[nagdu] Guide Dog School

[Raven Tolliver]

Do any of the schools that relinquish ownership offer veterinary
financial assistance? This is one of the reasons I chose GEB. From
what I learned at the time I was applying to guide dog programs, GDF
and GDA did not offer veterinary financial assistance. I did not apply
to Pilot or the Seeing Eye for various reasons.
I understand completely why ownership is important to many. It just
wasn't important to me at the time. And GEB is very lax with their
graduates, so I don't worry about ownership now.
Because of various things I have learned while having a guide dog, I
would like to raise and train my next guide dog, or at least hire
someone privately to do some of the training. There is not a school
out there that does things the way I want, so having complete input
and control of the rearing and training of my next dog will be more
responsibility, but more beneficial in the end.
-- 
Raven
You are valuable because of your potential, not because of what you
have or what you do.

Naturally-reared guide dogs
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/nrguidedogs

On 3/11/15, robert stigile via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> hello
> gda gives ownership upon graduation
> if you can travel to the school they will take care of the vet costs as long
> as your dog is working
> hope this helps
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Mar 11, 2015, at 7:29 AM, Marianne Denning via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Most schools who maintain ownership of the dog do not pay vet bills.
>> They maintain ownership of the dog so they can take the dog if they
>> believe the dog is too overweight or is being abused.  I don't think
>> they want to take the dogs away from us because that can reflect badly
>> on them, but they use this as there way to do it. After I had my
>> current dog for a year Leader Dogs asked for health records from my
>> vet.  I didn't provide them so they sent out a field rep to check out
>> my dog.  They thought I was hiding her weight problem from them but I
>> wasn't.  If this were my first dog I would have provided the
>> information but since I have been getting dogs from Leader for over 25
>> years I did not think I should have to do that.
>>
>> NAGDU and guide dog schools have a very different view of things, as I
>> see it.  NAGDU supports and promotes the rights of dog guide teams and
>> guide dog schools want to provide a highly trained dog for a blind
>> person.  The schools also want to assure that the health and
>> well-being of the dog is maintained.  I think this means there are
>> areas where NAGDU and guide dog schools will agree and areas where
>> they disagree.
>>
>> As long as people continue to go to schools that maintain ownership
>> there is no reason for the schools to change their policies.  If NAGDU
>> is really serious about this issue then we should become more
>> activist.  Otherwise, each of us will make our own decision about the
>> best school for us.
>>
>>> On 3/11/15, Debby Phillips via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 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
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
>> Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
>> (513) 607-6053
>>
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