[nagdu] submitted video for GDA

[Lisa Belville]

Hi, John.

Good luck with your GDA application.

I sent my video in as the last part of my application in early November 2014 
and had a phone interview in early December.  I found out I was accepted in 
early January of this year and I just graduated in the June through July 
class.
The student to trainer ratio is good, we had 10 people in our class, a mix 
of retrains and first time handlers.  There were three full time instructors 
and all of them had worked with our dogs numerous times before we were 
matched, so they all had techniques and tricks for learning how to work with 
our specific dog.  Also, they're good about listening to you on an 
individual level.

As Robert said, you get unconditional ownership upon graduating.  Also, they 
don't hover over you as far as enforcing schedules regarding relieving. 
yes, There is a set schedule for feeding, watering and relieving, and they 
do take note of who is outside and whose dog is doing what, but after the 
first week they stopped using the building PA system to remind us, so it was 
our responsibility to keep track of the time.  It was no big deal for those 
of us with previous dog experience, but new were getting a taste of dog care 
while they had access to constant help that wasn't intrusive.  One guy used 
the Bark ringtone on his iPhone as his reminder sound.

Over all I am very pleased with the experience and the dog I got.  All of 
our dogs were at least two years old, and we did obedience daily in various 
situations.  My dog has the best house manners of any of my guide dogs for 
being a green dog, and is picking up on things slowly but surely.  We have 
very odd curbs so this is something I'm working with her on.

Oh, which reminds me, they're very big on using your cane in the building 
while your dog is healing on leash.  They strongly encourage you to use the 
cane to show the dog new areas if the dog isn't picking up on them quickly. 
I've even been given the suggestion that I use my cane to work a route with 
a particularly nasty offset intersection before trying it with my dog.  This 
suggestion was given after looking at a video of that intersection that was 
part of my application.  I've also had a trainer use Google Earth to look at 
this same intersection and give me tips and tricks over the phone.

Lisa


Lisa Belville
missktlab1217 at frontier.com

Duct tape can't fix stupid ......... but it can  muffle the sound!


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "starmy22--- via nagdu" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: <starmy22 at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 12:40 PM
Subject: [nagdu] submitted video for GDA


> Hi,
> I just wanted to let you all know that I have submitted my video for GDA 
> as well.
> The reason why I’m submitting my application to multiple schools is 
> because if one school denys my application, I will have another school to 
> wait  for.
> I hope to hear from you soon.
> Sincerely,
> John Sanders
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