Guide Dog Training: How To Do It
Guide dogs or guide dogs become the eyes of the visually impaired. These dogs are trained to lead their human through obstacles on the public highway, and even to disobey an order if it poses a danger to him.
These dogs are so good at their job that, for anyone unfamiliar with their training, they surprise and raise questions at the same time. How do they get to such a point of effectiveness? Here you can learn about the entire process they go through from birth to graduation.
History of guide dogs
The first systematic attempt to train dogs to help visually impaired people occurred in Paris in 1780. Later, during the First World War, Gerhard Stalling decided to train dogs to help all the soldiers, who returned blinded by toxic gases from the camp. battle.
Around the same time, American Dorothy Harrison Eustis, who was already training working dogs for the police and military, joined the guide dog movement. The intervention of this woman was what would launch the use of guide dogs on the international scene.
Since then, guide dog schools have multiplied across the globe. Thousands of people have transformed their lives thanks to guide dogs, increasingly improving in mobility and autonomy as time progresses.
What is guide dog training like?
Training begins from the childhood of the canid. This process follows a series of stages:
- Foster home: the dog spends a year maturing in all the basics of being a dog, at the same time it gets used to socializing and being around people.
- 4 Months Old – Begins training in basic guide dog tasks, while working on overriding hunting and protection instincts.
- 8 months old: hunter and territorial instincts are reassessed to verify that they have been eliminated.
- One year of life: the dog enters the second training cycle, this time advanced, where it will be definitively evaluated if it meets the necessary skills to guide a blind person.
- Trial period: once assigned to a human, the performance of their duties is evaluated for 3 weeks. If the result is positive, the dog is considered suitable to be a guide.
- A guide dog has approximately 7 to 8 years of active life, then retires and can be adopted.
Keys to training guide dogs
In the training mentioned above, a series of essential elements are taken into account, without which this training would not be effective. You have them below:
- Use of the harness: the harness is the link between the dog and the human. The dog must get used to carrying it, since the metal handle can be annoying for him at first.
- Walk in a straight line : Although it seems obvious, this is the first thing a guide dog is taught. It is necessary that you do not get distracted by external stimuli when you walk from one point to another.
- Going up and down curbs: slopes are especially dangerous for a person who cannot see. The dog learns to stop at any curb to warn his human that he is facing a change in the height of the terrain.
- Dodge Obstacles – This is the most complex part of training. The dog will learn how to overcome obstacles, showing the way to his guardian at a certain distance from him or her.
- Pedestrian traffic regulations: it is essential that the canid knows that it must stop whenever there are vehicles nearby, such as at traffic lights or zebra crossings. In addition, you will learn to stop whenever there is a risk of being run over.
Guide dog characteristics
Not all dogs are suitable to become guides. To ensure the safety of canid and human, there are a series of strict requirements that you have below:
- Be of a suitable size : canids must weigh between 28 and 45 kilos.
- Be emotionally and psychically balanced.
- Have strongly marked personality traits; among them, obedience, discipline, intelligence and serenity.
- Be submissive.
- Have a robust physical health : you cannot suffer from bone, cardiovascular or respiratory problems, as well as allergies and other complications that may compromise your integrity and performance.
- Be awake and mentally active, with good learning ability.
- Have a sociable and human-friendly character.
Not all breeds are suitable to become guide dogs. The 3 most used are the German Shepherd, the Labrador and the Golden Retriever. The former, however, is less and less selected, due to its strong guarding and herding instincts.
How do you get a guide dog?
The dog is not the only one that has the requirements to become a human’s guide. The person who adopts it as an assistant must be autonomous with the cane and have a good level of orientation, since the dog is not a GPS, but is guided by the indications of the blind.
On the other hand, the person must be in adequate psychophysical faculties to handle the dog and take responsibility for its care. Likewise, the economic situation of the person must be sufficient to take care of the maintenance costs of the animal.
Depending on the country where it is requested, some details may vary. In any case, the work of these dogs will be commendable wherever they are: there is not enough gratitude for an animal that dedicates its life to helping a human without having asked.
It might interest you …
Read it in My animals If you want your dog to compete at high levels and win contests, you need to train him in a special way. Follow our guidelines to …
