For kii:

This is where I’d start for Australia. There are lots of links and things to information. Not all OK for USA, but plenty to be starting with:

http://www.visionaustralia.org/living-with-low-vision/learning-to-live-independently

I thought this was going to be about short people

thanks, buffy :) I’ll check it out and let Ruth’s daughter know.

diddly-squat said:

I thought this was going to be about short people

Coincidentally, this woman is very short. It’s an ongoing joke with her daughter. I’ll ask M how Ruth is and she’ll say: still short ;)

Are guide dogs able to safely cross roads either with or without traffic lights?

nut said:

Are guide dogs able to safely cross roads either with or without traffic lights?

Generally the dogs learn a routine of travel. Considering safety , pedestrian crossings etc

Clients can self refer to if a support dog is suitable for their needs

They won’t usually lead their person in front of a car.

Edits : to ensure a support dog is suitable

There is wisdom in joining the dog matching program while still sighted as the transition is easier but of course some people are born with a vision impairment and transition anyway to managing life with a support dog

DO could contribute intricacies of the process

buffy said:

They won’t usually lead their person in front of a car.

They are trained to be intelligently disobedient and also to walk the person around hazards that are head height to their owner. There is a reason the leads are at specific lengths for example

Info here:

http://www.guidedogsaustralia.com/

A trainer school period occurs when a dog is paired with a client and a trainer assists with how to teach the dog to familiarise themselves with commonly needed outings of the owner. Trains for example in QLD have designated wat spaces to ensure the person with support needs can find entry to to train with appropriate seating areas the dogs find the seat though

They are trained to have people on a certain side of them owner and strangers

We had a local guide dog who became naughty. He’d crotch sniff you in the line at the supermarket…

buffy said:

We had a local guide dog who became naughty. He’d crotch sniff you in the line at the supermarket…

Obviously trained as a sniffer dog.

Most bus driver converse with clients to ensure they enter the correct bus – collaboration :)

buffy said:

We had a local guide dog who became naughty. He’d crotch sniff you in the line at the supermarket…

and your bacon smuggling days were over…

buffy said:

We had a local guide dog who became naughty. He’d crotch sniff you in the line at the supermarket…

You can take the guide dog out but cannot completely take the dog out of the dog!

:D

we had a guide dog let into the zoo the other day. This has to be by special request and the guide dog wasn’t allowed in certain areas. Which really limited the areas the person could go anyway.. hardly seems worth it. Not that I’m against blind people experiencing stuff, just seemed silly to come to experience the zoo and not be able to go to most of it.

This is funny a guide got on the train and found a seat. There was a man seated there and became immediately stressed by what he thought was an id of him . I laughed and said, she is a guide dog and not a sniffer dog from the drug squad he relaxed then lol guilty much?

Tamb said:

buffy said:

We had a local guide dog who became naughty. He’d crotch sniff you in the line at the supermarket…

Obviously trained as a sniffer dog.

Interestingly there are also grid patterns on pathways now for clients who use a cane

Thanks. Sister-inlaw has advanced retinitis pigmentosa and we are trying to encourage her to get a gude dog. She has only limited vision – if I were four metres away in bright sunlight she would have trouble seeing me – and relies on sound to lock in on someone, this can be quite a problem as she is quite deaf too. Even with hearing aid we have to repeat ourselves more than frequently to be understood most times.

nut said:

Thanks. Sister-inlaw has advanced retinitis pigmentosa and we are trying to encourage her to get a gude dog. She has only limited vision – if I were four metres away in bright sunlight she would have trouble seeing me – and relies on sound to lock in on someone, this can be quite a problem as she is quite deaf too. Even with hearing aid we have to repeat ourselves more than frequently to be understood most times.

Usher syndrome. I know a family, all three children – now well functioning adults. Hell for the parents when we started picking up the eye bit in their mid teens. I very well remember after the eldest had been diagnosed and the second one came to see me. I didn’t really have to say “yes, it’s there” they could see it in my face…

That is one time I really broke down and cried after the patient had left.

She is a well functioning adult also, though a bit stubborn sometimes. It is only recently that she has been happy to carry her white cane while being lead around. This mostly came out of explaining the difference in people when they can see she has vision problems, there are far fewer bumps in the crowd :)

Arts said:

we had a guide dog let into the zoo the other day. This has to be by special request and the guide dog wasn’t allowed in certain areas. Which really limited the areas the person could go anyway.. hardly seems worth it. Not that I’m against blind people experiencing stuff, just seemed silly to come to experience the zoo and not be able to go to most of it.

Wouldn’t a blind person have a rather limited appreciation of the zoo anyway, I suppose you still get the noises and smells, but to not appreciate the orangutans peeing from their climbing frames what a shame.