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     How Guide Dogs Work
        by Tom Harris


   Table of Contents:

> Introduction
> What Guide Dogs Do
> On the Job and After Hours
> Where Guide Dogs Come From
> Puppy Raisers
> Training
> Forming a Team
> Guide Dog Instructors
> Retirement
> Lots More Information!

   *INTRODUCTION:

For most dog owners, the expression "work like a dog" doesn't make much
sense. While the typical canine companion certainly gives his owner
immeasurable happiness, it's obvious that he lives a life of remarkable
leisure. Our pets gracefully go from the carefree days of childhood
directly to the rest and relaxation of retirement, skipping the working
part of life entirely.

But some dogs happily perform very demanding jobs for much of their
life, putting in a full day's work just like the rest of us. Guide dogs,
one of the most familiar sorts of working dog, provide an invaluable
service to humans. Every day, they help their masters get from place to
place more safely.

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, we'll find out what the life of a
guide dog is all about: We'll see what their job is like, how they are
trained and what happens to them when they retire. We'll also learn what
we can all do to help guide dogs do their job correctly, and find out
about some ways interested people can get involved with raising guide
dogs.

Special thanks to Jane Russenberger, Louise Schofield and Lee Nordin at
Guiding Eyes for the Blind for all their help with this article. Thanks
also to Mary Cantando, for sharing her experiences of raising Sonar, a
future guide dog in the Guiding Eyes puppy-raising program.

   *What Guide Dogs Do:

Guide dogs help blind or visually impaired people get around in the
world. In most countries, they are allowed anywhere that the public is
allowed, so they can help their handlers be any place they might want to
go. To do this, a guide dog must know how to:
Keep on a direct route, ignoring distractions such as smells, other
animals and people
Maintain a steady pace, to the left and just ahead of the handler
Stop at all curbs until told to proceed
Turn left and right, move forward and stop on command
Recognize and avoid obstacles that the handler won't be able to fit
through (narrow passages and low overheads)
Stop at the bottom and top of stairs until told to proceed
Bring the handler to elevator buttons
Lie quietly when the handler is sitting down
Help the handler to board and move around buses, subways and other forms
of public transportation
Obey a number of verbal commands
Additionally, a guide dog must know to disobey any command that would
put the handler in danger. This ability, called selective disobedience,
is perhaps the most amazing thing about guide dogs -- that they can
balance obedience with their own assessment of the situation.

This capacity is extremely important at crosswalks, where the handler
and dog must work very closely together to navigate the situation
safely. When the team reaches the curb, the dog stops, signaling to the
handler that they have reached a crosswalk. Dogs cannot distinguish the
color of traffic lights, so the handler must make the decision of when
it is safe to proceed across the road. The handler listens to the flow
of traffic to figure out when the light has changed and then gives the
command "forward." If there is no danger, the dog proceeds across the
road in a straight line. If there are cars approaching, the dog waits
until the danger is gone and then follows the forward command.

In a handler-guide dog team, the guide dog doesn't lead the handler and
the handler doesn't completely control the guide dog; the two work
together to get from place to place. The guide dog doesn't know where
the destination is, so it must follow the handler's instructions of how
far to go and when to turn. The handler can't see the obstacles along
the way, so the guide dog must make its own decisions as to how to
navigate the team's path. Each half of the team relies on the other to
accomplish the tasks at hand.

As a guide dog gets more experience with its handler, it may be able to
take on even more responsibility. For example, many veteran guide dogs
know all of their master's usual destinations. All the handler has to
tell them is "go to the office" or "find the coffee shop," and the guide
dog will follow the complete route!

   *On the Job and After Hours:

Guide dogs enjoy their work immensely, and they get a lot of
satisfaction from a job well done, but there is no room for typical dog
fun during the work day. Games, treats and praise distract the dog from
helping its handler navigate the course. Even when the handler doesn't
need assistance, a guide dog on the job is trained to ignore
distractions and keep still. This is because a guide dog must be able to
come to the handler's workplace or be in public places without creating
a disturbance.

