Future Guide Dogs Led on Merry Urban Chase

Customers strolling into the Broadway office of San Diego Trust & Savings Friday morning looked a bit confused.

Ahead, yelping through the revolving doors, was a pack of four dozen soggy, muddy-pawed dogs.

The German shepherds, Labradors and golden retrievers were undergoing schooling sponsored by Guide Dogs for the Blind Inc., based in San Rafael, Calif. Their 48 adolescent handlers being yanked and stretched were 4-H Club members who take the 4- to 14-month-old puppies through the first phase of training, which takes about a year.

Part of the routine involves a day in the “big city” for “urban field exercises.” Friday morning began with a round-trip train ride from San Diego to Del Mar, followed by a march from the Santa Fe Depot to bank headquarters at 6th Avenue and Broadway.

Slippery, sloshy streets made the trek all the better for handlers who hoped to simulate “stressful” conditions--the kind a blind person might encounter every day of the week.

Honking horns?--Honk ‘em louder . Panhandlers?--The more the merrier. Revolving doors?--Terrific!

That’s partly why San Diego Trust was picked--it sports one of the few sets of revolving doors still left downtown. (It also sponsors the program locally.)

‘Socialize’ the Dogs

“Kids such as my 12-year-old daughter Emily keep the dogs until they’re 16 months old,” said Linda Gruber, who lives in Solana Beach and heads the coastal division of the 4-H Club effort. “They teach the dogs basic obedience. They also ‘socialize’ them--to schools, stores, buses, trains. . . . They don’t go anywhere without the dog.”

After the dogs leave the care of their teen-age charges, they proceed to professional training in San Rafael. By passing that phase, they progress to helping someone who is blind. Dogs stay with a blind master for 8 to 10 years, or until they get too old.

Gruber said the dogs are furnished free to the blind; the program is funded by private donations. Out of the 700 dogs being trained at any one time, she said 85 are assigned to San Diego County, which has a 75% success rate, meaning dogs that go on to actually work with the blind. That’s the highest percentage among all regions participating throughout the West Coast, Utah and Arizona.

Shannon Cheyney, 12, lives in Ramona. Friday morning, she was minding a Labrador named Ariel.

Ariel is flunking.

“We had to reject her, because she pulled when she wasn’t supposed to and was too easily distracted,” Shannon said.

Parting Sweet Sorrow

Dogs that don’t “make it” can be bought, often by the students who grow hopelessly attached during training. Gruber said the 4-H Club kids who work with the pups must bond with them to make the dog an effective pair of eyes for the blind.

But becoming attached also makes parting difficult.

“We’ve trained 11, and that part of it never gets easier,” said Jeanne Cannon, a 4-H Club mother who lives in Ramona. “The kids cry just as hard the 12th time as they do the first. Even so, the program is great . It teaches kids how to give without expecting something back. That’s a form of love our society isn’t so good at fostering, at least not in this day and age.”

Cannon said leaders of the program have found that German shepherds, Labradors and golden retrievers are the best breeds to train for helping the blind. She enjoys all three, and loves the work, which creates its own kind of comedy, as well as pathos and pain.

“One time, we were at Price Club, and I spilled this bottle of liquid detergent all over the dog,” Cannon said. “The stuff foamed for hours. But that’s OK. The dog has to be able to handle almost any stress to work with the blind.

“Coming here today was a great idea--tall buildings, traffic, marble floors, elevators. . . . It’s a new experience for the dogs and for most of the kids. Construction, narrow walkways and some of these utterly deranged people you have on your streets have all been interesting experiences, to say the least!”