Category: Let's talk
I'm a cane user since I have some available sight. But a few of my friends are visually impaired enough where they are in range for a guide dog. So if you had the choice which way would you go? What are the pros and cons of both? For me as a cane user people who are sighted who go on shopping trips with me are too over protective and kinda dampering me being independant enough. I've noticed when I'm with other blind or vi friends it's on your own. As my cousin who had a service dog said "Family has to adapt and understand they are no longer to stop you. Dog does the work for them. The dog will tell you if somethings in the way by going around it, or if a car speeds in front of you the dog will stop you just enough where the car won't hit you." I've been trying to gain info and input and it's life I know. But it's annoying the living hell out of me. But would a guide dog make any difference? Would those same people who stopped you in every direction or obsticle or high traffic area continue to do their dirty deeds or let the dog take control? Could use some feedback.
i'm a cane user. we don't have any guidedog here. at least not for now and maybe 50 years times or maybe longer. cause i'm from a islamic country lol. if i have the chance i might prefer guide dog than cane. why? ... i feel that guide dog will more safety than cane lol. maybe i'm rong. if so, please correct me.
I've never had a dog, so I'm biast. I really enjoy my cane, because it can be trusted just as much as i can, where as a dog may faulter, and put you in danger.
yeah you gotta trust the cane lol. I can't stand it though when I'm trying to use it when family will hold me back.
Well right now I have a cane, but I wanna get a guide dog because you can make friends and talk with it, it's a nice challenge and responsibility to have, and it's just a lot more convenient than a cane i think. And I just really want one. I think I can handle the responsibility and I'd like to have a guide dog. Lol.
Caitlin
Picture it, Febuary, early morning. I had been back from Leaderdogs for a couple of weeks. My older sister did not trust the dog, Samson, yet. So she wanted to come along for a walk. We started off at our usual clip which forced my sis to trot next to us. All the while I am praising good old Samson as he weaves his way around trashcans and cars parked in driveways. By the time we reached the end of the block my sis was both breathless and impressed. "He's fast! she said." Smileing, I said, and a might sardonically I might add, "I know."
To be honest, it depends on where your going. I do not like to take my dog in places I know that it will be crowded. For his comfort People are unpredictable. Pilot which is another guide dog school summed it up by saying a guide dog is suppose to enhance the quality of living for the handler, not the other way around. Consider that.
D-
P.s. Also consider that a cane does not leave doggie dirt.
I have a cane right now, I have had it since I was 13 years old. I would like to get a guide dog someday when I am ready for the reasonability of having to take care of it. Exactally I am not ready to pick up after it when it goes to the bathroom.
Well right now I own a newfoundland. She's a pet, big, hairy and a job for maintance as they have 2 layers of fur. I walk her, I make sure she gets her medication on schedule, she's on a feed schedule and I make sure the water dish is full every hour and she goes out on schedule to release her bladder lol. So, I pretty much do all the work. I do groom her to make her look nice and all, but we usually take her to the groomers a few times a year as they get tons of dead hair off, and stuff. So I can handle responsibility, but I need to know if I'm ready mobility wise.
I prefer a cane. You don't have to be responsible for a cane like take it out, feed it, etc. I am and think I'll always be a cane user.
Troy
I'm visually impaired and I find that when I walk across
the street it can be difficult to walk with a cane and watch that a car or what ever won't hit me. But if I had a guide dog it might give me confidence. Good luck.Carol
I'll stick with my low-maintanence, low-cost, reliable, easy-to-use, ..., cane!
-Dave
i'm visually impaired. i have the same thought like Carol do. cane is good but i think i don't have enough confidence on it. i still using my vision to cross the road and drain. why? still the same problem like what Carol have. not confidence enough on it. i think guide dog will give me the confidence.
i would choose none of them. i do use a cane sometimes... even tho i should use it all the time.lol i only really use it crossing the street going to the mall, etc. however, i dont like the cane because it tends to get caught in the sidewalk cracks then jabs me in the stomach! arg! it hurts, lol. -Heather
Where the bus station sits to get to my friends' apartment you have to do one of those tricky crossings and I've almost mastered it as you gotta rely on your instincts as they have a cross light they follow. I use my hearing to determine when it's safe to cross. I too get jabbed in the stomach with my cane handle when the tip gets stuck.
