THE
SERVICE DOG EXPERIENCE
Question have been asked how
do we relate to our dogs is—“what is it that draws
us to wanting a working relationship with either a service dog
or dog guide?” Or, why as raisers of these animals do we
want to perform such a demanding but rewarding service? Whether
we put energy into raising or owning a service dog it is a huge
commitment. With every animal, the experience is unique. Each
of us has our own story to tell. Here are the stories of joy,
amazement, love, and challenges that come with the working partnership
with our dogs. If you would like to share your experience please
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Archives of the Service Dog
Experience
The Prison PUP and NEADS Partnership
by Barbara Parsons,
Puppy Raisor, 2009
York Correctional Institute
for Women in Niantic, CT started the Prison PUP. Partnership January
20th, 1999. The program is run in conjunction with National Education
for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS). A nonprofit organization,
NEADS has been training dogs
to assist people who are deaf, hearing impaired or physically
disabled since 1976; and since 1998, they've been placing puppies
with inmates in various correctional facilities. The prison program's
goal is to speed up the training process for assistance dogs.
Because the dogs in the prison program live with the inmate 24/7,
the inmates are able to focus on the dogs and do more advanced
training than the 16 months it typically takes volunteers in their
homes. It also reduces the time a dog needs to spend with a professional
trainer. But not just any inmate can become a puppy trainer. York
inmates must undergo a rigorous screening process that demands
they have a clean discipline record at the facility, a high level
of maturity and motivation and at least 18 months left on their
sentence ( the maximum time it takes to train a dog). The puppy
handlers also learn about dog grooming, basic health, training
material, complete written assignments, keep a daily log of the
puppy's activities and attend weekly classes with trainers.
The puppies are usually 8 weeks when they are assigned to an inmate
puppy handler. There is a period of adjustment that consists of
the puppy becoming comfortable in his crate, the new environment
and the challenge of potty training. Once this is mastered, the
basic commands begin: sit, down, shake (puppy gives you their
paw). As the puppy matures the puppy handler begins to work on
harder commands; down stay, carry, bring, take. The dogs will
learn to turn light switches on and off with their paw and/or
nose, pull open a refrigerator door, retrieve a portable telephone.
The dogs must be taught to put all items in their trainers hand.
Before a dog leaves the inmate handler they should be able to
walk "heel" beside a wheelchair or walker, stay in a
down position for hours, in case their new client is not mobile.
and put items asked for directly in to the hand of their new owner.
Some of the York graduated dogs carry laptops, retrieve dropped
keys, are used for balance as a walker dog instead of the client
using a walker or crutches. All of the puppies entering the prison
program are trained the same. Once they are returned to NEADS
they determine if a dog will be a Social dog, Service dog, Walker
dog, Hearing dog, etc..
Training puppies in prison is a winning situation for the puppy
and its trainer. Unconditional love.
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CeCe
and NEADS
Partnership
She’s a working gal named CeCe. CeCe, a golden lab mix is
a service dog I received from NEADS. Her daily activities can
be anything but ordinary.
My juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
has resulted in a severe walking disability, inability to reach
items on or near the floor and to get up after a fall.
CeCe makes life much easier
for me. She picks up and retrieves items and helps with my balance
when walking. CeCe nudges accessible door plaques to open doors
and can press elevator buttons. At home she brings the phone when
I fall so I can summon help. At the market, she picks up and hands
me low placed small items such as cat food cans.
CeCe accompanies me everywhere
I go from the market, various meetings I attend, to an occasional
restaurant. Until recently, she accompanied me at work in a retail
establishment as well. She has become a familiar presence at the
Legislative Office Building in Concord where she frequently attends
both House and Senate hearings as I testify on legislation concerning
disability and service dog issues.
But CeCe’s greatest glory
may be the year she was named the official mascot for the Seacoast
Cat Club. She’s the first dog to attend CFA cat shows. Since
her feline playmate, Puck, is a show cat, CeCe accompanies us
through the show hall and watches him in the judges rings. CeCe
is not at all bothered by being the only dog in the hall. For
CeCe it brings its own rewards. She receives a lot of attention
from cat show friends and judges alike. One of her favorite judges
even gave her first—“winner’s ribbon”
which she proudly wore throughout the show hall for the rest of
the day.
When asked about all she does,
CeCe replied, “For a service dog, it’s all in a days
work.”Sandra Teti, Service
Dog User 2009.
