Bev Berger tells UCW about Jasper, and others of his canine kind
By Bill Rea

Bev Berger was accompanied by Jasper when she addressed the Nobleton United Church Women luncheon last Wednesday.

Jasper is the fourth in a line of dogs who has provide sight for Nobleton's Bev Berger.

He is a two-and-a-half year old yellow Lab who sat quietly at the front of Nobleton United Church last Wednesday as Berger addressed the annual spring luncheon of the local United Church Women (UCW).

Berger is a national spokesperson for Dog Guides Canada, and has travelled the country, raising awareness of the freedom her four-legged friends have provided her since she completely lost her sight 25 years ago.

"Speaking in your own home town is certainly a whole different mindset," she remarked.

The fact she has a disability is something a lot of people don't completely grasp, Berger commented.

"I have a disability, but I'm no different than you because we all have 'stuff,'" she remarked, pointing out it's her eyes that don't work, while for other people it might be their ears or knees.

She added there are many different types of disabilities that are being officially recognized these days. The latest one is environmental sensitivity, which affects people who can't stand being around perfume, smoke, cleaning products, etc. Berger said she has no right to lecture people about her disability.

Enduring a major disability like losing one's sight causes other factors in one's life to collapse, and the victim has to try and figure out how to put it all back together.

Berger said she talks to school children a lot. "Children are great, because they teach you humility," she observed.

She said the kids find it enlightening when they get the massage from a blind person.

"Surprise, surprise, they're a person first!"

And sometimes, the kids ask amusing questions. She once explained to a boy that her eyes don't work.

"Why, are your batteries dead?" he asked.

It's not just children who might miss the message. She said people have seen her walking with her dog and figured she was training it. She's been approached by hunters who wanted her to train their dogs.

She also told of an occasion when she was speaking to youngsters at a Cree reserve in Western Canada, and one little boy was afraid to pat the dog. The teacher explained he lived in a rougher part of the reserve and thought the dog was a predator.

"I think we've got a long way to go when a child, a Canadian child, perceives a dog guide as a predator," she commented.

Berger said she represents recipients of three different types of dog guides in her travels. In addition to helping people who can't see, there are dogs that assist the hearing impaired and those serving people with other needs, such as epilepsy, autism or who are confined to wheelchairs. She said she considered it her mission to spread the word about them.

"Every part of my life has been affected by having a dog guide," she remarked.

She said she's been married 35 years, and has been blind for 25 of them, meaning it's impacted on her husband too. "He lost a great part of his wife, but he has not treated me any different," she said, adding that's unusual. According to statistics, she said more than 90 per cent of relationships break up when a major disability develops.

Berger said her daughter was four when her mother lost her sight, and she resented it for a long time. "She didn't resent me, but she did resent my blindness," she explained.

She added she's never seen her son, who was born after she lost her sight.

Having dog guide restored some of her freedom, meaning she didn't have to be as much of a burden on her family. She used to have to wait for one of them to be free if she just wanted to mail a letter.

"Then I got the furball," she said. "I had the freedom and mobility and independence that was afforded to mew by having a dog guide."

Berger's community has been involved in the process too. She used to use a white cane to help her get around, but a member of the local Lions club told her they could get her "one of those blind dogs."

"Great!" she thought at the time. "just what I need! A blind dog!"

But it was a case of the man not explaining himself very well, for the Lions helped her get her first dog in 1989 from the training facility in Oakville.

"I was terrified," she said, recalling how she had to spend a month in training in a strange building in Oakville with seven other blind people.

But she was thrilled when she graduated with her first dog, named Reb. "I literally felt I had the world by the tail," she declared.

The community has benefitted in return. Through her talks to youngsters in the local schools, Berger said Nobleton children are growing up to not be afraid of blind people or their dogs.

The sanitary situation in the village has improved too.

"When I got my first dog guide, do you think anyone stooped and scooped?" she asked. That was one of the points covered in the training. "Just because you're blind doesn't mean you can't put a bag at the end of your hand and feel around for something that's warm."

"You can see why we've done Nobleton a great community service," she added.

The dog also enables Berger to travel all over the country on her own, without her husband having to accompany her, which she said she doesn't mind too much.

"They leave the toilet seats up," she said. "Trust me, when you're blind, it's not a fun sensation."

These travels con sometimes be adventuresome. She and her dogs are used to getting up at 6 a.m. to go outside for relief. But since dogs don't understand the concept of time zones, Berger finds herself being woken up at 3 if they're in northern British Columbia.

There can be interesting experiences closer to home too.

Berger told of an occasion when she and her dog were crossing Highway 27, with the lights. The dog was taking her on a zig-zag course across the road, then led her into a ditch. She couldn't figure out what the problem was, until a police officer approached and asked her if she had seen the traffic accident that had occurred there. She realized the dog had been helping her dodge debris on the road, and found herself unable to resist making a straight man of the cop who wanted her to identify the people involved in the accident.

"I'm sorry,' she said, "but if they don't smell bad, I can't help you."

"I can get myself into trouble without really trying," she added. "God took my eyes away, but fortunately gave me the gift of a big mouth."