[nagdu] Training dogs?

[Tracy Carcione]

That's too bad.  It would be good if schools looked upon blind employees as bringing in something useful to the program.  Perhaps one administration did think so, and the next regarded them as useless window dressing.
I am coming to think that it takes a long time for the average sighted trainer to actually understand what it's like to have to trust the dog with your safety, and that's something we know from the first week. That single perspective makes a big difference, IMO.
That Shanna always had a sighted person looking over her shoulder isn't encouraging, either.  Unless it was like what a trainer told me--that when trainers do blindfold work with a dog, there is a supervisor there to step in if the half-trained dog makes a mistake.  
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sherry Gomes via nagdu
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2015 5:59 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Cc: Sherry Gomes
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Training dogs?

She's not on this list now and not working at GDB anymore. While she was there, she did not do the initial training of dogs but worked with the team she was assigned to in various tasks and then also worked/trained with dogs in the string after the sighted instructors had partly trained them, and always with a sighted instructor or supervisor with her. She also went out with classes, did dorm duty and various other things. She really hoped the job would eventually turn into working in the training department as an apprentice trainer. It was her dream to work there, but things changed, people were laid off or fired with a new CEO and the drive to have more alumni on staff and particularly in the training department seemed to disappear from GDB. This person eventually became frustrated and left, moving to another state and doing something else now. There were also a few blind people working in the kennel department, but I don't think they are there anymore either.

Sherry

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via nagdu
Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2015 10:47 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Training dogs?

GDB did have a blind person in some kind of training capacity, and that person was or is on this list.  For some reason, the position did not work as people had hoped.  If that person is still on the list, I'd be interested in any particulars she might care to share.
Tracy


> Raven writes:
>> Honestly, anyone could apply to be an instructor apprentice at a 
>> guide dog school and probably make it depending on presentation and such.
>
> How I dearly wish this were true. Sadly, this has not, to date, been 
> the case; someone can please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. 
> However, to my knowledge, no guide dog school has welcomed blind 
> applicants for apprentice instructor positions. The prevailing wisdom, 
> not very wise in my opinion, is that there are too many aspects of the 
> training that we just wouldn't be able to do; traffic springs to mind, 
> and it's the one most often cited whenever the topic comes up. Here is one deal breaker.
> The few times I've looked at such positions, I've always seen 
> something similar to this as an essential job requirement. From the 
> Guide Dogs For the Blind job posting:
>
> • Valid Class B license (with passenger transportation endorsement) 
> and Medical Certificate required (California). If not, must obtain a 
> Class B driver license within 90 days of start date, along with 
> insurable driving record at normal rates or Oregon equivalent.
>
> Yep, we'd all be dismissed on that grounds alone, if no other.
>
> We all know that blind people can certainly train guide dogs. Several 
> of us have done so for ourselves, and at least one person I know of 
> has done so for others, so of course it's possible. But I can already 
> tell you that the schools will probably be slow to entertain the 
> possibility, if they ever do at all. One more thing I can already 
> hear, because I've heard it
> already: the outcry from our own. Do you know how many blind people 
> I've met who have told me (in self-evident contradictory statements), 
> "I believe in the capabilities of blind people, but I'd never trust 
> one as an O&M instructor, or to train my guide dog. There are just 
> some things that require vision, and it's not realistic to think that 
> this is a job we can do." So besides overcoming the attitudes of the 
> schools intros regard, we have to overcome the attitudes of our own 
> people. But to do the latter, we have to do the former first.
>
> Again, I'd dearly love to be wrong about this. I sincerely wish I was 
> in a position to apply for such a job, but I can't, mostly because 
> moving just isn't possible. Still, it's something I'd love to do.
>
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: 814-860-3194
> Mobile: 814-431-0962
> Email: buddy at brannan.name
>
>
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