Newshounds!

National Guide Dog Month Media Coverage:

• It's National Guide Dog Month! (KPTV Fox 12 Oregon): Instructor Dan Rollings talks about Guide Dogs and the Petco/Natural Balance effort to raise $1 million dollars for guide dog organizations during the month of September.
• Pet of the Week/National Guide Dog Month (KOIN TV Oregon): Director of Research and Development Michele Pouliot details National Guide Dog Month.
• National Guide Dog Month (WLS-TV Chicago): Instructor/Graduate Services Field Manager Lauren Ross interviewed about National Guide Dog Month (embedded video below).

GDB in the news!

• Truck Full of Puppies Makes Stop in Roseburg (KPIC News Oregon): News segment about the puppy truck stopping in Roseburg, OR.
• Cara Dunne - Part of Base Village Forever (Snowmass Sun, July 14, 2010): Statue unveiled in GDB alumna's honor.
• Portland Blind Cafe (The Southeast Examiner, July 31, 2010): A unique fundraising event for a GDB puppy raising club.
• Phoenix Guide Dogs Take Flight as They Train for Air Travel (ABC TV 15 Arizona, July 31, 2010): More than a dozen Guide Dog puppies board their first flight.
• Progress for People with Disabilities - But Not Everywhere (The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch, August 5, 2010): Featuring GDB alumnus Ken Altenburger.
• Cabs for Labs (Langetwins Winery Blog, August 12, 2010): Promoting a fundraiser for the Lone Star Puppy Raisers.
• Training Canines Go to School (Ventura County Star, September 4, 2010): Featuring GDB pups that get to go to school in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
• Keeping Guide Dogs Safe (Fetch Magazine, September 10, 2010): Featuring GDB grad Georgie Heisel.
• Sixty Years of Guide Dog Breeding Brings Out the Best (The Vancouver Sun's "Puppy Love" blog, September 16, 2010): GDB's breeding collaboration with the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society.
• Guide Dogs Shadow Students on Campus (LPC Express, September 17, 2010): Profiling two Las Positas College students who are GDB puppy raisers.

Road Construction Hazards

By GDB alumnus Ernest Jones

This is an article Ernest wrote in his local newspaper pointing out some pedestrian hazards in a road construction zone in his town.

For several hours, I puzzled over the noise rolling across the valley. It didn't sound like any farm machinery, and that was all I could think of. It was only after my wife told me there was road construction going on outside that I could put a picture to the noise. As the county workers came down our road that morning, I thought of the great improvements that could be made to the roads.

Starting on our walk the next morning, I never considered that this walk with my Guide Dog would be different than any other day. After all, the roads were still in the same place, so why should this walk be any different from all the others?

But very soon I discovered there was a problem: where was the edge of the pavement? My feet told me I was walking on gravel, so where I was standing should be the road's shoulder. Turns out I was actually well out toward the center of the road. Not only did I have trouble, but so did my guide for everything was different for him too. Still, I figured it couldn't be too bad so we continued on our way.

When I gave the cue for my guide to move to the edge of the road, he seemed very hesitant to move over to the left. Many times when he had me right on the pavement's edge where I needed to walk, my foot would find that the shoulder was anywhere between one inch to several inches below the level of the pavement. More than once I twisted my ankle as my foot slipped off the pavement.

I decided to cut our walk short and we headed home. At that point, I knew very soon we had to round a ninety degree corner, one my guide liked to cut across. Once we passed that corner, however, we would find a nice wide, rather smooth shoulder - one where we could walk fast with little worry of tripping or stumbling.

But I found that this corner and even the nice wide shoulder had been greatly changed. In rounding the corner I tried to get my guide clear over to the left side but he kept crowding me onto the road. Finally insisting he move off the pavement I found him many inches below me and found a steep gravel bank sloping way down; there was no way my guide nor I could walk safely off the pavement here. Worse yet, I found that even the area where we had never had a problem now had a sharp drop-off of at least two inches below the pavement.

Nearing the next 90 degree corner I relaxed for again, we would have a wide shoulder to walk on. But as we made the left turn, the normally wide shoulder was covered with paving and gravel; I guess this was to make it easier for cars to make the sharp right turn.

I know road repairs will usually cause a few problems: there will be traffic delays and people will have to slow down or even stop. It seems road improvement always comes with some cost, but this is the price we pay for better roads.

