Southeastern Guide Dogs Dogs in Training:
After puppy raisers have cared for and loved their puppies in training for 16 months they are turned over to the kennel assistants and trainers at Southeastern Guide Dogs so they can be molded into the confident guides they’re destined to be. A kennel assistant has been charged with the care of the newbies in the receiving kennel and spends much of his day getting the dogs comfortable with their new environment. He takes them on walks around campus, brushes them, plays with them in the yard, etc. He also carefully checks to make sure none of the dogs are experiencing too much stress. If they start to show any signs of distress, he will take them aside and do whatever it takes to make them feel at home.
The dogs are first introduced to the harness. The trainers look for any reaction, such as stiffening or tail tucking, when the harness is put on. After a minute or so in harness, it is removed, and they move onto the next big test — traffic. The trainer walks each dog along a busy street, carefully watching for any signs of stress in the dogs from the whizzing traffic in downtown. Then it is on to stairs. The trainers are checking to be sure that the dogs don’t rush or pull up or down the stairs.
Along the way, the trainers will also mimic loud noises by slamming the mail box or newspaper stands, all the while making sure the dog is not bothered or stressed. The final challenge in temperament testing is over at the bus stop. Here the trainers want to be sure the dogs are comfortable around the big buses and the usual bustling crowd of people.
The next step for the freshmen dogs is working their first route in harness and an introduction to the clicker. Southeastern’s dogs are expected to work for nothing more than praise for a job well done, but recently the training has been expanded to include clicker training. In clicker training, the dog is expected to do a certain task, and if done correctly, a click sound is made followed immediately by a treat reward. While this method of training is highly effective in the beginning stages of training, it is quickly phased out as the dogs progress. You wouldn’t want a working guide dog expecting a treat every time it successfully completed a task it would be distracting to the dog and handler and could put the team in danger.
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Southeastern-Guide-Dogs/92490953062 For a more indepth look at Southeastern Guide Dogs in Training visit:http://bradenton.patch.com/articles/its-not-easy-being-a-freshman-guide-dog