Our family went to a retreat at a school for the blind this month and from what we understood, anyone with even a bit of sight might be denied a dog because I guess the temptation to lead the dog is too great.
Most "blind" people are not completely blind - they are visually impaired. What vision they do have might not be usable, but some might have a little bit of useful vision. It just all depends on the person. Plenty of visually impaired (non-completely blind) folks have guide dogs. Ppl have to go through intense training to learn how to use the dogs correctly and they also need to know how to use a white cane correctly (usually they know that before the dog, but can learn both at the same time in some cases).
Also, you must be 16 or 18 yrs old, depending on the organization, to get a seeing-eye dog.
Just FYI, "Seeing Eye dog" is a registered trademark of The Seeing Eye, a specific guide dog program in New Jersey. Only dogs from that school are Seeing Eye dogs. All others are guide dogs or dog guides.
If medical advances aren't made my daughter (whose vision is currently 4x worse than legally blind) will be completely without sight and if she could get used to a dog at a younger age - say 12 or 14 - I think it would be a wonderful thing for her.
Old dogs - and people - CAN learn new tricks, don't worry. She'll be fine with waiting to get a guide dog 'til she is old enough to be responsible enough for it. Besides, some folks have huge difficulties getting service animals into school with them.
Do any of you that have service dogs also have other dogs at home? I hear that's not uncommon (the harness means work, no harness means go be a goofy dog). If so, how does this work for you?
I don't - one is enough for me!!!
But I know others who do have one or more other dogs at home. Some programs do not give service animals to people who have other dogs at home (unless said dog is a retired service animal, in some cases).
There are three stages a service animal can be in:
Working - When the dog is harnessed/dressed and actively working (even if it doesn't look like he's working, i.e. sleeping under the table at a restaurant). He's on his very best public manners and should be "invisible" to others (i.e. if you forget that he is there, that's a job well done).
Off-Duty - When the dog is free to "just be a dog" and doesn't have any work that needs to be done at the moment. He acts like a housepet.
On Call - While this doesn't apply to all types of service animals, it does apply to many. It is when the dog is free to be a dog, but if their handler needs them to do something (i.e. retrieve something, alert to a sound or medical crisis, etc.), they get to work and do it before they go back to being a typical dog.