Guidelines
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Lend a paw for Guide Dog Appeal
It's that time of the year again; we're calling for all paws on deck to collect for the 2004 Guide Dog Appeal.
We need at least 5,000 volunteers nationwide from Friday 2 April to Sunday 4 April to help collect donations for the street appeal.
If you have two hours or more free to collect in your area over that weekend, please phone 0800 Dog Day (0800 364 329) or volunteer online at www.rnzfb.org.nz.
Your help is invaluable. Guide Dog Services receives no government funding, relying on community support to cover the $22,500 it costs to breed, raise, train and match a guide dog.
Champions of negotiation
Paul Hutcheson's job is demanding. Working for the Employment Relations Service, as a private trainer and as a part-time university lecturer, he may often travel in one week to five different cities around New Zealand, mediating both personal grievance disputes between employees and their employers, and national industrial collective negotiations.
Journeying to places you've never been before can be stressful for most people, especially when trying to get to a meeting on time. Paul just takes that in his stride, along with the other challenging aspects of his work.
Totally blind, Paul was matched with guide dog Jessie, a black and tan german shepherd, six years ago. He says she now understands a vocabulary of around 300 words and easily knows the difference between a coffee bar and a bakery. "Jessie's wonderful in complex environments, she likes the stimulus and the challenge", says Paul. "She loves Queen Street in Auckland!"
Prior to being matched with Jessie, Paul used a cane to get around and says that she makes travelling in his job so much easier.
"I know it sounds clichéd, but working with her has really made a huge difference to my mobility."
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Old world now new world
Tim and Fay Stafford, recent arrivals to the Foundation, worked at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) in the UK for around 20 years and have been married for 16 years. Their various jobs in the GDBA included kennel manager, mobility instructor, education and staff training and quality assurance.
Tim is now the central Auckland guide dog O and M instructor and Fay is the Guide Dog Services training and education assistant. Fay is currently teaching cadets from Taiwan, Brazil and New Zealand.
Fay and Tim visited New Zealand for a holiday about five years ago. Lovers of the great outdoors, they enjoyed this country so much on their six-week trip that they kept an eye on the International Federation website for New Zealand employment opportunities and arrived three months ago with three-year contracts.
In the UK, the GDBA is a separate charity from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB). It has 5,000 working guide dogs and has its own three-year cadet training programme, called an apprenticeship.
Fay says there was never a shortage of people interested in becoming guide dog instructors but choosing the right candidates for the programme was harder. To be a good instructor, you need to build confident relationships with both dogs and people. Few candidates have good skills with both of them. "Now the UK GDBA does a three-day interview process. A lot of people have never met a blind person and are unsure what to do, but that is something that's readily teachable," says Fay.
Aside from the contrast in the scale of services, Tim and Fay have noticed other differences.
"The working environment here for the dogs is very different," Tim says. "In the UK, with a population of 60 million, the cities are much busier and the dogs have to be well trained in obstacle avoidance.
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"The footpaths are narrow, and if you step out onto the road you're history. On the other hand, the urban environments there are much better set up for people with disabilities. Accessibility is good.
"Here, the dogs have to use their own initiative and problem-solving skills because the environments they face are inconsistent."
Fay continues, "Dogs here often encounter different physical environments during the one outing--grass, fields, pavements, shops, etc, with rural and urban features being quite mixed. The kerbs are erratic and accessibility features, such as tactile paving, are also not common."
Tim has noticed that people here are less used to seeing guide dogs out and about. For instance, drivers don't readily give way. "It's survival of the fittest," he says, "even at the pedestrian crossings."
For Fay, it's pet dogs in this country that are more aggressive than she's used to. She, too, finds crossing our wide roads a little daunting--even though the traffic is less dense.
Despite those environmental differences, Tim and Fay say that a lot of the principles are very similar in the way guide dogs are trained here and in the UK. They're very pleased to bring their experience to New Zealand and be a part of Guide Dog Services.
Kia ora "Pochitama"
This is the story of how New Zealand guide dog team Sue Harris and Edward came to be seen in millions of Japanese homes.
Out of the blue, a phone call from a Gold Coast television production company came to the Foundation. "Hi," the woman said, "we've been reading your guide dog stories on the internet and we want to put one of your teams on Japan's highest rating animal programme, Pochitama. They'll be filming in New Zealand next week--can you find someone for us to interview?"
The Foundation always rises to the occasion when a challenge
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presents itself, so instantly we replied, "of course!"
Pochitama had already screened stories about Japanese labrador and german shepherd guide dog teams, so we offered to find them a more unusual guide dog team. Cue Sue, a Foundation member and volunteer, and Edward, a slightly larger than average white standard poodle. We knew they'd be a hit on the show because Sue's a television veteran and Edward (who is just a little vain) loves the camera.
Said Sue, "Edward always attracts attention because of his size and stature. I've even had people mistake him for a sheep before! I'm really looking forward to telling people how intelligent and capable Edward is and shaking up some of those prejudices about poodles being too poncy to be good working dogs." Edward didn't say anything, but his expression echoed Sue's words exactly.
Eight days later the crew were in New Zealand. A van pulled up outside Sue's house and we watched the director, cameraman, sound operator, production assistant and the translator pile out. After introductions, Sue told the director about herself and Edward while Edward held court and regally accepted the crew's compliments and praise.
With production details finalised, the crew started by filming Sue working around the house and grooming Edward.
Then the entourage set off for the mall with Sue and Edward leading the way and the crew following behind, like a surreal version of the Pied Piper.
On the bus and in the shops the spectacle continued, with the crew manoeuvring around to capture shots, sprinting down aisles to film the next sequence and recording voiceovers in both English and Japanese.
Then as suddenly as it had started, the filming had finished, the whirlwind departed and we were left holding small gifts from the crew and a donation to the Foundation for our time.