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English daily published in Bengaluru & Doha
The paws that serve: Training and evaluations will transform these wiggly pups into responsible guide dogs for people with vision impairment
Carolyn Kaster
The five 8-week-old Labrador retriever and German shepherd puppies were open-hearted balls of fluff when they first arrived at Tipton Airport in Fort Meade earlier this month. Now, they are on a path to greatness — potentially as guide dogs that will transform the lives of people with vision loss and vision impairment.
The furry faithfulfriendsto-be traveled aboard a “Pilots To The Rescue” flight from the Guiding Eyes for the Blind headquarters in Yorktown Heights, New York, where they were born and spent the first two months of their lives with their moms and siblings.
Although the young canines have been bred for health and temperament, it will require the expertise of the volunteer Puppy Raisers here to transform the excitable, wiggly youngsters into well-trained, well-mannered, and wellsocialised dogs.
The process will involve 14 to 16 months of weekly classes and evaluations. Training starts with the basics: name recognition, manners, and commands such as “sit” and “down.” More complex commands are then taught before the puppies are introduced to the world by the raisers and the raiders’ families.
Cindy Tait, a regional manager for Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s Puppy Program, and others keep a watchful eye on the training and help with bumps along the way.
Once a solid, loving foundation is in place, puppies must leave their raisers and return to the Guiding Eyes training center for formal guide dog training. Formal training is where, ultimately, the dogs demonstrate whether they will become a guide for the blind, a different kind of service dog, or someone’s pet.
Denali is one of four bigger puppies placed aboard a return flight to Guiding Eyes the day the new recruits arrived. Tait got tears in her eyes as she watched Puppy Raiser Carolyn Schaefer say goodbye to the yellow lab and walk him to the plane.
“This is the hard part,” Tait said. But she said knowing a guide dog has the power to help people soften the blow.
Puppy raisers come back over and over. Tait has raised Roxanne, Katrina, Velour, Gus, Mystic, Oregon, Kelby, Tad, Eagle, Winnie, and now Kenji, her 11th guide dog puppy. – AP
An Aroostook County courthouse is poised to be the first in Maine to have a dedicated therapy dog to provide emotional support for people dealing with traumatic experiences. A yellow Labrador puppy named Holiday has begun up to two years of training with a goal of becoming a calming presence in a stressful environment.
Aroostook County District Attorney Todd Collins says that courthouse dogs can help traumatised children and victims of crime. They can also provide emotional support for law enforcement officers, first responders and others, too.
“A courthouse dog can provide emotional support for everyone,” he said. The Houlton courthouse already has an unofficial therapy dog — an English Mastiff named Nephi — who can sometimes be found in the office of his owner, Valerie Eldredge, the victim/witness advocate in Houlton.
The holiday will have a much more focused job once she completes her training, said Tyler Jones, owner of Purpose Pups in Houlton who is training Holiday to become an officially licensed courthouse dog. Karley Allen, the owner of Northern Woods Labs, which donated the puppy, said she believes in the power of dogs to heal. “They are truly heart healers that give endless love and can give so much back to our communities when placed in these roles,” she said. – AP
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