From: Buddy Brannan - KB5ELV 
Subject: Re: training
Hi,
I was going to stay out of this, but I guess I won't. 
I wasn't at the NAGDU meeting where Peggy Elliott made her statements.
Therefore, I don't know what really happened. However, here is my whole
viewpoint on the matter...
I don't really see what the issue is here. While certainly none of the
schools are perfect, and all of them could certainly benefit from
listening to us, the consumers of their services, I don't think they're
doing a bad job, either. They are certainly more responsive than they once
were, and this is a positive trend which I see continuing. Still, there
is, and will always be, room for improvement. I will agree with Harvey in
that the schools certainly don't encourage the dogs to be ill-mannered and
relieve on stairs and inside buildings. These are things which are under
the handler's jurisdiction and thus, the handler's responsibility.
However, let me also say that I don't feel that the school that I went to
addressed dog cleanup issues adequately. We weren't expected to start
picking up after our dogs until the last week, and then, people weren't
sure what their dogs were doing all the time. I believe that this can be
rectified. If people are encouraged to approach their dogs and learn what
their dogs are doing while relieving, after a sufficient time has passed
to allow the dog to get used to its new handler of course, they will have
a better idea of what was going on. If I didn't have any previous
experience before my first guide dog, I don't know how things would have
been for me in that regard. 
As for traffic safety, what the guide dog schools say in regard to going
around cars in the street makes good sense to me. It is better, and safer,
to walk around the front of a car when possible. The driver is then more
likely to see you than he would be if you waled behind the car (and in
front of the car behind). It's not a safe place to be. I don't argue with
Karl in his decisions about going around, or stopping for, traffic in the
street. This makes good sense to me. Having said that, however, I do agree
that sometimes the answers we get to questions sometimes leave something
to be desired (I.E. were lame). The only reason for this is that the
questions were not well thought through hby the trainers, so a
satisfactory answer had not been reached. For instance, I asked once,
"What do you do if you have to carry something in your right hand?" Of
course, the right hand is used for giving directional commands or
corrections--at least, where I went to school. The answer? "Carry a
backpack." This answer was insufficient, but at the time, I didn't really
argue the point, because there was no time and I didn't think I'd get
anywhere by doing so. That is only one example; others are situations
where the answers were invariably, "Have a sighted person work with you on
this." As all of you know, sighted people aren't always handy or
convenient or even sometimes available. To their credit, the guide dog
schools are starting to tell students that it's all right, even useful, to
use a cane to work through a problem which you are having with your dog. 
Down time: I really was shocked at the amount of walking we did at school.
However, I thought we'd be doing more than we did, and that's why I was
shocked. From what people were telling me, I was expecting long walks at
school, but the walks we had were, i thought, very short, and in fact,
that I walked more than that daily. There was a lot of waiting around for
your turn. However, that meant that you could groom your dog or osmething
else useful like that. This is a logistical problem which has no real
solution, I don't believe. The schools have really done a lot in this
regard, too, and a 4:1 student to instructor ratio is not uncommon, where
not more than a couple years ago, that ratio might be 5:1 or as much as
6:1. Waiting is inevitable and unavoidable. Considering this, and
considering that, even though the walks were generally shorter than i was
used to, I found the training I got very well-rounded and of high quality. 
NFB-run guide dog program: While I certainly wouldn't say that we
*shouldn't* start such a program, I would say that our resources would be
better spent in improving the programs we already have. As I said, the
schools do seem to be taking positive steps in regard to listening to
their graduates on what things are important. While they're not perfect,
they're improving, and we can and should help them.
-- 
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV        | (Voice: (512) 441-3246
with Karl and Zoe!...        | davros@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
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In the laughing times, we know that we are lucky.
In the quiet times, we know that we are blessed.
And we will not be alone.
--Dar Williams, "Arrival"
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