Guide Dogs

About Guide Dogs

Think about your daily routine. You might go to work, make a stop at the grocery store, or perhaps decide to have dinner in your favorite restaurant. Now, close your eyes and try to imagine navigating your way around without the ability to see. It's quite a challenge, but one that visually-challenged people face everyday, and it can put a significant crimp in their personal freedom unless a workable solution can be found.

Guide dogs are one such solution. These working canines are painstakingly trained to safely assist their sight challenged handlers as they go about their daily lives. Let's take a closer look at how these amazing dogs are nurtured and developed.

Raising and Training a Service Dog

All potential service dogs are initially selected as puppies for their calm temperaments, and then transferred to the homes of trained puppy raisers who begin socializing each pup for life as a guide. Puppies are exposed to a wide variety of sights, sounds and experiences in order to lessen their sensitivity level to common daily distractions they might encounter in their later lives as guide dogs.

The goal is to produce a calm dog that thinks its way through a situation, rather than reacts to it out of instinct. An animal must prove to be steady and reliable before it can become responsible for a person's safety.

During this socialization period, pups that do not possess the ideal qualities of a service dog are weeded out of the program and adopted into caring pet homes. Pups that do make the grade progress to guide dog training school, where they receive the in depth training that will prepare them for life as a companion for the blind.

Once trained, fully fledged service dogs should be able to:

• Always walk on the handler's left side and remain slightly in the lead so that person can depend on the dog's whereabouts
• Obey specific commands from their handlers
• Ignore all distractions as they guide their humans
• Stop at all curbs until given the command to proceed, but avoid leading their charge into oncoming traffic
• Alert their handler to stairs
• Guide handlers on and off public transportation
• Remain calm, quiet and focused when their handler is sitting and be ready for duty when signaled

Obedience vs. Intelligent Disobedience

Although every guide dog needs to be reasonably obedient, there are times when obeying a handler's command could put that person in harm's way. Potential guides must demonstrate the ability to assess a given situation for themselves, and decide against obeying a command if it will put their person in danger. This concept is known as "intelligent disobedience".

For example, a service dog stops at a busy curb and awaits his handler's command to move forward. The command is given and the dog prepares to proceed, but sees an oncoming vehicle the handler is not aware of. The dog has two choices: he can (a) proceed with blind obedience and lead his handler into the vehicle's path, or he can (b) choose to refuse the command until the danger has passed.

Choice (b) demonstrates the concept of intelligent disobedience, and although it may seem like a lot to expect from simple canines, thousands of guide dogs make these choices on a daily basis. It's a testament to their abilities and devotion to their handlers, and the key to the success of the entire service dog program.

Dog and Handler Teams

When guide dogs complete their personal training, it's time to move on to team training.

Each dog is paired with one handler who will be taught how to give the commands that each guide animal has been trained to respond to. The team will practice together in order to build a strong and confident relationship.

During the process, both handler and dog will be evaluated based on how well they work together, and if all goes well they will be considered a match. If not, the potential handler and canine guide will be paired with other partners until they each find the right companion.

Once the right dog and handler come together, the two will remain together for years to come.

Every Career Must Come to an End

The life of a guide dog is a bit different from the average pet. He serves a definite purpose, and can only remain on the job as long as he's mentally alert and physically capable of safely guiding his person. Although most dogs remain teamed with their human companion for many years, they all must eventually retire from the job. On average, this takes place around ten years of age although each situation is unique.

Once a seeing eye canine ages out, one of several things may happen.

• The present owner has the option of keeping his longtime companion, along with his next guide dog.
• If the present owner cannot keep more than one dog, the original companion may be adopted into a loving home to finish out his golden years.
• In some cases, the original puppy raiser/trainer is given the option of taking the retired animal home with them again.

Since these working canines have been trained to be such wonderful and useful companions, there is usually a waiting list of homes for retired guides. This is a happy contrast when compared with many adoption and rescue facilities that have more animals in residence than they are able to place.

Conclusion

The life of a guide dog is not one of carefree play, but dogs that are suited to this work seem to take a great deal of satisfaction from caring for their special companions. The union between dog and handler is built on complete trust, and in our hectic world that's a rare thing to find.

External Links

• The Seeing Eye, Inc.
• Guide Dogs of America