Guide Dogs, Trainers Pass Test
Noses down and tails up, a group of fledgling guide dogs passed their college entrance exam Wednesday with flying crullers.
Not to mention fragrant barbecued ribs, hamburgers, tacos and nearly every other enticing food scent that man could throw at them.
Puppy raisers working for Guide Dogs of America took a lunchtime trip through the sprawling Farmers Market in the Fairfax District to test how their animals react to crowds and how well they resist the temptation to snatch a ham sandwich off a patio dining table.
For some of the dogs, it was the final outing with the two-legged friends who have been their constant companions for as long as 15 months. On Saturday -- Valentine’s Day -- they will be turned over to professional trainers who will spend another six months teaching them the finer points of guiding the blind.
About 300 dogs are in training with volunteer puppy raisers in Southern California for Sylmar-based Guide Dogs of America. The training program, which began in 1948, currently “graduates” about 50 dogs a year to be placed with visually impaired owners.
“It’s going to be difficult. My husband and I are going to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday the 13th. We can’t even think of going out on the night of the 14th. It’s going to be like giving up a child,” said Melissa Hyams, a real estate agent who lives in Burbank.
“I went in knowing that eventually I’d have to give him up, but knowing he would make an incredible difference in somebody’s life,” she said.
Her 80-pound black Labrador retriever, Edit, has accompanied Hyams and her husband, Joe, to Disneyland, Universal City and the wine country as well as on daily trips to stores and shops. He’s been taught to sit next to her desk when she works.
Only once was there a problem. And it was not the dog’s fault.
“A restaurant in Glendale wasn’t real keen about having a guide-dog-in-training there. They asked us to dine outside instead of inside. We elected not to go there,” Hyams said.
Although guide dogs are allowed by law to go anywhere with their owners, dogs in training do not have the same right.
Wednesday, about a dozen of the future guide dogs rode without incident on The Grove’s trolley before entering the market, where, a security guard said, dogs are not normally allowed.
Inside, there was no leash-tugging or slobbering -- although puppy raisers had to wave off the kindness of one lunch-stand customer who tried to toss a piece of pastrami to one dog.
Puppy raiser Pam English, a vocational school instructor from Santa Clarita, said the black Labrador named Rex that she has had for 15 months is the 14th guide dog trainee she has raised.
And saying goodbye is never easy -- even though English is in contact with some of the permanent owners of her past animals.
“In a way Valentine’s Day is the perfect day for the dogs to move to the next level. It’s a celebration of love. And that’s what we have for these dogs.”
