[NAGDU] Introducing a New Member

Wed Nov 29 17:36:43 UTC 2017

Bree,

Welcome. Yes, you've come to the right place. I'm Tami, working my 
second owner-trained poodle guide. I have retinitis pigmentosa, so have 
done the whole progressive vision loss into blindness thing. Well, not 
the whole thing, since I'm still not totally blind, but I am working on 
it and will get there when I get there. /lol/

Other people with extensive experience with dogs from the various 
training programs will give you good information. In general, they do 
provide dogs to people with partial vision loss, though that was not 
always the case. Now the operating assumption is more that if you need a 
cane, you need a dog for the same reasons if you choose dog over cane.

Dealing with vision loss means dealing with a lot of feelings, and 
everyone does it their own way. Being in an in-between state where you 
don't know where you fit in comes with additional feelings and 
confusions. Your feelings are your own, and how you deal with them is 
for you to do. However... It sounds like you've been dealt a heavy guilt 
load from somewhere, including by the case worker who told you you 
should be grateful. Wrong. Just... wrong. People in the resource fields 
will tell you that, and usually what it means is that they don't want to 
spend money on you, so they're hoping you'll go away and shut up. What 
they'll be telling the totally blind clients is that they can't do 
anything anyway, so the agency needs to spend the resources on people 
with some vision. So, if you feel either guilty or grateful for reasons 
of your own, that's entirely normal as part of the adjustment process. 
So is feeling angry, bitter, maybe okay, and lots of other things. But 
if you can avoid letting someone else tell you what you ought to feel, 
then that's a good.

As for using a guide dog when you have good cane mobility skills, it 
really is a matter of choice. A dog is great with some of the areas you 
mention, and I definitely prefer navigating those same sorts of 
difficult places with the dog. The dog does not come with an off switch, 
however, so you can't just stick in the corner out of the way when you 
get home. The cane does not have off days or suddenly decide to go sniff 
the bushes over there while neatly convincing you it is taking you 
around an obstacle. A cane also won't see that quiet car blowing through 
the red light and zooming towards the crosswalk where you are walking, 
nor will it knock you back and back again so the car speeds by inches in 
front of you instead of right over you. And so on. The decision for most 
people seems to come down to a weighing of pros and cons and an 
examination of lifestyle and preferences.

There are something like 13 programs to choose from (someone will 
correct me if I'm wrong on the number), so there is good availability of 
guide dogs. I've also heard the bit about not taking a guide dog away 
from someone who really needs one, but that's, well, bunk. First, you 
really need a cane, so you really need a guide dog. Second, if you do 
decide on a dog and are matched with one, then it is true that someone 
else who needs a guide dog will not get that dog. That person will get a 
different dog. If you have partial vision and want a guide dog, people 
will lay that guilt trip on you, though, along with all the others. 
Sigh. Considering you own needs versus those of others when consuming 
finite resources is laudable, but I think it is important to remember 
that if the resources are made available for blind people and you are a 
blind person, then they are available for you if you need them. It's 
usually people trying to hoard those resources who will tell you 
otherwise. If you were totally blind, the excuses would be different is 
all. Sigh.

Anyway, that's just my take, and you will hear many others and get lots 
of information to filter through as you make your decision about what is 
best for you. Do feel free to let us know how you decide, either way.

Tami

On 11/29/2017 12:41 AM, Bree R. via NAGDU wrote:
> Thank you for letting me join your list. I don't know if this is a list that can help me. Or if I belong here. I think I want to at least try to get some more info about guide dogs before I decide whether or not a guide dog would help me with travel.
> 
> I finished mobility training through ACBVI before I moved last spring. I met a few people who had guide dogs and I wondered if they were even an option for me. I know I should talk to the guide dog schools to ask but it's intimidating since what if they just say no & I'm wasting their time.
> 
> I don't think or don't know if I should even try because I have done mobility training and it helped a lot. I don't think I have to have a guide dog to be safe. Or take someone's dog who needs them more than me. Mostly because my better eye I can see out of is corrected or can be to 20/70. I think that I would not think of a guide dog if I could see enough to not use a cane & if the people I met didn't make me wonder.
> 
> 
> ACBVI said it is low vision but not blindness & I know guide dogs are for people who are really are blind. I just can't use what I can see very well I guess is how to explain it because what I see doesn't match what is there. I don't have RP but it's similar they said except there's just rod and cone dystrophy and mostly it's a male condition so they didn't know what was going on for a long time. I wear glasses over contract lenses which is how I can see 20/70 in one eye and it's like 20/200 on the other. My glasses are made with crystals and they're supposed to help them work together but it doesn't always work and sometimes makes it worse. I am night blind since I was a kid and have amblyopia where my right eye won't look straight and also photophobia. I think if I could see 20/70 really like 20/70 is then I wouldn't need a cane even it's just it is not the same trying to walk or get around as it is to read letters on a chart.
> 
> The counselor at the last session I had with Voc Rehab told me my vision is really not bad at all and to be grateful and I am. I think that is why I don't want to call and talk to guide dog schools because I feel guilty.
> 
> I wanted to ask someone with a guide dog though if I really couldn't try to have a guide dog. I remembered the name of the NFB from something a while ago so I found a google result for your list when I searched NFB and guide dogs.
> 
> I hope it's ok for me to ask this here. I mean I know Im glad I can still see and all and I hope I don't keep having worse vision but I'm 27 and it has been getting worse for many years now. I feel bad though if I sound ungrateful. I'm really not. I just wonder if it is true that I cannot try to get a guide dog and that they are for only totally blind people. I sort of wish I could try to have one now because it seems like it would be much better to travel and to not have to run into something to know its there with my cane and to move around things a dog would see especially in the winter when it's hard to tell where curbs and roads are and the snow makes it hard to find landmarks.
> 
> I hope it isnt breaking any rules for me to post here and thank you. I am nervous as you maybe can tell.
> 
> Bree
> 
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