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KING
PINTO
CindyGonnerman
and her Dog Guide Pinto
Pinto
and I have been partners since October 2006. He's always eager
to please and does his best when facing a new challenge. Our adventures
have taken us from snow in the winter to hiking, boats and docks
in the summer, and even on a road trip from New Hampshire to Chicago
to be in the audience of the Oprah Winfrey Show. We're both spontaneous,
love new adventures and sometimes just like to act silly.
I call him Mr. Pinto Beanie because he is always "full of
beans." He loves to play with his toys and gets very annoyed
if I talk on the phone or use the computer instead of playing
with him. He'll try to get my attention by throwing his toys at
me and will even put his head on top of the keyboard. His favorite
activity is running loose at the enclosed courtyard at our local
Veteran's Home, where we volunteer.
Pinto has an extremely kind, affectionate and loving nature. He
loves it when we visit veterans at our local Veterans Home. It
always makes me smile when he wags his tail and gets excited.
His tail gets quite a workout and sometimes he even wags when
he's working, usually when I tell him he is doing a good job.
I could never ask for a more loving and loyal partner.
The
past 2 years Pinto has represented my Guide Dog School in their
annual calendar as Mr. January. This year he was chosen out of
over 300 entries. Even though he is extremely handsome and regal,
someone once described him as, "Looking like a King, but
acting like a Prince." I could not agree more.
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Guide
Dogs and Puppy Raising: An Opportunity to Change a Life
Vicente travels to Argentina with
guide dog, Cabrina.
From NHAB Spring 2009 Newsletter
Kristin from Nashua, uses a
white cane but complains, “It doesn’t find everything!”
Kristin has completed the prerequisite Orientation and Mobility
Training from the New Association for the Blind. In April, she’ll
be heading out to Boring, Oregon to meet her new guide dog at
the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind. “Every day I remind
myself that I am one day closer to getting my new best friend.”
Kristin plans to post a Live Journal about her experiences during
the training period. “Having a guide dog will make my life
fuller than it already is.”
Vicente, traveled to his homeland,
Argentina, with his guide dog, Cabrina. When Vicente first considered
the possibility of having a guide dog, he was concerned that he
might not be able to care for it. That was until he learned that
one of his friends, also visually impaired, had a guide dog. So,
Vicente decided to try. The training is intense but worth it.
He trusts his companion Cabrina and says, “When I walk with
my dog, I feel free!”
Carol, a guide dog user for 38 years declares, “Except for
my family, having a guide dog has been the best thing that has
happened to me in my life.”
Of those clients who have guide dogs, all will tell you that they
can’t imagine their lives without their loyal companions.
For Cindy, a new guide dog user, using her cane made her “think
too much and made her feel blind.”
Guide dogs aren’t just born, they’re raised. Raising
a guide dog requires time, effort, patience and love. In order
for a puppy to be ready to work with clients like Kristin, Vicente,
Carol and Cindy, they must go through several months of extensive
training.
Puppies can be raised on a farm, in the city and with large families
or small. The puppies need to learn house manners and basic obedience.
Raisers learn how to prepare their home and train and socialize
the puppies. Puppies need to experience new sights, sounds and
be trained in areas with distractions, such as people, other dogs
and in traffic. Places where puppies are socialized include grocery
stores, schools, businesses, restaurants, shops and malls, not
to mention trains, planes and automobiles!
Common dog breeds are Labrador and Golden Retrievers with about
10% being German Shepherds. Research shows that approximately
60% of puppy raisers are repeat raisers. Because it takes a level
of maturity, discipline and commitment to work with a guide dog,
the majority of clients must be 16 years of age. There is no upper
age limit for people who have the stamina and health to work with
a guide dog. The dogs are highly trained working animals. Several
thousand hours of training are needed.
There are 13 schools which train dogs in the US. One well-known
school is The Seeing Eye Center (Morristown, NJ). They celebrated
their 80th Anniversary on January 29, 2009. A second school in
Yorktown, NY is Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Many NHAB clients
have dogs from Guiding Eyes for the Blind. The school has a terrific
field “follow up” program to ensure proper grooming,
medical treatment, exercise, etc.
If you are a guide dog user in New Hampshire, or would like to
learn more about guide dogs or puppy raisers, the Guide Dog Users
of NH is a support group that promotes the use of Guide Hearing
and Service Dogs for the disabled. Two articles about guide dogs
and puppy raisers will be posted on their website(www.dogguideusersnh.org)
or just call 603-434-6042. Check it out!
