Category: Animal House
hi all i got a call from the seeing eye today telling me that they want a instructor to come and visit me at my home. what is that like. his name is john something. can you tell me what expect.
the seeing eye are great. I have Joan something that starts with an M visit me, and she was great.
She showed me how to hold the narnis and the hand signals, as well as how to do a leash correction and talked.
I already had a cane rout picked out so we walked it.
They'll want to see you find a specific destination, and most definately definately do street crossings.
Then of course you and the instructor hold the harnis and you do your Juno walk which if you don't know, is where you pretend you're with a guide dog.
They show you how to hold the harnis when walking and you walk forever.
It's really simple, just have your street crossings down and you're good.
Agreed with the above poster. You don't necessarily have to have a cane route chosen; just make sure wherever you take the instructor has street crossings, preferably ones controlled by traffic lights. If you don't have such crossings in your area, show the instructor a route that you'll walk with your dog. (If the person coming to see you is John Bertram, he's great. He came to visit me in Boston to do some followup with my dog and me. He's very patient and is good at explaining concepts.) He'll also talk to you about what you want in a dog, what kinds of travel you do each day, breed preference, Etc. It's no big deal, don't stress over it. As long as you have good orientation in your home area, you should be fine.
what breeds does the seeing eye have.
labs, golden retreivers, and german sheppords. They also crossbreed.
The breakdown is about this: 30% labs, 20% golden retrievers, 20% lab/golden crosses, 29% German shepherds and 1% boxers (boxers are for those with allergies and you need to let them know in advance if you need one. I haven't heard of anyone being issued a boxer in a while, so...)
In general, TSE's labs run smaller than other schools, and the GSD's they use are the American style, rather than the Eastern block GSD's Fidelco uses. In my opinion, while the American GSD's look... less noble, I guess is the way to put it, the sounder temperament and lack of prey-driven dogs makes up for the fact that they don't look like they could win best in show.
Uh this was more info than you probably wanted/care about... Sorry.:)
They have a web site with tons of info. If you are going to be attending, you should be working a little harder on your research. www.seeingeye.org
There was 2 boxers in my last class but you do have to let the school know if you are needing one because of allergies or something, and the wait for boxers I have heard is a long wait.
i'm also thinking of getting a guide dog. I was wondering, how long is the period between you submitting your application, and the instructor calling and making an appointment to come to your house. Also, what are some advantages of a guide dog over a cane? I've been using a cane all my life, well since I was like 4.
Having a guide dog allows you to move around objects, without actually having to fnd whatever's in your way frst. You don't have to worry about tripping people. Yeah, having a guide does often mean answering ots of questions from curious peole, but I'd rather have that than someon looking at me and whispering to the person to their left or right going "That person has ahard tim seeing," which sometimes happens to cane users.
For the seeing eye, it varies. I put in my app in october, had my home interview in early february, and went to class at the end of may. (I could've gone to class earlier, but had to wait till school was out for the year.) Most of the time, it takes less time than that if you get all your paperwork in on time.
As far as advantages/disadvantages of dog vs. cane travel, well. there have been novels written about this subject. (Literally. You can download some of them from TSE's website.) Personally, for me, the dog allows me to navigate with much more confidence. I'm not worrying about every little crack or obstacle on the sidewalk. I can focus on where we're going and how we're getting there, not on the minutia of the route. I also like the fact that the dog will override my traffic judgment if I make an unsafe one. I live in manhattan, and my dog has saved my life more than once in the crazy city traffic. Disadvantages include the extra expense, the fact that you still have to relieve you dog in the puring rain, freezing cold, heavy snow, Etc.
Ok, thanks for the input. I'm going to submit my application one day soon. Was it hard to learn to trust your dog after using a cane for such a long time?
No, it wasn't hard for me to start trusting my dog. I'm a total, so if I didn't trust my dog, chances are I'd get hurt in a major way. Sometimes I misunderstand her signals, but that is decreasing as time goes by.
I put my application in in january, had the interview in april and went to the may class.
but sadly, that didn't work. it was hard for me to trust the dog because I rely on my cane and my vision. I'm not going to rely on my vision this time, and will have a seeing eye dog the next time I go there.
that was one of the best dissisions I have ever made was to go get a dog. now I just have to not make the same mistakes that I did the last time.
It wasn't hard for me to trust my dog either. I think if you're open to the idea that you're dog will guide you safely and relax as much as you can, you shouldn't have too much trouble. You and the dog will have to adjust to each other. At first, they might make mistakes because they're not used to you, or you may not understand the signals they're trying to give you, but keep trusting and soon you won't even be thinking about it.
I put my application in around Thanksgiving. An instructor visited me in March, and I went into class in May. I also had to wait for school to end to go into class.