{"id":649,"date":"2010-04-30T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2024-11-23T01:07:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T01:07:03","slug":"mike-and-jacksan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/mike-and-jacksan\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike et Jacksan ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a piece I wrote about 4 years ago shortly after receiving my BEST FRIEND JACKSAN! On this special day dedicated to this special animal, all I can say is that, today I feel even more than when I wrote this piece, that Jacksan is the best thing that ever happened to me as a blind person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have experienced a few moments in my life that I know I will reflect on when I am old. These include the day I met my wife, the days my children were born, the day I gave my life back to THE ONE that gave his life for me, and the day I met Jacksan and immediately fell in love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you enjoy the article and as you will see this is a gift that I was given that I could never ever repay!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike And Jacksan?
By Mike Calvo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust doesn\u2019t come easy to a blind person. We grow up fighting to be accepted as \u201cnormal\u201d human beings. Although I was cane-trained around age eight, I refused to even use a cane in grammar school and high school because the cane made me \u201cdifferent.\u201d I associated canes with those \u201cblind people\u201d and I knew I wasn\u2019t one of them. Dogs were even worse in my mind. The whole image of blind people being led around by some animal was repugnant to me. It made them seem so different \u2013 so disabled \u2013 and I was damn sure I wasn\u2019t going to be one of \u201cthose people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I expect most teenagers fear being different but for a blind kid that fear is even more acute. And so, I made my choices based on what would make me seem more normal \u2013 more like all those sighted people. I made some pretty limiting choices as a result.
Strangely enough as I grew up, a lot of the blind people I knew and admired had dogs, but I had lots of good reasons for why a dog wasn\u2019t for me. I didn\u2019t want the responsibility of a dog. I couldn\u2019t give up the time necessary to train with a dog. I could get around just fine with my cane and I didn\u2019t have to feed it. I didn\u2019t know how a dog would work with my family; etc. etc. What I was really saying, of course, was that I was afraid to put my trust in a dog. So, I built my life around making do with my cane and soliciting the help of strangers. I\u2019ve traveled the world that way, taking trains, planes, and taxis. Those around me thought of me as unrestricted \u2013 able to do most everything I wanted to do. And while the cane worked, I can remember many times were keeping my concentration on the cane, my surroundings, and just trying to enjoy a walk were impossible. Then I visited a blind couple in Minneapolis and my life changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent the weekend at my friends\u2019 home and during dinner they suggested we go to their church for Sunday service. I said, \u201cGreat,\u201d thinking we would grab a taxi and motor the two miles or so from their house to the church. But my friends grabbed their coats and harnessed their dogs and headed out the door. We were walking \u2013 almost running. I had to hustle to keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That walk of about two miles through the suburbs, crossing busy streets, taking all manner of turns, was exhilarating. I was out there in the world, going someplace I didn\u2019t know, with two other blind folks and a couple of dogs. If anything, my cane slowed me down. But we got there. It was like being chained and suddenly having the chains cast off. I was free.
Sitting there in church, I did some serious soul-searching, trusting that God would show me the truth. I realized that my fear and arrogance were only hurting me. I could open this door anytime I was ready. Freedom to go wherever I wanted by myself was there if I could only put my trust in a guide dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CEO of Serotek, the company that designed and markets technologies for the visually impaired, my natural course of action was to plug my Key into my friend\u2019s computer and do some instant research on guide dogs. The search engine turned up a list of sixteen guide dog schools, fourteen of which had web sites. I was in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research showed them all to be top quality organizations. For a variety of reasons I zeroed in on two: Pilot Dogs Incorporated of Columbus, Ohio and Southeastern Guide Dogs, Incorporated in Palmetto, Florida. Finally I settled on Southeastern Guide Dogs. I had met the trainers of Southeastern at ACB in Las Vegas and liked them. And their proximity to my home in Orlando was also a big factor. They also had a slot open up for me that fit my busy schedule. I\u2019m sure that any choice would have been a good choice, but Southeastern Guide Dogs far exceeded my expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will let you see the details of the operation for yourself at\u00a0www.guidedogs.org<\/a>, the school\u2019s top notch, highly accessible and informative web site. Let me say that the accommodations were superb and the staff was excellent and extremely service oriented. The school\u2019s trainers served us and they couldn\u2019t have been more solicitous of our needs. The most frequently heard expression was, \u201cWhat can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were a class of ten from all walks of life. The twenty-six day program was intense. We were busy from 5:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with dogs leashed to us the entire time; yet the school was also able to give me space and time to attend to emergency business situations, if the need arose. The intense period is needed to allow dog and owner to bond and, quite frankly, to train newbies like me in the art of trusting our dogs to do some of our mobility thinking for us. It\u2019s not as easy as it sounds \u2013 especially for people like me who had long taken pride in our \u201cindependence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacksan, was named after JACK and SANdy Walsh. For over 14 years, they dedicated themselves to the raising of guide dogs for Southeastern. It is people like this that make system work and make beautiful animals like Jacksan available to people like me. Jacksan is a Vizla, a shorthaired