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• Seeing Eye Dogs
• Posted: 2008-03-10 07:27:57 By Jamie W
• Hey everybody, I am Jamie. I am a 19 year old male in San Jose, CA living with retinitis pigmentosa. For as long as I can remember I have always had trouble with field vision and night blindness. Now that I am 19, I am starting to drive, with my doctors permission. Obviously, I cannot drive at night. But my question is.... In San Jose, where is a good place to go for seeing eye dogs, and do you think I would be a good candidate for one? Thank you all.

• Re: Seeing Eye Dogs
• Posted: 2008-03-10 17:11:23 By Darran Z
• Hey Jamie,
  
  You may run into problems getting a guide dog if you are still driving. I woudln't recommend driving even with RP. You really don't know what you are missing.
  
  The criteria for a guide dog is the same no matter where you get a dog. That is that you are legally blind, whether it be 20/200 or worse in the best corrected eye or less than 20 degrees of visual field in the better eye. So having said this, you'd likely qualify if you are legally blind with less than 20 degrees.
  
  Where you obtain a guide dog doesn't matter. The schools take clients from all over the place as they pay for everything including airfare to the school and 4 weeks of training and sending you and the dog home. But each school has different "perks". By this, I mean some schools will reimburse you for any vet services required. Others do not. But many have Graduate Services in which guide you for all you need.
  
  So having said this, California has several schools, including the largest in the Nation, Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael. They also have a campus in Oregon so I'm familiar with their program. There is Guide Dogs of Palm Springs (I think) and Guide dogs of the Desert in California. There is one other near Fresno I think as well.
  
  Google Guide Dog Schools and you should come up with a list of most of them. There are about 20 or so around the Country. I would recommend you contact each of them that seem appealing to your needs and ask questions. Often, depending how they respond, dictates which school you use. That was very much the case for me.
  
  Darran

• Re: Seeing Eye Dogs
• Posted: 2008-03-17 16:38:08 By Margaret M
• Hello,
  
  My son has RP and doesn't qualify for a Guide Dog yet but we have been talking to Guide Dogs in San Rafael about him getting a companion dog from their program. If they have a dog that doesn't work out as a Guide Dog they will try to place them as a K-9 Buddy. You may be too old for a K-9 Buddy but you can certainly ask. Everyone I have spoken to at Guide Dogs has been very helpful, friendly and compasionate. They are coming to our house in 2 weeks to bring a dog to see how my son gets along with one of their dogs. We can hardly wait.
  
  Margaret