[nagdu] An Introduction

[The Pawpower Pack]

Debby, 
This is interesting.  I have trained people with disabilities and their service dogs.  Mostly, they train, with guidance from me, although I may take the dog from time to time to work out tough spots.  People have said that I was more aware than sighted trainers and that I gave very clear input, and caught on to issues quickly.  
When I was finishing Soleil's training, 2 other owner trainers, whom I respect very much, were also finishing their dog's training. So we all met for a week, for a kind of training vacation and bootcamp.  I have gotten some of the best input, advice, and direction from blind trainers, and actually I will say their advice was better than I have received from a sighted trainer.  I was able to fix, and be aware of, a few key, but frustrating issues with Soleil. 
I hope I have the opportunity to work with a blind trainer for my next dog.
We can not do the same things a sighted trainer does in the same ways, but it's all about thinking outside the box.  

I have also done traffic training both with natural traffic and traffic from trusted drivers.  During this vacation bootcamp I was talking about above, we had 2 drivers, in 2 different cars at once putting the dogs through final traffic testing.  I am Deafblind, so this skill is extra necessary for me, to have a dog who is trafficwise.
 Rox and the kitchen Bitches: 
Mill'E, Laveau, Soleil
Pawpower4me at gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 21, 2014, at 11:10 PM, debby phillips via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Valerie, your post was very interesting, and I can see that you have put a lot of time and thought in to the process.  I do not believe that every blind person should and could train their own dog, but I have seen one that was awesome.  The man who trained him did a great job.  I believe though that his next dog was from one of the schools.  I think I do have a couple of concerns.  One is this: traffic is becoming more and more dangerous.  It doesn't mean that we should all stay home and never go out.  Lol.  But it does mean that we, and our dogs need to be extra aware.  Gone are the days of simply listening for a surge of parallel traffic and heading across the street.  There are turning lanes, right on red, and cars are just plain quieter, and I'm not even talking about the hybrids.  Seeing Eye does a lot of traffic training with our dogs, some of it using the general public and some of it that they set up.  Keeping a certain distance from traffic is important.  So if you can find a trainer who is willing to work with you on that part, I recommend that.  I hope that ow am not sounding like I am against what you are doing, I'm not.  I admire you for your effort, and wish you success.
> 
> I may offend some folks when I say the following: I do not believe that a blind person can train me with a dog.  Dogs and people move faster than people who travel with canes, (though I know some very fast walkers who use canes.  There are certain parts of instruction that a blind person could do, like some of the dog care, things like that.  But instructors see how the dog and person are walking together, they can often figure out whether a different kind of harness is needed, for instance.  Right away, my instructor saw that I was not giving Neena enough tension in the harness, and that sometimes I was pushing her.  I don't think that a blind instructor would see that.  In those early days of training it's so important to get feedback, and I really believe, that at least in this situation, that feedback needs to come from an instructor who can make visual observations.  Now, I have had two blind mobility instructors, and they were awesome, and I had no issue with them.  But I think there's a difference between cane travel and traveling with a dog.
> 
> It's okay if you disagree with me, I had a friend while I was a student at CCB and we debated this issue a lot.  He never did convince me, by the way.  (Grin).  But it wasn't for lack of trying.  But that doesn't mean that I haven't learned a lot from other people who use dogs as guides.  I definitely have, but not the basics, and not stuff dealing with dogs and traffic.
> 
> Well, I really need to be in bed now.  Tomorrow is Friday, yea! Maybe I'll get to more email then.  Again, good luck, Valerie!    Debby and Neena
> 
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