I currently have a yellow Labrador that is my second guide dog. I got my first the year before I went to college at the University of kentucky. i have absolutely loved having both my dogs. It has made a huge difference in my life. I felt so much s safer with a dog than I would have with just my cane. My first dog also saved my life once when we were crossing a street. Someone ran the red light, and they were literally going so fast that I would never have been able to react in time and they would not have been able to stop. thankfully my dog saw the car coming and stopped me in the middle of the street so that I didn’t get hit. Both my dogs have been huge blessings to me. Also, I just love dogs anyway, so the companionship aspect of it has been huge for me.
OK, being a little more objective, here’s some pros and cons from a guide dog handler of 17 years.
Pros
- at least for me, a dog makes me feel safer than just using a cane when in sketchy areas or areas I’m not familiar with. I just feel like I look like less of a victim with a dog vs. a cane
- companionship. My dogs have been my best friends and definitely helped with the loneliness when I was living alone
- approachability. People in general react much more friendly to me with my dog vs. the cane, which sometimes makes people uncomfortable.
- finding things. The dog is sometimes able to find things like doors or anything else he’s been taught to target much better than I can with a cane, especially if I’m less familiar with the area
- intelligent disobedience. Like I described in my story about crossing the road, the dog can sometimes save your butt if you or someone else makes an error. this is not something to rely on, meaning you still need to be calling those crossings correctly yourself, but when there is a mistake, sometimes the dog can save your life.
- speed. I don’t know if this is true of everyone, but I find that I walk much more quickly once I’ve really begun to trust my dog than I do with a cane.
Cons
- A dog is a huge responsibility. You have to be the one to feed, walk, and otherwise care for the dog. This is not something that someone else can do for you.
- You have to be conscious of the dog’s schedule. he will need to be fed and taken out to relieve himself at regular intervals, which means that you can’t ignore him when you would rather be doing something else and you also have to know where to take him to relieve himself when you are going to be out for extended periods of time. Sometimes this means you’ll have to ask for assistance if you’re unfamiliar with the area. You might also have to bring food with you if you’ll be away from home long past your dog’s dinner time. The schedule doesn’t have to be super rigid, but if your dog is used to eating at 5:00 and you know you’ll be out until 10:00, you should probably bring his dinner.
- taking trips means that your also packing for the dog, and again you have to make sure you know where to take him to relieve himself, which can sometimes be a real pain.
- Although for the most part, people have reacted very positively to me and my dog, you can get negative reactions. Sometimes people are afraid of dogs or sometimes their too friendly and want to pet him. then you’ll need to ask them not to pet your dog and I also like to explain why you can’t let them pet him. I’ve given several talks to kids at schools, and I love to be out somewhere and hear one of them explaining to their parents why they can’t pet the dog.
- The Extra attention. The dog will often bring much more attention to you than you would get with a cane. People are interested. They want to pet the dog. they want to ask questions. I know of several instances where people have returned dogs to the school because they just couldn’t handle the level of attention and interaction with strangers that the dog was bringing them.
- Being guided by a dog does often give you less detailed information about your environment. With the cane, you are going to be feeling all the various changes. You might miss a lot of those with a dog. this is a major problem if there are a lot of toe catchers in the sidewalks where you’ll be walking. the dog doesn’t always stop or alert you to all of those if there very small.
- It can be harder to manage a dog in crowded places like a mall
- There are limitations on where a dog can go vs. a cane. Not any legal issues or anything, but for example, you can’t take a dog on a roller coaster, whereas I just stick the cane in my pocket and it can ride with me. I don’t think my dog would appreciate that at all, lol. In those cases, you would need to have someone that you could hold the dog for you.
- Hair! Oh my gosh, the hair! If you get a lab or a golden retriever, just go ahead and resign yourself to the fact that you, and your clothes, and your house, and pretty much everything you own will constantly be covered in hair, no matter how often you brush him. It’s ridiculous! I don’t know how my dog has any hair left, with all that he loses, lol.

I’m sure there are more things I could add to both lists. For me, the pros vastly out way the cons. Also, keep in mind that if you do get a dog, you don’t have to take him everywhere. You can still use a cane if it would work better in a given situation. For example, I don’t take my dog to concerts or sporting events because I know it’s going to be crowded, it’s going to be loud, and there isn’t going to be much space for him in the seating. The cane works better for that situation.
I’d love to answer any follow up questions if you have them. I wish you the best with your choice, whatever you decide to do.

I absolutely loved it in a large city, but once I moved into a smaller college town to attend university I started to feel like my seeing eye dog was holding me back. Combine that with traveling with a lot of stuff, and sometimes I felt as if guide dogs just work out in cases where individuals go the same places everyday for a long time. I'm a social worker who is spontaneous, and there is no way I'd ever get another one. Gabe passed away a few years ago, and I have to say that one of the more difficult things is when they develop health problems and can't find a ride. Also, if you live in a very dog oriented town like I do there is a huge chance that many flea preventative formulas won't work, or it will be too late before you notice that they don't. Thanks to frontline I have definitely had some infestations that led me to consider burning down the house. I also really hated when he would get the shits during a long lay over at the airport. They're not for everyone, and will require lots of attention and work. With that said, my experience was pretty amazing, and super liberating when I lived in a huge city.

