http://youtu.be/1VeLtUdmmqQ
“Gage, a male Doberman Pinscher from Locust Grove, Virginia, shows off his new skills as an SDAP Balance Dog. In making the transition from an unruly house pet to a 28 C.F.R., Subpart A ยง 35.104 and ADA compliant Service Dog,”
So if you shove him at the Need Help button, his weight will set off the button to get help on the phone. If you’re unable to walk, he can walk beside you. “Sit” may be a bit too complicated.
A well trained guide dog for the blind costs at least $40,000 to train – apparently they are not in demand as now several of the blind dog training non profits have expanded into guide dogs for autistic children.
I’m somewhat familiar with blind guide dogs having grown up with a blind father and attending meetings with blind adults discussing blind things. There are a number of competing non-profits competing for money, with varying amounts of sincerity to their purpose.
Take a look at this financial statement from one located in Michigan
http://www.leaderdog.org/documents/pdf/about/financials/Condensed-Web-Financials-11-12.pdf
They’re spending about $8 million a year on training ($1 million on G&A) – however they are sitting on $60 million on unspent funds they have been given in the past. That’s going to be one really nice headquarters building when they spend the money.
It gets even better in the audited statements. While they still owe $3 million on their $17 million building, they have $18 million “invested” in a tier 3 (High risk) hedge fund.
http://www.leaderdog.org/documents/pdf/about/financials/LDB_Audited-Statement_6-30-2012.pdf
Where do I send the check?
Send me an email and I’ll let you know where to send the checks, a couple hundred a month wouldn’t set you back too badly, right?
To clarify a bit, from the context of the video, the purpose of this dog is to react to a person who has balance problems and falls a lot. The dog is trained to be a mobile platform to give the person on the floor a way to pull themselves up off the floor.
One of the flaws here is the trainer is a rail thing young woman in good health with normal balance skills and the ability to jump right off the floor without any pressure on the dog. The dog has the strength to stand still and allow the human to push down on them, but only to a point.
Now take that dog and make the owner 300 pounds with very little muscle strength and some disease process that causes them to fall frequently and see how realistic this is. The cost of this dog and equipment would pay for someone to assist the person for a long time.
Where are all the Great Danes when you need one?
Denmark?
Great Danes are beautiful dogs.
But I have a soft spot for retired racing Greyhounds. We had one and she was our best friend.
parrott