[Travelandtourism] Ted about Guide Dog

[Bill Packee]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the response back. My Guide dog is named Rio, and I was blessed
to receive her in November 2004 from Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown
Heights New York. There was a gentleman my wife and I had ran into in
McDonald in North Pole who also had a guide from there and he swore by the
school and the training done there. There is a short waiting list, but it
worked out for me because it gave a me a chance to do a little "winter work"
with Rio before I brought here home. She was raised in Rochester, NY., and
has been use to some snow, but she had to get use to that again as we toured
Times Square, and Broadway as part of our training, and then again when we
got back to Fairbanks. She has been a true blessing for me, and at times she
has drawn some unwanted attraction from those that haven't seen a guide
before; Rio and I are the only working team north of Anchorage in the State,
and there are many questions and those wanting to play with her. Rio is very
understanding, and stays on task very well, and this gives us an opportunity
to answer questions, and show what a team can do.
There is a gal at DVR that I work with that trains guide dogs, and they go
through the Guide Dogs of the Desert. It sounds kind of strange to train a
guide in the cold and snow of Alaska just to send them to Arizona, but it
works, she has graduated 4 dogs so far.
If you have any further questions,
Thanks,
Bill