[nfb-talk] Another perspective on guide dogs

David Evans drevans at bellsouth.net
Wed Feb 25 17:34:34 UTC 2009


Dear milissa,This is a very nice piece about a great person and glows about 
guide dogs.  I also notice that it was written by or for the newsletter put 
out by the guide dog school.  It sure gives allot of credit to the dog for 
her success.  Maybe just a little propagandia maybe?
This has nothing to do with the subject or reason for the oridual post 
dealing with the court ruling in favor of the Iowa School for the Blind 
Training Center and its provision against the use of guide dogs use in their 
basic training corses.
I am not anti guide dog and am in fact in the process of getting one myself. 
The issue is the ability of a school to set and keep its own standards and 
rules as to how it will conduct the way it trains its students.
The rules of the training program were spelled out and known to this student 
before she entered the school and she then tried to change them to suit 
herself by court action and lost.
she still has her freedom of choice, just as the school has, and she can 
conform, or go somewhere else that will allow her to use her guide dog.
This case has been in court for 6 years.  Her dog must have grey hair about 
now, but the courts upheld the school's rights to hold their own standards. 
She could have finished her training on the first go around, but chose to 
take a break and get a guide dog and then come back to the school and try to 
stick it down their throat.  Both she and the dog were expelled, so to 
speak.
If we go to a college or university, we get to pick it based on what we want 
to learn and get our degree in.  We don't get to tell that institution that 
because we want a degree in science, that we don't want to take higher math 
or do dissections of dead animals or people.  We have to take it all to get 
that degree or go someplace else or change that degree.  We don't get to 
dictate to the university what or how it can teach or what we will take and 
not take; they do.

I feel that no blind person can fully reach their potential without gaining 
a good grounding in the basic skills of Blindness including the use of the 
Long White Cane.  A tool which every guide dog user should carry with them 
even when using their guide dog.
I know of at least two cases where the guide dog was frightened, ran away, 
and the Blind person was left in a situation where only one of them had a 
cane to get around with.
The dogs were found, but not for hours and even 4 days on the other, and the 
guy without his cane was left alone in a very bad part of town and was lucky 
to run into a kind person who helped him get somewhere safe and to contact 
someone to come and get him.  He fell twice, smashing his face on the 
sidewalk once in his panicked attempts to catch his dog that was scared by a 
train.
I just think that a person should get their basic training first and then go 
for the guide dog, if that is what they want.
Many Blind people get guide dogs for other reasons than faster mobility. 
They get them to act as socially "ice breaker" and attention getters.  They 
get them for the companionship because they are lonely.  They get them just 
to have something to showoff and brag about.  They get them because they are 
told that having a guide dog is the answer to all of their blindness 
problems.
The guide dog is a multi function tool, like a "Swiss Army Knife."
Guide dogs are wonderful and very useful to many people, but they need to be 
kept in prospective and in their proper place and not set upon a high 
pedestal like their God's answer to every blind person's prayer.  They are 
after all, just a lovely, fun loving, lick your face anytime and chew your 
shoes the next time mutt.
Maybe I will write about my guide dog, after I get it and finish my training 
in June.  I have 3 dogs in my house now so I do love dogs.  I just know that 
like everything in Nature, they have their place.
I hope that I have offended no one and just made you stop and think for a 
minute.

By the way, I cross the intersection of two 6 lane roads, that have twin 
left hand turn lanes on all four corners and right on red lanes at all 4 
corners and with meridians in the middle.  They see some 61,000 cars pass 
through a day.  I cross it with just my cane and the skills I have been 
taught.  If there was another place to cross that was less busy, I would 
just walk down to that corner and cross, but the next place is a mile away.
The biggest thing a dog will do for me is let me walk alittle faster and 
dodge around obstickles I now whack with my cane.  It may even help me 
detect "quiet cars" as I have already had 3 close encounters of the thump 
kind in parking lots.
Thank God I have a King size bed and enough room for another dog.  Such a 
picture.  I wake up with a pit bull between my feet, a Chow/Lab mix on my 
wife's side and a Chocolate Lab that likes to climb upon the pillows above 
our heads.  I wake up looking like I am wearing a Davy Crocket hat some 
mornings.

David Evans, NFBF



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Milissa Garside" <milissa.g79 at gmail.com>
To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 11:59 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Another perspective on guide dogs