When you see a guide dog on the job, it is extremely important that you
recognize that it is at work. Petting or talking to the dog breaks its
concentration, which impairs the handler's ability to get around in his
or her surroundings. People are very impressed with guide dogs and so we
have a natural inclination to praise them, but the best thing you can do
to help a guide dog is to leave it alone so that it can pay attention to
its surroundings and maintain its focus on its handler. Guiding is very
complicated, and it requires a dog's undivided attention.

When a guide dog gets home at the end of the day, however, it will play
and soak up praise just like an ordinary pet. Guide dogs make the
distinction between work and play based on their lead harness: When the
harness is on, they must stay completely focused -- when it comes off,
it's play time. Guide dogs work very hard every day, but they lead
extremely happy lives, full of lots of attention and stimulation. Dogs
only end up working as guide dogs if they absolutely love the work. In
fact, many handlers report that their dogs leap enthusiastically into
the harness every morning!


   *Where Guide Dogs Come From:

Guide dogs come out of guide dog schools. Typically, these institutions
provide guide dogs for seeing-impaired people at no cost. Most schools
are completely non-profit operations, primarily funded by charitable
donations. Some training schools specialize in certain aspects of
training, but many of them organize just about everything involved in
setting up a guide dog with a handler. This includes:
Breeding guide dogs
Arranging puppy raising programs for future guide dogs
Evaluating prospective guide dogs
Training guide dogs
Training instructors
Training handlers
Matching handlers with suitable dogs
Re-evaluating and retiring guide dogs
Placing retired dogs in new homes
Most guide dog schools use golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers or
German shepherds. These three breeds are characterized by intelligence,
obedience, stamina and friendliness and so are well suited for the job.
Guide dog schools breed their dogs very carefully, choosing parents with
intelligence and special guiding ability.

Even with this attention to good breeding, many puppies don't turn out
to be suited for the job. At Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a respected
guide dog school based in Yorktown Heights, New York, trainers screen
young puppies for guiding aptitude, and release 20 percent of them from
the program. Some of these puppies go on to organizations that train
other sorts of service dogs -- dogs that help people in wheelchairs, for
example -- and the rest are sold as pets (with an agreement that the dog
will be spayed or neutered, in order to help control the pet
population).


Guide dogs are typically golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers or
German shepherds.

The other 80 percent of the puppies stay on the path to becoming guide
dogs. As we'll see in the following sections, the training is intense,
the emotional level is high and everybody works very hard. The results
are truly amazing: Guide dogs completely change their handlers' lives!


   *Puppy Raisers:
When they're ready to leave their mother, dogs that show a level of
aptitude for guiding go to a loving home to enjoy being a puppy and grow
into a well-trained young adult.
These volunteer puppy raisers are just ordinary people who go through an
application process and training program at the guide dog school. The
school screens for raising ability and works with puppy raisers
one-on-one to help them learn how to work with the puppy. In addition,
the school will generally provide the raisers with a manual and video
that tells them almost everything they need to know. The raiser's job is
to teach the puppy obedience skills, expose the puppy to all sorts of
people and environments and give the puppy all the love and attention it
needs to grow into a happy, confident dog that is ready for guide
training. Basically, raisers lay the groundwork for the more extensive
guide training to come.


Puppy raisers expose future guide dogs to all kinds of everyday
situations.

One of the most important aspects of raising a future guide dog is to
get it comfortable with all kinds of situations. Socialization is
important for any dog, but it is crucial for guide dogs, who must be
able to go anywhere without being distracted from their work. They must
be accustomed to loud noises, adverse weather conditions, crowds of
people and tricky obstacles. A guide dog needs to be confident in any
situation its handler might experience. In Guiding Eyes for the Blind
puppy raising programs, raisers typically expose the puppies to at least
five new experiences a week.

