[NAGDU] Consideration of Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation and their German Shepherds

[Heather Bird]

Hello again Sean. With regards Freedom Guide Dogs, it never hurts to call them and ask what breeds they are using. They have used a wide variety of breeds over the years, and it is quite possible that they offer German Shepherd’s at this time, it is also quite possible that they offer a breed that isn’t listed on their website. They are a good school, but they are a small school, and having a website with a lot of bells and whistle‘s, that is constantly updated, is not something I would generally a tribute to their school. They definitely do turn out some quality dogs though, so it might be worth calling.

With regards independence, and your level of travel. I guess I would express my thoughts in the following way. Are you independent? Yes, and no, and also, maybe. I would say it depends on the question of why? If you don’t go anywhere except with your partner because you feel that you can’t, if you don’t go anywhere without them because you’re afraid, if you don’t go anywhere without them because you literally can’t, you don’t know how. Then no, you are not independent. However, if you know how, and choose not to, if you are capable of going places on your own, but the way your life is structured right now means that there isn’t much call for it, if you’re happy with things the way they are, not feeling repressed, sheltered, denied, or isolated, then yes, you are independent. I think it really depends a lot on your personal goals, your perceptions, your skills, your reasons, and the details of your personal life, and what works for you. I would say, that,generally speaking, I agree with posters who say that it is up to you, and that how, and when, and with whom you choose to travel, is your decision and that it should not be judged. The only time when I would disagree with this, is it if it is negatively impacting others. For instance, if your partner needed you to go somewhere and get something or do something for them, and you couldn’t, or wouldn’t, then that is not independence, and that is not OK. If you had, for instance, children, and wouldn’t take them anywhere unless your partner accompanied you,  and this caused them to miss out on a great deal of important life experiences, then I would say that no, that is not independence, and that it is also not OK. However, if what you choose to do harms no one, including yourself, then it is up to you. We all have different needs socially, and different relationships within our family group. For me personally, I would lose my mind if I spent all of my time with my family members. Getting out of the house with Ilsa and going places with no seven-year-old fighting with his 12-year-old brother, and no husband making smart ass remarks, and without my mom telling anecdotal stories about me, and without my husband and kids ganging up on me to all prank me at the same time, that to me is heaven. Some people have a much larger, or smaller family group, some people truly desire to spend all or almost all of their time with other people, others want to spend the majority of their time alone, and all of those things are totally fine. If you and your partner travel together, because you both enjoy each other’s company, and that makes the most sense for both of you, if you don’t feel limited by your partner and your partner doesn’t feel limited by you, then who cares what anyone else thinks, that’s great, that’s what works for the two of you.

