Category: Animal House
I have seen it all now! Today while exercising Scott my right hand man.I met a female guide dog user who was asking for help to cross the road in Kelvinbridge,near where i live. She had her dog sitting by the kerb and stranger still was waiting at the lights which bleep when its safe to cross i waited to cross to the park.
Now the point why not trust the dog? To do her job,Scott and i cross busy dangerous roads constantly,and i trust him completely.Why bother with a dog if you wont trust the animal after going thru all that training?.
agreed goblin. I'm not a guide dog user, but I understand they will only walk if it is safe to do so.
They will yes but this 1 is hardly inexperienced or badly behaved her owner just takes advantage of her blindness to commendere help from the sighted,ok we can't all be totally independent but this woman could at least try.
I got my dog about three months ago after 17 years of cane use. The whole time I've been reminding myself to just keep walking and depend on the dog to guide you, but it's not easy. I'm so used to finding things myself that it's hard to just let up and let the dog work. I've even thought that it's me guiding the dog around my school instead of the other way around. Though their's been a lot of progress made in our relationship, I still find times when I have trouble putting my complete faith in Jasmine, especially when steps are involved.
Hm that's thought and i know the feeling but this partnership have been together for quite some time in saying that sometimes its easier just to cheat than go thru all the hassl.
Who says we wouldn't given the chance hmm?
smile
...That Right-hand Man of Yours, THE Scott, I trust is IN Receivership of the Grandest of Rawhide Chews... ... ... ... MUST keep those delicious Fangs in splendid working order.... and in the Distant the How-how-howling Wolf can be heard, it's Echos taking flight to flight from off the Mountain Heights... this is Connie sending thots... thots... thots... ----- POST SCRIPT: him-m now... thots... ... ... and yet DEEPer in the Far Distance can the lapping of the shoreline waters be heard and ... and... can it BE..??? Oh dear! *worried look* A Lord of the Law is sinking to rise again..??? Only Time shall be given to tell the Mystery of the ways and means of the Laws as it were of Life...then again DEEP Living and laws cease to BE... for DEEP Living has rightfully a place, a pub as it were, of it's own come-ness INto Completeness.....BARAKA/CG
CG, you are totally high, or at least you were when you posted that, weren't you? rofl. Or, perhaps drunk off your ass? That girl really needs to get a life, and allow her dog to do it's job. When you first start training it's scary, I won't deny that, but once you click you suddenly feel safe. Sometimes it's when the dog exicutes a wonderful trafic check and stops you from walking in front of a car, or it can happen while the two of you are just ambling down the sidewalk in a residential neighborhood. Once that connection of trust takes place, the rest is all down hill.
I don't think I'd ever be a good handler, because I love dogs too, too much. They see that sucker tatoo on my forehead. I think I also have trust issues, so I'm reluctant to go there with a dog guide. Having said that, I've seen some wonderful teams, and watching them work is like poetry in motion for me. And don't even get me started about owners who abuse their dog guides. I've seen my share of that, and reported them to the schools. the dogs are too wonderful. Sorry Goblin, but I had to vent for a second.
Lou
Far too many schools in the US don't screen their students very carefully and don't do enough follow up to keep the dogs safe. I have seen numerous individuals who either are incompatant and should never have recieved dogs in the first place, or that are cruel and or neglectful of their animals. Reporting such things to the schools does little if any good. Because of the highly visible nature of guide dog teams in the media's eye schools are reluctant to cause trouble, raise a fus or do anything that might even come close to poor publicity. It is infuriating to no end.
I've seen so many people who just seem to use their dog as an accessory and never work it properly. These are either partially sighted people who just wander about with the dog on a lead, or blind people who constantly hang on the arm of a sighted person with the dog in the other hand. Its no wonder that here in the UK most dogs trained are now of a lesser standard, and those of us who need to work them fully have to do a lot more work after qualifying to bring them to the standards we used to expect.
Rant over for now!
O no Mel. The rant is far from over! There's a bloody long waiting list for a guide dog over here. and you know why? Its because of these partial sighties. The GDBA just hands out dogs willy nilly these days for more money, which they're certainly not going to get out of my mother anymore. They're just given to people on a plate or rather on a harness, nomatter if they have enough useful vision and don't need one, they get them. Someone like me or any of my friends who should come across this post and read it sometime, actually need these dogs. I have absolutely no useful vision. I can only respond to light and dark. I know this for a fact, because I was at Redhill College for a few months last year but that's another story. One of the students in my boarding house though, has a fully sighted neighbour who applied for a guide dog and actually went to the training school, received the training and got the dog. He's now using that dog back at home, and he just doesn't need it. It's just mad. That's why I'm now discouraging my family dropping money in the GDBA's collection tins and buckets when we're out at a concert or just out shopping. This is exactly why me, Kay and anyone else on The Zone in the same situation as us, are just stuck at home all day. We just can't get the guides when we need them. I'm just about ready for one, though my rehab worker says you need at lest four routes before you can apply for one, but I've heard in the past, you only need to learn two routes round your local area. I can walk round our block, walk down the shop and also go in the opposite direction to mini Tesco, town, my grandparents and the railway station with a bit more help from Caroline, my rehab worker. I think I'll just design a T-shirt with a guide dog on the front and a person holding a stupid long cane with "I want my guide dog" in giant letters on the front and "I need it now" on the back. Then, maybe the blasted GDBA will realise who does and who doesn't need a fucking dog.
hmmmm! Anyway. Rant over, going back to this topic, if I was ever able to get my hands on a guide dog, I'd trust them with my life. They're just so well trained. Just read Emma and I by Sheila Hocken to find out more and so I can cut a very long story short.
Wow. Well, as to the first, I don't get it at all. A crossing with lights and sound, shouldn't be a problem for a blind person whether they have a dog or not. Even more baffling with a dog, since people trying to guide you across a road, while the dog's trying to do the same thing, is just a disaster in my experience. Most of the dog-owners I know deserve them entirely and take good care of them, but I'll admit the occasional stories of abuse and neglect get me pretty fired up too.
But to the last comments, I'll have to disagree with you there. A dog isn't a magical mobility machine. If you can't get around by yourself with a cane, then what do you think a dog's going to do? You have to know where you're going and give firm directions. Especially at the beginning, when you and the dog are getting used to each other, you need to be extra sure of where you're going, and ready to whip out the cane and get there the old-fashioned way if there's a problem. Sorry to rant, it sounds like there's some genuine concerns with the guidedog school, and if the story about the fully-sighted guy getting a dog is true then it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, but people who say "I'm only stuck in the house all day because they won't give me a dog", are a pet peeve of mine. Just get out there and give it a go! It's not that scary!
There is no problem, but I'm getting mixed messages. My rehab worker says I need to learn four routes, but I've heard in the past from the GDBA and other guide dog users, you only need two routes to get a dog, and good long cane skills. I'm blessed with both these things, and when I can find a job and go out to work, that'll be a third route, the journey to work, and I could learn the route to the railway station if I needed to as well.