Puppy raising is a wonderful experience and a great opportunity
to change a life.
Gretha, an aspiring Guide
Dog.
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Raising
a Guide Dog Puppy
How did I ever become involved
with Guide Dog Foundation and raising a future guide dog puppy?
Many years back I decided I
wanted to add a second dog to our household. I spent much time
and thought into what breed dog would come into our family. On
a Sunday while reading the newspaper I came across an advertisement
from Guide
Dog Foundation to raise a puppy for a year and prepare them
to become a guide or service dog. What could be any better. This
is exactly what I wanted to do. I contacted the Foundation the
following morning and the Area Coordinator for NH in turn contacted
me. We met and he also met my pet dog. I was so excited and full
of questions. I started reading the “puppy manual”
from GDF immediately, anxiously awaiting a phone call when my
new puppy would arrive.
The day that first future guide
dog puppy arrived has changed and enriched my life forever.
The rewards are great. It also can be a little heartbreaking when
it is their time to return to The Guide Dog Foundation to begin
their formal guide training. A good way to look at this is the
pup is furthering their education.
This pup comes into my home
and my life when it is 8-12 weeks old. Now my work begins. First
comes house training along with learning to potty on command and
crate training, followed with basic obedience, good and polite
manners for real world situations. Every pup is different to raise.
Some are much more challenging than others. Some want to please
quicker than others. My commitment and common goal is to give
every pup the best chance at becoming a guide or service dog.
As time moves along the pup
will be exposed to all environments reinforcing what they have
learned and adding in new teachings. We go to restaurants, shopping,
travel, banks, post office, hotels, a bus or train ride. They
learn to navigate going up and down stairs slowly on any type
of stairs (open back, closed back, concrete, wood, grated, etc).
They learn to stop and wait at doors, even the automatic opening
doors along with the “switch” command for a left handed
opening door. This is a small example of the pups learning's.
Some traditional commands will
have a different meaning for guide puppies. For a new puppy raising
family this may take a little getting used to.
“Celebration Sunday”
is when a puppy raiser is invited to GDF to meet and celebrate
with the new working dog guide team. This day is one of the proudest
days you can ever experience.
These pups are amazing and
I could not ever ask for anything more than the privilege and
honor to raise a future guide or service dog.
Becky, Puppy Raiser in New
Hampshire
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GUIDE
DOG FOUNDATION MY STORY
I have had seven dog guides including the one I
have now and have used dog guides for over thirty years. I love
this means of travel because it gives me the freedom to walk with
ease. I also love the teamwork that occurs and love the companionship
of having a working dog in my life. I can’t even begin to
explain the journey with one dog guide. What I can say is that
when a dog is seasoned all the work that is put into the team
is worth it.
To continue this discussion, as with anything, when an experience
is new, it is front and center on our minds. This is also true
when getting a new dog. The school experiences keep you focused
on the dog and “working correctly.” As time goes on,
life takes over; skills with that dog improve and there is less
thinking of what I call “the dog experience.” One
isn’t forced to think about it until it’s time for
another dog. For me this whole dog thing remained front and center
for the past two years because I had two previous dogs that did
not work out. So, I went to GDF with a little fear and trepidation
thinking this next dog might not work out as well. Maybe it’s
me!
But, let me back up and tell you a little of my
experience with getting my seventh dog Taylor at GDF.
My first dog (a golden retriever) came from the
Guide Dog Foundation. The next few came from another school that
did only home training and the dog guides are Shepherds. The third
school I got dogs that were all labs. My experience with three
out of four labs was unsuccessful so I wanted to go back to the
golden and that is the reason for my return to the Guide
Dog Foundation (GDF).
The Process.
GDF tries to match their dogs with the blind person before “that”
person arrives at the school. So, they like to have a video of
the blind person walking in their home turf and there are criteria
that they ask for when doing the video. Things like showing an
intersection with a traffic light; walking a route that is done
often; walking sighted guide with another person and so on. If
the applicant can’t provide this, then the school will come
and do it. The school also does a home interview either in person
or on the phone. Then the applicant is reviewed by a committee
and is notified of acceptance. Then, the student is invited by
a trainer to attend a particular session. This school only invites
a student if they know of a matching dog for that student. The
whole process is as intense as helping your child apply for college
and the waiting is as bad.
