guide dogs
Posted by Pamela Arnsberger on Oct 27, 2016
Announcements and Reminders
Al was the Rotarian of the week for organizing a very successful Avenue of Service trip on Oct 22nd.
Michelle announced that Digital Nest is having its 2nd birthday on Sunday, November 13th.
John Fisher announced that 19 of our members contributed $ 4,100 for annual giving to the Rotary Foundation and $15,000 for Polio Plus. November is the month to contribute!
Aptos Interact club is doing a beach clean-up at Trestle beach at 9:00 AM this Saturday.
Keith said pick up your invitation to the Christmas party. It is on December 4th at Keith’s house at 4:00. Everything is provided! Please come and bring your singing voice!
Jan Hadjuk led us in an informal memorial to Stan, her husband, who passed away two weeks ago. He was a faithful Rotary member, serving in many capacities throughout his adult life. She thanked specifically Dennis, his true blue friend, as well as Sandy, Pam Goodman, Bee, Doug and especially Al.
Today the club heard from the Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy raisers (see photo). Guide Dogs was set up after WWII for veterans. Today they serve anyone with a visual impairment. Services are provided free of charge and owners are given support the whole time they are teamed with the dog.
The dogs are born in San Rafael .They are purposely bred there; Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and mixes of these two breeds. They then go into the home of a volunteer puppy raiser to develop socialization skills, learn to focus and work on self-control. They begin to serve at 15 to 20 months of age. They should by then be able to follow instructions and be mature.
Today we heard from the Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy raisers (see photo). Guide Dogs was set up after WWII for veterans. Today they serve anyone with a visual impairment. Services are provided free of charge and owners are given support the whole time they are teamed with the dog.
The dogs are born in San Rafael .They are purposely bred there; Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and mixes of these two breeds. They then go into the home of a volunteer puppy raiser to develop socialization skills, learn to focus and work on self-control. They begin to serve at 15 to 20 months of age. They should by then be able to follow instructions and be mature.
Other than veterinary care, the puppy raisers provide everything else. Nine dogs are currently being raised. After this period of time they go to San Rafael to be formally trained as guide dogs. Usually there are 4 dogs per trainer. They work all day with the same trainer for 6 to 8 weeks. Only 50% go on to become Guide Dogs. Some that are eliminated they go to become service dogs for diabetics for people with trauma or do rescue work. The ones that ‘make it’ then spend two intensive weeks with their potential owner.
Each puppy owner introduced us to their dogs and discussed their dogs and their progress towards meeting their goals. At the end after a lively discussion, we were allowed to go up and meet and pet the dogs!