[NFBF-Tampa] First dog; First Steps

[Marion Gwizdala]

                As the president of the National Association of Guide Dog
Users, many refer to my guide dog as "First dog". In a previous post, I
shared my first meeting with my potential new guide dog, Trooper, which took
place on February 23. At that time, it was estimated I would begin training
in about three months. As president of NAGDU, my advocacy work over the past
few months has been rather intense: Meeting with Delta Airlines, working
with other air carriers, helping the NFB of Illinois overcome the city of
Chicago's attempt to implement illegal restrictions on service animals in
Midway and O'Hare Airports, and participation in our Florida and national
conventions. The timing was not conducive to engaging in training and
Trooper needed a little more time, as well. Over the past few months,
though, I had several opportunities to spend time with Trooper and I believe
these meetings were beneficial to us both; they helped ease my impatience
and gave Trooper a chance to get to know me before we started our training.

 

                Since John Byfield, Trooper's trainer from Freedom Guide
Dogs lives in Winter Park, he joined us at our NFB of Florida convention
which was held in Tampa. John brought Trooper with him on May 26 to attend
our annual meeting of the Florida Association of Guide Dog Users and took
the opportunity to expose him to the crowds of blind people with white canes
and guide dogs, the type of work he will be doing with me. That day Trooper
and I spent about three hours together. This was an excellent Segway to our
next meeting when John brought him out to our national convention in
Orlando. The hotel was much larger and, with 2600 in attendance, so were the
crowds of blind people, white canes, and guide dogs. Here I had three more
visits with trooper.

 

                In my previous post, I mentioned that Trooper seemed to have
the impression that I was someone more than just another human he was
meeting. This seemed even more apparent when I walked out of the room where
I was preparing for our annual NAGDU meeting and unexpectedly met John and
Trooper. Troop (as John has come to call him) was sitting next to John. As I
exited the room, John greeted me and Trooper jumped up on me and gave a
little whine, as if to say, "I know you and can't wait to come live with
you!" I admit that I felt the same way!

 

                The day finally arrived and Trooper came to his forever home
on Saturday, August 11! After a little get acquainted time, John suggested a
short walk around the neighborhood using my white cane and letting Trooper
leash guide me. As we approached my home on the return, John suggested we do
a little harness work. Of course, I did not object! I have worked my wife's
guide dog, Peca, from time-to-time but I had been waiting to work Trooper
since our February 23 meeting. 

 

                I harnessed up Trooper and was exhilarated when I felt the
pull of his harness in my hand as I gave him our first "Forward!" command.
We worked the same route we had just walked. I must admit I had some mixed
emotions: I was happy to be working Trooper after waiting so long while
feeling a bit of sadness remembering the many walks Sarge and I took on this
same route. 

                Upon our return home, John asked Merry if she wanted to join
us for one more trip before he left. The tandem walk we took was the first
of many we will be doing for a long time to come. 

 

When we returned, the three of us discussed the following day's events.
Since the next day was Sunday and I am the music director at Unity North
Tampa, it was a work day for me. The initial plan was that I would take
Trooper with me to church on Sunday and heal him. John was so pleased with
the work we had done he suggested I work him in harness the following day.
Merry and our granddaughter, Hannah, would be joining me just in case there
was the need to remove Trooper while I was working. (Trooper had never been
exposed to live music and a large group of people singing and clapping. He
also still has a little puppy in him, so we were unsure how he would do
during the quiet time of meditation my community has during our services.
Suffice it to say that all went very well with absolutely no issues!

 

John arrived at my home bright and early at 6:45 this morning. He said we
were going to have "baptism by fire"! Trooper and I loaded into the van and
we were off to Ybor (E-bore) City, Tampa's equivalent to the New Orleans
French Quarter. At this time in the morning, not much is going on in this
historic district but it has a lot of obstacles to maneuver. It also has
ferrel chickens and roosters that are protected by the city, since they are
descendants of the fowl the original cigar-making Cuban immigrants brought
with them as they settled Tampa, thus our nickname of "Cigar City"! Trooper
made a couple novice mistakes but, all-in-all, I am very pleased with his
work! 

 

After our Ybor City outing, we came home and gave Trooper and me a little
break and cool off time, since it is about 85 degrees and 95% humidity even
at 8:00 a.m.! John went up the street to a shopping center to work with
another Freedom dog he is training. He came back and we did another short
walk around my neighborhood, taking a little detour to introduce him to one
of our local shop owners.

 

                Our official first day of training went very smoothly.
Tomorrow we will work with Trooper on our local bus, through a fairly
obstructed shopping center, into Lowes, across some very busy and wide
intersections, and through the Walmart parking lot. Maybe we will even do a
little shopping; after all, I do have both a Lowes and walmoart credit card!

 

                I intend to share more updates on our training. They will
likely not be daily but will be frequent enough for readers to get a feel
for the community placement program John Byfield has created and brought to
Freedom Guide Dogs. I realize there is another training program that likes
to take credit for creating the community placement model; however, even
though it was the first program to use this training model, it was John
Byfield who created it for them. With more than 60 years of training
experience and training more than 1500 teams, Jon Byfield is the most
experienced and well-respected guide dog trainer in the world! It is an
honor and pleasure to be working with him! Please stay tuned for more
updates on our training.  

 

 

Marion Gwizdala, President

National Association of Guide Dog Users Inc. (NAGDU)

National Federation of the Blind

(813) 626-2789

President at NAGDU.ORG

Visit our website <http://nagdu.org/> 

Follow us on Twitter <http://twitter.com/nagdu> 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise
expectations because low expectations create barriers between blind  people
and our dreams. You can live the life you want! Blindness is not what holds
you back.

 

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