Category: The Rave Board
hey. i had an interview with guiding eyes for the blind last month. they r the sweetest guide dog school that i have ever come across. the interview was about 2 hours long. the woman who came out was asking me about my experience with south eastern guide dogs. it honestly was not very good, i told her. she said to me, u know, despite what south eastern said about your treatment of your first dog, we r going to give you a chance anyway because we do not take what another school has to say at face value, especially if the accusations that were made against you were false or unprooven.
even seeing eye turned me down because of what south eastern claimed that i did to my dog. but guiding eyes is willing to give me a chance to show them that i am not neglectful towards dogs as south eastern claims that i am. the woman actually told me, u know? i was not expecting your house to be this spotless or your husbands dog to be very well taken care of when i came here. but i am really impressed with the way everything is so well taken care of and the cleanliness of your apartment. i am also impressed with the cleanliness and the health of your husbands seeing eye dog as well. i was really expecting your house to be filthy and the dog to be neglected, but i am really blown away about how everything is kept here. very clean and organized and beautiful. we will definitely take you after you get to know your new neighborhood a bit better.
i have been helping my husband out alot with his dog lately because he is recovering from a cholecystectomy.and he has not been able to really work or feed or relieve his dog when he first had the operation. so i have been feeding the dog and grooming the dog and relieving him as well.guiding eyes knows this and is really proud of me for handling his dog for him during his recovery time.
another representative is coming out in a few weeks in a matter of fact, to reevaluate my mobility skills.
so i would seriously recommend guiding eyes for the blind for anyone who has graduated from south eastern and would like to get another dog.
way to go guiding eyes! you get kutus from me! i can't wait to come to your school in new york! i am very stoked about it!
That's great!
wooooo! hell ya!
I got my first guide dog from Guiding Eyes for the Blind and he's awesome and the people there are very nice and helpful. I am deffinately going back there for my next dog.
do u know jolene? she was the one who came out to my house to do my interview.
oh yes. also, what is the minimum wait time from the time your application is aprooved, to the time u get into class? guiding eyes told me an average wait time is 6 months, but a friend of mine actually got in there in 2 months instead of 6. this is her first dog as well. how long did it take u to get in from the time that you were accepted?
Yes, I do know her. It took about eight months for me to go to GEB, because I was supposed to go after four months, but they couldn't get me into the class I was originatly supposed to be in and then some other things came up,. The wait was worth it though, because I couldn't have asked for a better dog.
smiles. i am very happy for u. currently i am working with my mobility instructer on a route. if u would like to read about it, i have another topic on the rave board about my mobility lessons.
I also got my first and so far only dog from guiding eyes. I'd never go anywhere else. Even in these last months when things were rough because she was dying of cancer they've been there and willing to support us. They're great, and that really says it all. Good luck, it's worth the wait, oh, and I don't remember how long I had to wait as that was eleven years ago. *smile*
oh wow. well i hope you have good luck with this new dog from guiding eyes. i cannot wait to go there. they have changed, as far as the building layout and things. having never been there myself, i dont know how the layout is yet. all i know is that GEB has single rooms now with one double bed in each room, a stereo, a tv with cable, a fridge, and your own private bathroom. that actually sounds like paradise.
Wow cool. When I went, we had to share the room with another person and I didn't like that. We also didn't have a tv or fridge.
there r 2 double rooms still in case a husband and wife go at the same time or a set of twins go. but u can actually drink alcohol there as well. no hard liquor though. beer and wine r ok though. u can keep food and drinks in your room in your private fridge. i found out some of this from jolene and some other stuff i found out through the website.
Yeah we could drink when I was there too.
lol oh wow. i am not going to seeing eye because not only r they not accepting me because they take everything that south eastern says to heart, but i have heard from my husband and others that they r extremely upitty
Yeah, I heard that too.
