I'd do. I think the other animals are calm
and mostly ignore my dog, but the llamas seem to do more looking and that
evil hissing they do.
Yes, I leave my dog home from time to time. I've been doing this more as of
recently so hopefully he will be a bit more used to it when Jetta comes.
Mostly it depends on your individual dog and how long he can go in between
outdoor breaks. Typically I'm only gone for 3 or 4 hours without him. He
could easily go 6 hours and 8 would probably not be a problem. For longer,
like the long plane trip, you would perhaps want to feed a smaller portion
of food or skip that meal immediately before the trip. again it depends on
what your dog can tolerate.
I'd think teaching a dog to go around cow pies would be no different than
going around puddles, pot holes or anything else. I can't see any reason
why that wouldn't be doable.
Okay as for the no roads part...It is doable, but there are some things to
keep in mind. If there are walkways of some variety, even if they are dirt,
the dog will be able to figure that out and can keep you on that specific
path. If you have entirely wide open spaces, probably the best thing to do
is to teach the dog to target specific objects. It could be a building, a
specific sign post, a trash bin or anything else that will help you know
where you are. From there you can give the dog a direction or ask him to
target the next landmark. this is substantially different from the way the
guide dog schools train here, but your situation is quite a bit different
from what we have here. It only makes sense to teach your dog skills that
will be helpful to you.
As for the packs of dogs...that is a really tough problem. I unfortunately
don't have any good suggestions. If it helps, I have noticed that a well
socialized, confident dog who gets along well with other dogs seems to
attract less negative attention from loose dogs. However here I am dealing
with pet dogs who have escaped their yards. There aren't packs of dogs
without owners running about.
Picking up after your dog has a few advantages you maybe haven't
considered...if you are taking your dog out in the same place most of the
time, the poop is going to pile up, attract loads of insects, smell really
bad and probably upset your neighbors. Knowing the consistency of your dogs
leavings also helps to know the health of your dog. Also consistent
relieving habits will help you to know when to expect that your dog needs to
go. If he learns that he can go whenever and wherever, he will. then when
you are in a shopping center or the dentist you could get an unpleasant
surprise.
I'd say that I take my dog out to relieve probably 6 times per day, more
like 8 if we are traveling, just to be safe. He's super fast at relieving
though, so each of those trips is like a couple of minutes.
As for advocating for the right to have the dog...you have to start
somewhere. If you are willing to take on the task, then good for you! It
is a huge task though. The advocating will be different from the questions
and attention you get with your cane, but I don't think it will be any less.
Best of luck!
Julie
-----Original Message-----
From: Poonam via nagdu
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 2:06 AM
To: Star Gazer ; NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog
Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] An Indian with a million Questions
Dear vivianna and I think Rebecca )stargazer)
This is one real issue I have been thinking about for a while now. The
concept is really, really rare in my country. Chew on this:there is a
buffalo herder who takes his herd to graze in the fields every morning,
and passes by my locality. Now, I live in the city and not a village,
one of the most populus ones )Bangalore), but this happens every day and
I am scared stiff thinking I might wack a buffalo if I am going out.
What's worse, the buffalo man has a different language from mine, so we
have no way to communicate.
Can you imagine a herd of buffalos walking around in a crowded city with
traffic everywhere? That would be a strange site in your country, I
think, as would be a guide dog. So I am going to fight for my rights,
and I am prepared for it. Another thing is that seeing me would inspire
other blind people to have a guide dog. I don't even think I had heard
of this concept before I became blind 4 years ago and am not sure
others, even if blind have, either.
However, having a dog would guarantee people don't come up to me, rather
than if I am with a white cane. This is a reverse from what is usually
stated I know, as here, people fear rather than like dogs. But I welcome
the change, as whenever I leave the house for even half an hour, I have
around ten people asking me if I want help and around 2 insisting that
they want to help me. It gets tiring to tell people that you can manage
about 15 times an hour, so I sometimes decide never to leave the house
because of that.
Another thing is that in my country, we have no real pavements. We also
have several open manholes and people leave uncovered ditches in the
middle of the road. In fact, a blind student just fell in a hole and
broke his arm around my locality yesterday. Read
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/cover-story
This is where I feel my guide dog would be a great help.
