So you think you have problems
This might just change your mind.
Recently I attended a day run by Guide
Dogs for
the Blind Association and heard many interesting speakers. The person who most
impressed me was a Guide Dog Trainer, who teaches both the dog and the blind
person. One particular story will live with me for ever. This trainer told of
his most difficult case to date and how when the dog and person team first went
solo he admitted tears were streaming down his face.
He had had a particularly difficult job to do with a man who was Afro-Caribbean and could only talk in pidgin English. I say 'talk' advisedly, as this man was not only blind but deaf and dumb. To communicate he signed out the letters for the words on his hand.
Just for a minute imagine the task the trainer had in making this man understand what he had to do with the guide dog. He couldn't give the normal vocal commands and so a set of hand signals had to be devised. I asked the trainer how long it had taken to train the man and dog team and was told three months. I was envisaging about a year. The normal training time for the man and dog team is about a month.
I so admired this man. He had come into the Guide Dogs Association primarily because of the experience he had gained being a carer for his younger brother. This brother was looked after by the trainer at the age of eight, because his family were poor and needed the money brought into the home from both his mother and father which made it necessary for him to be responsible for his brother. He recalled the sense of relief he had when his brother finally was given a guide dog and the difference he noticed in his brother when he was given his freedom and independence because of his dog. He changed from being an introverted young man into a confident and competent adult.
Now how do your problems seem?