I don't mean to complain for I understand construction, but for safety sake I could not walk these roads alone for several days. It is not just working with my Guide Dog either; if I used the long white cane I would find traversing these roads even harder.

Thus my guide and I didn't take our normal morning walk for several days. I eventually took the walk by following my wife and our neighbor; after another week or so of learning the changes, I knew my guide and I could try the route alone. Still, for a while, everyone walking or jogging these roads will need to be more alert and careful of rocks being thrown by a passing car.

I am trying to point out one of the difficulties a person may have when it comes to construction work. Being blind I notice this, but for a few days even sighted folk will need to be just a little more careful. I know that in time this will be an even better road.

Have a great day and remember sometimes road work, though maybe a big pain, should be worth it in the long run.

In Home Training: What’s Up with That?

By Emily Simone, GDB Field Service Manager

I have been with GDB for 20 years. I was an instructor for the first ten years, training new and retrain students at our California campus. For the last ten years I’ve been a remote field service manager. In this role, I work from a home office in Central California and work daily with GDB graduates in a large geographical area, which covers all of Central California and the entire state of Colorado.

In my current role as a field service manager, I wear a lot of hats: trainer, behaviorist, vet assistant, orientation and mobility specialist, grief counselor, transportation specialist and even occasionally a light housekeeper!

It may be surprising to hear that I also continue to instruct new and retrain students with new dogs. How am I able to do this? Through a small but successful program we call “In-home” or “Domicile” training. GDB strives toward making our services available to all qualified applicants. In cases where leaving home to receive Guide Dog training may create a hardship for an individual, in-home training may be an option. In-home training qualification is determined by GDB and with client input. The following are some common reasons an applicant may receive in-home training:

• Health: The client has very fragile health considerations and asking this type of client to train outside of his home and away from regular medical care and equipment is unsafe and unreasonable. Common health issues that may warrant in-home training include: regular/inflexible medical support needs (such as regular dialysis); necessity to utilize critical medical equipment that can’t be easily transported (such as oxygen); a health disorder that requires intensive, regular support that cannot be effectively managed by GDB’s campus nursing staff.
• Family issues: Clients that have very young children or care-giving responsibilities to other family members, and no practical access to child-care or adult care assistance may qualify for in-home training.
• Work: Clients that cannot get appropriate time off their job to come train at one of our campuses may qualify for in-home training, depending on their job commitments and other factors.
• Age: A person's age may also be a consideration if GDB staff feels bringing a client in to train would be an unreasonable strain on the client’s mental and physical health, or could jeopardize their success.

I have conducted numerous in-home trainings in the last ten years. Each experience is challenging and inspiring. As the instructor, my priority is to teach the client the current training methods and practices that they teach in the residential training programs. This means staying up to date on all current training methods currently taught in class.

The training program length depends on the individual. I’ve conducted most in-home training in approximately 10-17 days. The client is heavily involved in directing his/her program and they identify specific areas and environments on which they would like to focus, i.e. the route from home to work; mastering the bus system; learning a college campus, etc.

There are some clear advantages to training a client in their own home:

• The client is familiar with the area and able to work with the new dog without ALSO having to learn the lay-out of a new dorm and city.
• The client is often more relaxed and less stressed, since they remain in their comfortable, familiar environment and routine.
• The new dog can be immediately oriented to the client’s home, routine and relieving area, and any potential challenge can be addressed promptly.
• The schedule is demanding but is often more relaxing than the dorm schedule and routine.
• The instructor is present to educate family and work colleagues on guide dog etiquette and inclusion within the family dynamic.

Over the years I have also found that in-home training is not perfect. Clients can be distracted by home/work/family issues and may not effectively focus on the new dog. Staying in the home environment can lull clients into lax routines that can sabotage work with their new dog. In-home clients miss the fabulous experience of being in class and on campus—and being a part of a group of students and GDB’s community. Often, they miss graduation. This is sad for both the client and the puppy raiser, though most are able to connect in a meaningful manner after the training.

GDB has an excellent residential program and it is very effective and successful for the vast majority of clients we serve. By offering in-home training as an option to those who qualify, we have an opportunity to enhance the independence of as many qualified clients as possible. There is clear value in having both programs available.