Alan Holst first attempted to use a guide dog in the mid 1980s while working as an account executive at a local radio station. “It was my first outside sales job and I quickly discovered that customers weren’t expecting a blind person in that role. Blindness seemed to create an unnecessary obstacle when meeting new people. I thought a dog might make the initial meetings easier.”
He never got to test that theory because he changed jobs before he had a chance to use his first dog in that setting. “My first dog and I didn’t settle well so I returned him after about a year. I do remember how wonderful it was to travel with a dog though, so when we moved to a densely populated neighborhood and I retired, thereby having more time to work on the relationship between the dog and I, it was time to try again.”
Alan’s current dog is a black lab named Paulette. They have been a team for a little more than four years now. “I love it! It’s nice to go new places with less stress then I would have with a cane. I particularly enjoy taking my grocery cart and going shopping at the grocery store.”
“A guide dog is really three very different things. First, it’s a mobility aid, which is highly superior to a white cane. Second, it changes one’s social presence. Just as a parent with a baby in tow shows up differently in social situations, so does a person with a dog guide. Finally, it is a pet. At the end of the day a guide dog is still a dog.
Alan lives in Tustin with his wife of 40 years. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.
He is eager to share the joys and liberating possibilities that a guide dog can bring to a blind person’s life.