In order to excel in advanced training later on, the puppy needs to get
some experience with obedience early in life. Guiding Eyes for the Blind
teaches puppy raisers to first develop a good working relationship with
the dog. It is extremely important that future guide dogs are attentive
and responsive to their handlers, and that they have the self-confidence
to handle complex commands and stressful situations. The most important
job of a puppy raiser is fostering these qualities.

Raisers also teach puppies the basics of obedience -- to sit, lie down
and walk correctly on a leash -- and get them used to extensive training
sessions several times a week. Raisers train the puppy using leash
corrections and praise, never treat rewards. It's very important that a
future guide dog not be fixated on food because when they're on the job,
they will have to work without the expectation of a reward and they will
have to maintain concentration in restaurants and other areas with food
distractions.

Raising a future guide dog is a wonderful experience, but it is very
difficult emotionally. At the end of the puppy raising period, a little
over a year, the puppy raiser must bring the dog back to the training
school so it can go on to help a blind or visually impaired person.
Giving the dog up after raising it for a year is a very sad experience,
but puppy raisers are rewarded by the satisfaction of contributing to
the process. Most puppy raisers end up raising many future guide dogs,
because of the happiness it brings them.

If you're interested in raising a future guide dog, check the links at
the end of the article or look in the phone book for a guide dog school
in your area. Guiding Eyes for the Blind has a number of puppy training
programs set up on the east coast of the United States -- check this
page for a program in your area. Most schools have a comprehensive
program that will teach you everything you need to know to start a guide
dog off right. If you love dogs and have the time to care for a puppy,
you can play a critical part in the guide dog training process.

  Raising a Future Guide Dog
  by Mary Cantando:

When my husband and I decided we wanted to raise a future guide dog, the
first thing we found out is that all puppy raisers go through a pretty
thorough screening process. At Guiding Eyes for the Blind, prospective
raisers must complete an application process, attend meetings, and view
training videos. Following this orientation, local volunteers visit the
home for an interview. We went through this process last January, and a
few weeks later, we met Sonar, the yellow Lab who would be living with
us for the next 18 months.

Using GEB's training method, we had Sonar housebroken in one day. The
process is to take the puppy to the same outdoor place once every hour
or so. When he finally goes, we say in a very positive voice, "Sonar,
get busy" and then praise and pet him profusely. We did this a few times
and then, when we took him out, we said, "Sonar, get busy," and he did,
right away! Now he will only go on command. This is certainly an
important skill for a future guide dog; after all, a handler can't be
walking down the street in Philadelphia and have his dog relieve
itself -- that would give people a very unfavorable impression of guide
dogs.

Another interesting thing about guide dogs is that they go through doors
differently than other dogs. Before opening the door, I give the
commands "Sonar, sit," and "Sonar, stay." Then I open the door and say,
"Sonar, let's go." Once I'm outside the door, I tell Sonar to sit and
stay again. After closing the door, I say "Sonar, let's go." This lets
the handler know exactly where the dog is and what it's doing while he
locks or unlocks his door.

The puppies are evaluated every three months. At Sonar's eight-month
evaluation, he received a special coat that says "Guide Dog in
Pre-Training." Since receiving his coat, Sonar has been coming with us
all over town, which is what the program encourages. He comes with me
into the grocery store and as I go over to check out the bananas, he
sits on the floor next to my feet. I say, "Sonar, let's go" and he
immediately gets up and comes with me to the back of the store to get
coffee beans. He especially likes the checkout counter, as folks tend to
make a fuss over him there. I try to politely remind people that no one
should touch a guide dog without first asking the owner's permission.
This is a hard for children to learn, but it's very important, as a
guide dog should not be distracted when he is working.

The question that people always ask when we tell them we're raising
Sonar to be a guide dog is, "How will you be able to give him up?"
Here's how I look at it: We raised three children who have moved on to
live their own independent lives, and that's what we're doing with
Sonar. It will be tough to say goodbye when the time comes, but he's
destined for great things, and I know he will make all the difference in
the world as a wonderful partner for someone.

