Re: guide dogs!
@Saphira it's certainly worth it if you can do. Guide Dogs aren't right for everyone, and sometimes it doesn't work which is why the guide dog association over here are so careful both about who gets which dog, and what dog you get, but if it works it's amazing! Indeed, last night I went for a meal with my brother then back to his place to watch Game of thrones, I left reever at my parents sinse my brother is a bit paranoid about his house.
Yes, I could still navigate fine with my cane, but by heck it was so much harder! It just made me realize how much easier things are with a dog and how much less energy you need to constantly put in to walking around and being aware of people and obstacles.
@livrobo, glad your considering this and good luck with the application. I'm not sure where you are in the world, but in the Uk there isn't so much a "training program"
You apply to guide dogs for services and they decide whet
her your right for a dog, after doing a massive questionaire about your life, your mobility skills, how much you go out etc. They then for me did a test assessment where I had a trainer pretending to be a dog which was fairly whacky
Once I was accepted I went to a test walk day, this was where they had several dogs and a harnice and gave people the chance to walk with a dog just for the experience, as well as having a guide dog owner chat about taking care of a dog. That was okay, though myself I was more interested in meeting the dogs than the people, sinse I tend to much prefer dogs . Seriously, of the two people there one girl was a fairly sterriotypically blind person and so not really easy to live with. One older lady was quite okay to get on with and have a vague chat to sinse she'd gone blind later, though we didn't get as much time over the course of the
day.
For the training itself once I'd waited on the list and Guide dogs found me a dog, I didn't myself go aaway for training. some people get sent off to a hotel or similar with a group of other blind people training with their dogs, but that didn't happen to me, I was trained at home in my flat with Reever. That was actually pretty hard as I have said due to Reever missing her trainer, indeed I do think more contact with other people in training might have helped. There was one lady who was training at the same time I did, and a couple of times we met up for joint sessions, but certainly not that often, indeed other than the couple of hours a day I was with the trainer I was pretty much alone with Reever, ---- and being alone with a dog who really doesn't want to be with you is not a nice experience, though thankfully that has now changed entirely, (indeed Reever is once again curled up on my feet while I'm writing this).
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