Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer

January 5th, 2015 by Dickerson Nieman

We asked our agents how, where and why they do volunteer work in the community. Our Roscoe agent Barbara Fry has shared the story of her journey in becoming a Leader Dog trainer to share with you! [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="160"] Barbara Fry, Broker - Dickerson & Nieman Roscoe[/caption] Years ago I watched a story on 20/20, of Seeing Eye dogs and how a puppy is transformed into a helper for someone with sight problems. Their training starts with very young pups - preparing them for a job that will one day change someone's life. When my own life settled down after the death of my husband, I started looking into the possibility of becoming a trainer. I looked at several programs across the United States and I chose to work with the Leader Dogs, where I was put on a waiting list to receive my puppy. Leader Dogs breeds their own puppies (golden retrievers, Labradors and German shepherds) and the puppies are sent to homes for training as soon as they are weaned. I asked for a Golden Retriever (since I already had one of my own) and a girl since my own dog was a male. I thought that would help keep the peace in the family. I was offered a couple of puppies, but the timing was not right so I passed. Finally, after a 2 year wait, in late October of 2014, I was emailed with the invitation to COME AND GET A PUPPY. The timing was right for us and I was ready for my puppy! Ken, my new husband, and I took a day off work and drove to Detroit. First, the Leader Dogs emailed me a 34 page book to read on basic puppy training. I am not new to puppies and training dogs, but this booklet was very helpful. I have trained my own dogs and I am a member of Forest City Kennel club, where my golden retriever received his awards and is now a therapy dog with Therapy Dog International. OK! I was ready. We were given an hour of instructions at the Leader Dog kennel, and then they brought me a puppy! THE CUTEST LITTLE PUPPY EVER!!! The little female Golden Retriever I asked for turned out to be a little boy yellow Labrador! We brought our new puppy home and the first week of puppy training was on! We were allowed to name our puppy (keeping in mind common human names are not a good idea since he may eventually belong to someone with the same name). We ran several words through a translator app on Ken's phone and decided on Oci. (Sounds like Ochee). This is Czechoslovakian for the word "eyes". By the time we got home from Detroit, the first weekly training email was on my computer. Oci already knew how to sit on command. He was eating hard food and was ready for his new family. Oci was 6 weeks old! Our exciting journey begins! We brought Oci home from Detroit in a heavy snowstorm. He slept most of the way. We have 5 years Golden Retriever named Tanner and he was excited to meet his new little "brother". The two hit off right away. We baby proofed our home and blocked off certain areas. We set up the kennel and showed Oci around his new temporary home. The first week's instructions were already in my email. Leader Dogs wanted the training to begin right away. I was surprised by what they expected from such a young puppy! But as they said in the email, their brains are little sponges and they are ready to learn! Within a week, Oci learned that he would have to sit and wait while I set his food bowl on the floor. Another week and he knew he had to stay, until I gave the "OK" command before he could approach the food bowl. House training was not going as well as planned. To get Oci to the back yard, we had to walk through the garage. This was not working. I looked out of our sliding glass doors to our newly stained deck. Well ... it would be 4 months before we used the deck again. Winter was just beginning and spring was a long way off. So we decided to use the deck as the "park" (this is the key word used by Leader Dogs to train the dogs to "go" on command) area for the next couple of months. Oci soon learned to go to the glass door, where he could see outside and sit to wait for us to open the door, though not wait long! The outings started right away as well. With Oci's blue bandanna, he was, by law, allowed to enter anywhere a trained Seeing Eye dog could go. This meant hardware stores as well as grocery stores. So we took him. This was nerve wracking because I just KNEW he would make a mess on the floor before I could get him outside. We were told to be prepared for this and always carried around Oci's diaper bag. This bag holds the necessary items to not only keep Oci under control, but to clean up after the mistakes. We were questioned a couple of times entering a store, but as soon as the store person saw his blue bandanna, the questions stopped. (It is illegal to even question what specifically Oci is being trained for. A store can be fined by the Attorney General's office for not allowing us to enter or questioning us.) It's a strange feeling to take an 8 week old puppy into the grocery store. So far to date, the only time Oci has had a mistake, was inside the public safety building in Rockford. He only made it halfway through church, as he just could not keep still any longer. Otherwise, he is doing great! Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer - First published on blog.dickersonnieman.com 1/5/2015

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: dickerson nieman, rockford real estate, Barbara Fry, Rockford Realtor, Seeing Eye Dog Trainer

Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer

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