If you get one of those large tips, like the teardrop, marshmellow, or the one with the ball-barings in it, your cane shouldn't get stuck in sidewalk cracks. The roller tip is great for Boston's quaint, brick sidewalks:).
-Dave
I have both and I'm happy with either though having Scott is more reassuring as he detects my seizures so I have more confidence when we'er out if for some reason he's at home I am always thinking will I get throught the day without blacking out,also he's a good listener.
I can't stand guide dogs and heres why. If I'm in a queue they take up too much room and the queue is made longer, They get in the way when you're travelling around and you don't always hear them, They block your journey when your walking if they are lying down, some of the people who have them are the kind who'll get on to the DDA if they can't have them in a bar or somewhere. Quite frankly, if you let a guide dog in there and don't let sited people have there dogs in ther that's ability descrimination. I wouldn't want one. I wouldn't want to clean up their mess or feed them or have to deal with lucking after them. Canes are better. They're easier to use, they won't put you in danger. When I was at school, if there was hundreds of people in a coridor I could get passed them by waving my cane around. It was so cool. I miss those days! Those people would take ages getting through the crush. People can always hear me coming with my cane too, that's why it's great as well.
I've used both and recently got a chance to compare the two since my dog wasn't feeling wll so I kept her home from school and used my cane. I haven't had to weave through traffic or count the doors to my classes for a few months now so it's a big difference. Also, I've found that people are a lot friendlier to you when you have a big furry dog than a big long stick. And if I talk to myself with my cane, people think I'm weird. Fortunately, Jasmine should be back and ready to go by tomorrow.
Wanna know what kinda bugs me? People mistaken your cane as one of those stucks to grab things up on the celing hangers. Today for example I went shopping with mom. And this one bitch came storming over to me demanding that I help her. "You work here, I need you to take something down, I hadn't gotten customer service all day and I'll report to the manager if I don't get service now." And when I told her I'm leagally blind. And I pointed her in the direction of a service rep of the store who was observing the scene her eyes got big and she just stormed out of the store. Yeah first time someone considered my cane as a poll grabber. And that was embarassing too because people were watching. And she didn't even see a name tag on my shirt. Yeah would I go to work not wearing a uniform or some kind of tag that states I work at that store? Sheesh some people. Yeah and some people might get offensive to dogs as well but there's nothin I can do about it.
Hi Heather! I know! I hate it when my cane pokes me. But you'll get used to it, I have. Hehehe xoxoxo good luck! You make me wanna lalala jk! And this discussion is most interesting guys. heh.
Caitlin
I used to think of myself as a biased cane user, but now I find myself in the middle. There are good attributes to both mobility tools really. I had a cane with a tip that... I think it was a roller tip inside of a bigger marshmallow tip. the marshmallow tip has now broken off to the point where I can't snap it back on, and it was due to getting stuck in a crack in the sidewalk btw, and being that it was hot outside at the time and I was hungry and not thinking straight, I contemplated just crossing over to the other mobility tool side and getting a guide dog. They don't break as easily as canes do, LOL! I'd say I go through canes about every two or three years, so if I want something that lasts longer, I just might get a guide dog... I'm undecided...
i'm a cane user, but people've asked me if i want a guidedog, and my answer's no.
For the people here that don't have confidence when using their canes and still try and look for cars visually when crossing streets, stop. It could get you killed.
You need to find someone who will teach you how to cross streets while being blindfolded. After you do this for awhile, you will trust yourself and your cane and not rely on eyesight that may fail you.
Hey!
