[nagdu] Guide Dog School

[Dan Weiner]

I think the problem I have with guide dog schools saying that they are
concerned about the health and wellbeing of their dogs is the assumption
that we blind consumers are not concerned about the same thing.
If we are so untrustworthy than maybe they schools should screen more
carefully--sarcastic smile. Not debating with you, Marianne, but I'm
debating with the schools in absentia. 


I had Leader Dogs for two of my dogs, for example. When I first got my super
dog, Evan, they gave ownership or rather transfer of title upon graduation
making them at that time one of the more progressive schools, since 2007,
however, that policy has changed and I did let them know  in  several
conversations my disagreement with that 
 change.

Leader and other schools have an obsession with dog weight, now before you
lambaste me, I'm not saying we should have overweight dogs--smile.
But I do know of several cases with schools that retain ownership where the
local vet for the dog thought that the dog was within reasonable weight
limit and the schools did not and some of the schools made threatening
noises sometimes being quite rude to grads I know from one or the other
school.
Anyway, JMO.

I hope all dogs and people out there are doing great today.


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Marianne Denning
via nagdu
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 9:29 AM
To: Debby Phillips; NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog
Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide Dog School

Most schools who maintain ownership of the dog do not pay vet bills.
They maintain ownership of the dog so they can take the dog if they believe
the dog is too overweight or is being abused.  I don't think they want to
take the dogs away from us because that can reflect badly on them, but they
use this as there way to do it. After I had my current dog for a year Leader
Dogs asked for health records from my vet.  I didn't provide them so they
sent out a field rep to check out my dog.  They thought I was hiding her
weight problem from them but I wasn't.  If this were my first dog I would
have provided the information but since I have been getting dogs from Leader
for over 25 years I did not think I should have to do that.

NAGDU and guide dog schools have a very different view of things, as I see
it.  NAGDU supports and promotes the rights of dog guide teams and guide dog
schools want to provide a highly trained dog for a blind person.  The
schools also want to assure that the health and well-being of the dog is
maintained.  I think this means there are areas where NAGDU and guide dog
schools will agree and areas where they disagree.

As long as people continue to go to schools that maintain ownership there is
no reason for the schools to change their policies.  If NAGDU is really
serious about this issue then we should become more activist.  Otherwise,
each of us will make our own decision about the best school for us.

On 3/11/15, Debby Phillips via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Helga, well, as with everything there are advantages and 
> disadvantages, I suppose.  For me, ownership was important, so I chose 
> Seeing Eye rather than Guide Dogs for the Blind, which was definitely 
> closer to me when I applied for my first dog.  For me, ownership meant 
> being more independent.  There were some other reasons I didn't choose 
> GDB, but they are not important to this current discussion.
>
> Since I have never been in a position where the school owned the dog, 
> there are some things I don't know.  But one advantage ow could see to 
> the school owning the dog, especially in the case of Guide Dogs for 
> the Blind, is that they do pay vet costs.  Those can be very 
> expensive.  Yesterday is a good example.  My retired dog had to have 
> surgery to clean and sew up a huge cut that he got.  That plus his and 
> Neena's kennel cough shots was over $500.
> It was a pretty expensive do at our house.  (Smile).  Worth it, of 
> course, because we all love Lamar.  But if Lamar was still a working 
> dog, and the school owned him, they would probably help with those 
> costs.  Certainly grads from GDB have a lot of support from the 
> school, but they also have a lot more supervision.  So you will have 
> to decide whether you need more support, knowing that you will have 
> more requirements from the school to fill out papers, etc.  That's a 
> decision only you can make.  There's nothing wrong with either choice, 
> if that is what you want.
> Anyway, good luck!    Blessings,    Debby with Neena
>
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--
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053

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