MINDSET-MASTERS

Mindset Masters I am mostly blind with some useful vision as long as I am very close to whatever I am trying to see. I do not see well enough to drive or to use the computer without adaptations. Indeed, I need to adapt almost everything I do as compared with how a fully sighted person lives. Some years ago, I worked in a city and held a job that required me to travel into unfamiliar neighborhoods frequently. Even though I navigated efficiently with the help of a long white cane, I felt a dog would give me the added assistance I needed. Did I go to a training school, as most (sane?) blind people do? NO, I chose to train my own dog from a puppy. Growing puppies go through a couple of troubling seasons called “fear imprint stages.” When the fear stage comes on, things that never bothered the dog as of yesterday suddenly elicit terror. Imagine being blind, and at the other end of the leash is the puppy who will become your eyes – if she makes it. There is much more at stake than a typical pet being afraid of something you can control. Most puppies raised and trained in the various schools flunk out before being placed with their blind person. As an apartment renter, I was allowed to have a service dog in training, under the law: however, if she “dropped out” by failing to do her job well, I could not keep her. Months of training would be “down the tubes” if she flunked, and I would lose her as a companion and helper. We had spent every waking and sleeping moment together since I took the wriggling 9-­‐week-­‐old Thunder from her mother’s side. She simply HAD to excel. Period. And in particular, she needed to be able to go on public transportation 162