[NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.

[Sherry Gomes]

I got my first guide dog in August of 1975. I was not quite 18 and just out of high school. I kept a daily journal in braille, took my Perkins up to the dorm with me and a binder full of blank paper. I still have it. I lived about two hours south of GDB then. Anyway, I'd wanted a guide dog since I was 7, when I first read the book Follow my leader. Truthfully, what I wanted was my own dog. My dad had two dogs, but they were his hunting dogs, not family pets, never in the house, that sort of thing. Every year I'd ask for a dog. Then I heard about guide dogs. It was the sixties. I went to public school, but they didn't give blind kids canes until junior high back then. I got my cane in eighth grade. So, I didn't really understand the mobility aspects of what getting a dog would mean. I just knew this would be a dog that could lead me around and it would be all mine. I couldn't wait. So, for me, everything about that first time at GDB is magical. I remember the anticipation, how it felt so weird to be called Miss Gomes by the instructors, how I eagerly soaked in all the things we learned in the three days before we met our dogs. 

My dog was a tiny little female black lab, and I remember how small she was, how she licked my face and then ran over to the instructors because she knew them. I was head over heels in love with her from the first second. My personality is the sort that if I look forward to something the way I did with getting my first dog, everything would be wonderful, rainbows and flowers and stars and moons so to speak. Due to external sources it took a lot of twists to get to that first class, and due to other external sources, I only had that dog for a year. But that month in training is one of the top most joyful memories of my life. 

Sherry


-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tara Briggs via NAGDU
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2018 9:42 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Tara Briggs <thflute at gmail.com>
Subject: [NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.

hi all! I’m hoping that some of you will share stories with me about the first time you met your dog. What were you thinking and feeling before you met your dog? How did the meeting go? I remember when I met my second, and recently retired dog Emmy. Emmy was over the moon! She jumped on me and happily licked my face. It seemed like she knew that I would be her forever person. For those of you who have owner trained, I would love to hear your stories as well and how you made the selection  of the dog you would train.
Tara


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