Guide dogs

Guide dogs, if you have ever seen a guide dog assisting a blind or sighted person navigating through the outside

world, you may have liked the dogs ’behavior, skills, and apparent psychological abilities to know what is coming

next and communicate with a therapist or owner!

While guide dog training is of course highly specialized and delivered to a very high standard, with many potential

guide dogs not making rows and dropping out of training before they meet a potential blind trainer.

There is no magic used in training guide dogs, and training them simply involves harnessing the innate abilities and

intelligence of the dog and making him work within the tasks of a specific role.

In this article, we'll look at guide dogs for the blind in more detail, in terms of what is involved in training them,

what they are taught to do, and what they cannot do! Read on to find out more.

Training starts with the right dog

 Not just any ancient dog can be a guide dog. Guide dogs need to possess a set of essential basic traits before they

can be considered for training.

High intelligence is of course a must, but it is not enough. A dog also should be ready to learn, take care to please,

be able to hold their heads down, and stay focused even when faced with a lot of stimulation and things running

around him.

There are certain dog breeds that tend to possess such traits more common than others, including the Golden

Retriever, Labrador Retriever, and some hybrid breeds like the Labradoodle and Cockapoo.

Today, most potential guide dogs are bred for this purpose, but the Canine Guide Association for the Blind still

sometimes assess and consider pups can be trained outside of their breeding program as well.

Early days

 When a potential guide dog puppy wipes from the dam and has its vaccine, it will be paired with a puppy walker,

which is a special volunteer who looks after the puppy for the first year of its life.

It begins with their basic training and an assessment of their future role. First-year guide dog trainee puppies wear

a special blue belt to teach them as new recruits!

The puppy will live at home with their pup walking in order to get used to the normal home environment and the

daily challenges they will face when working.

As part of this, they will attend natural canine grooming lessons and basic training, gain exposure to the usual full

the first year of life challenges, such as meeting new dogs and people, being around roads and traffic, and generally

taking stimulation as much as possible.

While a puppy is general, he should be able to obey all basic commands such as sitting and staying with complete

confidence, and also for use in driving and moving forward under control.

Once the puppy reaches a year of age, they return to a guide dog training center, and their training begins in

earnest!

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next step

A year-old dog will undergo extensive training and evaluation before they are ready to work with a blind or partially

sighted handler and to express their progress so far, they leave their neighbor's blue belt behind and go up to

brown!

Guide dogs

Second-year trainees learn all the specific skills they need to be able to help the blind person navigate, such as

staying on a straight path unless there is an obstacle in their path, waiting at hurdles and waiting for an order to

turn or cross, and stopping at corners waiting for a direction.

Dogs are also taught to judge the dimensions of doors and other openings, to ensure they do not perform their

handler in a place where they will hit their head!

Guide dogs are also taught via the toilet while driving, getting an amazing look at how this works and how blind

people can effectively scavenge after finding their dogs here.

Match the right dog with the right person

When a guide dog is actually ready to go, he must first match his potential new handler! There is much more to it

than meets the eye, and it's not just a case for ensuring that your dog and person sympathize and like each other!

Factors that include the height of a potential owner, his normal pace, and general lifestyle, all go into the equation

to ensure a perfect fit.

New dog and dog owners spend four to six weeks together as a trial run before they are officially hired for life,

and at this point, the trained dog "graduates", receiving its oversized white belt, to indicate its new skills!

What can guide dogs do and what not?

Guide dogs are really smart, but there are limitations to what can be expected of them! Some of the basic skills that guide dogs possess the following:

• Driving its owner down a straight road while stopping or avoiding obstacles, including alerting the owner to steps or changes in elevation or slope.
• Stop to signal to their owner that there is a low-pitched or head-high hitch in front of them, implying the dog's ability to judge their handler's height!
• Stopping or constipation again to alert the therapist of potential risks; For example, if an audible signal that the road is clear tells the coach that the road is safe when in reality the cars are still moving.
• Guide dogs always work in the harness, which performs three roles: The handler provides excellent control and the ability to sense the dog's responses effectively, as well as alert others that the person with the dog is partial or blind.
• Also, the dog knows that when they are dressed they are in a working position, and take responsibility for their owner's safety. When the belt comes, they can relax!