Chapter 7: The Life of a Guide Dog - Transitions
Most of you have been waiting for many months to get your dogs, and are very eager to meet and get to know them. Your dogs, on the other hand, have been in training for several months, and have bonded very strongly to their instructors. Therefore they will not understand the change that has happened and will look to get to their instructors on the first day, and maybe even after that.
They will eventually come to realize that they belong with you, since they are spending all their time with you and you are feeding them. In order to facilitate the bonding process, you must have the dog with you at all times, except for the bathroom and the shower. Think of the leash as an umbilical cord binding the two of you together. It is very important that the dog initially not be allowed to be loose in your room. These dogs are used to living in a kennel and until they get on a schedule, they must be on leash or at night, in their crate. Once their park schedule becomes regular, then you may begin to transition them to freedom in your rooms.
You have to be patient with the dog. If the dog is attached to its instructor, you just have to remember that it will become that attached to you, in time.
Your dogs have had to make many adjustments in their short lives. They were all born at the Canine Development Center (CDC) in Patterson, New York. They were removed from their mothers at 4-5 weeks of age. At around 8 weeks of age, they were separated from their littermates and sent to live with foster families, who raised them until they were between 18 and 24 months of age. Their foster families taught them basic obedience, house manners, and how to be well behaved in public places. When they were returned to GEB for training, they had to adjust to living in a kennel environment instead of in a home with constant companionship. This was stressful to them - they prefer being with people, because that is how they were raised. Now they are being asked to adjust once again, and to start considering you as their "people" rather than the instructor. Hopefully this will be the last adjustment they will have to make. It will be stressful to them, and it is your job to make this transition as easy as possible.
Your dogs have had to pass a variety of tests before they got to where they are today. When they were very young puppies, they were given puppy tests. Any puppy that did not show potential as a guide dog was released from the program and placed as a pet. The puppies that were deemed potential guide dogs were placed in foster homes and were evaluated frequently by GEB staff members. They could be released from the program at any time for temperament issues or lack of confidence. Those that made it through the puppy raising program were then returned to GEB for an In-For-Training test, which was designed to test the dogs' confidence and see how quickly they can recover from unexpected occurrences. Dogs that passed this test were put into training with instructors. They were evaluated with instructors working under blindfold by training supervisors a minimum of two times on routes similar to the ones you will be working with your dogs at home, and had to perform well on the final blindfold test to be considered candidates for class.