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COMMENTARY

POOLING PARTNERSHIPS:

DOGS AND THEIR HUMANS GATHERED FOR AN INAUGURAL EVENT

By Deborah Kendrick

Most of us reading this publication have known a guide dog or two, and have probably been in public gatherings where more than one trained service animal was in attendance. But imagine over one hundred such dogs –in one hotel, filling meeting rooms and spilling out into the streets to take advantage of local eateries and tourist attractions –with never so much as a whimper, bark, growl, “accident” or incident to diminish the unified image of excellence and independence conveyed. That’s what was seen at the first ever Guide Dogs for the Blind Reunion and Conference, which took place in downtown San Francisco November 10-12 this year.

A little over a year ago, Guide Dogs for the Blind of San Rafael, California, the oldest guide dog school on the west coast, created an Alumni Association. The first step was to hire a director (a Guide Dog alumna herself, Theresa Duncan). The next was to create an Alumni Association board. The first major project of that board was to host the first ever Guide Dogs for the Blind Reunion Conference, an ambitious undertaking and tremendous success.

The dates of the event, November 10-12, were no coincidence. Guide Dogs was founded in 1942 when two people, Lois Merrihew and Don Donaldson determined to train dogs to act as guides for Americans who lost their sight in World War II. The school almost immediately expanded its mission to train dogs for any qualifying person without sight, and both the mission and the physical boundaries of the school have expanded dramatically in the last six and a half decades. The San Rafael campus was established in 1947. In 1995, a second facility was established in Boring, Oregon. Initially, dogs were provided exclusively to people who were totally blind. Today, the program has expanded to embrace people with visual impairments, as well as those who have additional disabilities such as hearing loss or mobility impairments requiring wheelchair use.

Who Was There
Graduates from throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as one graduate from Singapore came with their canine guides. Another 150 people representing other aspects of the Guide Dogs program -- instructors, puppy raisers, breeder keepers and others – were also in attendance. (Guide Dogs breeds its own dogs. Once puppies can leave their mothers, however, they spend the first year of their lives in the homes of volunteer puppy raisers – children and adults who teach them their manners. They are then returned to the school for the rigorous training of guide work.)

What We Learned
Certainly, one highlight woven throughout the weekend was the sheer pleasure of connecting with other graduates of the same school (sometimes from the same class). There were, however, also a collection of informative workshops and impressive exhibits.

In “Globe Trotting with your Guide,” attendees heard from graduates who have enjoyed extensive international travel and cruises for both work and play. What documentation do you need, for example, to fly from California to Australia and travel freely with your guide upon arrival? Or, on a more pragmatic level, how do you prepare your dog for a 15-hour flight, where there will be no doggy latrines?

Other workshops demonstrated the use of GPS technology (there are now three competing products available that provide accessible mapping and location information to blind and visually impaired travelers). While GPS products are remarkable – announcing in one’s ear the name of the street just ahead or the restaurant on the left – they cannot tell a person that there is an open man hole, construction site, or when it is safe to cross the street. Balancing the use of such technology with the partnership established with a highly trained guide dog requires a whole set of skills in itself.

And what about advocacy and discrimination? Most of us know that it is illegal to deny access to a blind or visually impaired person with a trained guide dog, but who do you call when? Sometimes the answer is the Department of Justice. Other times it is the Department of Transportation, Health and Human Services, a Particular Civil Rights Commission or other entity altogether. A workshop on advocacy sorted out these distinctions with logic and clarity.

New training techniques were discussed in another workshop and a new harness displayed in the exhibit area. Presentations were made by Guide Dog instructors, the school’s veterinarian, and a blind kennel assistant.

How We Played
The first night featured a wine-tasting event (all tables bore braille and print information about the wine being poured), and a highlight the second night was a swing band and dancing. Of course, a first ever reunion conference would have a first ever awards banquet. In addition to the inaugural and moving awards presentations, the banquet agenda included a keynote presentation by comedian and speaker, Alex Valdez, who is, of course, a graduate of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Other touches not found in other such gatherings were doggy massages and yummy dog treats.

Solidarity
There was much more on the agenda of this activity-packed weekend, but what makes it important is something far deeper than reuniting with old friends, seeing new gear, or signing up for a Guide-Dogs-welcome-and-Wanted kind of cruise. Despite the diversity among us as this single minority known as people with disabilities, there are certain common denominators that we all share. One of those, it seems to me, is the need to touch base with those whose disabilities require the same work-arounds and adaptations as our own, who understand those joys and sorrows unique to our particular situation. Solidarity among all people with every kind of disability is essential. But there’s another kind of strength – a recharging of energy and confidence – that comes from occasionally gathering with a particular subset. We came together as a group, and spread out afterward as a collection of renewed and stronger individuals.

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Deborah Kendrick is an award-winning writer, editor, and poet. She works currently as a newspaper columnist and as senior features editor for AccessWorld.

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