[NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.

Sun Apr 15 17:47:09 UTC 2018

Hello:

Oops, let's try this message again.  Somehow it got sent before it was 
finished.

In my 43 years of using guide dogs I have been matched with dogs that did
not work out.  I loved them all immediately when the trainer gave me the
leash.  One time my sister asked me if I hated the dog because she was not 
well behaved and was not a
safe guide.  I told her absolutely not, I did not hate her I loved her.  It 
was not her fault she was not suited for guide work.  Every time I had to 
return a poor match or had a dog
switch on class I cried for the loss of that partnership.  With some dogs I 
had a feeling on class that things might not work out but the trainers did 
not listen to me.  They should have listened because those dogs were back at 
the school within a few months.  The trainers need to learn to listen to our 
concerns.  On class I have heard many people say they do not love their new 
dog right away but for me it is immediate love.

The first walk with your first dog is very special.  I remember feeling 
exilerated as I flew down the street without bumping into anything or 
falling off curbs.  I got my first dog 3 years after I lost my sight.  I 
hated the cane and found it extremely frustrating.  Walking with a guide dog 
made me feel as if I could see again.  Instead of tapping along with a cane 
I was walking confidently with my new dog.  Now here we are 43 years later 
and I still hate canes and will always step out with my furry golden girl's 
big brown eyes and four paws by my side.  Thank God for guide dogs.

Sandra and Eva
-----Original Message----- 
From: Sandra Johnson via NAGDU
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2018 12:00 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Sandra Johnson
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.

Hello:

In my 43 years of using guide dogs I have been matched with dogs that did
not work out.  I loved them all immediately when the trainer gave me the
leash.  One time my sister asked me if I hated the dog because she was not a
good guide.  I told her ab loss dogsolutely not, I loved her but did not
like her unsafe work.  Every time I had to return a poor match or had a dog
switch on class I cried for the
-----Original Message----- 
From: Tara Briggs via NAGDU
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2018 10:39 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Tara Briggs
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.

Hi Sherry! Thank you for sharing your story. I also have kept journals the
two times I’ve gotten guides. When I got Honny, my first guide, I kept a
journal. Unfortunately, my Braille note crashed on me one day I lost the
file. I’ve actually cried about it. There is nothing like that first walk
with the dog in harness. I will always remember that. We had a dog growing
up. His name was boo-boo. And as a kid I used to pretend he was my guide
dog. My first time getting a dog wasn’t very fun. They wanted to do a dog
change. Looking back, they were right. Honny wasn’t a very good guide. She
would take me over to bushes she wanted to sniff. And my husband said that
often times she wouldn’t walk me straight across the street. But I loved
her! She had such joy for life and she was the perfect dog for me at that
time in my life. Thank you so much for sharing your story!

Tara

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 14, 2018, at 11:14 PM, Sherry Gomes via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
> wrote:
>
> I got my first guide dog in August of 1975. I was not quite 18 and just 
> out of high school. I kept a daily journal in braille, took my Perkins up 
> to the dorm with me and a binder full of blank paper. I still have it. I 
> lived about two hours south of GDB then. Anyway, I'd wanted a guide dog 
> since I was 7, when I first read the book Follow my leader. Truthfully, 
> what I wanted was my own dog. My dad had two dogs, but they were his 
> hunting dogs, not family pets, never in the house, that sort of thing. 
> Every year I'd ask for a dog. Then I heard about guide dogs. It was the 
> sixties. I went to public school, but they didn't give blind kids canes 
> until junior high back then. I got my cane in eighth grade. So, I didn't 
> really understand the mobility aspects of what getting a dog would mean. I 
> just knew this would be a dog that could lead me around and it would be 
> all mine. I couldn't wait. So, for me, everything about that first time at 
> GDB is magical. I remember the anticipation, how it felt so weird to be 
> called Miss Gomes by the instructors, how I eagerly soaked in all the 
> things we learned in the three days before we met our dogs.
>
> My dog was a tiny little female black lab, and I remember how small she 
> was, how she licked my face and then ran over to the instructors because 
> she knew them. I was head over heels in love with her from the first 
> second. My personality is the sort that if I look forward to something the 
> way I did with getting my first dog, everything would be wonderful, 
> rainbows and flowers and stars and moons so to speak. Due to external 
> sources it took a lot of twists to get to that first class, and due to 
> other external sources, I only had that dog for a year. But that month in 
> training is one of the top most joyful memories of my life.
>
> Sherry
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tara Briggs via 
> NAGDU
> Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2018 9:42 AM
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Tara Briggs <thflute at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NAGDU] The first time you met your dog.
>
> hi all! I’m hoping that some of you will share stories with me about the 
> first time you met your dog. What were you thinking and feeling before you 
> met your dog? How did the meeting go? I remember when I met my second, and 
> recently retired dog Emmy. Emmy was over the moon! She jumped on me and 
> happily licked my face. It seemed like she knew that I would be her 
> forever person. For those of you who have owner trained, I would love to 
> hear your stories as well and how you made the selection  of the dog you 
> would train.
> Tara
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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