Another thing is, since the buffalos are walking that road, there is
dung everywhere and I keep stepping in it. That's one more difference
between our countries. Still, the silver lining is that I won't have to
bag my dog's droppings, if I did people would stare at me and even
laugh, whereas there it's the law, i think.
We sort of don't really have rules here, I mean we don't do things more
because people will stare or comment than if we are prohibited to do it
by law. We still are using the British rule book to govern most of our
affairs. However, I still would like to question some managers at some
malls and also a few clubs I am a member of.
Using transportation would be a bit of a challenge, though. Buses are
already packed to bursting point and I am not sure how auto (small three
wheeled drivers would react to my dog.
To those who aren't tired of my cultural rambling, I have some more
questions for you.
1. Suppose you have to go for some kind of event or something where dogs
aren't allowed or rather, appreciated, would it be okay to leave the dog
behind at home alone? How many hours can you leave him or her there? I
used to leave my dog home alone for eight hours at a stretch when I used
to go to college before, does that same rule apply to a guide dog?
2. When you take your dog out to do his thing, if you know what I mean,
how often do you have to do it a day? I hear it has to be done
regularly, at the same time?
3. How do you handle this situation in a airplane, for example,
especially a nine hour flight?
4. I have heard and also think it's important for the dog to get out and
romp about. Where do you guys take him for such a thing?
I'll have more as I learn more.
Thanks everyone,
Poonam
On 31-07-2014 PM 10:40, Star Gazer via nagdu wrote:
> And, if the law isn't on your side, are you willing and able to change
> that?
> You won't bennifit from a dog if you can't take him or her where you need
> and want to go, or if you can't or aren't willing to advocate as to why
> the
> dog should be allowed to be with you.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vivianna via
> nagdu
> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 12:00 PM
> To: Passle Helminski; NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of
> Guide
> Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] An Indian with a million Questions
>
> i have never been to india, however, my best friend did go there. she
> said
> that not only are there packs of wild dogs but, lots of cows and monkeys.
> also, how does the public and businesses deal with guide dogs over there?
> will you be allowed to take the dog into restaurants, buses, trains, into
> the work place, hospitals, in short, whereever you want to go?
> IMO these are major things to be considered.
> good luck.
>
> vivianna
>
> On Jul 31, 2014, at 10:54 AM, Passle Helminski via nagdu
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>
>>>> Hello Poonam,
>>>> Pilot Dogs, in Ohio, will do international training. You have to pay
> your way to USA port of entry and they will pay your travel from the port
> of
> entry to the school. You will have free room and board and a free guide
> dog. Contact me of list at passle at roadrunner.com for more information.
>>>> Passle
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Poonam via nagdu
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 3:20 PM
>>>> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>>> Subject: [nagdu] An Indian with a million Questions
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> I just joined this mailing list in order to know a bit more about
>>>> guide dogs. I am not sure if we are supposed to limit our queries to
>>>> one question, but if yes, the moderator will probably take care of it.
>>>>
>>>> So here are my questions:
>>>> 1. There is just one guide dog school in India called the 'Drushti
>>>> Guide Dog School. It was founded in 2005, but there is absolutely no
>>>> information about it online apart from that. I was hoping someone
>>>> has visited or has some information about it?
>>>> 2. Anyone been to India with their guide dog? Do describe your
>>>> experience. I have read one popularized article, but that's all.
>>>> 3. One problem I am having, apart from others in my country, is that
>>>> there are packs of stray dogs running about. When I was a sighted
>>>> person, I did own a dog and these packs of dogs would attack him
>>>> whenever we went for a walk. I used to throw or rather pretend to
>>>> throw pebbles at them before they ran away before. Keeping this in
>>>> mind, how do I deal with them? Has anyone had such an experience?
>>>> 4. Is it possible to get a dog transported from another country to
>>>> mine?
>>>> If yes, how much would I need to pay, if anything and how would I go
>>>> about training for myself?
>>>> 5. How difficult is it to train your own guide dog? I know it is not
>>>> strictly reccomended, but i'd like to give it a try and want to know
>>>> if any of you have tried.
>>>>
>>>> I have a few more questions, but will resist for now.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks, everyone.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Poonam
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
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--
Regards,
Poonam
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