   *Training:
Once it is grown-up, socialized and well-trained, the dog returns to the
guide dog school for evaluation. Guide dog instructors look for a number
of qualities, including:
Intelligence
Willingness to learn
Ability to concentrate for extended periods of time
Attention to touch and sound
Good memory
Excellent health
Even if a dog has all these qualities, however, it may be a poor
candidate for training. Instructors screen out a lot of intelligent dogs
because they have undesirable qualities, such as:
Aggressive tendencies
Nervous temperament
Extreme reaction to cats or other dogs
After the instructor has spent some time with a dog, he or she decides
whether the dog is a good candidate for guide dog training, not suited
for guide dog training or not quite ready for guide dog training.

In some schools, if a dog is suited for training but not quite ready, it
may go back to the puppy raiser for a month or so to mature. If a dog is
simply not suited for training, the school will work to place the dog in
another line of work, such as tracking, or find it a permanent home,
usually offering it to the puppy raiser first. At Guiding Eyes for the
Blind, only the top 50 percent of the returning puppies will stay with
the school -- so the school places a little over 400 puppies with
raisers each year, needing only 200 dogs for the training program. Of
that 200, a small percentage will become breeding stock, for Guiding
Eyes or another school, and the rest will be considered for the training
program.

Training is a rigorous process for both the instructors and the dogs,
but it's also a lot of fun. To make sure the dogs are up to the
challenge, most schools test them extensively before beginning the
training. The tests are designed to assess the dogs' self-confidence
level, since only extremely confident dogs will be able to deal with the
pressure of guiding instruction. If a dog passes the tests, it begins
the training program right away.

Different schools have different programs, but typically, training will
last four to five months. To make sure the dogs master all the complex
guide skills, the instructors have to introduce them to each idea
gradually. Once they have introduced what is expected of the dog,
training is essentially a matter of rewarding correct performance and
punishing incorrect performance. This works with dogs because they are
pack animals and have a natural need to please an authority figure. The
instructor, and later the handler, is simply stepping into the place of
the alpha dog, the leader of the pack.

Unlike ordinary obedience training, guide dog training does not use food
as a reward for good performance. This is because a guide dog must be
able to work around food without being distracted by it. Instead,
instructors use praise or other reward systems to encourage correct
performance. The standard means of correction is pulling on the dog's
leash, so that it pulls a training collar, giving the dog a slight
pinch. Using this basic reward/punishment system, instructors work
through the necessary skills for guiding.

The first step is learning how to walk like a guide dog. This means
walking in a straight line, without being distracted by surrounding
activity. It also means keeping pace to the left and just ahead of the
handler, and responding to leash corrections as well as verbal commands.
Dogs learn how to walk correctly by degrees. First, they are simply
taught to move directly from point to point. Then, the instructors
steadily introduce greater and greater distractions, eventually
venturing out into malls and city streets, and correct the dog if it
veers off course. The process, which continues throughout the entire
training program, is largely a matter of building up the dog's
concentration level so that even the most tempting distraction won't
lure it off course.

The dogs are also learning to stop at curbs from the very beginning.
This is one of the most critical guide dog skills, because the safety of
the handler depends on absolute mastery of the concept. Once the dogs
have learned to always stop at a curb, they must learn how to judge
potential dangers before crossing the street.

Many training schools have simulated street intersections on their
campus so they can expose the dogs to a number of traffic situations.
The dogs learn how to handle themselves safely around cars, and develop
the ability to spot all sorts of potential dangers. This is the part of
the training that focuses on selective disobedience. To become a guide
dog, each candidate must demonstrate absolute mastery of crosswalk
navigation.

One tricky part of training is teaching the dog to navigate obstacles
with its handler in mind. Dogs learn fairly quickly to take the wide
path around objects in the handler's path, so the handler won't trip
over them. Learning how to deal with tight spaces is more difficult, but
through reward and correction, the instructor gradually demonstrates to
the dog that it should never go through a space that is too narrow or
too low for its handler.

