For guide dogs, ‘ tough love’ is best, even as puppies

Only certain canines have the discipline to become guide dogs for the blind, and the best ones had mothers that showed them “tough love” when they were puppies, researchers said Monday.

When dog moms allowed their puppies to learn on their own in their first five weeks of life, without coddling them too much, their puppies grew up to be better guide dogs, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a US- based institution.

Puppies with mothers who doted on them grew up to be anxious and more afraid of new situations, and tended to fail out of a rigorous training program to assist the blind.

The study was done at a facility in the state of New Jersey called The Seeing Eye, which breeds and trains seeing eye dogs.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania essentially embedded themselves at The Seeing Eye, taking video and closely observing 23 mothers and their 98 puppies for their first five weeks of life, said the report.

“We wanted to know if we could differentiate the moms based on how they interacted with their puppies,” said lead author Emily Bray.

“We documented things like her nursing position, how much time she spent looking away from the puppies and how much time she spent in close proximity to her puppies or licking and grooming them.”

Two years later, researchers went back to catch up with the dogs and found that those with more attentive mothers were less likely to graduate and become guide dogs.