Hairs, hairs and more hairs!
I lost my sight 26y ago, 19 or so of that I relied on sighted guides, and longcane. I am very house proud and as much as I love my Guide Dog, the relentless amount of hairs does my head in. He is groomed on a regular basis, coach brushed/hair mitted, and the place is hoovered on a regular basis. But literally, next morning and you can feel tumbleweeds across the floor.
I had been active in travelling to work prior, but with wfh he isn’t getting the work he used to. He is also approaching 9y old now, and is currently sleeping on his 4” thick memory foam bed!
There is a video on YT of a robotic guide dog…. Either that or do guide pigs cast?
💓

Hey all, I’ve been a guide dog handler for just over ten years, currently working with my second dog. I just wanted to add a piece I haven’t seen mentioned yet

Training with a guide dog means life Lon training, not just training at the school when you receive your dog. I am still convinced my first dog was an absolute angel, but a lot of that was because before coming to me, he was returned to the school by another handler and went back through training a second time. He was a perfect first dog to handle, but not an accurate representation of what consistent training would mean. My current dog was described by her trainer as a hurricane in a harness, and boy is that true lol! With her, our daily obedience training is a must, as well as constantly needing to find challenges for her when she’s working. I also have to remember that because of the imp she is, she will have days when she tests and challenges me.

Personally, I love all of this. I adore working my little hurricane and keeping up with her brain. That said, I know some folks who prefer a cane that doesn’t require daily maintenance and doesn’t sass you in public lol!

Feel free to reach out if I can help in any way.

Guide Dogs can be an amazing addition to your life, both as a companion and a mobility aid. However it is a lot of responsibility and a commitment for the dog's entire life.
It is worth talking to the charity/organisation who provide them as in some cases they will assess your needs and may suggest that a dog isn't right for you.
I am waiting on dog number 2 and struggle without a Guide Dog, but I know people similar who are happy with a long cane.
Just know you'll have to work your life around the dog, like their feeding and bed times and you can't stray from it.

I don’t personally have one and don’t see myself getting a guide dog anytime soon at this stage in my life, but I’ll explain a little why I came to that conclusion after doing some research.

1. From my understanding you must prove that you are very active, constantly out and about, like going to a daily job, in order to get one from a non profit because they’re not going to put all the effort into training a guide dog for you if you barely leave your house, which that is my life currently. I live rurally and can’t go anywhere without a family member right now. I’m also not working.
2. Guide dogs can only be of service for I believe the average is 5 years, then they retire. After that you’d have to get another one, if not sooner. Depends on many factors, but then it’d become a pet and I personally already have two little needy dogs.
3. It absolutely sucks and not to mention is illegal, but there’s still a lot of discrimination against bringing a guide dog into Uber, restaurants, businesses, etc, because of all the so called service dogs out there.

My cane can get me where I need to go for now but that’s just where I’m at in this point of life.

There’s probably other reasons I’m forgetting but just thought I’d share. May be some things for you to consider.

I don‘t have a guide dog yet, but will start training with my first one in three weeks. It took me months to be sure I really wanted a dog after being convinced it wasn‘t right for my for several years. What changed my mind is that I started uni in a big city after having lived on the countrysidd for most of my life. There were a lot more obstacles like construction grounds, and crowds to navigate. I also struggled with feeling isolated in the masses of students, so a dog‘s compsny would be nice.

My biggest doubts were about my schedule. I‘m a very busy person, so if the responsibilities coming with a dog would fit that was a huge question mark. I discussed this very transparently with the guide dog school and they thought it was not an impossible thing to do with good planning. What I‘ve also been told is that your dog needs exercise ect. on a daily basis, sure, but you can compensate as well. So, maybe you can‘t take long walks in the evening after work, you can catch up on the weekends on some of that. So, you have some flexibility there, which I found very important to know. Still, the dog needs to go into your planning and that can get inconvenient. I considered how often I would do something unfit for a dog or where it could get complicated, but for me these are relatively few occasions.

Another point I considered is in how many situations would a dog actually be useful. I have some useful vision left and it varies how well I can use it based on light conditions and contrast. By the time applied, I had obviously concluded that it was enough for me to really benefit from s dog. However, the real extent hit me about two months ago, when I met my future guide dog and was allowed to walk with her in harness through the city (accompanied by her instructor, of course). Light conditilns on that day were very much to my liking, but walking with the dog was still a big difference from walking with the cane, because I had to concentrate on dog‘s mivements and commands, sure, but not on spotting the obstacles and feeling around them with my cane. Also under these good conditions, it was a more agreeable kind of navigating to me.

So, that‘s just some thoughts that were important in my decision-making.

Some of the things a guide dog does in a college in Chapel Hill NC. TroytroytheguideDog in instagram. Pictures are worth a thousand words. It is fun to watch

Picking up poop, taking care of their needs, dealing with discrimination and dog fir have held me back from deciding to train for one. I have witnessed the amazing jobs they do, but I feel that if I get dog it would soon become a pet dog with obedience training.