Wisconsin could get a guide-dog school for teens

[leadinglabbie]

greenbaypressgazette.com

April 25, 2008

Guide-dog center for teens planned at NWTC

By MIKE HOEFT
mhoeft@greenbaypressgazette.com

Organizers announced plans Friday to open a guide-dog
training center at Northeastern Wisconsin Technical
College in what they say would be the first such
facility serving blind teens.

Comments

[waterowl]

I know nothing about handling a guide dog obviously, so I can't comment on that, but as a fellow assistance dog handler, I am concerned about younger teens handling assistance dogs alone in public to the standards I think are good for the dog, let alone the human. There are a lot of people and things that can scare or even hurt a dog if the person does not handle the dog correctly. This requires a lot of judgment and responsibility which some adults don't have, let alone teens whose brains haven't even finished growing yet

[leadinglabbie]

The problem is that the whole basis of guide-dog training is that the dog has to make certain decisions about physically maneuvering the person through space. I don't know if other types of assistance dogs do this or not, but that's the guide's crucial function. Even as an adult (and a fairly assertive one when it's necessary), I have had to deal with my family trying to redirect my dog. I have had people grab and try to steer me in public (though this happens less with a dog than it did with a cane...but it still occasionally happens). Even if the parents are trained with the child, I don't see how they can avoid doing the dog's job, particularly if they're holding a leash. They are instinctively going to resist letting the dog make a clearance error, for example, even though this can be very educational for the dog. So in this situation, it's possible that the dog is providing some benefit to the child...but I don't think the benefit is guiding.

[waterowl]

I'm sorry that people are so rude to you. The assisted service dog or skilled companion team is a partnership between the humans that is worked out in training. It is as different as a person trying to grab the dog as a pet dog is from a properly trained assistance dog

[leadinglabbie]

Hi

parents wanting guides for young children

[3kitties]

Sadly, my experience is that most parents of young children are very enamored by the idea of a guide dog and don't know much about what goes into it. They are still guiding their children by the hands through environments that their sighted children would navigate independently, and their blind children have not received adequate cane instruction. Parents whose kids are getting early cane instruction don't typically jump on this early dog bandwagon because their kids are busily exploring and learning about their environments... These early dog parents seem to think that a dog will be the environmental savior for their child who has no means of safely navigating the environment

[waterowl]

Sorry if I seemed irritable. I'm not offended. Just generally irritable due to hormone. :}

At least at CCI, the skilled companion dogs specifically don't make decisions. Dogs who make decisions such as hearing dogs or mobility assistance dogs are placed with adults.

I have not heard about Skilled Companions for blind kids.
I should add the CCI placement I was talking about the person has additional physical disabilities besides visual impairment. I know GDB has K9 buddies
http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer?pagename=programs_youth_k9buddy

North Star has a lot of info about dogs for kids with autism
http://www.northstardogs.com/mission.shtml
This is one of the types of skilled companions that CCI provides.

www.lovingpaws.org also has info