Guide Dogs........

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Alec Swan

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I will openly admit, that how they get the thought process into place, is completely beyond me!!

I will also admit to being opinionated, and like to think, that I have a better than "rough idea" of what's going on in the average brain, of the average woofer. However, to install a discipline, and then best of all, maintain that discipline, when a dog is being handled by someone WHO'S BLIND, and will not be able to use the sight tool, amazes me even further. I need all my faculties about me, and that includes my sight! :o

I've thought about it, and thought about it, and it staggers me. To say that I'm impressed is an understatement. Does anyone know of a good read, which would explain, to a layman, just how it's done, and the set protocol?

Alec.
 
I've just read a fantastic book: Dogs - Raymond and Lorna Coppinger,and he has large section on assistance dogs.

It seems to be a weird life for them as the gain nothing from helping us - the breeding gene pool is very small as most organisations will only accept dogs from certain breeders, thus increasing hereditary problems, and the working dogs themselves are neutered/spayed, so no chance to breed (and thus be rewarded in the genetic gene pool).
Most of these oranisations, it is claimed, breed for quantity, and not quality, thus the less 'trainable' dogs are disgarded, and there are plenty more possible to take their place.

The dogs prey drive is trained/bred out of them - again a big reward in dogs, chasing things is fun and could result in food!

The dogs that are reared in kennels appaer to have very little human contact, an intense training session a day, and then left. Apparently they very rarely get to meet anyone in a wheelchair, thus much lower down to the ground, so this is obviously strange for them.

By the end of the section, I actually felt quite sorry for these assistance dogs, and felt that it was a real shame that they work so hard for us and we make so little effort to understand how their minds work

The book is an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in understaning canines in general.
 
Personally I think guide dogs especially have a pretty poor life!! They also reject a huge amount of dogs as they have to qualify in a certain amount of time and for alot of the dogs it's too much pressure xx
 
I often say to people that knowing my dogs I don't think I could ever have faith in a guide dog if I were blind :rolleyes:, but having said that I am always amazed when I see a guide dog working. My son and I were in a very busy shopping centre in half term week and there was a labrador guide dog, watching him weave his way through the crowds brought a lump to my throat, and I also got quite cross at the ignorant buggers who didn't get out of his way.:mad:
I had a long chat with these people at the British Sieger show, not in competition with Guide dogs for the Blind just offering people who want a GSD the choice.

http://www.pathfinderdogs.org/
 
No help to you Alec (sorry!), but just thought I'd mention, as it's vaguely on topic, that some training centres use 'foster homes' who have the in-training dogs to live with them while they are training. The dogs get used to normal home life, and the foster homers get to have a fully paid for dog for evenings and weekends only.

I have city-living friends who do this and find it very rewarding. They wouldn't have their own dog because they both work full time and live in the city, but this set up is ideal for them as the training folks pick the dog up in the morning and drop it off home at night all tired out (in theory!) after a long day at school. At weekends they go off on long walks or camping trips, so the dog gets to have some fun too. Obviously it's sad when they have to say goodbye, but it's helped by the fact that the foster-ers get to do a trial blindfolded walk with their dog so they can experience exactly how important a job it is going off to do.

As a slight aside, it's frankly astounding how non-perfect the general behaviour and training of some of these young dogs is - bad recall, being manic in the house etc - but I guess they work so well in harness that 'little' things like that don't matter so much...? Or they get worked on further when the dog is with its new owner? Who knows!
 
I got chatting to someone who had previously worked at Guide Dogs (not as a trainer, as a sort of fund/awareness raising person) and he said his understanding was that the dogs they chose were not particularly bright. They learnt very simply, by rote: do good thing, get reward. I was talking to him about my mischevious terrierist and he was saying he'd never be the type to make a guide dog because he thinks too much, and questions things too much, if that makes sense.

However they do it, the results are amazing, and the dogs that do it are amazing.
 
I know a lady who has bred a couple of litters that went on to be guide dogs and she can't get her head round it. She got into it by accident when she fell very ill when her bitch was due to give birth - the bitch is a tad 'speshul' so she was amazed when nearly all the pups made it through training.
 
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