[nagdu] Guide Dog School

[Debby Phillips]

Hi Helga, well, as with everything there are advantages and 
disadvantages, I suppose.  For me, ownership was important, so I 
chose Seeing Eye rather than Guide Dogs for the Blind, which was 
definitely closer to me when I applied for my first dog.  For me, 
ownership meant being more independent.  There were some other 
reasons I didn't choose GDB, but they are not important to this 
current discussion.

Since I have never been in a position where the school owned the 
dog, there are some things I don't know.  But one advantage ow 
could see to the school owning the dog, especially in the case of 
Guide Dogs for the Blind, is that they do pay vet costs.  Those 
can be very expensive.  Yesterday is a good example.  My retired 
dog had to have surgery to clean and sew up a huge cut that he 
got.  That plus his and Neena's kennel cough shots was over $500.  
It was a pretty expensive do at our house.  (Smile).  Worth it, 
of course, because we all love Lamar.  But if Lamar was still a 
working dog, and the school owned him, they would probably help 
with those costs.  Certainly grads from GDB have a lot of support 
from the school, but they also have a lot more supervision.  So 
you will have to decide whether you need more support, knowing 
that you will have more requirements from the school to fill out 
papers, etc.  That's a decision only you can make.  There's 
nothing wrong with either choice, if that is what you want.  
Anyway, good luck!    Blessings,    Debby with Neena