Conference Conclusions

Judith Jones, retired EGDF executive director, said that this session was about reflecting on the content of the conference. She suggested some trends she had noticed over the years:

• Owner trained dogs. The first delegate who came with an owner-trained dog came to Estonia. This time, two owner trainers had presented one of the most discussed subjects of the conference. The subject was a major consideration of CEN/TC 452, and certification bodies were coming into existence so they could be accredited and enjoy full access rights.
• Terminology. When CEN/TC 452 had started six years previously, common usage was “guide dogs and other assistance dogs” but the terminology now accepted guide dogs as a subset of assistance dogs.
• Cooperation. There was more interaction amongst all types of assistance dog organisations, especially aided by working together in CEN/TC452. She also said it was a pity that Guide Dogs UK, the largest guide dog school in the world and the founders of EGDF, were no longer members.
• Air travel had become less certain as a result of confusion around the definition of an assistance dog. It would be a problem until the standard was accepted, and with it the definition of an assistance dog.

She gave a round-up of subjects covered at the conference:

• Activities of EGDF and associated organisations
• Access campaigns in travel and daily life
• Guide dog training o Cost comparisons o CNIB o Positive reinforcement training
• The emotional impact of guide dog retirement. A new subject that had made a strong impression on participants
• CEN/TC 452, and we wished it well in getting to the end
• Assessment and data collection o Assistance Dog Assessment Association o Assistance dog data base o EGDF Assistance Dog Survey
• Technological innovations
• Host country insights into government and training schools. We had been impressed with the huge progress made by everyone in Greece working together and overcoming so many obstacles.

She provided a thought-starter list of subjects not covered that could be on the agenda of future conferences

• Guide dog users and employment
• EGDF services to members
• Involvement of members in EGDF working groups and conference planning
• Fundraising

She showed the slide of conference conclusions in Malta in 2017 and remarked that the subjects still felt timely:

• The importance of working together with IGDF and ADI/ADEu
• The importance of participating in the European standard for assistance dogs
• There’s an increasing number of assistance dogs and therefore a need for up-to-date statistics (to measure the strength of our voice)
• Constant need to make the assistance dog voice heard, which is best done through the disability movement
• A need to keep up with the latest technology
• There will always be a need to improve access

Isabelle Ulfsdotter said it would be interesting to know more about the problems faced in different countries, such as discrimination or other issues where we could work together and give each other input.

Christel Sogenbits suggested looking at workshops. She volunteered to help plan some. She said she would like to hear how guide dog users learn, particularly where people had third and fourth dogs. In Estonia, guide dog users needed a bit of education. They needed empowerment and encouragement to fight for themselves and to complain. She said she would like to know how this is done in different countries.

Hara Bourgani said she would be interested in understanding ethics for guide dog users and different training methods

Finn Hellman said it would be good to have something on media representation or how we describe ourselves as guide dog teams. How could we speak about being a guide dog user and educate about guide dogs without contributing to prejudice, such as the dog being supernatural or able read the newspapers? How could we avoid propagating this misinformation? A workshop would be good.

Karine Garnier said it was a pity that we only communicated every two years through this conference. Maybe we could organise another event or panels every two months, each one organised by a country on a different subject. We could limit this to 15 people and make a video for wider distribution.

Christel Sogenbits was interested in legal issues. She said that Estonia had no guide dog court cases yet, but she would like to hear how different legal situations have been solved in other countries. In Estonia, the law said you couldn’t discriminate but if you did, there was no fine or no penalty or punishment.

Pam Megahey asked for a general first aid course that could be shared with schools so that owners and handlers had a basic idea of dog first aid.

Judith concluded by saying that when the conference summary report was sent out there would also be a questionnaire asking for short replies to specific aspects of the conference. Delegates replies were very useful when planning the next conference.


David Adams then wrapped up the conference by offering this thanks to many people who helped. He thanked the hotel which had provided a wonderful venue, great facilities and accommodating staff, and

• Jane Richards for organising the conference
• Zoi Geroulanou, the president of Greek Guide Dogs, who was wellconnected in Greece and made things happen and organised Sunday’s excursion
• Ioanna Gertsou and Hara Bourgani for their ideas and good work to ensure we had influential politicians attending
• Judith Jones who came out of retirement to help Jane with the conference
• Andrew Lamb, Stephen Anderson and Finn Hellman, trustees who retired this year
• Debbie Jarvis, volunteer membership secretary and conference administrator, who was retiring this year.