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Jewel and I had been
having an online conversation about how guide dogs are trained,
how they are chosen, and what they must learn even before they
go to Guide School. Long before their final destination as a companion
and guide dog, puppies go through testing levels of various types.
To me, this is what K-9 Service dogs are all about, but it seems
I was misled in some of the methods and reasoning behind their
selection.
Martha
Wells
and
Jewel
Blanch
Martha
writes:
I know
very little about guide dogs. I know there are a lot of homes
who 'board' young prospects for a few years while they get puppyhood
out of their systems.
Are there
training centers in N Z today? I recall you saying you had to
train your first ones yourself. Are you training them for others?
The dogs
are tested routinely to decide if they have the intelligence and
strength to be dependable into this kind of work. Fascinating!
Two puppies from the same litter, and both may be exactly alike,
except a timid one would be rejected in favor of one with a bolder,
braver attitude.
It must
be rough to own a dog into adulthood then have to give it up,
but the people who do this say it's very rewarding to them. The
meek mannered puppy has had all the obedience training the more
alert, smarter one has, and probably make wonderful family pets,
but just aren't suited to this demanding kind of work.
On the
other end, those guide dogs who have had active service all their
lives, but are too old to work, are also granted homes with caring
families who will still 'put them through their paces occasionally',
but don't demand the rigors that come with the job.
Jewel
Replies (and corrects my misconceptions)
...and
now for guide dogs.
Misconception
#1 Duration.
Martha:
Jewel informs me that the puppy is with the Puppy Walker only
a few months, not years. I suppose because every dog I've ever
witnessed at their job seems so mature and elegant, I always thought
it took years to accomplish that level of training.
Jewel:
There is a training centre in New Zealand, but for a variety of
reasons, mostly that a suitable dog has not been available when
I want it, I have trained 6 of the 7 dogs I have had since 1960.
I only
train for my own use. The pup I am training now is a purebred
German Shepherd, and has just turned 1 year old. He, Guido, is
shaping up quite nicely. He is an extremely handsome dog, and
many people remark on what beautiful eyes he has, and what good
use he makes of them.
That is
how things should be, and indeed with some of the schools, it
is, but in the U S alone, there are at least 15 guide dog schools,
and standards of puppy walking vary tremendously.
Misconception
#2: (Shy puppy -vs- braver puppy) Ironically, exactly the
opposite is occurring. One would think that as stress levels increased,
the less resilient dogs would be weeded out, but not so.
The schools
are training dogs that are extremely *soft. The schools maintain
that these softer dogs are easier for the average guide dog owner
to handle, but this view is highly debatable. They succumb to
stress at an early age, and have to be replaced because of what
amounts to nervous collapse.
This
doesn't bother the schools; in fact, some cynics would say that
they welcome it. Jo Public, the man-in-the-street who provides
the funds for the schools is persuaded by the number of teams
pounding the pavement, rather than the standard of work of those
teams.
It is
the age-old quandary of quantity over quality. It is the handlers
who need the quality, and as they don't provide the funds, this
aspect in the philosophy of some schools does not figure very
highly in their criteria.
There
are schools who do demand the highest quality in their teams,
but there are probably more that do not. The Seeing Eye in New
Jersey is a good example of the first, but they do not depend
on public funding, as they have a very wealthy foundation backing
them.
As I said
above, meekness is rarely a cause for rejecting a dog from a programme.
on the contrary, I suppose that the most common reason is animal
aggression.
These
dogs that do not make it as guides are quite often redirected
into another field of work, such as drug dogs, but such is the
pressure to get teams out on the street that many clearly disastrous
dogs are teamed with unsuspecting handlers, and it is only after
the dog has proved itself to be unmanageable that it is taken
out of the programme.
There
are instances of where a hopeless dog has been trained with one
handler after another in the hopes that by some miracle, someone
will prove to be able to cope with its antics.
It is
true that those that have been retired from active duty because
of age-related factors do make wonderful pets, and most of them
are content to see their lives out as lazy great heaps. Some do
go into therapy programmes, and of course, with their past association
with the public, they are very good at this.
If your
appetite has been whetted by these stories, similar ones are to
be found in "My Life With Guide Dogs". The book is available directly
from the author, Jewel Blanch on 3.5 inch computer disk at a cost
of 10$US, p&h inclusive. Jewel
Blanch
Text
and images copyright 1998 Jewel
Blanch
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