Additionally, dogs must learn a number of commands, must always stop for
stairs and must practice all of the other necessary skills until they
become second nature. This is a lot to learn, and not all dogs succeed
in the program. At Guiding Eyes for the Blind, only about 72 percent of
dogs that enter the training program make it to graduation.

The dogs that do master all of the skills by the end of the training
period go on to the next step in the process: getting to know their
handlers.


   *Forming a Team:

The final stage of a guide dog's training is learning to work with its
new master. Guide dog training schools work very hard to match handlers
with guide dogs according to the compatibility of their personalities. A
very energetic dog typically does well with a young handler, while an
older handler may need an especially careful partner. Schools often have
a special gathering to commemorate the time when a new class of guide
dogs finally meet their masters. Often, the dog's puppy raiser attends
and meets with the new master as well. This is perhaps the most
emotional time in the entire training process.

After this introduction, guide dog instructors typically spend a month
helping the new team learn to work together. Many schools have
dormitories for the handlers to stay in during this final stage of
training.

If the handler has never used a guide dog before, a lot of the
instructor's work at this point is actually people-training, not
dog-training. The handler has to learn to read the dog's movements, so
he or she knows when the dog is turning or when the dog is stopping for
a crosswalk or stairs. Additionally, the handler has to learn all the
commands the dog knows, and must get some practice walking with the dog.
The dog has to make the transition from obeying the instructor to
recognizing the handler as its new master. The handler and the dog spend
a lot of this time just getting to know each other, so they are
comfortable enough to work as a team. By the time they graduate from the
guide dog school, they can read each other's every movement.

   *Guide Dog Instructors:

Guide dogs are typically trained by highly qualified instructors who are
assisted by a number of apprentice instructors. Procedures vary from
school to school, but in general, trainers must spend two to three years
as a supervised apprentice before they can move up to a master
instructor. Different states have different certification processes for
guide dog instruction.
Instructors and apprentice instructors are typically college graduates
with a good deal of prior experience dealing with both animals and
people. Because most guide dog schools are non-profit institutions,
instructor pay is relatively low for the education level required; it is
still, however, a very difficult job to get. Openings don't come up all
that often, and the competition is usually pretty tight. Often, trainers
work their way up to apprentice instructor by working with the school on
a lower level, such as raising guide dog puppies.

The job is extremely demanding intellectually, emotionally and
physically. Instructors work very hard for long hours, and they must
constantly deal not only with difficult animals but also with difficult
people. It is definitely rewarding work, though. Instructors say they
get a great deal of satisfaction from helping a difficult dog master its
job, and they're certainly very happy putting together a functioning
dog-and-handler team.

   *Retirement:

Working as a guide dog requires peak physical and mental shape, so guide
dogs typically retire just before they enter old age. Older dogs are
usually sharp enough to keep working, but they may slow down a little,
which hinders their ability to keep up with the brisk pace of their
handlers. Retirement is usually at age eight or 10; but some work for a
little longer, and some guide dogs retire earlier if they're having
trouble with the work. A few dogs from the Guiding Eyes for the Blind
program are still working at age 13!
When a guide dog retires, the handler will get a new dog, but he or she
may also have the option to keep the retired dog as a pet. If the
handler can't keep two dogs, then the guide dog school looks for a new
home for the retired dog. The school may track down the original puppy
raisers, or it may place the dog in a new loving home. Schools generally
have a waiting list of people who want to adopt a retiree. After all,
former guide dogs are extremely intelligent and friendly and have
perfect manners -- who wouldn't want one? Giving a retired guide dog a
loving home is also an excellent way to help reward these amazing
animals for a lifetime of hard, important work.

*End of Article

   *Lots More Information:

For more information on guide dogs, check out the links on the
[following Web] page:


http://www.howstuffworks.com/guide-dog9.htm

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