Hello can you explain what you mean upitty? I wasn't going to go here because I hear that they don't work well with a person who has a hearing problem. thanksErica.
oh. upitty means very rich or snobby acting. i think guiding eyes works with people who have hearing problems as well.
Yes, they do. They had students that had hearing problems when I was there.
i heard south eastern sucks. now i don't think i'm going to get a guide dog but i've heard a lot of bad things about south eastern. i don't care if it's in florida. it seems it's worth traveling to get a dog.
south eastern is cool to u when u r there, but as soon as u get home, the personal support stops. they promise to send someone out, but yet they never do. i called them about 20 or 25 times begging for someone to come out and help me work out laurel's relieving and disobedience problems. i mean, she would relieve herself in the house, on routes, and in buildings, she would jump up on people that she knew when she was in harness, she would run after people that she liked, with me just clinging on to the harness. but yet south eastern never came out to help me rectify the situation. not only that, but they claimed that laurel was under 40 pounds, and had half of her hair missing when she was given back to the school. oh yes, and they also claim that they came and took her back. this is untrue, i called them and told them to come and take her back due to the fact that i couldn't take her acting out and her poor work ethics.
and believe me when they came to get her, i cried my eyes out. i loved that dog dearly. i know she was not a good guide dog, but i still dearly loved her and it broke my heart to see her go.
oh and btw, can u tell me what you have heard about south eastern? i am just curious to know.
Do you know if she was retrained with someone else or if she was retired?
I, too, am a proud graduate of Guiding Eyes. I'm on my second dog now, my first having to retire after only a year due to not wanting to work. She now lives with my mom as a pet, about which she can't be happier! Olivia, my current guide, has an amazing work ethic that never ceases to amaze me. As for the people, theyr'e honestly my extended family. I get reminded of that every year at their anual Walkathon fundraiser which I can never seem to not go to. I went once, and that sort of made up my mind. Haha. You feel so welcome when you go to the school, and the support and welcome feeling extends right up and through after you leave the school, from the trainers and class supervisors right down to the cooking staff and maintenance crew. The other classmates that I have been in class with are also invaluable resources, and I keep in touch and am good friends with a few people I have met there. Their followup is awesome as well. They promise to call you back within a few hours after you call them, and if things can't be solved on the phone, they'll send someone out. All in all, I'm very happy with the school and would definitely recommend it to someone. It might not be the right school for everyone, though, which is fine; that's why there are different schools out there, to choose from depending on peoples' own, different needs.
GEB does have a special needs program, and they have an accelerating training option program for retrains, which I did my second time round. If anyone has any questions or wants to know more about anything, feel free to reply here and ask or contact me directly. Now that I think I've made what is most likely my longest post ever...
no. unfortunately she was retired and now lives with her puppy raiser. she was not even 3 years old when i retired her. she will be having her ninth birthday this april 19th. god i miss her. she is getting old. cries. and to think 5 years ago she was a young puppy.
sorry i mean seventh birthday
anyway, GEB really sounds like the school for me. they have been nothing but warm and welcoming to me ever sense i sent in my application. i am extremely impressed with them so far. i cant wait to get a class date.
all i have to do is send in the medical forms to GEB and get the letters re-sent out to my references seeing as only 2 of them have gotten it so far. 1 reference and my mobility instructer have not received the reference letter yet. but other than that, i am in if i can show GEB this second time around, that I know my neighborhood better. that is really what they are looking for. i have to go to my new docter because when i went to a walk in clinic to get my paperwork sent in, the docter refused to send it unless i had vaccinations. i refuse to get vaccinated unless geb absolutely requires it.
a little update for everyone. i just called geb to see when the field rep is coming back out to reevaluate me. unfortunately, his schedule is full this time unless someone backs out or something. bev clayman told me not to worry though, that the field rep is in florida very often. she said that he will give me a call if someone backs out this trip down, or if we have to wait until his next trip down. but i am still very optimistic. all this means is i will have to wait a little longer to get my dog.