Category: Animal House
Hello,
I'm in the process of applying to get a guide dog, and chose GEB. I'd like to know how many of you have applied to that school, and what was your experience there and with your dog once you left the campus.
Thanks,
Sandra
Hello,
I was a student there. I loved it, but due to health reasons, not seen before going, I had to quit training. The staff was very helpful, with everything while I was there. And in fact, the hospitals up there are very good too. I had a heart attack while in training. But they are looking forward to me coming back as soon as I get healthy again.
You don't want GEB. I'm telling you you don't want to go there. Let me tell you a story. When my mother went there she recieved a very nice black lab. She wasn't a bad worker, but she wasn't a great worker either. After she had been home for a while she started to notice that her dog often seemed reluctant to work. Then she would refuse to work, stopping dead right where she was and refusing to go any further. My mother called the school and they said
Good luck Sandra! I went to some school in Florida! It didn't work out! I'm scared of dogs and my Mom wanted me to have one! I have a guinea pig named Emma and a regular dog named Daisy! Daisy was abused by her former owners! She's a Jack Russell!
One reluctant dog does not condemn the whole school you cant go by the experience of 1 person, albeit your mother.
If you're a applicant with some vision have plenty of blind fold training. They look at how much vision you have and how well you depend on your cane. I dropped my application due to moving out to Ca. I live near 4 schools all within a hour to two hours away from where I live. When I'm ready again, I'll apply to a school out here. Was told by the interviewer due to my vision I might get disqualified.
Sorry, my last post got chopped off for some reason. You don't want GEB. I'm telling you you don't want to go there. Let me tell you a story. When my mother went there she recieved a very nice black lab. Shewasn't a bad worker, but she wasn't a great worker either. After she had been home for a while mom started to notice that her dog often seemed reluctantto work. Then she would refuse to work, stopping dead right where she was and refusing to go any further. My mother called the school and they said,
LaMusiqueDuSoirTristeEtBelle? Your post keeps getting cut off. And now I'm curious to see the rest of it. And I need something else to call you, because copy and paste doesn't work forever.
What the hell? I don't know why my posts keep getting cut off. I've typed the whole long story twice now. Ah well, here we go again. Oh, and the dog wasn't just reluctant, and I have four stories. Give me a break, My posts keep getting chopped. Ok, here's the deal. My mother's third dog Liza was a black labrador retriever. While mom was training with her at the school she felt that her dog just wasn't cut out to be a guide dog. Something just didn't feel right, and their work as a team wasn't good. The dog seemed hessitant and sometimes confused or stubborn, but she was a nice dog and mom thought that there must be more to it then that. She expressed her concerns to the trainers, but they told her that it was natural to be a little worried. My mom told them that she was not worried, that she had had two dogs previously, one of them from GEB and that she had never encountered this problem before, or had this feeling of missgiving either. They ignored her and let the team graduate. When mom got home she continued to have problems with Liza, who would often seem reluctant to work and would even refuse to work at times, stopping dead in her tracks and refusing to move. Mom called the school several times and they said, "Just make it work." She kept trying, but something just wasn't right. The dog was in all other respects very obediant and a lovely animal. Things would suddenly frighten Liza that had never done so before, like the shaddow of a tree, or fake raindear statues at the mall during the holiday season. Liza would growl at someone entering a room, and then when they spoke to her she would wag her tail and come to greet them. Mom kept calling and they told her that the dog was just stubborn and that she should just make the dog do her job. Getting increasingly frustrated with GEB and concerned about Liza mom took her to the vet. The vet said that he wasn't sure, but he thought that there might be a problem with her eyes, and he reccomended that mom have a specialist look at her. Believing that GEB's own vet at the school would certainly be the best option, and the one to know, she took Liza to York Town heights to be examined by the Guiding Eyes own vet. He said, "There's nothing wrong with this dog. She's fine. You just need to try harder." Not convinced mom went for a second opinion and took Liza to a true specialist at Cornell University. They determined that she had an eye condition that was effecting her quality of work, and her quality of life. They told mom that when the dog refused to work, she probably couldn't see a thing. That Explained Liza growling at people until they spoke to her and she knew who they were. Mom retired her and got another dog, but the point of this story is that GEB failed on several counts. They should have caught the genetics responsible for causing the eye condition while genetically testing the brood bitch and stud dog. Having missed it there they should have found it in the genetic testing of the puppies. If not in the genetic testing they should have at least seen something in the dog's behavior or in the many physical examinations that their vet supposedly performs. The family housing the brood bitch, the puppy raisers who took Liza after she was weened, or the Kennel staff and trainers at the school it's self should have noticed something while training, caring for and testing Liza. Even if no one noticed anything out of place they should have taken mom seriously, while she was at the school, and then after the fact while she was calling them from home. Even though the GEB vet failed the first couple of times around, he should have at least noticed something wrong when mom brought the dog back for an examination. So, in essence they gave my mom a Guide Dog that at times was completely blind. Both my mother, and her dog, not to mention the baby she was pregnant at the time with, could have all been killed. I was that baby, by the way.
Wow. That's horrible. That is, however, the only bad GEB story I've ever heard. I don't know lots of people who went to GEB, but everyone else seems fairly positive. I'm getting a dognext summer, just FYI. Probably from either GDB or Seeing Eye. Not sure just yet.
