[NFBF-Tampa] First dog; First Steps

Tue Aug 14 16:13:28 UTC 2018

Marion;
Good stuff...this is very helpful and informative.  I toggle many times between cane and guide dog and reading examples like yours, is very exciting to me.

Mr. Byfield sounds like a “great” trainer...does he teach others how to train guide dogs?
I am looking forward to more of your “walks” with Trooper.

Good luck,

Jimmy

From: Marion Gwizdala via NFBF-Tampa 
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2018 4:50 PM
To: NFB of Florida Tampa Chapter List ; NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List 
Cc: Marion Gwizdala 
Subject: [NFBF-Tampa] First dog; First Steps

                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

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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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