Get a Glimpse on how Dogs are trained to Assist Blind People

Any citizen, whether a male or a female, could never stop wondering at the dedication part whenever they witness dogs guiding blind people and other physically challenged people to their work and outings.

If you could just allot few of your thoughts to explore the amount of work or the effort that would have gone into making such dogs as wonderful companions, then you might for certain get aghast at the effort that had been put in.

For your information the process that go into making a dog help blind people is really enormous, as only a remarkable training methods that had been meticulously imparted by efficient trainers alone could make it happen. When it comes to training a dog for assisting a blind person, the effort and time expended by dedicated trainers are really to be appreciated and only because of this dedication the dog also get remarkably efficient in its duties.

Specially Bred Puppies

You may be surprised to know that there are specifically bred dogs for assisting blind people and the job starts right from the puppy stage itself. The characteristics of dogs that are bred for the specific purpose of aiding blind people are really unique and these breeds stand apart from rest of its peers due to its rare abilities such as distraction avoidance, willingness to work continuously, maintaining a healthy outlook with minimum intervention, etc. Once the specially bred puppies are born they will be let in the instructors home and after the puppies get little older, they will be imparted with the special training to assist blind. In order to make the dog fully independent to assist any blind people, it has to be necessarily trained for at least a period of one year. During this period of training many instructors used to develop a deep attachment with the dog and you can even see an emotional separation whenever these dogs are allowed to leave the training center.

Once the dog has been imparted with the necessary training to assist blind people, before it is allowed to start its job the dog will be tested for its successful handling abilities of situations as a guide dog. If found good and fit for the program, then the dog will be added to the list of guide dogs and will be ready for adoption. When it comes to adopting one such guide dog for the blind, the process is really a long one and the owner or the sponsor or the handler who originally supported the guide program can have a say in adoption. Once the trained dog is found suitable for the selected job, then it will be again sent to the next level of intense training that may even last up to few months. Here in this second level of training session, the guide dog will be taught as how to tackle a variety of different situations and circumstances and after completion of this the dog will become a full fledged guide dog.

Bringing in Compatibility

Once the dog is trained and adopted by an owner care will be taken to get the dog compatible with the owner in all aspects. The new owner also need to undergo some specific training so as to make the owner fully conversant with the usage of a guide dog and at the end both the owner and the dog will be ready to explore the outer world with confidence. In few cases, a licensed trainer will also accompany the pair for some time initially so as to fine tune any of the dog’s training needs and make the dog and owner a perfect match. Working with a guide dog is considered to be a team work and unless both know what has to be done, then the journey may get stuck in midway.