>
> Given the discussions of late on this list, I thought the following 
> article
> might be good food for thought. Janet Labreck is an NFB member and is the
> commissioner for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Very
> interesting how she portrays cane use. While the intersection referenced 
> in
> this article is confusing, there are audible traffic signals along with
> heavy pedestrian traffic which offer plenty of sound cues for crossing
> safely.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Janet LaBreck and "Osbourne:" Filling Big Shoes
>
> Stand at the corner of Boston's Tremont and Boylston streets, near Boston
> Common, and you'll be amazed at the chaos. Tourists, shoppers, office
> workers and street vendors mill about. Crowds of people gather to cross 
> the
> intersection.
>
> When the light turns-and sometimes even when it doesn't (this is Boston
> after all) - the pedestrians cross the street, dodging cars which totally
> ignore the signals. It is bedlam.
> "This is why I need Osbourne," says Janet LaBreck. "This corner is
> unbelievable. It's hard to cross when you're sighted, never mind when 
> you're
> blind."
>
> Janet LaBreck is the commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission for the
> Blind (MCB). Osbourne is the Fidelco guide dog with whom she was partnered
> last summer. As Commissioner, LaBreck attends plenty of meetings at the
> Massachusetts State House and other governmental offices which require
> frequent treks across the Boston Common. With Osbourne beside her, LaBreck
> makes the trip in fifteen minutes. Without Osbourne, it took nearly double
> the time and with no assurance that an errant car wouldn't barrel into 
> her.
>
>
> Given that the first MCB Commissioner was Helen Keller, Commissioner 
> LaBreck
> fills some big shoes. After working for the MCB for more than twenty 
> years,
> LaBreck was tapped by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 to
> oversee the agency which provides services to 36,000 Massachusetts 
> residents
> who are blind. LaBreck's passion is to increase
> employment opportunities in the blind community. She has successfully
> partnered with
> businesses in the Commonwealth to develop a nationally recognized 
> internship
> program that each year places dozens of individuals who are blind in a
> variety of industries.
>
> Her mantra is "maximize independence" and Osbourne helps her to do just
> that. "Having a Fidelco guide dog has given me an increased feeling of
> independence. He definitely has
> increased my confidence." To watch LaBreck, dressed in a black tweed suit
> and sporting a red trench coat, stride quickly across the Common with
> Osbourne beside her is to see
> the very definition of confidence. Together, the Commissioner and Osbourne
> do a lot of traveling. Each day requires a 54-mile commute from her 
> central
> Massachusetts home to
> her office in downtown Boston. Within her workday, she frequently travels
> across the city and, often, across the state to fulfill her duties as
> commissioner. When she applied to Fidelco, she told us that she needed a
> fast dog, as well as one who could hold his own in high level meetings and
> patiently endure her many public speeches without so much as a whine or
> whimper.
>
> Osbourne hasn't let her down. On the contrary, he's garnered fans iin high
> places. Martha Coakley, the Attorney General of Massachusetts, adores
> Osbourne. Her office has decided to spearhead a public awareness campaign
> about service dogs. State legislators and high
> ranking officials also fawn over Osbourne.
>
>
> So does LaBreck's husband, Russell. To hear them talk about Osbourne is 
> like
> listening to new parents gush about their baby. They are amazed at his
> athleticism and his intelligence.
> They swear that he's more clever than they are. Russell says, "We're not
> teaching him, he's teaching us." Commissioner LaBreck marvels at how
> Osbourne anticipates her commands often before she has given them. "For
> instance, I don't give many commands going through
> the Common. Osbourne is able to anticipate our destination."
>
>
> LaBreck's office hums with activity. She gracefully fields calls from a
> reporter from the Boston Globe and multiple questions from staffers. While
> she works, Osbourne rests close beside her with his eyes closed. Don't let
> his quietness fool you though. Russell calls this his "watchful waiting" 
> and
> likens it to firefighters at a fire station. As soon as the alarm goes 
> off,
> they are ready to work. Sure enough, when a staffer comes to ask
> Commissioner LaBreck for some assistance, Osbourne is up, attentive and
> ready for his harness.
>
> Perhaps because she walks in Helen Keller's footsteps, it's not surprising
> that Commissioner
> LaBreck looks to Keller for inspiration. When addressing the New England
> College of Optometry as commencement speaker in 2008, she searched through
> Keller's quotes
> to find one that spoke to her and chose this one: "One cannot consent to
> creep when one feels the impulse to soar."
>
> Commissioner LaBreck loves the quote. She says, "It conveys the sense of
> opportunity and
> the desire to move forward, to accomplish and succeed that I see among our
> clients." She explains it further, "You can't hold people back. That quote
> says it all. That's what we try to do here. We help to foster that drive 
> and
> initiative."
>
> The Keller quote is appropriate to describe Janet LaBreck as well. She has
> never consented to creep. And with Osbourne beside her, she is soaring.
>
>
> (Editor's note: "Osbourne" was raised by the Terry family.)
>
>
>
>
> <http://www.fidelco.org/newsletters/2009/winter/www.fidelco.org/2009/winter/
> newsletter/bigshoes/html> Janet LaBreck and Osbourne sit in her Boston
> office.
>
> | Newsletter
> <http://www.fidelco.org/newsletters/2009/winter/newsletterindex.html> 
> Main
> Page |
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Click To Change The Text Size On This Site:
> <http://www.fidelco.org/newsletters/2009/winter/JanetLaBreckandOsbourneFilli
> ngBigShoes.html> A
> <http://www.fidelco.org/newsletters/2009/winter/JanetLaBreckandOsbourneFilli
> ngBigShoes.html> A
> <http://www.fidelco.org/newsletters/2009/winter/JanetLaBreckandOsbourneFilli
> ngBigShoes.html> A
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