@Shotgunshell, One part of having a guide dog is indeed making going places generally easier, and whatever your doing now odds are you'll be going more places later when you finish school etc, though learning to take care of yourself is indeed a necessity.
@Afrim, I think on average retrievers tend to more lazy than labs, my mum has a lab who is postiviely hyper energetic, heck she's ten and still behaves like a puppy, including racing up and down stairs etc.
This is one reason why in Britain guide dogs match the personality of the dog to the owner and his/her lifestyle, since while breeds tend to have roughly equal each dog is different themselves.
With several dog breeds it is not specifically the intelligence of the dog which is the problem, it's other things. I know my bull terrier, though a lovely dog would've been no use as a guide dog since if she saw another dog she'd have you up a tree.
Then again they're experimenting with breeds all the time, I did hear in the Uk they tried out st. bernards at one stage.
It's a shame though that the infrastructure and attitudes in Albania are so dire as regards guide dogs.
I will say publicity is one of the main things the guide dogs association does a lot of over here, programs on tv, radio etc, indeed I've frequently run into people who do fund raising for guide dogs in the street who nearly always want to talk to Reever :d.
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)