Now, setting aside the question of independent or not, setting aside the question of what other people think, or debating what independence means, or NFB philosophy, or anything else like that. Setting those aside, realistically, I think Fidelco might have some reservations about placing a dog with someone who doesn’t travel on their own at least a fair amount of the time. I would think The Seeing Eye might feel like wise. I also have the sense that Freedom Guide Dogs might be a little more amenable to placing a dog in networking situation. Now, I don’t work for Freedom, or Fidelco, or The Seeing Eye, and you should definitely describe your lifestyle to them and ask them if they have a dog that would be an appropriate match for you. Traveling with someone, to my mind, it’s not problematic in terms of philosophy or independence. Rather, there are two guide dog handling related issues at play. One, is that it would be important for you to take the lead most of the time, and have the person accompanying you walk, or use a wheelchair or scooter behind you, preferably on your right, so that your dog has adequate opportunity to practice skills, and doesn’t get into the habit of following the other person, and looking to them for judgment calls about how to handle an obstacle, whether to stop at the curb, or how to navigate a street crossing. The second issue, is how much the dog would bond with your partner. If you are almost never alone working your dog, even if you always walk ahead, or almost always, and if the dog is still actively doing his work, it might, if for years, it only travels with you and your partner, display anxiety or hesitance or distress, when you do try to travel somewhere on your own. Dogs are pack animals, and often they get upset when part of their pack is missing. For instance, every time we would drop my son at preschool, Ilsa would look back, as if to say, “so, moron, you forgot the kid. Hello you forgot the little human we brought with us. Did you notice you don’t have the kid? We need to turn iWe need to turn around, and go back, and. Get. The. Kid “ “I’m sure a lot of people can relate to the scenario where when a family member goes on a business trip there guide or pet dog looks for the person and seems a little bit unsettled until that person returns. Other people notice that their dog doesn’t want to go to bed until everyone else is in bed, in their rooms at least, and will pace around giving people dirty looks, if everyone is staying up late watching a movie or having a party with friends. This sort of instinct and Drive  could be problematic if you always travel with your partner and the dog and then have a need to travel without someone else with you. Now, a good question to ask yourself might be, how often are you willing to do a trip for the sake of maintaining the dogs training, where it is just you and the dog? If the answer is once every month or two, then perhaps a guy dog is not the right choice, or perhaps you would need a very special match that can deal with this working situation. If the answer is once every week or two, then I think there are a lot of programs that could easily find you A great match. I think whatever you choose, the most important thing is to make sure the school understands what your travel situation will be. Even a great school, with great puppy raisers, awesome trainers, and fantastic dogs, can’t give a student a good match, if they don’t fully understand the students work and home life and the working situation the dog will be entering into. Also, I would add, that if you don’t get a lot of time working with just you and your dog, you could compensate to an extent, by not letting your partner interact with the dog too much, by building in special play, massage, obedience, canine  sports, or other training sessions with your dog, or if you have any other disability related needs, cross training some tasks your dog can perform for you at home. These things might help to keep the bond strong, and the dog mentally  active. 

I also noticed that you seem to be looking for a German Shepherd. I’ve been mulling it over, and it’s interesting, my gut reaction was “woe, a shepherd is not the right choice for this person, a shepherd will be bored out of his mind and tear the house apart. “But then, upon further reflection, it also occurred to me that the right kind of shepherd, might actually do very well. Shepherd‘s tend to bond very closely to their  person, and it might make it easier for the dog to ignore your partner. The dog also might be driven enough and bright enough and work focused enough, that this would help them stay on task more there have been a few rough patches in my life, where we went through a period where my dog got very little work, these patches were, thankfully, relatively short, but we are talking weeks without work, and, I would be nervous the first time we went out and worked again, but, every time, my dog was a rockstar, and I’m speaking of three different German Shepherd‘s from two different schools. In theory, they should have been distracted as heck, they should’ve been difficult to handle, they should’ve pulled my arm off so hard that I got dragged down the block on my face, they should have been less focused, and not worked well after having not worked for quite a while however, this simply wasn’t the case, for which I am extremely grateful. I know, my Labrador, my first guy dog, if she went for more than two weeks without work, she would’ve been a distracted mess, her work would’ve been sloppy, even if I was on the top of my game and staying right on top of her. Now, as always, these are generalizations, and every single dog is an individual, so making generalizations about breeds is only of limited help. It’s a framework to start from, but it is by no means definitive.

I wish you a lot of luck, I can relate to the desire to have a German Shepherd for sure. I also understand that people can be very judge mental. I consider myself to be extremely independent, and I do travel a lot without anyone else around. But I also do spend a lot of time traveling with my husband. Realistically, I almost never have to use Para  or public transit at this time, we drive a lot of places. But, on the flipside, I also go out of my way to walk a lot of places as well. Also, I often take trips of a weekend or longer completely on my own, for instance, going to New York City several times a year. But, I have definitely gotten comments and judgment, for instance when we pull up to a chapter meeting in my husbands van and I get out with my dog, or, when he and I walk into a room together at a convention, even if he’s walking behind me in the “correct position “no matter who you are, and no matter what you do, you will encounter judgment, the trick is to recognize it for what it is, feedback, which may be of some value, Great value, or absolutely no value at all, make note of it, analyze it, discard it if it’s not useful, and then MoveOn. You seem to have a good sense of who you are, what you want, and what you need. If you pair that self-awareness and introspection with honesty with your guide dog training program, I think you could definitely be successful with the travel style you described in your message. Wishing you lots and lots of luck.

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