You've never heard any bad GEB stories? Well, now you have one, soon to be four. Ok, today's story. A friend of our family was getting his second or third dog from GEB when it changed his life in a very big, very bad way. At the end of the training something came up in his schedule that required the school to keep the dog for a few days so that our friend could get it straitened out and then bring the dog home. He left the dog in the care of the GEB staff in the kennels at the school. When he came to pick up the dog one of the trainers just released the dog from the kennel so that it could run to our friend. The trainer then accidentally let one of the gates go and it struck the dog, badly breaking one of it's front legs. The school then had to keep the dog for a far greater length of time while it healed from the injury that their carelessness had caused. When our friend was finally ready to pick the dog up he came to the school to be reunited with his dog. When he picked the dog up it had a tick on it. That tick was a carrier for Lime disease. Our friend contracted it and grew so ill that he had to be hospitalized. He developed some heart problems as a result of his serious illness, and he has never been the same. He walks much more slowly, looks tired and drained most of the time, has less energy, and his immune system has been severely compromised by the boute of Lime disease. It should be obvious where the problems lie here. The dog should not have been let out of the kennel to run freely up to his new owner. The trainer should have been more careful, which would have avoided the terrible accident which broke the dog's leg. While caring for the dog, post-injury, the kennels should have been kept clean, and the dogs should have all been administered flee and tick preventitive monthly. If that had been done, our friend would have a far better life right now.
God! How can these people do this kind of stuff and still be considered by several people for getting dogs? Um... woops, that's not the best constructed sentence I've ever written, but you get the point.
Yay Seeing Eye...sorry, I'm a bit bias...
I prefer shepards to labs and so, didn't wish to go to seeing eye, however if I were to be in the market for a lab I would certainly consider them. Many people say that they are too strict. I tend to take that as a reccomendation. Trainers should be exacting and demanding, and staff should expect that the students be well-dressed and groomed, fully engaged with the training, punctual, responsible and willing and able to take critisism and advice, independant, mature and compitant. I can't count the number of dog users that I see around me that should not have dogs. Any school that is labled as hard, or quote un-quote picky, is doing it's job quite nicely.
LaMusique,
I'm just curious, when did the incident with your mom's dog happen?
Let's see, Liza would have been back in 1990 or so. The incident with our friend was 1995 or 1996, somewhere in there. I had a bad experiance with them in 2003 through 2005 and My friend from class had a terrible experiance around the same time. I should poste some more incidents here. Perhaps when I am not so busy getting forms filled out for college I will do so.
Actually, 1986 through 1987 would be closer to the time frame for my mother's first dog. I had to think back a ways. I think that all of the other times are correct though. I know mine and those of my friend from class for sure. If, and I hope that you do, if you change your mind about GEB I would highly reccomend either Fidelco or the Seeing Eye depending on what you are looking for.
Correction about the seeing eye:
Shepherds are definitely part of their breeding program. The breeds are broken up pretty evenly, actually. According to the GDUI (Guide Dog Users, INC.)2006 Survey, the seeing eye uses:
Boxer: 1% of total dogs.(Used for hypoallergenic reasons.)
German Shepherd: 29% of total dogs.
Golden Retriever: 20% of total dogs.
Labrador Retriever: 30% of total dogs.
Labrador-Golden Cross: 20% of total dogs.
My trainer at The Seeing Eye used to work at GEB. And she left because she didn't agree with the school's training techniques, values, Etc. I don't think I'd ever go to GEB, even though it is closer to where I live/more convenient.
As for the seeing eye's strictness... Best thing you could possibly get during training with a guide dog (especially if it's your first) is a firm, competent trainer at a school that won't deal with any nonsense.
Do you have the email adresses for those schools or website.
The Website for the seeing eye is Seeingeye.org
If that is what you were asking about.
I would tell anyone that is wanting to get a guide dog to go through them. I went there and wouldn't go anywhere else.
Hi all. I went to geb for my first dog in 1995. It was my first dog and I didn't have a good training experience there because i felt that the trainers didn't listen to me when I had problems and they were not patient when I was getting used to the differences in dog and cane use. When I left with my dog, I didn't live in an area where there were many grads so they didn't follow up with me when I needed them to. When my dog retired I went to The Seeing Eye. I have always gotten help when I needed it. Recently I have had a dog not work out and the school never blamed me for the problems that I was having. I'll be going back in June to get another dog.
Hi, folks. Interestingly, LaMusiqueDuSoirTristeEtBelle' stories are the only negative ones I've ever heard about GEB. It's not that I don't believe them, I'm just curious if your experience was unfortunately unique, or if more people have bad GEB stories that we just don't hear. I, too, am considering applying for a dog from GEB as well. Of the schools I have talked to thus far, GEB has been the most friendly and helpful to me.
It's all a matter of preference. A good dog can come from any school. I went with the seeing eye because I liked the instructors and staff I met from the school and the professionalism with which they treated me and my application. Some people prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of GEB. Each school has their good points and their bad. It's up to the applicant to decide what they want in a school.
I am going to southeastern in 39 days my choice,
now I have chosen GEB things just didn't workout at other places and I leave nov 12th. yaye