"Leading a visually impaired person is probably the most demanding work a human being can require of any animal." Bruce Johnson, an expert in guide dog training*

A guide dog is, in every country, an animal that is rightly admired for providing mobility assistance to a person with a visual impairment. Puppies for this work are born in specialized breeding programs that are intended to produce genetically suitable dogs. The foundation of successful training is correct socialization and upbringing of these puppies from birth, which ensures the dog has the prerequisites to master this demanding training.

Raising a dog is a long-term process in which a person influences an animal, and the person sets the rules. It is essential, however, it is absolutely essential, to ensure that the puppy can clearly understand our requirements by translating them into a language it understands. The basis of this language is body language and gestures, which interpret our attitudes toward its behavior and expressions. In verbal communication with a dog, intonation of voice is important besides learned verbal commands.

Dog socialization is the gradual integration of the individual into society. In other words, it is the gradual getting to know all external stimuli. Upbringing and socialization are not the same, but in this field they are closely connected. Up to 7 weeks of age, socialization of puppies is carried out by staff at the Guide Dog Training School of the Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovakia (ÚNSS); after that period, foster parents take over this role.

Even though we consider the upbringing of future guide dogs to be a complex process, anyone can take part in it if they can find enough free time for a puppy, are willing to learn themselves how to raise and communicate with a puppy correctly, and, above all, want to help people with visual impairment. A foster caregiver’s reward is the joy of a well-raised, confident puppy that will be able to take on responsibility and thus help a person with visual impairment move through different places and situations that they might not have dared to face alone. A trained guide dog therefore becomes not only a lifelong companion of a person with a visual impairment but also their assistant and intermediary to the wider world.

We asked a young woman to whom we assigned a guide dog in 2009 what she would say to everyone involved in this process about her guide dog. This young woman had not gone outside alone for more than four years. As she said, she was afraid. She no longer fears it now; she goes out alone with her four-legged friend and says about her like this: "Adelka, thank you for your selfless love, your sincere friendship, and endless devotion. You returned to me my freedom, independence, and sense of usefulness. You are my companion in the darkness that surrounds me, and with your own eyes you show me the world. Thank you, Adelka, my friend, my guide dog."

Join the group of foster parents from the Guide Dog Training School of ÚNSS (VŠVP) who, for their volunteer work, received the award Bratislava Volunteers of the Year 2010 in the category Volunteer Project of the Year. This award is presented by C.A.R.D.O. Civic Association and the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.

What will your task be?

Tasks of a foster trainer.

The primary and foremost task is to build a positive relationship between the person and the dog, to teach the puppy absolute trust and respect for the person so that the person remains the top priority in every situation. A dog is well prepared when it thoroughly knows the human world (interior and exterior), is familiar not only with different environments but also with all situations encountered in everyday life, knows where it should behave and can respect all our demands.

Dog and human are very different as species and naturally have different ways of communication and different ranges of expressive means. For the trainer to be successful in their effort, puppy upbringing must be carried out with attention to canine ethology, and they must also learn and themselves use communication means that are understandable to dogs, for which the VŠVP staff members provide support.

Puppy upbringing begins the moment someone brings it home. It is based on a positive approach to the dog; for any sign of willingness and cooperation, as well as any attempt to contact the person physically (with muzzle touch), the puppy must be enthusiastically praised. Unlike classical cynology, we do not use rewards during upbringing; the dog has to learn to work for the person because it loves them and because the person is its best friend and guide on whom it can always rely. This criterion in a young dog is supported by specialized breeding, where parents with appropriate traits are selected.

Playing with the dog

A successful upbringing is based on the puppy growing up in a pleasant family atmosphere and having the feeling that it is an important family member, though not the center of attention. Play is extraordinarily important for a positive relationship between person and puppy. Through play, a puppy learns and strengthens social contact within the family. Play creates a sense of safety and relieves tension. Under the term play, however, we do not mean simply giving the puppy many toys and letting it play by itself. Play means active interaction between a person and a puppy, during which the puppy learns to get to know different things, situations, and reactions. At the same time, it learns communication with the human.

Hygiene habits

During the first week the puppy should be in constant contact with its new owner so it forms as strong a bond as possible. A small puppy cannot hold its bladder for even an hour unless it is asleep, so the first thing it learns are hygiene habits. In our program, we never teach puppies to relieve themselves indoors, and we do not scold them for an accident or poke their noses into it. We teach hygiene with a positive approach, which means we go outside with the puppy as often as possible and praise every elimination outdoors enthusiastically. A dog is naturally clean, so it understands very quickly where it should defecate. Our whole team shares the same philosophy that lawns remain clean after our dogs. It is impossible to become a foster trainer if you cannot, in a timely way, ensure very frequent outings for the puppy. The puppy must not remain alone at home without supervision during the first weeks.

Hygiene also includes wiping paws and belly. It is important for the puppy to fix in its mind that before entering the apartment, it must wait to be cleaned. In the first four months of age, it is not appropriate to leave a puppy alone at home for long periods. At the same time, as an adult the dog must be able to stay home, or even alone in unfamiliar settings (for example, in a hotel. If the trainer’s workplace allows it and there is agreement with us, the puppy can be taken to work.

Socialization

It is very important to socialize the puppy especially between 8 and 16 weeks of age, which means showing it as many things and life situations of the human world as possible. Since puppies cannot physically walk long distances yet, it is appropriate to carry them alternately in your hands or in a bag. It is in this period that their personality and life experiences are formed—experiences they will carry with them for life, whether positive or negative. This means that even highly talented puppies lag behind without these socialization experiences, while average animals with very high-quality socialization can be capable of outstanding performance.

