Summary:
Guide dogs are intelligent and highly trained animals that help visual disabled people get to their destination safely and quickly. The policy and the procedure of preparing a selected puppy to become a guide dog comply with international specifications and criteria, which are very strict, due to the fact that upon completion of the training, the guide dog is responsible for the daily movement of the users, promoting their mobility.
The requirements for getting a guide dog are associated with the good knowledge of mobility and orientation, the independent living and of course, the love for animals. A guide dog can radically change the user's life strengthening his feeling of independence, improving his balance, helping reduce his anxiety levels, preventing him from impacts with obstacles, either low, high or moving. Thanks to the guide dog, the user becomes more responsible, since he assumes the dog's care, and more outgoing, since he gets out of the house more, engages in social interactions more often and gets more easily approached by people on the street. At the same time, he experiences the feelings of joy, love and companionship that a pet can offer. This companionship leads to the development of trust and a bond between them that is very strong. However, having a guide dog creates great responsibilities, such as the daily care needed.
People treat users and their guide dogs, showing feelings of admiration, acceptance, curiosity and indifference. However, some people don't know that distracting guide dogs while they're on the job is not allowed and they stop to caress them, impairing the user's ability to perform his daily activities, because their behavior distracts the dog, putting the user-guide dog team in danger.
The barriers holding back the institutionalization of the use of guide dogs in Greece and worldwide sometimes relate to refusing entry in mass catering establishments and means of public transportation, despite the fact that, based on the law, guide dogs are allowed everywhere. The use of guide dogs can be institutionalized by properly informing the society about the valuable work provided by these animals and increasing the number of users, so that people can become familiarized with seeing living guides on the street.
This research project is a qualitative descriptive research, studying the contribution of guide dogs to the independent living and social inclusion of their visual disabled users. Twelve Greek users recall their experience and life stories along with their guide dogs in order to describe how their guide dogs contribute to their mobility and provide them with feelings of independence, safety, freedom and companionship. Their responses enable the research of the level of acceptance that users gain from their social environment and of the way their living guide contributes to the process of social inclusion. At the same time, the results of the findings recorded and analyzed clearly reflect the challenges and obstacles that users have to deal with in their daily life not only in Greece, but worldwide.
The methodological tool used in the thesis is the semi-structured interview and the data analysis is based on the thematic content analysis. The ultimate objective of the research is to use the findings to promote the use of guide dogs in our country. Moreover, the results of the research provide qualitative data, which can be studied by visual disabled people to help them decide if they wish to work with a guide dog or not.
The main conclusions of the project is that the guide dog supports the user's mobility, providing high quality movement. The user is guided safely and quickly, exploring new routes, while the dog deals with the fixed or moving obstacles encountered. The combination of independence and freedom provided raise the blind person's confidence. At the same time, the bond developed between a blind person and his dog strengthens his mental health and helps him feel less stressed thanks to the companionship and selfless love offered by the animal. Moreover, the user gets out of the house more often, he/she walks long distances every day, thus improving his physical activity and staying healthy. People stop, show interest, ask questions and admire. This improves his social relationships. The law in Greece and abroad is favorable towards the use of guide dogs. However, the obstacles that the team has to deal with every day are numerous and are mainly due to the lack of public awareness concerning this issue. Still, there is great potential for strengthening the use of guide dogs, but a lot of patience is needed along with constant and proper education.
