Re: what are your opinions about guide dogs?
Having spent 17 years myself as a cane user, then getting a guide dog who was with me for ten years, who has now retired making me a permanent cane user again, I will try to be somewhat objective, or at least to present prose and cons as I see them.
There are people who will tell you you "cannot" do x y z without a dog, that their lives changed when they had them. This to my mind is rubbish. There is nothing intrinsically you can do with a dog (especially with nav aids), that you could not do with a cane.
however! (and it is a big however), a guide dog makes everything so much less effort.
With a cane, you must always be %100 aware of what is around you, even going somewhere you know, you need to constantly concentrate, to check there aren't road works or obstacles in your way, and never mind having to dodge around people, or try to find the exits to buildings or the like.
With a guide dog, you can honestly just switch your brain off. Your dog will quite happily go around obstacles, work around people, even when people are not looking where they're going, and just leave you free to concentrate on directions.
Also, with a guide dog, the more time and effort you put in teaching your dog, the more help your dog will be, because as a living creature with ability to associate concepts, dogs can make the sort of category leaps of logic humans can.
For example, one of the single most useful commands I've taught reever is "find the counter!" in a bar, a cafe, a restaurant a shop, I don't need to worry about working from the door to get served, I just ask reever to "find the counter!" and she will.
The same goes for seat, whether it's a stool, a bench, a sofa or a chair, "find the seat", will do.
Ditto with teaching specific places or people.
the downer of course, is that guide dogs are living creatures, and so the more time you put in to teaching them, getting them used to the routes you go, walking around ETc, the better at things they get.
Also, being living creatures, guide dogs can and do make mistakes, and will require you to tell them when they're going wrong, when they're prone to jump up at people at the wrong time, or distracted by another dog.
guide dogs also do need you to bphysically take care of them, dog brushing, feeding, going for none working walks, playing with your dog, and yes, picking up dog poo.
this does mean extra work, and mean guide dogs aren't for everyone, either because of life circumstances or inclination.
However, if your already inclined to be fond of dogs and don't have a problem taking care of one, then the benefits, in terms of mobility and effort will be well worth it, indeed having done both, and having to now go back to my cane, I am definitely noticing this.
lastly, there is the companionship aspect, since depending upon where you are, guide dogs can also serve as an emotional support in often very dismal circumstances, since frankly most of the time, dogs are far nicer than people .
As I said, my personal thought is, unless a person's life or circumstances are such that they either don't like dogs or can't take care of one, a guide dog is always worth it.
After all, if a guide dog were simply equivalent to walking with a cane, then nobody would have one, since why would you saddle yourself with the difficulty of looking after another creature, often in public situations, for absolutely no bennifit in mobility.
This isn't to say guide dogs are right for everyone, there are several people I know who it definitely hasn't worked out for, and some people just don't fancy the idea, which is fair enough, however if you think you can! cope with the responsability, and are willing to put in the time and effort (especially as regards expanding your dog's vocabulary and training), then it's imho well worth while.
Lastly, I'll give an illustrative example from roughly this time last year.
it's 7-30 at night. my lady's chemo therapy has been delayed and moved to a different hospital department, we've been sitting in hospital all day, I need to both ring my parents for a lift, and frankly at this point get a coffee.
We were however escorted from one department to another, past the hospital entrance, and down several long and twisting corridors.
With the hospital having crappy phone signals therefor, I need to get to the entrance. but what to dos place is nearly empty it being so late, and those nurses who are around are busy as hell.
I don't know where I am, it's not a place I've been before, but I do know the entrance is roughly five minutes away.
I simply turn to my very experienced dog and say "find out!"
and off she goes! down one corridor past several others, round three corners, out of another and ping! there we are outside.
i phone my parents, tell them we'll be a bit late, go back in, go to the cafe for a coffee (with Reever finding the counter).
And how do I get back? I just ask Reever to find my wife by name, and sure enough, back we go.
Admittedly, Reever at this point is a highly experienced, ten year old dog, who I have taught a bunch of things and who is used to those sorts of circumstances, when I get another dog, the new dog certainly wouldn't be able to handle that sort of situation straight away.
however, that! is how good a guide dog can be, if you are prepared to put in the time and effort.
@Camlorn, didn't see your post earlier, I wouldn't have said my cane skills were in any sense lacking, i used to go to bars and strange places and wander around university much as you describe, indeed I regularly walked four hours a day simply because my university was highly spread out. I didn't find as I said, that having a dog changed what I could! do, it just made doing things much less effort, which let me do far more, EG I no longer had to do shopping earlier in the morning to avoid crowds, because my dog would quite happily cope with crowds anyway.
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