Guide Dog Readiness Checklist
Is your student or client ready for the guide dog lifestyle? This handy checklist can help determine if a person is a good candidate for working with a guide dog.
- Is the person motivated primarily by the goal of achieving independent mobility with a guide dog?
- Is the person prepared for a major commitment in order to be successful?
- Is the person prepared to commit to their role in the person/guide dog relationship in order to become a successful team?
- Do they understand that a guide dog requires care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year?
- Is the person prepared for the responsibility of caring for a guide dog over the long term?
- Is the person positive about forming a long-term relationship with a guide dog and living with the dog when it is off-duty?
- Does the person have any cognitive challenges that will impose limitations on developing and maintaining the leadership role with a guide dog?
- Will the person be able to comprehend and remember the skills and knowledge needed to be successful with a guide dog and apply them independently over the long term?
- Will the person be able to process sensory input and make decisions quickly enough while multi-tasking?
- Is the person emotionally stable so they can form a satisfactory long term working relationship with a guide dog and respond/attend to its physical and emotional needs?
- Does the person have the necessary level of maturity to be successful with a guide dog over the long term (younger clients)?
- Does the person have the necessary strength to manage an appropriately matched guide dog?
- Does the person have the necessary motor skills, range of motion, reflexes, flexibility, and coordination to work with a guide dog?
- Does the person have the capacity to walk for approximately 20 minutes or a total of a mile a day at a speed conducive to guide dog travel without experiencing cardiovascular stress, shortness of breath, fatigue, or undue muscle soreness? (A short rest break is acceptable).
- Does the person have the ability to maintain balance while negotiating curbs and steps, traveling over varied surfaces, managing the guide’s behavior, and executing the body movements required when completing turns and following a guide dog?
- Does the person have the ability to react quickly enough if the guide dog exhibits inappropriate behavior, makes directional changes, slows down/speeds up, or ceases/commences movement?
- Does the person have an understanding of the principles and practice of orientation both indoors and outdoors extending to route planning and execution?
- Has the person developed the kinesthetic, auditory, and time-distance skills in addition to spatial representation and non-tactile travel abilities to be dynamically oriented while working with a guide dog?
- Does the person have a minimum of three purposeful routes (to destinations) to enable a guide dog to maintain a safe and satisfactory standard of guiding performance and satisfy its physical and emotional needs?
- Does the person have the skills, knowledge, and experience to complete intersection analysis and understand traffic patterns to complete safe, independent street crossings?
- Is the person ‘dynamically oriented’ to the initial routes/destinations they intend to use immediately following their guide dog training program?
- Is the person legally blind in both eyes and require a primary mobility aid for safe, independent travel?
- Can the person use hearing, residual vision, or a combination of both to detect the locality and directional flow of traffic to enable safe street crossing decisions?
- Can the person receive and interpret sufficient kinesthetic, proprioceptive, and haptic input to follow, manage, and support a guide dog as well as interpret its movements and behavior?
- Can the person provide a guide dog with safe and hygienic accommodation at home and at work?
- Are there other people or dogs/pets in the person's environment that could pose a safety risk to a guide dog either physically and/or emotionally?
- Does the person plan to remain living at their current address for a minimum of six months following their guide dog training?
- Does the person have the financial means to support a guide dog?
- Does the person understand their learning style, strengths, and challenges?
- Can the person self-advocate and communicate information to instructional staff to facilitate their learning?
- Does the person have experience with their preferred learning media and can use it with minimal assistance to access supporting educational materials?
- Can the person function independently away from home in a new environment with a minimum of assistance, e.g. ADLs and medical needs?
- Can the person follow a timetable, be on time to lessons/appointments, and implement instructions?
- Will the person be successful in a group setting?
- Has the person discussed their guide dog mobility goal with their support and social network?
- Is the person prepared and capable of communicating with and directing others in order to foster appropriate interactions with a guide dog and to maintain an environment that preserves its training, health, and positive behavior?
- Has the person addressed and resolved any issues indicating concern, confusion, or a lack of support for a guide dog within their social network which may impose challenges and limitations?
- Is the person aware and have they considered the increase in public attention, admiration, and scrutiny that will result from being accompanied by a guide dog and are they overall positive about this prospect?
- Does the person understand the roles of the guide dog handler and the guide dog within a mobility context?
- Does the person understand that guide dogs are indeed dogs and their behaviors are influenced by their environment, instincts, and senses as well as formal training?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require occasional management to deal with distracted behavior and to redirect its attention back on guide work?
- Does the person understand that dogs are social animals and respond favorably to human leadership?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require regular energy expenditure opportunities both in and out of guide work?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require regular feeding and watering?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require regular leash-relieving opportunities in all types of weather conditions?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require regular grooming and shed hair?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog will require routine veterinary care and sometimes unplanned vet care being unable to work until it recovers?
- Does the person understand that a guide dog has a finite working life and the process of retirement and subsequent retraining can be emotionally difficult?