The Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum was occupied by man’s furry friends during a dog training session on Saturday, Dec. 11.
The morning program was hosted by the Southeastern Guide Dogs organization, with the mission of teaching canines to become service dogs.
Eight labrador and golden retriever puppies were accompanied by their “puppy raisers” to take part in an hour-long exercise routine. Puppy raisers are everyday people who join the organization with the willingness to help train dogs at a young age. In turn, those dogs can provide service for the blind and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Christie Bane is a manager for puppy training and development at Southeastern Guide Dogs and was the instructor for that day.
She noted that puppy raisers do the hard work because they work one-on-one with their dogs, to instill discipline.
“We breed our own dogs, and they are mostly labrador retrievers, but we also cross-breed golden retrievers and labrador retrievers,” explained Bane. “Those are just the breeds that over time have proven to have a higher success rate for the kind of job we need them to do.”
Kennedy Eliasen is a puppy raiser who works with Ben, a golden and labrador retriever mix.
Since she started training the 1-year-old, she has seen significant progression.
“He’s improved so much since we started doing these classes,” said Eliasen. “One of his biggest struggles is being around other dogs, but going to places like this really helps him work through those challenges.”
Based in Palmetto, Southeastern Guide Dogs began its mission in 1982. Since then, it has provided services throughout the country. It currently has over 1,200 dogs in its care and provides them to recipients free of charge -including lifetime follow-up services.
These canines go through two years of training starting at birth and are entrusted within puppy raisers’ homes, Canine University as well as the organization’s Puppy Academy.
As part of that training, the retrievers go through a relaxation protocol exercise. With this, puppies stay down for five seconds and are given a treat for doing so. The timing increases to 10 seconds. Then puppy raisers take one step back and return forward. If the puppies stay down, they are once again given a treat.
Throughout the exercise, the puppy raisers will continue to make motions by either stepping backward, forward, side-to-side or clapping. The puppies are given a treat in between each motion, as a reward for remaining down during each.
The concept is for the retrievers to remain calm and reserved while their owners are standing in one spot. They will associate positivity with being stationery.
Another exercise is getting the leashed puppies to continue walking, and not stopping, while their owners are still in motion.
With this, markers such as orange cones, are lined down the path the puppy raisers are walking along. Each marker is set at a distance from the next and lets the owners know where to stop with their dogs. When the dogs stop at each marker, they are rewarded with a treat, and then are told “let’s go” when the owners are ready to resume walking. This is repeated at each marker.
The command “let’s go” is an effective cue for dogs to continue walking after a treat.
“That’s communicating to the dog, ‘okay, now we’re ready to go,’” said Bane. “Then it gets the dog in the habit of checking in with you as opposed to just going forward.”
She added that if owners can get their dogs’ tails to wag during the exercise, then it can be done while giving them praise. Stating “good boy” or “good girl” can be an effective way to do so.
There’s an exercise to help keep the dogs focused and moving forward, even when there’s one or more distractions present.
Have a participant stand to the side of the walkway. When passing by, the puppies may naturally move toward that person who is calling out to them.
When passing by the individual at the side, the raisers first give a verbal marker such as “yes” that the puppies recognize. After that, puppies are given a treat. Then they’re praised with a “good boy” or “good girl” followed by a second treat.
“Yes” is the keyword that the retrievers will automatically associate with something good.
The praise then comes next, which the dogs will also associate with something positive.
Tina Della is no stranger to these exercises as she works with her third and current training dog, Bravo. She takes the 1-year-old outdoors as often as possible so they can apply those techniques in public.
While Della said it will be difficult parting ways with him, she understands it’s for a much greater purpose.
“Once you see that dog matched with that person,” she said, “it’s really rewarding.”
For more information on the organization or to become a dog raiser, visit www.GuideDogs.org and by calling (800) 944-3647 or (941) 729-5665.