First Three Days
The Guide Dog Foundation is located in Smithtown Long Island.
I arrived there on Monday,, August 4th. I along with two others
were met at Kennedy airport by a trainer and driven to the school.
One was a 79-year-old woman from Washington D.C. The other was
a 22-year-old woman from Florida. Both were receiving their first
dogs. And, while we’re on the subject I will tell you where
the others were from. There were twelve of us—three from
Florida, one from Alabama, three from Pennsylvania, one from North
Carolina, one from Washington D.C., one from New York city, one
from Ohio and me from NH.
When we arrived we were shown to our rooms—we
each had our own room which was a life-saver when having to live
together for twenty-five days.
We got a tour of the dorm and in the dining room we were shown
where we would sit. There were four tables with three students
at each. The fourth spot would be taken by a trainer.
Our class had two trainers and a field rep. My table
was the noisy table. I would banter back and forth with another
woman and we would have a great time with whichever trainer was
sitting with us.
The first and second days were also spent with walking
with a trainer with the harness. This would confirm with the trainer
(they had our videos) our pace, the pull we preferred, as well
as help us to learn the campus a bit. The first and second days
were also spent learning commands—how to give the left and
right turn. The footwork is different at each school and the student
learns positioning before receiving a dog. We also learned the
“about” command which is the command for turning around
and heading the other direction. We learned the “find”
command which is a command given to a dog when directing the dog
to find a chair, the stairs, an elevator and other common areas.
Also, we learned the commands “over left” or “over
right.” To me, previously the “over left” command
meant walking along the left side of the road. It means this at
GDF but indoors it also means bear left or bear right when heading
down corridors. We also learned what is called leash guiding.
This is giving the dog commands while the dog is on leash. I remembered
this technique from thirty years ago but I was all thumbs with
it since other schools did not use this.
The night before we got our dogs we had a bereavement session.
This was very helpful. We could get our feelings out about our
previous dogs. This would help us to accept our new dog.
The other thing we learned early in training experience
was the GDF philosophy about corrections. There are no treats
given for good behavior. A correction is given only to get the
dog’s attention. Correction first is done with the voice,
then a harness correction, then the leash correction. We were
told that praise for good behavior was the key ingredient with
keeping our dogs working for us. I know that other schools use
treats along with praise for rewarding good behavior. Not so with
GDF.
So, on the third day of class we got our dogs. I
tell people that getting a dog is like having a baby without the
pain. The anticipation is so great! Taylor arrived. He is a golden
retriever and I immediately fell in love with him. We spent the
morning bonding. After lunch we worked with a trainer giving commands
with the dog on leash only. A side note—Donnie, the assistant
trainer in our class, was the trainer I worked with the most with
Taylor. He trained Taylor as well. We worked inside directing
the dog to walk down the halls of the dorm; “finding”
the elevator button: “finding” a seat, etc. We also
worked outside walking down the sidewalk stopping at an intersection,
crossing to another up curb and continuing. It is very difficult
for me to give commands concentrating on the skills to be used
with a dog and also knowing where I am.
The fourth day was spent walking on a bike path
to get the rhythm of walking with our new dogs. We also spent
a morning doing left turns only and the afternoon doing right
turns only. Training progressed to a town with stores, people
and obstacles for the dog to maneuver around. Then, to a bigger
town with more of the same.
As our training moved along, we fine-tuned our commands
learning to follow our dogs and trust them in their decisions
of navigating us through the environment. As days passed, people
went home leaving us with more trainer attention. I stayed for
the entire training this time (which I had not done since my first
dog) because I wanted the maximum support.
I have received home training from other schools as well as school
training. I favor home training because it is working on one’s
home turf. The progression with working the dog is much faster
in home training and the walks are longer. GDF offers this as
an option as well. However, this time I am glad for the school
training.
In conclusion I must say that Taylor and I are working
out fine. Follow-up from GDF has been great. There is a field
rep that covers New England. He has been to see me once and can
be called on whenever I need his advice or a visit. I have also
contacted Taylor’s trainer Donnie to let him know of the
nice work he has done training Taylor. Thanks also go to Taylor’s
puppy raiser Cynthia. She is from Atlanta Georgia and she did
a fine job teaching Taylor to be a ”good boy” at home.
So, Taylor and my journey are just beginning. We
will have many stories down the road to share. Jean Shiner, Dog
Guide Users of NH, Board Secretary 2009
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