Jared Wright is a college student who is blind. He seeks greater independence through the use of a dog guide, and is currently attending The Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey. This feature details his experiences and reflections throughout his training, which concludes on August 17. His dog is a male cross between a yellow Labrador and a golden retriever named Kerry.

With Kerry, I'll be capable of doing a lot more travel. My travel will be more independent. It will open up areas too difficult to navigate with a white cane. And very few of these areas will just be a few blocks away from home. After all, when so much of the world is newly unlocked to me, why spend all my time within a stone's throw of home base? So, of course, I was looking forward to the training sessions involving transporting the dog. These are often short drills, but a dog unsettled and uncontrolled means a more frustrating ride or flight.

The first component of this was car travel. We'd been using some of The Seeing Eye's big, white vans to get from place to place before, and the dogs had plenty of room to sprawl out and were easily managed. The last few times, however, we've used a Subaru to get from place to place, which, especially for a dog like Kerry, will prove a much tighter fit. When riding in the back, I would have Kerry back into the car and have him lie down on the floor, so that he could be moving forward when exiting the vehicle. This strategy will be the one I use with cabs. He's still not a big fan of backing into the car or train (more on that in a minute) and likes to just try to turn around, but I'm trying to minimize the amount of contact he has with the seat. Not that I or any of my friends would be very bothered if his paws went across the seat on his turn, but some disagreeable cab driver might.

The front seat was even a bigger challenge. I'd sit with my feet out of the car, let him get in the sit on the floor facing me, then bring my feet in on his left side. This is so the last things in the car are my feet. If I'm not shutting the door myself, I want to have part of me be the last thing going in to protect Kerry. Folks with good intentions are much less likely to shut the door on my feet than on Kerry's tail, which could more easily escape notice. And tail injuries are very slow in healing, since dogs wag them around and hit them against things so much. Once we get moving, I was informed that it is more comfortable and still acceptable for Kerry to put his head on the driving console, as long as the driver tells me when he needs me to lift Kerry's head so he can put the car into drive or something similar. I still can't quite get over that, really.