[NAGDU] Choosing the Appropriate Guide Dog School

[Julie Johnson]

David,

Welcome to the list!

I'll have a go at your questions, but first I should introduce myself.  I'm 
Julie and I currently have two dogs my working guide Jetta, a Doberman, and 
my mostly retired guide, Monty, a lab and Boxer mix.   I owner trained my 
first three guides, including Monty.  Jetta was privately trained for me and 
I finished her training.  I have never attended a guide dog program so all 
what I'm about to say is my observations of other dogs and staff, all of 
course from my in person interactions.

I have seen great dogs and handlers from all the schools.  I have also seen 
teams who are struggling.   Part of it is the quality of training offered, 
the matching of dogs and handlers, the selection of handlers who are ready 
and a good part is how much work the handler puts into the dog.   You can 
get a dog with a lot of potential, but if you don't continue to develop it, 
the whole thing can go off the rails.  Keeping the team working effectively 
requires work, letting the dog do whatever is pretty easy.   Of course you 
get out of it what you put into it.

Trainers and staff within   each program differ on their beliefs about blind 
people, dog expertise, manners and acceptance of differing viewpoints.  I 
have personally had nice conversations with staff from: TSE, GDF, GDA, GDD, 
Gallant Hearts, Noah's ,and GEB.  I felt respected and viewed as an equal. 
Owner training has a history of being frowned upon, so equality is a 
relatively new thing for owner trainers.  Anyway, the schools not mentioned 
I have not had the opportunity to speak with or have been received coldly. 
I try not to judge an entire program on the basis of one interaction with 
one staff person, but then again when they are representing their program at 
an event, what else should I base my ideas about their program on?

Heather posted a sort of inventory or quiz a while ago.  It was really a 
super accurate assessment of whether or not you should make ownership a 
priority when selecting a program.  I think though that she also brought up 
a ton of things to consider about what is important to you when getting a 
guide.  I thought I had saved it, but I can't find it.  Hopefully someone 
else will have it or know how to find it in the archives.

In the end I opted not to go through any program.  There are a ton of 
reasons, but mostly I really like dog training and enjoy  crazy do it 
yourself projects.   Jetta is just 4, so I have a while to decide what I'll 
do for the next dog.

Julie
On The Go with Guide-and-Service-Dogs.com
http://www.guide-and-service-dogs.com
also find my products in the Blind Mice Mega Mall
<https://www.blindmicemegamall.com/bmm/shop/Directory_Departments?storeid=1916046>
-----Original Message----- 
From: David Bouchard via NAGDU
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2017 3:12 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: David Bouchard
Subject: [NAGDU] Choosing the Appropriate Guide Dog School

Hi everyone,
I have been travelling with a cane all of my life, but recently had the 
chance to try a dog out on a group tour of Guide Dogs for the Blind, and was 
pretty much sold on it because of the fluidity of movement I experienced 
with the dog, and the potential for the dog to find certain things like 
chairs and doors. Now I need to decide which guide dog school to pursue. I 
live in Portland, OR, and while GOODB seems to be a good fit based on my 
initial impression, I am aware that there is considerable controversy about 
which school provides the best dog, and also what training methods are best. 
What factors did you consider when making your  decision on an appropriate 
school? I am also considering the Seeing Eye as an option, and am open to 
other possibilities. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
David

Sent from my iPhone
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