[NFBOH-Cleveland] The National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cleveland Chapter, Introduce Opera, A 5-year-old guide dog, Celebrating Guide Dog Awareness

Suzanne Turner smturner.234 at gmail.com
Wed Apr 10 21:34:31 UTC 2019


The National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cleveland Chapter

Introduce Opera, A 5-year-old guide dog

In Celebration of Guide Dog Awareness

 

Hi, I'm Opera, Debbie Baker's 5-year-old guide dog. Yes, you have already
probably read about my 8-month old puppy friend Duman who is learning to
guide Marianne Denning. Sometimes I probably play rather roughly with him,
knowing that he will experience the school of hard knocks as he learns to
guide.

 

I trained at The Seeing Eye for Debbie, working as my trainer walked with a
support cane as Debbie does since she has cerebral palsy. There is a special
balance piece on the back strap of her harness in case she needs to use it
to step up on high curves or to help herself up if she falls. I have never
been startled by that cane. It is just an extra mobility tool for her. I
guide carefully, never having a bathroom accident on travel route. During
the almost three years that Debbie and I have been a team, I have shown no
distracting fears of loud noises, etc.

 

My puppy raiser thought that it was cute when I carried a toy around almost
constantly, except when I was eating or sleeping. Now, as an adult dog, I do
the same. My favorite toy is a stuffed red ring that contains four squeakers

 

By the way, I am a black lab. When people see my name, and my coat color,
they often call me Oprah!  Debbie tells them that if I were to make Oprah's
money, that would be permissible!

 

I am Opera, a Federationist in the movement

 

Live the life you want. Blindness is not what holds you back!

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfboh-cleveland_nfbnet.org/attachments/20190410/5ad29572/attachment.html>


More information about the NFBOH-Cleveland mailing list