Guidelines
- Poodle puppies at the GDS breeding centre
- Bayleys events
- Matching meeting feedback
- Chas and Fatima
- Sheryl Davis - holding the fort
- GDS change
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Tena kotou katoa aku hoa. One of the areas Guide Dog Services (GDS) will be focussing on in 2005-2006 will be 'building relationships'. A whole host of people and organisations support the service - from puppy walkers, breeding stock guardians and corporate sponsors through to consultants at Massey University and the Manukau City Council. We also want to recognise the role consumer groups and RNZFB community committees can play. Besides crucial face-to-face meetings with decision-makers, we'll be enhancing the already high profile GDS has in the community.
Joe Walker
Poodle puppies at the GDS breeding centre
Standard Poodle guide dogs are an uncommon sight as only a few poodles are matched each year.
A litter of nine pups from brood bitch Thea was born in early May at the breeding centre. It was her first litter and five of the pups are now being puppy walked in Auckland. For each of the puppy walkers, having a Standard Poodle is a first.
Quanda is, however, Angela Moore's second guide dog puppy. A midwife by training, she says "I see the puppies as a project, rather than getting too attached.
"I used to feel uncomfortable around dogs as I've always been a cat person and had cats and kittens from the SPCA, so it's been a great experience to have the RNZFB's GDS on hand whenever I need some advice. I'm a lot more confident now with dogs."
Angela's hoping that some of her early lessons with her Boxer puppy Zeta won't need to be repeated. Such as the time when Zeta got her head stuck in the garden wall and the fire department had to be called to bash the wall down and free her!
Paula Gemmell, Puppy Development Manager at GDS, has the job of placing pups with their walkers and following through with their progress.
"There's a demand for poodles," she says, "but because their
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success rate is lower than that of Labradors, they need really good, experienced homes to be puppy walked in."
Angela has been prepared for the likelihood that Quanda will be a fussy eater. "Labs will do anything for food," she says, "but Zeta was fussy. There's an instruction manual we abide by. It says 10 minutes for dinner, so that's what she'll get."
Bayleys events
Bayleys offices nationwide have continued to find creative ways to raise money in support of Guide Dog Services and reach that tantalising $1 million mark. We're almost there, with significant contributions in recent months from gala auctions.
Hawkes Bay's Mission Winery raised $20,000, aided by seven spontaneous items that came from the floor, including a pair of shoes from mountaineer Mark Inglis that fetched $500. Mark, who lost both his legs in an earlier climbing accident, had to make his way back home to Christchurch on his plastic feet! A chewed collection bucket lid from guide dog Samba, called 'Chewing Life Over', sold from the official auction list for $750.
The Wellington office raised $17,000 with an affordable art auction and Bayleys Tauranga raised $21,000 at the Mills Reef Winery in the same fashion.
Other events north and south have included golf days, fairs and mufti days at local schools and special release wine promotions. Puppies and their walkers were present at national field days in the Waikato, where Joe Walker also acted as a guest speaker.
Matching meeting feedback
Every six months guide dogs graduate into their new lives. Having passed all the tests as puppies and guide-dogs-in-training, the last big hurdle is making a successful one-to-one relationship with a blind, deafblind or vision-impaired handler. Who will they spend their working lives with? There's an air of expectation and excitement as staff from around the country arrive at the Guide Dog Centre in Auckland for the two-week matching meeting.
"It's like the culmination of everything we've put together through the cycle of breeding, puppy walking and training," says Training and Production Manager Scott Bruce.
Two weeks may seem like a lengthy process but, as Scott points out, "Matching is so critical. If we get it wrong there are significant implications for both the person and the dog."
Happily, mismatches are a rare occurrence. Matching meetings have taken place for more than 10 years at the centre and are now
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a fine art. The trainers know their dogs well, and instructors know the members. "It's a matter of bringing the two sets of knowledge together and weighing up the pros and cons of each potential match," says Scott. "We like to think we've got a good process going, particularly with so many people and dogs involved."
Full descriptions of the dogs and their attributes are put on the table to be chewed over, videos of the dogs and members are watched and the dogs put through their paces out on the street. Instructors provide videos of the members on the waiting list for a guide dog, along with information about their specific needs and working environments, to give the best possible chance of a good match. Intuition also plays a part, as the essence of a successful match is good chemistry. That, as Scott says can be difficult to define.
"There's a certain amount of gut instinct involved and the vast experience of the GDS team goes a long way to making this work."
During the last matching meeting in May, 26 dogs were matched with new handlers. Some were first-time applicants. Others on the priority waiting list needed a replacement dog following a retirement or death of their current one. The 26 graduates are now eagerly sniffing out the lay of the land in their new homes and beginning their working lives with their new handlers.
Chas and Fatima
Chas and Fatima clicked immediately the first time they were introduced. Since then they have become steadfast friends.
Chas, a three-year-old golden retriever, and Fatima Akehurst have just finished their guide dog training programme.
At first Fatima was unsure about letting Chas take charge at night and on public transport, until they learnt to understand each other and to bond. But Fatima says Chas was very confident the whole time. "Now I'm totally OK," she says of letting Chas do his job.
As a child Fatima noticed that her night vision was deteriorating but didn't realise there was anything out of the ordinary. Now she has no sight in her left eye and five degrees of central vision in her
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right eye. "Chas is a great comfort to me, knowing he'll be there when I lose my sight completely," Fatima says.
Fatima works part time as a Pacific Services Coordinator at the RNZFB, and also liaises between RNZFB staff and Pacific Island members during orientation and mobility and adaptive daily living sessions.
Fatima travelled to Australia, the United States and Tonga before Chas was part of her life. But having a guide dog has opened up new worlds on a daily basis, such as visiting shopping malls.
Sheryl Davis - holding the fort
From part-time secretary to full-time Administration Services Manager, Sheryl Davis has seen a lot of guide dogs and managers come and go over her 23 years with Guide Dog Services (GDS).
In 1982, when she started working for manager Barry Hatton, GDS only trained between three and seven teams a year. Today, Sheryl prepares and manages the entire budget for GDS, manages six staff, supports all 54 GDS staff, all 25 vehicles, and general maintenance of all guide dog properties.
Joe Walker, who is very much an ideas person, says he couldn't do his job without Sheryl. He says, "She makes others' visions work, by not only managing what's available but seeking opportunities and using her initiative."
That drive and initiative have rubbed off on the 300 or so WINZ and Probation Services clients who have been on work placements at GDS. The majority of WINZ people have been unemployed for at least four years and, after six months at GDS, most find full-time work.
"Ninety per cent have been really good," says Sheryl, "and we've even employed some of them afterwards."
What keeps Sheryl motivated is that a rarely week goes by without an exciting incident or challenge, despite being tucked away in her office with the paperwork.
GDS change
Ian Cox left the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind's employ effectively 5 April 2005. His position - Guide Dog Services International Relations/Field Services Manager and Guide Dog Orientation and Mobility Instructor - was disestablished as the result of a restructuring of the RNZFB's Guide Dog division, and he was subsequently made redundant. He had been with the Foundation since 1988 and had served in a range of staff and management positions.
The Foundation acknowledges with appreciation Ian's substantial contribution to Guide Dog Services over many years.