Our first "Drop Off"

Friday March 24th – This morning before class David Markham, the breeding department manager came and found us. He wanted us to be able to see a couple of their breeders who where on the campus for boarding. GDV is one of the schools in the International Cooperative Breeding Group. Schools trade breeding stock to improve the genetic pool for Guide dog schools around the world. In fact GDV has some semen from our school (Jenner?) and has sent semen from some of their stud dogs to us. David wants Susan and I to see their breeding stock during the months we are here. This way we can get a brief glance at the temperament and conformation of the dogs at GDV. Marina, are you reading this? Today we met Davey, a 6 yr old active stud dog who is producing very well for GDV. He is a small to medium sized yellow lab with a very sweet, soft demeanor. We also met retried breeders Samson age 10 and Brood bitch, Fudge who is 11. Samson was a tiny male with a spunky personality who had just been neutered last month. Fudge was soft and shy, looking somewhat overwhelmed to be back at the breeding center, until Samson started flirting with her! It was fun to finally get to play with some dogs.

This morning we covered more low vision topics including falls, why they happen and how to modify the environment to avoid them. We also covered low vision aids such as the monocular, UV shields, and the video telescope.

It was an exciting afternoon! Jhaneen decided since we were all doing so well using the simulators that we were up to a bit of a challenge. We broke into pairs using the low vision simulators. I wore diabetic retinopathy and was paired with Simone who had glaucoma. Susan had cataracts and worked with Laura who had macular degeneration. It was sort of like being on “the Amazing Race” each team got dropped off at a different bus stop. Our directions (written in large print) stated to take the bus to a certain town. Once there find the train station and take the train to another town. The final leg was to find the tram station and ride the tram back into Kew and locate the café we were meeting at. We were given the bus/train/tram passes at the beginning so all we had to do was find each location. We had ID canes to use if we wanted to and I think we all used them the whole time. Having that cane in the hand was a bit like a security blanket! It also helped in parting the crowds at a couple of locations. Simone and I had a good time; we asked a lot of people a lot of questions and managed not to get lost. The whole thing took us about 1.5 hours, and we were pretty tired at the end. It was a hot day and the exercise took a lot of mental concentration.

Each time we go into the community to practice with the simulators we go to a different area. It’s exciting and frustrating at the same time. On one hand we are getting a look around the suburbs of Melbourne during class time. On the other, we miss a lot because we have low vision! Once in a while I actually can identify a store I would like to go to and Susan and I plan to hit these places this weekend.

Because we had done so well this week we got off a little early. We went back to the dorm which was like a ghost town. Students at the center go home on the weekend as does the staff, so Sue and I have the place to ourselves. We decided to go the nearby mall and get a massage at a little walk in place much like the ones they have in Singapore. The massage felt great and we poked around the Mall for awhile before deciding to head back home. Stopped at the grocery store to stock up on snacks and had a relaxing evening watching TV. This is the first time either of us have watched TV since we left the States!