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'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.

Other assistance dogs also make decisions including my dog, but that's another discussion.

However my understanding of another part of a guide dog's job is to signal changes in the environment. This can be used by someone who is simply holding the harness of a dog who is being led.

I think non-assistance dog people use guide dog as a generic term as a dog that helps people who are blind or visually impaired. I did not say this skilled companion dog was a guide dog. However the dog does help someone who is visually impaired navigate their environment faster and more independently.

All US six year olds need adult supervision to navigate their world. Since the founder of the group wanted "a guide dog" for her six year old. She either means something different than you do by the term guide dog, or she is a lunatic. I hope she just means something different.

[leadinglabbie]

Hi,

Sorry if that wasn't quite coherent. I certainly wouldn't imply that other AD's don't make decisions. And I recognize that training a parent with the team might help curb the natural instincts to intervene if the dog makes an error.

Where can I find more info about skilled companion teams? I have read a little about this on CCI's site, and I should probably go back there again. But it is something I do want to learn more about.

I did understand that the other dog you mentioned wasn't a guide dog, and I am glad CCI was able to help this person realize greater independence. I know of an organization here in VA that has trained a "visual service dog." I am not sure what this dog's exact duties are, but the program stated it was something other than a guide dog. (I talked to them briefly when I was considering other alternatives for my next guide. They use exclusively Standard Poodles, and that appealed to me.)

And, yeah, my hope is that she is contemplating something different than traditional guide training. My last comment was focused on traditional guide training, not on something that might be substantially different. I do think traditional training would have to be modified, and that was the main point I was trying to make. Sorry if I was unintentionally offensive.

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...

I'm probably sounding extremely cynical... I should note that I have moderated an email list for parents of blind children for the past ten years and this subject has come up multiple times. I try to explain in detail what guide dogs do and what skills are actually needed to work with one. It is enlightening to some parents. I also ask about what kind of O&M training their children are getting. 99 percent of the time it is very inadequate, and the parents are extremely overportective and don't realize what a child of that age should be able to do--with or without a dog. If the child can't do it without a dog, how will they do it with a dog? The truth about working with dog guides is that you have to be able to function without one because there are days when the dog is sick--or retired.

[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