Nelson

Yellow Lab from Bellus Breeding, trained by instructor Paweł Zieliński was given to Magdalena Rutkowska from Łódź on April 11th, 2005.

„Nelson is my first, but surely not last guide dog. I’ve go t him on April 11th , 2005, and since then I cannot imagine my life without him. We are inseparable, we go together to work, shopping, to the parties, we travel together...

Neli loves new routes and learns them quickly, so I feel safe even being in a new area because I know that he will stop at a kerb or stairs, pass by a hole in the ground and poles located in many strange places. I’m leading a very active life and thanks to Nelson I don’t have to resign from various activities that I couldn’t manage due to lack of energy when I used to go with the cane only, walking under stress and tension across my city full of obstacles. The dog will stop at the edge of the street even when the kerb was leveled with the road to adapt it for people in wheelchairs, but made it impossible to the blind to find the line where the road begins. He can also find a seat in the tram or bus and show bus/tram stops, stairs and doors. He was indispensable in winter, because when sidewalks and roads are covered with ice and snow it is hard to walk on even well known routes, but the dog leads as usual, adapting his pace to the conditions, slowing down where the ground is covered with ice and passing by when it is possible. It was the first time I didn’t have to wander on my regular route changed by snowbanks, because Neli was leading me.

Of course having a guide dog is also the responsibility to walk it and feed, correct its work and adjust it to my personal needs. Sometimes I hear from other blind persons who don’t have a guide dog, that such a dog is too absorbing, that it is not possible to go with the dog everywhere or to travel. THIS is true, but the benefits are much larger than the necessity to get up in the morning after a big party in order to walk the dog, or that we will not be allowed to enter everywhere. I do not travel to places where my dog is not accepted, but I enter with him always and I don’t find explaining who the guide dog is to be waste of time. In reality the majority of problems are caused by people. They approach the dog, they want to pat him and become indignant when I say that this is a guide dog and should not be distracted. But I believe that if there shall be a lot of popular information about the role of guide dogs and how to behave seeing them, I will not need to explain many times a day such obvious things, nor to be annoyed by people trying to pet my dog because I will not see it, and thinking that all I am saying is an exaggeration.

I recommend a guide dog to every blind person and I wish there would be more well trained dogs, because thanks to them life becomes easier and happier."

Magdalena Rutkowska