Newsletter

Fall 2006

Volunteers Raise Puppies for Guide Dog Program

Zola, raised by Carol Rogers, Phillips, Maine

Everyone knows that raising a puppy is a lot of work. Some very special volunteers raise puppies that will become guide dogs for people who are visually impaired and blind. Puppy-raising at this high level is an extraordinary labor of love and also a fulltime job.

Volunteer puppy-raisers are affiliated with guide dog schools, including Guiding Eyes for the Blind. The goal of this internationally recognized school is to offer greater personal freedom, independence and dignity to people who are visually impaired and blind by providing them with some of the finest bred and trained guide dogs in the world. Guiding Eyes has puppy-raising programs in 12 states, including Maine.

The Maine group aims to have 15 puppies in training with volunteers around the state at all times. Pups enter the program when they are eight weeks and remain with their trainers until they are about a year-and-a-half. During this time, they get to meet the other puppies-in-training and show off their skills at quarterly evaluations that are conducted by Guiding Eyes staff.

After a final evaluation, they go through a three-to-six month advanced harness training program. Guiding Eyes then provides a 26-day training at its headquarters in Yorktown Heights, New York, where the young dogs begin to work with the person who is visually impaired and blind with whom they have been matched. A rich, life-changing relationship begins for both owner and dog. Guiding Eyes remains available to provide support.

“Dogs want a job to do,” says Pat Webber, who teams with Nina Scribner as Maine area co-coordinator for the group. The Maine group’s approach is to build relationships with the pups that are delineated by clear boundaries and consistency. “House manners are a big part of our efforts,” says Pat. “We want dogs that will be pleasant for someone to live with.” Confidence-building and exposing the pup to the larger world is part of the process, too. And, of course, volunteers (and puppies) also want to have fun!

“You learn what’s important to each dog,” says Mary Beth Metzger, who lives with her canine companion, Dove, and who has served on the Board of Directors of Guiding Eyes. “It’s a commitment. A cane you might put in a closet, but a dog you always have with you. You have to bond with the dog, and the dog has to bond with you. The relationship can be just wonderful. So much of my quality of life comes from Dove,” Mary Beth says.

The Iris Network has joined in the puppy-raising by providing the space for Guiding Eyes to have their quarterly evaluations, workshops for raisers and potential raisers, and socialization classes. The partnership between the two organizations is inspired by the collaboration between guide dog owners and their dogs and between volunteers and their puppies.

Guiding Eyes of Maine is always looking for puppy- raisers to join in the fun and learning.  Having previous experience with dogs is not a prerequisite, but a willingness to open your heart and take a puppy in—and then open your heart more and let the puppy go on to someone else—are essential.

Contact Pat Webber at 207-338-5520, pweb@gwi.net, if you would like more information about this unique volunteer opportunity.

Alan, raised by Roy Jenkins and Cindy Roberts
of Wiscasset, Maine

Did you enjoy our story on guide dogs?
Read on for more insights into traveling safely with vision impairment.

Orientation and Mobility:
A Specialist’s Point-of-View
by Ruth Mlotek, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist

Vision loss can force people to deal with their surroundings in new and challenging ways. Basic questions about one’s relationship to the environment emerge in a new form. If I can’t see curbs, steps, and cracks in the sidewalk, how can I be safe? If I can’t see traffic lights, how can I cross a street? If I can’t see bus numbers, how can I tell if I am getting on the correct bus? How can I travel in winter if I can’t see the ice?

Underlying these concerns about mobility are even more basic questions about orientation. When I am moving around, how can I be sure where I am? What do I do if I get lost? What if I must learn a new place?

The good news is that almost any person who is visually impaired or blind can access and learn skills that provide answers to these questions, can regain confidence in his or her relationship to the environment, and can move around safely again. As an instructor in this field, I love watching a person go from being nervous to moving outside the familiar territory of the home, to learning to cross streets to get where he or she wants to go. I love watching people start to take control of their lives again.

Decisions about tools are important. About 10 percent of people who are blind also choose to work with guide dogs. Canes are used to explore the environment out ahead of you and let the public know you are visually impaired. Working though the psychological aspects of carrying a cane can be challenging. An Orientation and Mobility Specialist can help sort out the advantages and disadvantages of different resources and strategies so you can move forward with new levels of independence, freedom, and enjoyment of life.

For more information about Orientation and Mobility, call Ruth Mlotek at the Iris Network at 774-6273 and 1-800-715-0097. You may also want to go to a special website devoted to this topic at www.orientationandmobility.org
 

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