GUIDE DOG CLASS GETS FOUR RECRUITS
Four Labrador-golden retriever-mix puppies, Sparkie, Nala, Irene and Victor, will be arriving in Toronto Friday to be raised as guide dogs.
The eight-week-old puppies are flying in from Australia, where they were bred. They will arrive in Toronto Friday afternoon and begin life with the CNIB Guide Dogs program. The program, part of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, trains dogs to help people who are blind or partially sighted gain independence.
Diane Bergeron is the head of CNIB Guide Dogs. She says that Labradors, golden retrievers and mixes of the two are very popular breeds in the guide dog world, because they are very driven and very social.
"These dogs don’t get a pay cheque for what they do, so they have to do it because they love the work,” Bergeron said over the phone.
The dogs will live with a puppy-raiser for about a year. Then, when they are 12 to 15 months old, they will be put under the watch of mobility instructors who will train them on how to be good guide dogs.
Finally, after four to six months of training, the dogs will be matched with someone who is blind or partially sighted, and they will depart with their new owner once they go through a couple of weeks of training together.
Bergeron, who is totally blind and has a guide dog, says the bond between an owner and a dog is “unbelievable.”
“A pet tends to become a member of the family, where as a guide dog tends to become a part of you,” Bergeron says. “It’s like your arm or your leg, it is a part of your entire existence.”
“The independence that a dog gave me completely turned my life around.“