Leader Dogs for the Blind is a group out of Rochester Hills, Michigan that arranges, trains, and prepares dogs for a working life. These dogs help the blind do what we would consider simple tasks and go from place to place. What some people tend to not think about is how the dogs get there.
Raising Puppies is probably one of the hardest jobs of this process. It is at eight weeks when puppies get enrolled to be trained for their future as a leader dog. For the first year of their life they are raised by volunteer puppy raisers, which are approved by Leader Dogs for the Blind. The role of a puppy raiser is important because it is the raisers that teach the puppies basic obedience, to socialize, and recognize when they are working.
Future leader dogs often wear a bandana or a vest accompanied by a puppy tag to indicate that they are leader dogs in training and that they are working. When the puppies have these two things on, it is than people are not allowed to pet them or feed them treats except for their handler. After that first year of training, the puppies go through a physical to see if they are physically able to do the job for the majority of their life. If they don’t pass because of some physical problem that may interfere with their long working life, they become career-changed dogs and they are fit for any other job a dog could do or become someone’s pet. If the dogs are physically fit, than they graduate and they go through another year of training. After training, than they are assigned to a qualified candidate who is ready to receive a leader dog.
Veteran puppy raisers Judy Brankel, Cindee Shaffer, Tammy Bartz, and Rhonda Wilson talk about what it takes to be puppy raiser and some of the basics they are responsible for teaching the future leader dogs.
Leader Dog Puppy Raisers from Joseph Tobianski on Vimeo.
The second video was going to be on of the segments for the entire project, but since our professor cut down the project, he said anything other than the one video is extra credit. Here is segment 2, Leader Dog Graduate for extra credit.
Leader Dog Graduate from Joseph Tobianski on Vimeo.
I hope to continue this project in the near future and make it into a multi media piece. You can find these videos on the Leader Dogs for the Blind website in the near future.
