Two of our Guide Dog Trainers recently spent 5 days with the Dogs for the Disabled in Banbury, England, learning some new skills to add to our dog training programmes.  We caught up with Suzanne Mahony and Nadine Ruff to get an update on their trip and find out a little more about what they learned.  Suzanne shares their collective thoughts in this week’s Blog:

“To explain how our visit to Dogs for the Disabled UK (DFD) came about, our relationship with the organisation started some time back. We worked with their Training Supervisor, Janice Blake, who helped us train Izac, our first guide dog matched to a vision impaired client using a wheelchair. With Janice’s help, we successfully matched Izac to Isolde Carmody in 2010. Nadine and I were both really excited to receive the invitation to visit DFD and jumped at the chance to add to our training skills. During our time there, we were lucky enough to observe dog training, assessments, after-care visits and spend time with both Dog Trainers and Mobility Instructors who work with clients. As part of our practical learning experience, we also spent a day in electronic wheelchairs and had to manoeuvre ourselves through shops, along busy streets, use lifts, do some shopping and have a coffee break in a local coffee shop. The experience confirmed for both of us the value of having the assistance of a working dog and how important it is that the dog be well behaved and well trained. 

"We were delighted to observe a working partnership in action.  We went on an aftercare visit with one of DFD’s clients who uses a wheelchair. She had a lovely Golden Retriever called “Gorgeous” Gordon. Co-incidentally, Gordon is a dog from one of our breeding lines that we had sent over to the DFD and he was really amazing. We observed them working together as a unit on a trip through Banbury town, doing their daily tasks like shopping and going to the bank. When shopping, Gordon would retrieve items off shelves which his owner would point to or knock off with a stick. When paying, he could take her wallet in his mouth, jump up and present it to the person on the till. He pushed elevator buttons, retrieved items dropped on the floor and even "spoke" on command. They were such a lovely and happy team and to watch them working together was truly inspiring.

"Another important part of our visit was to learn specific tasks using a Clicker that had been identified as potentially useful to our clients at Irish Guide Dog for the Blind. These were: 1) teaching a dog to give a gentle nudge to the side of a child’s leg to interrupt a particular behaviour and allow a parent of a child with autism to distract or re-direct the child's attention elsewhere; 2) teaching a dog to rest its head on someone's lap and give a cuddle which could be useful for our companion dogs in particular who work with children with disabilities such as down syndrome; 3) to discriminate between and retrieve certain items which would be useful to all our client groups, especially those blind or with a vision impairment. 

"Over the past few weeks, we have started to introduce these tasks and behaviours to some of our dogs on Early Training with great success. Every day, we get the opportunity in training to cuddle, nudge or retrieve and the dogs get rewarded for doing so. It’s a fantastic way of bonding, strengthening obedience, and having fun.  The dogs get so excited when they see the Clicker come out, they can barely contain themselves from giving a cuddle. During the next 12 weeks, we will be working with Mobility Instructor, Eoin Slattery and his group of 5 dogs. Eoin’s next Assistance Dog Class will be the first class to receive dogs with these new skills so we’re really excited to see them applied in practice. We can’t wait to see how these skills will further enhance the benefits experienced by our clients through their working dog partnership."

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a networking meeting for Breeding Managers from various  Guide Dogs Schools in Europe with the view of sharing ideas and sharing breeding stock. Representatives from Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Holland, and France spent 2 days with us at the end of March. We caught up with our Breeding Co-Ordinator, Michael Edmonds, who has been with Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind for over 30 years, to find out how it went.

“The agenda for the 2 days included a tour of our facility, introducing some of our breeding stock to our visitors, an introduction to our training programmes and methodology as well as a presentation from a company we are working closely with called Trade Genetics. 

Health and temperament are the two important areas we constantly focus on. Achieving success in both of these areas is essential in producing a good working dog so much of our discussions centred on these topics.

In the past, we have worked closely with the Dutch Guide Dog School and have provided them with a stud dog in support of their Breeding Programme and they in turn provided us with two Broodbitches. It was good however to establish closer ties with some of the other schools.  We have identified some opportunities where we can lend each other a hand.  Many of the school in attendance are looking to obtain some of our bloodlines to enhance their own breeding programmes.

In particular, we will be working very closely with the French Guide Dogs School in the immediate future. We’ll be helping them to identify good Breeding Stock for purchase and providing them with a few puppies to be trained for their clients. The French Guide Dogs School is quite advanced in the area of technical aids and will in turn be offering us some technical equipment for use in our Independent Living Skills Training.  

Overall, the 2 day conference went very well.  Everyone enjoyed being able to share their experiences and we all agreed to continue working together in the future. We plan to make this meeting an annual gathering on our calendar.  We also received such positive feedback from our visitors. Some of their comments included praise for the calm temperament of our dogs in training; the efficiency of the Centre and the quality and positive attitude of our staff. Their complimentary feedback made me feel incredibly proud to be part of our such a great team of people doing such valuable work."