‘PRICELESS’ PAWS
SaskTel employee Shan Noyes says guide dog Danson helps him face the challenges of visual impairment with confidence.
Guide dogs offer people with visual impairment a sense of independence. To ensure everyone who would like a guide dog has the option, the CNIB launched its national Guide Dog program in April. Reporter Pamela Cowan spoke to Christall Beaudry, executive director of the Saskatchewan division of the CNIB.
Shan Noyes has climbed mountains, raced downhill on skis and hung on for dear life while riding bulls. But those highs don’t compare with the freedom and independence he’s gained by getting Danson, his guide dog.
“One white cane: $30. One guide dog: priceless,” he says smiling.
Noyes has had partial sight since he was six, but it’s steadily deteriorated because of optic atrophy. Now, he has virtually no eyesight.
However, being visually impaired has never stopped him from seeking adventure.
“I rode bulls as a teenager in rodeos,” he says. “Mom got nervous at times, but I grew up believing there’s nothing you can’t do with some adaptation. The adaptation was that when the whistle blew, one clown took the bull or steer one way and the other one grabbed me.”
He scaled mountains around Banff with another climber in the 1970s and downhill raced with the Canadian team at the 1984 Winter Paralympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
“I had a blast and loved it,” Noyes says. “To this day, my wife and I buy and train horses for fun and entertainment.”
Prior to getting Danson, he was frequently bruised because he ran into things. At his wife’s urging, he got Danson, a black lab, in 2010 from Dogs for the Blind, which is based in the United States.
The guide dogs start training at two months, learn basic obedience for a year and then complete a further 16 weeks of training.
“They’re also taught what is called intelligent disobedience,” Noyes says. “That means if you say, ‘Forward’, the dog is taught to make judgment calls. If it’s not safe to go forward, they’re taught not to go forward.”
After training together in the U.S. for two weeks, Noyes and Danson became a team.
Having a guide dog has made a huge difference for him — on and off the job.
In corporate security at SaskTel, his work involves travelling to conferences and training throughout North America. Before getting Danson, he’d only attend if colleagues were going.
“Since I’ve got Danson, we’ve been to eight or nine conferences by ourselves,” Noyes says. “It gives me lots of independence and confidence.”
He’s trained Danson to learn additional commands, such as leading him directly to a door with a card reader.
“About four years ago, I went into one of our buildings in Saskatoon that I’d never been in before,” Noyes says. “I got off the elevator and there was a long hallway and there was six or seven doors, but only one had a card reader. I gave Danson the command and he went right to the door that had the card reader installed. That’s one of the benefits of having a well-trained guide dog — you don’t have to search for things.”
WORK MODE
When Danson’s harness is on, he’s in work mode and doesn’t budge from his master’s side unless given a command. When his harness is off, he’s like a playful puppy who scampers around and loves his belly rubbed.
Noyes emphasizes the public should ignore a guide dog wearing a harness.
“I like to say, ‘Harness on means hands off’ because he’s working,” he says. “The guide dog is there to help them navigate and keep them safe. If you distract the dog or talk to the dog or slip them some food, you’re going to be interfering with their concentration and that could endanger the handler.”
Over the years, Noyes was barred from two establishments because Danson was with him. In one instance, a Regina restaurant owner refused to allow the dog in despite Noyes showing him documentation that Danson is a guide dog.
“I laid a human rights complaint because he just didn’t get it,” Noyes says. “In the mediation, one of the things I requested is that the owner of the restaurant put a sign in their windows welcoming all guide dogs.”
That was done.
The other incident occurred at a Saskatoon hotel when Noyes was checking in with other SaskTel employees.
“When they assigned our rooms, everybody else that was in my party were either on the third and fourth floors, but they assigned me a room on the pet floor because of Danson,” Noyes says. “I explained to management that Danson wasn’t a pet, that he could actually go anywhere the public was permitted.”
Again, he filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Following mediation, the hotel, part of a national chain, apologized and changed its training policy. Now the chain has a written policy allowing recognized guide dogs to stay in any of their hotel rooms.
“It’s very sad that both of these incidents happened,” Noyes says. “Guide dogs have been around for a long time and you’d think that people would understand those things. Unfortunately, we still have a lot to learn.”
That said, he recognizes he has obligations as a guide dog owner.
“Just because you have a guide dog doesn’t mean you get to go everywhere,” Noyes says. “You only get to go everywhere if the dog is well trained. If he’s barking or endangering other people, they have the right to refuse me access or throw me out.”
Danson is eight now, typically, the age at which most guide dogs retire.
Noyes dreads the day Danson has to retire. He hopes they can work together for another year or two, but he’s already started the paperwork to get another guide dog.
“If he starts slowing down and I have to slow my pace down or he’s no longer interested in working, those are signs that it’s time to retire him,” he says sadly.
Q What are the criteria for getting a guide dog and how do people apply?
A The criteria for assessing an applicant for a guide dog is dependent upon a number of factors. One of the key determinants is the applicant’s mobility skills with the use of a white cane and an expressed desire to enhance their independence via the use of a guide dog for mobility reasons. The application process will be available shortly. Currently, general info is available via cnibguidedogs.ca and interested parties can sign up for regular updates.
Q Tell me about the training of the puppies — where are they trained, how long do they train and how much training do they get with the visually impaired client?
A The puppies are being raised with volunteer puppy raisers from eight weeks to 12 to 15 months in Winnipeg, Toronto and Halifax. At about 15 months, training starts with a professionally qualified guide dog trainer or guide dog mobility instructor. The trainer will introduce the dog to the harness and the basics of the guiding role. This will involve learning what to do with curbs and avoiding obstacles to ensure they are giving enough room for the handler to avoid the obstacles as well. When the young dog is around 17 to 21 months old, it is demonstrating consistent guiding skills and has been working with its trainer who does some training while wearing a blindfold. Then the dog and trainer are paired with a user and will train in their home community for about a month.
Q What is the cost of training a guide dog?
A To train the dog, feed it, care for it from a puppy development stage to intensive training, to it’s working life into retirement, we forecast the cost is $50,000 to $55,000. The average working life of a guide dog is seven years.
Q I understand guide dog users will not pay for their dog, the training or the followup support. Is the CNIB in Regina holding a special fundraiser to cover the cost of the program?
A The program will be funded through donor dollars. People can donate to this program by calling our office at 306-5252571. We encourage our community members to host fundraising events on our behalf and they are able to designate the funds to our Guide Dog Program. Q How is this program different from those run in the U.S.?
A These will be Canadian trained dogs. They will be trained to know winter. Users have the option to train in their home community so training would take less time as the dogs would learn their routes right from the get go and the geography in their home community.
Q How many visually impaired people are in Sask.? Of those, how many require a guide dog?
A There are 14,300 people in Saskatchewan who are blind or partially sighted. But not everyone requires a guide dog. Right now, we know of approximately a dozen guide dog users in Saskatchewan. But we know there are at least another 10 that are wanting a guide dog.