The White Cane Chronicles Part 2
It has been about nine months since I have transitioned to having a Guide Dog in my life. Though this means that I am usually with my furry companion when I am out and about, there are still times when I need to use my white cane, or times when I use it to ensure that I keep up my skills.
I knew that working with my Guide Dog would mean giving up certain benefits that the cane can offer, but after a long period of time with my dog has made these differences in benefits more evident. These differences include relying on tactile feedback in your environment, the ability to toss your cane down at any given moment, and the little amount of attention one gets from passers-by.
When I first started training with my Guide Dog, I already knew that one loses the tactile information the cane provides. I have become quite used to this as there are different methods of determining my surroundings with a dog, but now that I use my cane only on rare occasions, the difference in how I experience my environment has become more glaringly obvious. I have a route I often travel with my guide dog, and once or twice I tried using my cane as well and was surprised at how many tactile obstacles were along the way. In fact, using the cane was quite confusing for me as I was not used to it anymore. This is the reason why I still opt to use my cane once in a while, to keep up my cane skills so that it is not such a jarring difference that causes my environment to be unnavigable.
Similar to this, I forgot how easy it was to just discard one’s cane if their hands were full or if they just wanted to walk around and greet people. Though this too was something I knew when I went to get my partner in crime, I didn’t know how second nature it would become for me to integrate my dog into my life rather than feeling as if my hands were always full. Now however, when I use my cane in certain instances, I am almost surprised at I have more freedom with my hands to carry things or that I can plop my cane down anywhere without concern.I think that when you are using one mobility device and then switch to another, you then realize the elements that you relied on until you no longer were using them. Though sometimes I miss these aspects of using my cane, I have found that using a guide dog is not only the best choice for me, but has caused me to appreciate the elements of the white cane even more so when I do use it on a occasional basis.
by Harjinder “Jinnie” Saran