[nagdu] some considerations on ownership

[Jenine Stanley]

As part of my job at GDF, I’ve been involved in sadly more than one case of needing to remove a dog due to abuse when the person owned the dog. Leaving class all was fine with no reason not to give the people full ownership. things went south though. 

It’s hard to remove a dog this way. It can be done but it’s not anything any school undertakes easily. 

Even when GDF did not have a full ownership policy, we found it very difficult to remove dogs and I remember Emily Biegel, our former Admissions Director, saying that she could only recall one dog in over 20 of her career being removed due to supposed abuse or neglect or any other reason for that matter. I think most instructors if involved in the decision to remove a dog will do anything to help the partnership or encourage the person to make the decision to give up the dog voluntarily if his or her life is not amenable to having a guide dog. 

Even with full ownership, people are afraid to call us because they fear we will take their dogs. I joke with people and tell them if they knew about the amount of paperwork it takes, they would know they have nothing to fear. Truth is it does take paperwork, lots of phone calls and serious talks with local law enforcement and animal control, even when the school owns the dog. It’s not as easy as it might have been in past years. 

Regarding donors not respecting or knowing about blind people, let’s not sell them or puppy raisers short. Yes, many donors just want the poor disabled people to have doggies but more and more donors are becoming smart abut their gifts. Besides, I’d wager probably more than half the people subscribed to this list donate to a guide dog school or have done so at least once. Did you think about how that school viewed blind people’s abilities when you donated? Maybe so. Most likely not but imagine if you donated to a school because someone other than yourself had a dog from there, maybe before you had a guide dog. that school seemed to consistently accept people you wouldn’t want having a dog because you had seen them being inappropriate and knew the blindness skills they would need. Maybe that school used harsh training techniques. How long would you be likely to donate to them? Not long I’d wager  and the very reasons we change guide dog schools are similar  to those people cite for changing their donation preferences. 

Same thing with puppy raisers. There are puppy raisers who are blind on this list I’m sure. Would you raise for a school that did not put a lot into choosing the people who received that puppy? Even if you never had contact? You would still want the school to do its utmost to assure that the person would care well for the dog, work it and give it a good life. 

so when we say these things don’t affect donors and puppy raisers, we are really being short sighted because some of us are those very people. 
Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com

http://www.twitter.com/jeninems