My first visit to GDB to meet my new friend

Yesterday, I decided to make my second "non-rev adventure" since I have been working for US Airways. I decided to make a trip up to San Francisco International Airport and then continued on the Marin Airporter (note: portions of site not blind friendly) to San Rafael, CA. My final destination, the campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind. I was going up there to meet my best friend who is currently going through a 3-week "retrain" course where she will obtain a new guide dog. For the past couple of months, I have been my best friend's "guide" in many situations. All it takes is some skill, patience and a good elbow. But after she gets back from GDB, my elbow will be pretty much retired.

There are two training paths at GDB. The full training path for someone who has never had a guide dog before. This is a 4-week class. There is also the retrain course where those who have had a dog in the past can sharpen their skills and receive their new dog. In the case of my friend, she had a dog in the past from Leader Dogs who eventually had to be retired. She is really looking forward to her new dog.

The day that the GDB student looks forward to is "Dog Day" (or sometimes called "D-Day"). This is the day they are introduced to their new guide dog. For a retrain, this is usually later in the day of the first day. This is after some final touch-up work with "Juno", an empty harness that is guided by an instructor to put the students through various situations that could come up. On D-Day, my friend was introduced to her new guide dog Erica. Erica is a female yellow lab who (I believe) was raised in Arizona.

I arrived at GDB just before noon and was greeted by the instructor on duty at the time. I was given the quick 5-cent tour of the dorm area and led to my friend's dorm room. They were under the impression that I may be coming but was not sure. When you work for an airline and you fly space-available, you only travel if there is room on the plane after all paying customers have been handled. The day before I left, it showed my flight being oversold. Fortunately, by the morning, there were some canceled reservations and eventually some "no-shows" at the gate which resulted in more seats being available. For a flight that was supposedly at one time oversold, it left with empty seats.

My friend answered the door after apparently a late sleep-in (I tried calling her on the way up to advise that I was in SFO and I was on the way). I gave her a big hug but I was also focused on Erica. She was in a tie-down area next to the bed. The tie-down area consists of a rug (the rest of the dorm room has no carpeting) and about a 4-foot cable attached to the wall. This is where the guide dog is secured at night and at other times since it is very possible that dorm room doors can be opened up and dogs, the creatures they are, are subject to "bolt". The tie-downs are there for the protection of the dog and the person who are working for.

I was then introduced to my friend's dorm-mate. A local girl from Berkeley who was getting a new dog. Her new dog Alberta is a female golden retriever. We all then closed the doors of the dorm and allowed Erica and Alberta to play. It was fun to watch them playing over a bone. Erica is definitely the dominant one. There were a lot of smiles in that room that day. It is very important that guide dogs have "off-duty" time. Even though us in the sighted world may see them as serious service animals (for which they are), they also recreate like other dogs do. But when the harness comes on, it's time to start working.

The students of this GDB class are being given a new design of harness (see page 2 of the PDF), which I have been told is the first class to receive this new design harness. The main feature of the new design is a plastic disconnect clamp where you push both plastic pieces together to disconnect the strap. This replaces the old "belt buckle" style of fastener. The new design harness seems to also do a lot better in the reflection department which will make the harness much more visible at night. The handle also detatches from the harness so the user of the dog can keep the dog "in harness" but take the handle off for long periods of sitting (such as working at a desk or airline travel).

The saddest point of the day was when I had to leave GDB to return to SFO to get my flight going home. I was looking at an 8PM flight through Las Vegas to come back to Phoenix and was planning to call into the Marlaina show on ACB Radio to talk a little about the day. I decided to take a 6:15PM flight directly to Phoenix and I called into the show during a time which I thought was "open forum" but she still had a guest on (my cellphone was dying and I did not want to spend a lot of time on Dial-A-Stream). I did talk very fast about it but she really wanted to talk about the subject. I was embarrassed. I still somewhat kick myself for that. Oh well.. I just wanted everyone to know what a great day I had. I returned home about 5 hours before I was thinking I would be home.

I spend a lot of time here exploring the world of blind-friendly electronic gadgets but I can tell that the best form of adaptive technology is not even technology, it is life. My friend graduates on March 10. I really hope I will be able to get the time off to be there. If I don't make it, I will be there in spirit.