Hi my name is Jill Brondolo.
And I work at Florida Atlantic University in the Office for Students with Disabilities.
And this is Lucy.
She’s my guide dog.
She’s a service animal but more specifically she’s a guide dog.
And for someone who is blind or visually impaired.
And she is from Southeastern Guide Dog.
The services that Lucy performs as a guide dog is primarily most of her commands are
find and follow commands.
And she can find such things as doors, curbs.
And she can find chair.
She can find stairs when there’s stairs up or stairs down.
She can find escalators, find elevators.
And so those are a lot of the basics commands for mobility that she’s trained to do.
Having a guide dog really is life-changing.
It’s a really good, secure feeling of never being alone.
It gives me more confidence in traveling independently.
And I was formerly a white cane user.
You see some blind people using a white cane and that was really good.
I had great independence with that.
But just kind of working together as a team is really just kind of a fun and exciting
endeavor for me now.
And I’ve had Lucy for about three months.
So it’s just constantly building that relationship.
It’s working together as a team.
It’s important to know when you meet a guide dog that they’re working.
They’re performing a service for a person with a disability, so mainly to not distract
them.
I know it’s very tempting to want to pet them and interact with them.
Of course the dog really would like that interaction too because they are a dog.
They want to play.
So helping them to stay focused so they’re obedient to the person that they’re serving
is really important.
Also to know that they wear a harness and as you can see she’s wearing this harness
now.
And when the person has the harness in hand that means that they’re working.
Or when I take the harness off then she knows that she can relax and just be a dog.
So there are a lot of times that at home she gets to play.
So it’s not all work for her.
So she has a good balanced life in that aspect.
A lot of people have a lot of different reactions to Lucy.
Some people seem to be afraid right from the start and they kind of back off.
And then some get so overexcited where they just really want to play with her and pet
her.
And then a lot of people will just ask me questions and I really like that response
most when people are inquisitive about her and what it means to have a guide dog.
Because I like to be able to educate people about what it means to have a guide dog and
what is it like having a vision impairment.
So I like those types of reactions, somewhere in the middle ground.
In the process of getting a guide dog I had to have orientation and mobility training
with a white cane.
So I had to have really good mobility skills and be able to cross streets and navigate
public transportation.
So I did that for about a year, that training, and then I went through the application process
at Southeastern Guide Dog School in Florida.
And then they reviewed to see if I would be a good candidate for a guide dog, and they
thought I was.
So then I had to go to their school and train with Lucy for a month there on their campus.
Initially to train a guide dog, when they’re first born, in about 3 or 4 months they get
placed with a foster family, and they’re called puppy raisers.
They stay with the puppy raisers for about a year before the dogs then return back to
the school for their formal guide dog trainer.
That’s with their trainer where they learn all the formal commands of being a guide dog.
So they do that at the school for about 6 months.
So Lucy was about 20 months old when I got her.
And most of the dogs they’re around the age of 2 when they are placed with the person
that they’re gonna be serving.
So when Lucy’s with me at work she is primarily in what’s called the down position, and
she lays, she’s trained to lay down by my feet and off to the side.
And then when I’m in public restaurants and public places she’ll go down under the
table in front of my feet.
So a lot of times when she’s in harness if she’s stationery she’ll be laying down
in this position.
When we walk and she is in the heel command and I’m working her as we’re walking she’s
trained to walk on my left side.
So she’ll always be in harness on the left side.
Lucy now she’s in the stand position and this is the position when we’re getting
ready to work and walk and move forward.
And this is her harness and when I’m holding the harness in my hand then she knows that
she’s working.
And this leash is the correction leash.
And this leash is for if I need to make a correction to her if she’s off course or
just needs to be corrected on something that she’s doing.
So then she’s just in the position ready to walk and “forward” would be the next
command to proceed forward.
And she knows several commands such as, she can do sit, stand, forward, she can go right,
left, right about, would be so she knows to turn around.
And many of her commands are to find commands.
Find and follow.
Like for example, she’ll find the curb, or find the stairs, find the door.
If I go into a classroom or an area where there’s seating and I tell her to find the
chair.
She knows that she will walk forward to a chair and rest her chin on that chair and
then I would know that’s where to sit.
And then she can follow.
If I want her to follow a sighted person and go what’s called sighted guide, I will just
hold the correction leash, and I’ll put down the harness and then she will follow
the sighted person.
So she’s also trained to follow people.