[nagdu] Ownership; what about other countries?

[Tracy Lloyd]

Sorry, but this person is talking nonsense!

I live in the UK and disagree with everything this person says below.

First of all, yes you can, if you don't have the means to pay, have food 
paid for by the association if you wish too, it's personal choice, and most 
owners either pay for their own food, or contribute to it if not.  We also 
can, if we wish, have vet bills paid for, but many owners don't and pay them 
themselves.  I pay for all of my dog's food, both for my working dog and my 
retired one, and so does my husband.  We've chosen to feed a food of our 
choice, no problem at all with that, we also choose our own vets to take the 
dogs too.

Next, that is utter nonsense regarding us being told when to retire our 
dogs, and total and utter crap that they are taken away on retirement!  We 
are not told when to retire our dogs, it's a joint decision between owner 
and a GDMI on aftercare.  If a dog retires and the owner can't keep it for 
whatever reason, then the asociation will find a home for the dog, thatis 
the owner's choice, and the owner has input in to the type of family they'd 
like for their dog.

regarding dogs being badly behaved? god knows what you are on about with 
that, certainly, like with most programs, there are dogs who are badly 
handled out there, but it's certainly nothing like you portray in your 
message below.  My Hubby and I have had 4 fantastic dogs each, since 1986, 
all of them have had excellent behaviour.  My current dog is a German 
Shepherd who  is almost 9, her work is faultless and her behaviour is  of 
the hhighest standard.

I can not believe someone could write such a damning message, see below, 
which is totally untrue and unjust.  I rarely write, but on this occasion, I 
felt I must put the record straight!

Regards,

tracy from the UK.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Vivianna
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 5:04 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Ownership; what about other countries?

all this talk of ownership and the policies of different schools has me 
wondering about other countries.
i know that, in the UK not only do they give you the dog, all its food for 
life, all the vet bills for life, board if you go out of town, and who knows 
what else but, they tell you when to retire the dog and come and take it 
from you when they say it's time to retire the dog.
i know many many folks there have guide dogs simply because it's a free 
deal.  the ones that i have seen were extremely misbehaved in my opinion. 
jumping on people, barking, running around at the end of the leash.
i will venture to say that blind folks here in the states, and even in 
canada are leaps and bounds ahead of most of the world in the independence 
department.
sure, it's nifty to have everything pertaining to the dog and it's care 
given to you for free but, i'd rather pay for everything on my own and make 
my own decisions on how to feed my dog, what vet to take her to, etc.
i know, i know, yet another contraversial topic.  smiley.

Vivianna


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