[NAGDU] class coming up, and questions

[Kerri Sprecher]

Hello to all,
I'm so excited to be going to Morristown, NJ on Monday the 22nd. I
heard something about a welcome meeting or dinner when I got my flight
arrangements set up with the travel agency. That part was new to me
and I liked that.
So, my thing is this: in order to pack all the training that used to
go into a 3 and a half week class for a retrain and 4 weeks for a new
student, into a shorter class time, 2.5 weeks for retrains in my case,
can someone shed some light on how in the world they manage to pull
that off? I bet it's a whirlwind of activity; I'm definitely expecting
the 5:30 AM feed and park, meal times to be the same, one AM and one
PM trip, and feed and park again, some lectures and one last park
time, but, do they have you doing longer trips with more work per trip
than before? I would imagine that in order to get someone prepared for
life with a guide dog, you'd have to pack more skill sets into a trip
in order to get it all in there before going home time.
I spoke with a good friend of mine who goes to GDB for her dogs, and
she said hers is similar in that they do clicker training, targeting,
chaining, and the like, but when they shortened their class time also,
they changed the ratio of student/instructor to 2/1 instead of 4/1,
because they put in longer trip times with more training in each trip
than in previous classes before.
I'm guessing that Monday and Tuesday are dedicated to paperwork,
orientation, lectures, and Juneau walks to make sure the match is
right, and then Wednesday, the day everyone looks forward to, Dog Day,
lunch, and your first ever trip together. And, I am also guessing that
in the first few days of getting the new dog, it'll be the simple
familiar quiet routes, then more in-depth and more complex ones. I
just was shocked when I first learned they had shortened class,
because even with a 3 week class, it felt like we were always running
and going, with a little down time sprinkled in, but mostly busy, and
now, to think that it's even shorter makes me wonder just how much
more work they'll have for me to do at once. Glad I'm a seasoned
handler by now, or I might feel overwhelmed; heck I might feel that
way anyway. Smile.
So, what do you think, for those of you grads out there, about the new
2.5 week class, and how has it affected or changed the way they do
trips and the amount of work for each trip?
Thanks all, and I am ecstatic!
Kerri

-- 
Kerri Sprecher,  President
Big Country Chapter NFBTX
spedangel84 at gmail.com
325-280-6272
Chapter Google Voice: 325-704-8787
Chapter E-mail:
bigcountry at nfbtx.org
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