[nagdu] Bad weather and class

[Jenine Stanley]

Tracy, 

We have a 2-block area on our campus we call the Town Square. It gets cleared so that if we can’t go anywhere else outside, we can work those two blocks. 

Believe it or not, and given Doug’s message it’s not hard to believe, but there are people who want those winter classes with snow. one person in our next guide class is from Buffalo, NY. She was ecstatic that she got a “snow class”. Now watch, the big snows will be over come February 24. :) 

I wonder how many cab drivers have been freaked out in places like NYC and Washington DC to see a dog’s face peering at them from atop a snow bank at a corner. 

My first GDF class was during December but we only had a dusting of snow so it wasn’t bad. 

I’ve been in 2 March classes though and those are rough. Both at Pilot and GDF we had snow, sleet, rain, sun and 65 degrees all within a 2 to 3 week span. 

the week after my very first class we had two blizzards, one week apart, each dumping at least a foot of snow on Columbus. It was interesting but we just got out there and went. 

Oh the innocent heedlessness of a brand new team. :)
Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com

http://www.twitter.com/jeninems

On Feb 14, 2014, at 10:38 AM, Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net> wrote:

> Doug, I used to live in Minnesota.  I know all about mushing through the snow to get to work.  I used to call my dog and I the six-footed snow-leaper, we were so good at climbing over the snow mountains at the street corners.
> I would expect to get out in class, too.  But in my experience with 6 dogs, the first few walks can be a bit uncoordinated, while we learn each other's signals.  Throwing ice into the mix would make it harder.  Not impossible, but hard.  And how do I know if my new dog is always going to be so slow and cautious, or will step out nicely, once the sidewalks are clear?
> Just wondering how it would go.  And dreading the real possibility that I may find myself in a winter class at TSE sometime.
> Tracy
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Parisian" <eggmann at mymts.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 10:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Bad weather and class
> 
> 
>> Tracy, some folks living in deep freezes have no choice about the weather. I doubt that my past employers would be impressed by my not getting to work because my dog and I couldn't manage sleep, ice, and snow, and oh yes, cold.  Our average temperature around here for the past month has been sitting around the minus 10 Fahrenheit. This does not count wind chill.  Cars being much more important than us low-life pedestrians, the roads are mostly scraped down to the concrete while our sidewalks, when they get to it. are a mixture of almost clear to packed down.  Curbs are most often ill-defined or not at all.  I have crossed streets in these conditions without being aware that I had done so, especially in less familiar areas.
>> 
>> All this to say that, were I at TSI this winter, I would absolutely insist that we do training routs, regardless of weather, unless of course it is seriously extreme, according to my Winnipeg standards. Softer souls in warmer climates should indeed have the choice as to whether or not to go on trips.  Perhaps the only exception might be a first time trainee whose relationship with their new dog is, you guessed it, new.
>> 
>> On 14/02/2014 9:07 AM, Tracy Carcione wrote:
>>> It seems like, here in Jersey, we've had a major storm every week for at least the last month, and, even when there's no storm, it's been very cold.
>>> I wonder how the schools around here are handling it.  Do people just go out, unless it's actually blizzarding, and stomp through the snow as best they can?  I would have a hard time judging my new dog's pace, if all the time we were walking carefully on ice, or maneuvering down narrow shovelled paths.  And in my book, one or two trips to the mall exhausts the possibilities for learning anything useful there.
>>> Or, I suppose, they could come into New York City a lot more, because the City tends to clean the main walkways pretty well.  A lot better than my town does, for sure.
>>> I wonder what Leader does, since bad weather is a constant in Michigan winters?
>>> Anyone been in class in the northern part of the country during January or February, with lots of snow?
>>> I'd be real interested to hear about it.
>>> Tracy
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> -- 
>> Doug Parisian
>> 4-951 Westminster ave
>> Winnipeg MB Canada
>> R3G 1B7
>> 1-204-227-8877
>> eggmann at mymts.net
>> 
>> 
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