More on the guide-dog school in Wisconsin

[leadinglabbie]

Sorry if this has already been posted. I haven't looked at the fpage in a while and don't know when I'm going to get to it...sigh. Anyway, Quinn Haberl, for whom this guide-dog school for teens was going to be named, has withdrawn his support for the school. He says now that he believes he was too young when he was matched with his first guide at

Comments

[brighid0704]

Back in the seventies, GDF matched a fourteen-year-old high school student with a guide dog.

young students

[3kitties]

In the 90s, SEGDI matched a 13-year-old with a dog. I met him when he was 21. He said he was way too young and would probably never work another dog. I am also acquainted with a woman who has been working dogs since she was quite young. She seems to be doing well--she is middle aged now.

I really doubt there is a good way for journalists to research this. I suspect schools aren't excited about sharing this kind of information, especially since confidentiality issues would prevent them from putting the journalist in touch with the graduate. It would be interesting for someone to conduct a study on teens and dogs and get some true in-depth information about lifestyle issues and experiences.

Re: young students

[breathe_anew]

Exactly. Most guide dog schools don't really emphasize the fact that they might match dogs with younger teens (if they do), just because there is so much disagreement about the issue, and it doesn't happen that often anyways. Mira here in Quebec is well known for matching dogs with children as young as 11, and quite a few applicants have come from the United States (and beyond) because there aren't any schools in their home areas who will give them a dog at such a young age. I tend to feel that it's better to wait until you're at least almost finished with high school, just because teenage years are a transition stage and you want to be really sure you're ready for such a big commitment first (as well as a bunch of other reasons). I know at least one person who has had a dog since 11, and she's doing really well -- so I definitely don't mean to say it's impossible for a person to be responsible and ready enough at that age, but for the most part, it's just so much better to wait those few extra years. I've also seen the flip side:

Re: young students

[3kitties]

I think it's quite different with service dogs. Working with a guide is a choice. Service dogs often perform very life-changing functions: alerting to medical conditions, providing physical support to people while walking, pulling wheelchairs or retrieving objects, etc. Sometimes the dogs even do things that involve the parents, like alerting parents if an autistic child wanders away. This is truly different from what our guides do and changes the family dynamic where the service dog is concerned. Even the hearing dog I can understand being essential at a younger age, especially in a mainstream school environment. The dog is trained to alert to particular sounds, and this can be very life-changing in some environments.

Re: young students

[breathe_anew]

exactly. I definitely can see the need/use for a service dog at a younger age, but a guide dog? I'd be concerned about that...