I'm currently a cane user and get asked all of the time if I want a guide dog or when am I getting my guide dog. Currently, I'm in the middle on this one as well. The cane's been fine so far but I think I will eventually want a guide dog.
i use both
I also have both, though I usually use my dog. However, I'll be the first to say that the dog is not for everyone. It can do a lot that your cane can't, but everything people have said about the responsibility part is true. Also, the dog does attract more attention, which can annoy some people. I didn't realize how much attention it got til I went into a restaurant with a friend of mine (we hadn't been in some place like that with my dog up to that point), and when we left she made the comment that everyone was openly staring. For me, that doesn't bother me enough not to have the dog, but for some people that would. To anyone looking at a dog, I always tell them to really think hard about it. It can do so much for you, but like anything in life there're pros and cons. I'll also note for the record, that I've been told at least, that I'm a better than average cane user, for what it's worth.
I used a cane until I was 22. Now I have had a guide dog for nearly 4 years. I would rather have a guide dog, I only use the cane when I have to like if the dog is not well. Yes people are more friendly when they see you with a dog.
Hi all! Well, I am going to be a cane user for the rest of my life because I am not that much into dogs.
Jess
Oo! This is a difficult one. From all the stuff I hear about guide dogs everyday, good or bad, they're actually better than long canes in my oppinion. True, you're responsible for their day-to-day care, wellfare and everything else to go with it, but at least you actually have a pair of eyes with you which can see obstacles such as cars coming when you're waiting to cross the road and your cane wouldn't tell you whether a car was coming, a cane wouldn't stand in front of you and stop you crossing the road if it wasn't safe to do so, your cane wouldn't pick up an obstacle such as someone's open car door, a parked pram or bicycle, one of those lamp posts most inconveniently planted right in the middle of the pavement where you were walking, till it was too late and you wrapped yourself round it! ouwhwhwhch! If you're stood for example, on the edge of the platform in the train station, your dog would actually push you away from the danger, the six foot drop to the railway lines below, like I was trying to explain to this halfwit on MSN a few days ago. You can trust a guide dog from the GDBA with your life. Seriously.
Well, over the years the cane verses guide dog debate is something that I have given a lot of thought too. In the end though I have fallen on the side of the cane in spite of the fact that I love dogs. Possibly even because of that fact as it happens because one of the things I think I'd truly hate about being a dog owner is the thought of having to give such a companion up every seven or eight years to be replaced by a new one. I imagine that that must be a very tough thing to do.
To be honest though the main consideration for me was the fact that a guide dog simply doesn't fit in with my life style. I'm somebody who has a perennial need to travel, and by travel I don't minute a five minute toddle up the road for a pint of milk, but around the World to visit people and that isn't something that you can so easily do when you have a dog to think about. I'm also somebody who has been known to make spur of the moment decisions to up and away somewhere and again, if you're taking a dog with you that does require at least a modicum of organization. I'm not a good long-term planner and I think in leaving it at that I am probably drastically under stating the situation.
There are also the smaller issues as others have pointed out, a cane isn't likely to eat all your raw bacon if you should be so unfortunate as to leave your refrigerator door open for thirty seconds, nor will it empty it's bowels all over your carpet if, having eaten said bacon, it develops a serious bout of diarrhea. You don't have to worry about toileting it every few hours or worry about leaving a mess for others to clean up in your wake. A cane doesn't need feeding once or twice a day depending on it's diet and can never run out of food. Also it won't ever get ill and be unavailable for work.
All that said I do accept that many people love having a guide dog. Wouldn't go without one if at all possible. I think in the end it really comes down to personal preference though I would strongly urge that people give due consideration to getting a dog before doing so as few things irk me more than seeing people who have them yet don't use them. It is a serious waste and may well be holding somebody else back who is more in need which is totally unfair. It is a working animal not a trophy.
The main thing in the end is that you feel comfortable with what you have. Dog or cane it really doesn't matter. If it works for you then it is right.
Thanks. Dan.
I most definitely prefer a guide dog. I used a cane, ever since I can remember, but when I was fifteen, I got my first guide dog, and I have never regretted one moment of it. I feel much more independent with a guide dog. I find that not as many people try to stop me and tell me where to go and such. Cleaning up after the dog is not a big deal at all. I love him to death, and wouldn't trade him for anything. I feel much more comfortable with him. Much more than I ever did with the cane. He is so trustworthy and I know that I can depend on him with everything in me.
I hate using a cane. I love having a guide dog of course.