Welcome to Dixie Land Guide Dog Users Online, and Top Dog-2019!

We Dixie Land Guide Dog Users are the South Carolina affiliate of Guide Dog Users, Inc. Our tails are wagging! Due to the amazing response to our Top Dog-Charleston, 2019, our event hotel is booked to capacity and we are no longer taking registrations. Our heartfelt thanks to all of our registered attendees! We can't wait to see you in January!
For those of you who cannot attend in person, keep those ears up and stay tuned for our recorded sessions to be announced!

Contact the Dixie Land Guide Team!

Contact the Dixie Land Guide Team!
Dixie Land GDU, Inc., 1608 Acacia St., Charleston, SC 29407 (843) 571-0737

We provide education for the sighted community and peer mentoring with advocacy for the blindness community (guide dog, cane and sighted guide users alike), while promoting one community at large.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Free Eye Exams for Registered Guide Dogs.

Thanks to Cornelia Pelzer with the Association for the Blind, for the following information…

The Animal Eye Clinic in Mt. Pleasant, SC is going to hold free exams for registered guide dogs from May 4th - 8th, 2009. The phone number to call to set up an appointment and for more information is 1-843-881-2242. Please pass the word along!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

More About What We Do

Dixie Land Guide Dog Users, Inc., reaches out to our community in an honest effort to help others through education, inspiration and active participation. Our positive, pro-active approach is best exemplified by availing our qualified teams to go into businesses and organizations and offer "Sensitivity & Awareness" training to their members and/or staff. We've found these sessions seem to form a bridge of understanding over a gaping hole of ignorance or misconception. We always try to provide honest, helpful, personable people who can actually relate to the various types of businesses or civic groups. In the past, our efforts have resulted in helping to revise policies and promote positive harmonious relations between the sighted and blindness communities.

Dixie Land was the founder of the Southern Regional Top Dog Workshops, back in January 2006. That event was so very well received that it became an annual event and has been hosted in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Dixie Land was proud to host a second Top Dog in Charleston, SC, in 2010. We truly believe the success of having such a weekend-long event is attributed to its affordability, accessibility and availability.

Dixie Land is reaching out to our blindness community by scheduling programs at various schools and campuses around our state to inform as well as motivate our blind brothers and sisters. We believe the key to educating the sighted community is through more blind people using their canes or guide dogs effectively, confidently and competently.

Dixie Land also believes in its youth and has, to date, helped in sending at least one local blind kid to California to participate in the National Braille Challenge. We also support our blind youth by supporting various other activities like Camp Leo (the South Carolina summer camp for blind children sponsored by Lions International) and the recently established Children's Chaplaincy of Music By Laurel Jean.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Introduction

Dixie Land Guide Dog Users Inc. is a 501C3 nonprofit organization in the state of South Carolina. Our membership is comprised mostly of guide dog users who have graduated from a variety of schools including Seeing Eye; Guide Dogs for the Blind; Leader Dog; Guide Dog Foundation; Guiding Eyes for the Blind; Pilot Dogs and South Eastern Guide Dog School. Some of our members and associate members are also sighted puppy raisers; guide dog trainers; owners of retired guide dogs; and even other folks who are blind but prefer to use a cane or a sighted guide rather than a guide dog.

We welcome your questions and comments. Just click on the post which best relates to your question/comment and enter your thoughts. Please visit often, and don’t forget to bring or send a friend!

About Us

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Charleston, SC, United States
Dixie Land Guide Dog Users is the South Carolina Affiliate of Guide Dog Users, Inc., the largest guide dog-related organization In the United States.