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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ken- Regardless of what the puppy raiser did, it was up to you as a guide dog user, a member of the National Federation of the Blind as well as the California Association of guide dog users to step in and educate not only the puppy raiser but also the kids. Especially if the puppy raiser was giving out false information and misrepresenting the way guide dogs are trained. 1. six month old puppies have not gone through formal guide dog training and are not qualified to guide anyone. 2. Having the kids close their eyes for 2 seconds and asking them are they scared is totally inappropriate. 3. The puppy raiser's comments as it relates to how blind people as well as blindness are false and her own perceptions as it relates to blindness should not have been a part of the presentation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I hope you spoke to this woman after the presentation and educated her on blindness and guide dogs. Also, if she was allowing her 6month old puppy to guide young children, the school she is raising the puppy for should be called and told of the puppy raiser's misconduct and misrepresentation of guide dogs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Tina <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> cagdu-bounces@nfbcal.org [mailto:cagdu-bounces@nfbcal.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Ken Volonte<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, March 09, 2012 2:26 PM<br><b>To:</b> Cagdu<br><b>Cc:</b> Gary Wunder<br><b>Subject:</b> [Cagdu] on schools and assemblies<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This morning, I went to an elementary school for an assembly of Kindergarteners and first graders. I was invited to this function by one of the teachers who was a guide dog puppy raiser. I sat horrified as this person explained how blind people couldn't do anything without the assistance of their guide dogs. "That's why I'm raising guide dog puppies and I'll do it for the rest of my life", she said. In short, I was just there as a prop as this raiser did an infomercial for herself and, just incidentally, for guide dog school. The next horrible thing that happened was her instruction for the children to close their eyes. "Are you scared?" she asked. "Yeeeees!" they all answered. "Well that's how a blind person feels all through the day, so you should thank God you can see." We're not through yet. Next, she had me work my dog through a series of obstacles and was very upset when he returned by a different way than he had gone. We had headed for the exit and then had come back to my chair. The worst thing was when she picked out two hapless little kids and had her puppy "guide" them through the obstacles. Remember this was a puppy, a cute little six month old black lab puppy who had behaved flawlessly, despite long ear splitting whistles of very high frequency feed back. Now I am glad to go and speak to school kids. I have even shared lunch in the cafeteria in my time; but this debacle was too much. When it was my time to speak, I congratulated the kids on how brave they were and told them that blindness was normal for me. That ended my time. It ended the whole assembly As I said before, I'm glad to speak at schools, but next time, I'll only address an assembly if I am invited by the school principle or other administrator. Kids are so much smarter than adult puppy raisers. That's why I liked it better when it was a 4-h project. </span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>