[nagdu] An Introduction

[Julie J.]

Debby,

I just received Jetta, who was trained and placed with me by a blind 
trainer.  I am an experienced guide dog handler and I'm certain that makes a 
difference here.  Meghan followed behind Jetta and I either with her cane or 
with a sighted guide.  She had no difficulty keeping up when she was using 
her cane.  If I noticed Jetta doing something, like curling in toward me, I 
would mention it to Meghan so she could offer suggestions.   We skipped the 
part where the trainer clips a leash to the dog and walks alongside in the 
very beginning.  I've never liked that anyway.   I had no problems at all 
with our training arrangement.  Meghan knows Jetta very well because she has 
worked her frequently and nonvisually.  She could give me very specific 
information about how Jetta navigates her environment and what to expect.  I 
believe that this was Meghan's first time independently placing a guide with 
a blind person.  It was a new  experience for both of us.   Previously I had 
owner trained my guides.

If a person was entirely new to guide dogs and dogs in general I  think 
there would have had to be a lot more training with the person.   The blind 
trainer would have to ask lots of questions and check for proper positioning 
when the team was standing still.  I think the blind trainer could use a 
sighted reader/describer to assess some of the visual elements.

As far as traffic training goes...it can be done by a blind person, the dog 
portion anyway.  *smile*  You just get a driver and explain very thoroughly 
what you need them to do.  If you can set up ongoing communication during 
the traffic training by cell phone head sets or walkie talkies or something, 
that makes it much easier.

Julie

-----Original Message----- 
From: debby phillips via nagdu
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 11:10 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] An Introduction

Hi Valerie, your post was very interesting, and I can see that
you have put a lot of time and thought in to the process.  I do
not believe that every blind person should and could train their
own dog, but I have seen one that was awesome.  The man who
trained him did a great job.  I believe though that his next dog
was from one of the schools.  I think I do have a couple of
concerns.  One is this: traffic is becoming more and more
dangerous.  It doesn't mean that we should all stay home and
never go out.  Lol.  But it does mean that we, and our dogs need
to be extra aware.  Gone are the days of simply listening for a
surge of parallel traffic and heading across the street.  There
are turning lanes, right on red, and cars are just plain quieter,
and I'm not even talking about the hybrids.  Seeing Eye does a
lot of traffic training with our dogs, some of it using the
general public and some of it that they set up.  Keeping a
certain distance from traffic is important.  So if you can find a
trainer who is willing to work with you on that part, I recommend
that.  I hope that ow am not sounding like I am against what you
are doing, I'm not.  I admire you for your effort, and wish you
success.

I may offend some folks when I say the following: I do not
believe that a blind person can train me with a dog.  Dogs and
people move faster than people who travel with canes, (though I
know some very fast walkers who use canes.  There are certain
parts of instruction that a blind person could do, like some of
the dog care, things like that.  But instructors see how the dog
and person are walking together, they can often figure out
whether a different kind of harness is needed, for instance.
Right away, my instructor saw that I was not giving Neena enough
tension in the harness, and that sometimes I was pushing her.  I
don't think that a blind instructor would see that.  In those
early days of training it's so important to get feedback, and I
really believe, that at least in this situation, that feedback
needs to come from an instructor who can make visual
observations.  Now, I have had two blind mobility instructors,
and they were awesome, and I had no issue with them.  But I think
there's a difference between cane travel and traveling with a
dog.

It's okay if you disagree with me, I had a friend while I was a
student at CCB and we debated this issue a lot.  He never did
convince me, by the way.  (Grin).  But it wasn't for lack of
trying.  But that doesn't mean that I haven't learned a lot from
other people who use dogs as guides.  I definitely have, but not
the basics, and not stuff dealing with dogs and traffic.

Well, I really need to be in bed now.  Tomorrow is Friday, yea!
Maybe I'll get to more email then.  Again, good luck, Valerie!
Debby and Neena

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