Hungarian hunting dog. He is a marvelous animal, extremely well bred, cared for, and trained in the Southeastern system. My thanks to Libby Bagwell who loved Jacksan and raised him from a puppy to training age and to Karen Lappi, Jacksan\u2019s sponsor. He is young and still learning, but so too am I still learning. For twenty-six days we learned together and it is an experience so rich I won\u2019t try to describe it to you. You simply have to experience it for yourself. The day you suddenly realize that you do indeed trust this animal with your life is an epiphany \u2013 an awakening to freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it is not just a learning experience for Jacksan and me. Everyone around us has to learn as well. The first time home was a real challenge. My beautiful and loving wife and children had a very difficult time not treating Jacksan as a pet. But they did it and I\u2019m proud of them. I\u2019m still training people I meet on business trips and come in contact with in stores. They always want to talk to the dog; no one wants to talk to me any more. Jacksan\u2019s downside is that he doesn\u2019t look fierce as a German shepherd might so people want to reach out and pet him. And, puppy that he is, Jacksan isn\u2019t entirely blameless either. He does love to be loved. The solution is, of course, to give him lots of off-the-harness love time with me and an occasional pat from others, while keeping him fully on task when he\u2019s in harness. It\u2019s a discipline and once you establish your routine, easy enough to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started this essay trying to say what the guide dog experience means to me and I seem to have focused more on the how-to than the benefit. Let me tell you about the change in my life. I\u2019m totally blind and for the first time in my life my first thought is no longer about appearing \u201cnormal.\u201d I\u2019m finding the blind community that perhaps I thought of as simply customers are also now my friends. With my guide dog there isn\u2019t much a sighted person can do that I can\u2019t do, except maybe drive a car and that only because they haven\u2019t designed the controls so a guide animal can operate them. (I am joking of course.) However, I can walk through the airport and find my gate simply asking directions now and then or by following someone going my way instead of waiting for airline personnel to walk me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could easily take the light rail when I\u2019m in Minneapolis or the subway in New York. When you\u2019ve spent a lifetime plunking down twenties and fifties for taxis, public transportation is a real freedom. I am not saying that a cane isn\u2019t handy and that I didn\u2019t do these things before I got Jacksan, but, I can just go where I want to go, not just the places I\u2019ve learned. I no longer have to act independent. I really am independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I say to myself, \u201cWhy did you wait so long?\u201d And there really isn\u2019t a good answer. I just let my prejudices and fear take charge. I was afraid not to be in control \u2013 afraid to trust. Like so many fears, once faced, it vanished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Jacksan I\u2019m discovering a world I didn\u2019t believe in and I\u2019m discovering things about myself that I didn\u2019t know. I am more comfortable with myself because I am truly independent. I discovered that in a world full of barriers for blind people, sometimes, some of the biggest barriers are the ones we construct ourselves. Putting my faith in my little brown friend; trusting him to do what the marvelous people in the Southeastern Guide Dogs organization raised and trained him to do, has vanquished those barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the very biggest challenges in this process is that Jacksan is just for me. Most of my adult life I\u2019ve oriented myself towards doing and caring for others, like my family; but this I did for me. I had to come to grips with the fact that doing this for myself wasn\u2019t a selfish act, but like so many barrier eliminators, it made life easier for everyone around me.
There is a certain irony here. My company, Serotek, states its mission as \u201cAccessibility Anywhere\u201d and we deliver on that promise by providing tools to make the Internet and digital information systems accessible for blind people and people with motor skills difficulties. But for me, it is my guide dog Jacksan that completes the promise of Accessibility Anywhere. As a team we are virtually unstoppable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are blind or know someone who is blind that has yet to discover the freedom a guide dog brings, let me suggest that you contact Southeastern Guide Dogs or any of the other fine organizations around the country that perform this service. I guarantee it will change your life as it has mine.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voici un article que j'ai \u00e9crit il y a environ 4 ans, peu apr\u00e8s avoir re\u00e7u mon MEILLEUR AMI JACKSAN ! Sur ce...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[14,294,295,296],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-acb","tag-guidedogs-org","tag-pilot-dogs-inc","tag-southern-guide-dogs"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":38,"label":"Community"}],"post_tag":[{"value":14,"label":"ACB"},{"value":294,"label":"Guidedogs.org"},{"value":295,"label":"Pilot Dogs Inc"},{"value":296,"label":"Southern Guide Dogs"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mike Calvo","author_link":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/author\/mike-calvo\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":38,"name":"Community","slug":"community","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":21,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":38,"category_count":21,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Community","category_nicename":"community","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":14,"name":"ACB","slug":"acb","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":14,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":294,"name":"Guidedogs.org","slug":"guidedogs-org","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":294,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":295,"name":"Pilot Dogs Inc","slug":"pilot-dogs-inc","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":295,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":296,"name":"Southern Guide Dogs","slug":"southern-guide-dogs","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":296,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}