Sunday, March 18, 2018

Book Review: Have Dog, Will Travel (guide dogs, history, training, life-changing, the ADA, discrimination, poetry)


Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey, by Stephen Kuusisto (Simon & Schuster, 2017, 237 pages, $25)


Acceptance, or . . . ?

Stephen Kuusisto is a college English teacher, son of a college president and an alcoholic mother, brother to a physician, who was brought up to hide* his near-blindness, to pretend to see, to mask his imperfection, his disability** (hard to believe in this day and age).

“I learned . . . to walk mnemonically. It was eight steps down from the English Department to the sidewalk; seventeen steps to a funny break in that same sidewalk which somehow never got repaired. . . . “ (p. 13)

Definitely a Poet!

An adjunct professor and Fulbright Scholar, he is laid off from his position and wanders – to eventually apply for a guide dog*** from Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB), an experience that literally saves him and changes his life for the better, forever (even so, a guide dog is a huge responsibility). He navigates and loves New York City and even gets married!

And all through Have Dog, Will Travel, the author weaves in quotes from the great writers, from Confucius to Plato and Aristotle, Walt Whitman and Jean Paul Sartre, and beyond.


From a Deny-er to an Ambassador for the Blind

Kuusisto and his guide dog, Corky, meet Rudy Giuliani quite by accident when the mayor comes to the GEB campus to pick up a “re-careered” release dog.

Later, the author works for GEB for five years in the capacity of graduate support coordinator, traveling the country and speaking for guide dogs before returning to college English teaching.

“Arranged Marriage”

Assistance dogs are either owner-trained (usually with a professional service dog trainer) or obtained from an organization like GEB - raised by volunteer puppy raisers for a year, then attending school for advanced training for up to a year.

Finally, the dog is matched (both gait and temperament) with his person – an “arranged marriage” that will last throughout the dog’s life. It’s as if the dog knows his purpose is to help one person and he loves having a job and the thanks that comes along with it. The person’s job is harder – learning to trust his dog.

Dog College

The first lesson at the three-week “Dog U” is on praise, a necessary constant to give one’s guide dog. The dogs have been trained: now it is time for the handlers to learn while during this time, both handler and dog become a team, learning together.

Long- and Short-Term Histories

Through it all, the reader comes away with the history**** of assistance dogs and what a dog can do for someone – get him there faster – if the person learns to trust. Before-dog, the blind person is usually ignored: after-dog, both are included in conversation, and many people go out of their way to do so. However, there are still people and businesses that are not aware that service dogs have access rights when with their person.

Updating. . . .

Dog trainers will cringe at the leash corrections in the book, but it must be remembered that this is the story of Corky, the author’s first of five guide dogs: hopefully, nowadays, most are being trained with positive reinforcement instead of punishment-based methods and training collars.

And now, . . . .

Want to become a service dog trainer? Be prepared to apprentice for at least 2-3 years*****. On the other hand, there is a constant need for puppy raisers******: Have Dog, Will Travel may just convince you and your family to become a puppy raiser, too!

*”. . . in a world where normalcy is a prerequisite to acceptance, nothing is worse than presenting an overt defect.” (p. 12)
**a detailed ADA definition of disability appears on page 200.
***characteristics of a good guide-dog include  empathy, communication, cunning, memory and reasoning.
****first used to assist wounded war veterans. Sergeant Stubby of WWI fame, actually became a service dog after the war when his person went to Georgetown University (and also became the Hoya’s mascot)

*****the US has about a dozen guide-dog schools, all nonprofit organizations
******(p. 223) “You give everything to raising a guide-dog puppy. . . your happiness, your wakefulness, your love of life itself. Puppies take this into their hearts like vitamins.”

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