Puppy training makes good guide dogs
PAULSHOF- The South African Guide Dogs Association for the Blind and their volunteers put a lot of time and effort into training the dogs that will be used as guide, service or social dogs and it all starts with puppy training.
The South African Guide Dogs Association for the Blind and their volunteers put a lot of time and effort into training the dogs that will be used as guide, service or social dogs and it all starts with puppy training.
The association based in Paulshof, breed all their own dogs on the premises. Monica Steen, the puppy raising supervisor, said that they mainly breed labradors and golden retrievers and also cross the two breeds because they have the best temperament for training.
When the puppies are seven-weeks old they are placed with a puppy raiser.
Puppy raisers are volunteers who go through a stringent process of interviews and home visits before they are allowed to raise the puppy. “A puppy raiser can’t have a full time job or they need to work from home. They also need to have enough space and not have other dogs that might be be aggressive,” Steen explained.
The puppy training includes obedience classes but also requires the puppy raiser to take their puppy for walks throughout the day, including walks in shopping centres and alongside roads. “The more we expose the puppies to people, different sounds and smells and other animals, the better it is for them later on,” Steen said. Once a week the puppy raisers meet Steen at different shopping centres to socialise the puppies.
“The puppies also have kennel time where they stay in the kennel for an hour or two at a time and see their puppy raiser walk away. This prepares them for when they need to start their formal training,” she said. “The puppy never forgets its puppy raiser though. They may see them years later and will still recognise them.”
The formal training starts when the dog is one year-old and it is during this time that the dog is assessed and chosen as either a guide dog, service dog or social dog. “Guide dogs assist blind people, service dogs assist people with disabilities such as people who are wheelchair-bound and social dogs are emotionally supportive dogs, they are often placed with children who have autism,” Steen explained.
