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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Marion;</DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mr. Byfield sounds like a “great” trainer...does he teach others how to
train guide dogs?</DIV>
<DIV>I am looking forward to more of your “walks” with Trooper.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Good luck,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Jimmy</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=nfbf-tampa@nfbnet.org
href="mailto:nfbf-tampa@nfbnet.org">Marion Gwizdala via NFBF-Tampa</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, August 13, 2018 4:50 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=nfbf-tampa@nfbnet.org
href="mailto:nfbf-tampa@nfbnet.org">NFB of Florida Tampa Chapter List</A> ; <A
title=nfbf-l@nfbnet.org href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org">NFB of Florida Internet
Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=marion.gwizdala@verizon.net
href="mailto:marion.gwizdala@verizon.net">Marion Gwizdala</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [NFBF-Tampa] First dog; First Steps</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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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.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p><FONT size=3></FONT></o:p> </P>
<P
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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.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P
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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!<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P
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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. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P
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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. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P
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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. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">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!<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">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! <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">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.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">
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!<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">
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. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Marion Gwizdala, President<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>National Association of Guide Dog Users Inc.
(NAGDU)<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>National Federation of the Blind<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>(813) 626-2789<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>President@NAGDU.ORG<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><A href="http://nagdu.org/">Visit our
website</A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><A href="http://twitter.com/nagdu">Follow us on
Twitter</A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P></DIV>
<P>
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