Puppies learn to be heroes at the SA Guide-Dog Association
FOURWAYS – Read more on how guide dogs are taught to change the world.
The SA Guide-Dog Association introduced their puppy training to the community and invited councillor Candice James and Fourways Review to observe their training regime.
The puppy training is a process that takes a lot of time and effort. The puppies are given to a ‘puppy raiser’, which is someone with sufficient time to train these lovely animals. This continues for the first year of the puppy’s life and the puppy lives at the home of the volunteer.
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The puppies will then move to the association’s facilities for formal training when they turn one.
Clicker training has recently been introduced in the South African guide-dog world, and Alida Pansegrouw, an expert at the association, gave us the insight into what that entails. “Clicker training is a positive training method that is being used. Guide-Dogs South Africa is in the process of modernising training methods to get at the front of positive reinforcement training methods.
“There are a lot of great benefits with clicker training. Clicker training is done with a little device that makes a ‘click’ sound that is used to mark the desired behaviour. The ‘click’ is followed by a treat as positive reinforcement.
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“It has been shown that the dogs are more likely to learn and repeat actions when there is a consequence that is fun and enjoyed by the dog. The dogs learn to make associations through positive reinforcement. The ‘click’ sound is brief, distinct, different, neutral and easy to deliver.”
Guide dogs really do try hard to improve human lives.
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