This is a demanding but very beautiful and interesting period in a puppy’s life, when the foster trainer dedicates themselves very intensely to the puppy, introducing it to everything important around it while at the same time shaping its personality. This period cannot be postponed or moved back, and therefore what is missed during it is an irreplaceable loss that can never be caught up.

Examples of what should be shown during puppy socialization:

• household things and sounds: appliances in use, a hammer, a stove, pots rattling, a doorbell at the front door, clothes hanging in a wardrobe, a ringing phone, loud music, slamming doors, the sound of dropped objects, bathing in a tub, flushing a toilet, dark corners in the house, stairs, an elevator, visits to other apartments, offices, and so on.
• transport: traveling by all forms of transport (tram, trolleybus, bus, train, car), bus and train stations, and a horn-blowing boat, etc.
• things in the street: heavy traffic (large cars, motorcycles, sirening ambulances), busy intersections, pedestrian crossings, crowds of people, strollers, inline skaters, cyclists, running children, birds—especially pigeons, unusual people (with canes, in wheelchairs, in raincoats, with umbrellas, in loud uniforms, and the like), statues, underpasses, overpasses, various types of stairs, construction machinery at work, ramps, safety crossings at construction sites, scaffolding, bridges, terraces, squares, various stores, restaurants, outdoor summer seating, a stadium, live music, large shopping malls, different floor surfaces, escalators, glass stairs, different animals, carousels...

Setting limits and rules

Setting rules from very early age is very important for a puppy; otherwise it cannot orient itself in its environment. This can be achieved through systematic and consistent work with the puppy. It is very important to understand that exceptions do not confirm a rule; they only ruin it. What is forbidden must be clearly forbidden always, not only when it suits us. Forbidden is always, for example: collecting trash, leaping onto people, lying on a bed or sofa, being fed from the hand, begging for food..., in short, if the puppy’s person says “no” to something, that means no for the puppy, always. It is important to praise the dog immediately if, on our command “fuj,” it stops the undesirable behavior, so it learns that when it obeys, we are not angry, even if it did something wrong before. In this way we support a positive motivation to continue carrying out our commands.

Around 7–14 months of age, puberty appears, when the puppy begins to assert its own interests and violate set boundaries and rules. That is why this period is especially important for the person to insist on strict observance. But if the foster trainer has worked consistently with the puppy from puppyhood, they need not fear this period either.

Teaching basic commands

As a puppy grows, its ability to concentrate on a person increases, and we then gradually teach basic commands that every dog should master, advancing according to the maturity of each individual. For all commands, consistency is important; once a person gives a command, the puppy must carry it out. If a person already knows they cannot follow through to completion, they should refrain from giving the command; otherwise the puppy learns that commands do not always need to be obeyed. The specific list of commands the puppy should know is available to the foster trainer in the manual they receive with the puppy, and of course, VŠVP staff are always helpful in implementing them.

Dog recall

The basis of absolute dog controllability by the person is recalling the dog on command from any situation that is interesting to it (especially from another dog). This is the first thing (along with the forbidden-command "fuj") that we teach. Even if it may seem otherwise, the puppy learns this command best in this earliest age when it still does not tend to run away from us, or is so small that it can be held. If the foster trainer does not master recall, neither will the person with visual impairment do so, and the dog will very likely be removed from the program.

When recalling, it is very important that the puppy not only comes to the person but also makes physical contact (touches them with its nose on hand or foot), which differs from classical cynology but is essential for a person who cannot see the dog.

Walking on a lead

From an early age, we accustom the puppy to collar and leash and try to shape the dog’s movement on a loose leash with voice and praise so that it walks not in the classical “at heel” position, but slightly ahead of us. A puppy must not pull on the leash.

Working walks

Before a working walk, the puppy gets a puppy harness, both so its body gets used to it, but mainly so it learns that work is done in a harness and therefore it must fully focus on the person, their commands, that it must not make contact with other dogs and people, that it should not leave the path or sniff the ground while working. The goal of these walks is to teach the dog to lead the person at an even pace, according to their instructions, through any space and situation without this causing the dog stress. We adjust the length of the working walk to the puppy’s age and always end it positively: when the puppy is walking well, we stop, praise it, and reward it by allowing free run time or playing with it.

Become a foster trainer

In the previous text we tried to bring closer the key moments in working with a puppy in our program. Besides a detailed manual, the VŠVP staff members are available at all times to advise and help with specific problems, because every puppy has a different temperament and may require a somewhat different approach in upbringing.

A puppy remains with a foster family for roughly 10–14 months, during which time time should be reserved for joint training sessions too (for small puppies, group or individual training is needed every week, later as needed, but at least 1–2 times per month).

Not all puppies that are raised will become guide dogs. Genetics, health status, and several other important factors play a role. We cannot influence all of them, so we also have to consider that the one you raise may not become a guide dog. But high-quality work in upbringing is never wasted. Some puppies may be suitable for assistance, canisterapy, sports cynology, or become excellent family companions. In any case, you will be part of a process that brings joy to someone.

If you are interested in expanding our team and joining our meaningful work, or if you would like more information about our work, do not hesitate to contact us at: Katarína Hornišová, tel. č.: 02/692 034 37, mobile: 0911 11 93 97,
e-mail: hornisova@unss.sk

The Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovakia is a civic association that brings together blind and partially sighted citizens, their supporters, friends, and parents. It currently has more than 5,500 members in 69 local organizations. It provides services, counseling, and activities for visually impaired people in every region of Slovakia. The Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovakia was founded in 1990, and on 7 April 2010 it celebrated the 20th anniversary of its establishment.