Guide Dog Raising

Anyone do it?

I was looking in to it, but I'm not really impressed with the local (semi-national but local office) groups manual. Tons of physical corrections. I can't even say I'm hard core non- correction, but....

http://www.guidedogs.com/site/DocServer/puppy-raising-manual.pdf

And how does anyone raise a Lab puppy while never letting it fetch?

Eh, the organization in my city is also pretty old school. Dogs can't have treats, can't play tug, they push correction-based training, and so on. We've have several of them in our puppy classes and they do AWFUL because the organization has insisted they only have access to one or two reinforcers. Lame.

MANY years ago I raised a puppy through Leader dogs for the Blind, office based out if Michigan. It was a good experience. There was a regional trainer who would host monthly get togethers with other puppy raisers in the area. I did *not* like her. We had an extremely busy schedule and was only able to attend one meeting (for a fire drill demo, which was epic neat as the dogs were exposed to firemen, "smoke" filled dark rooms, and the fire alarm) and at one point the handler grabbed Sadie from me and proceeded to handle/correct her to the point of her shutting down. I was *not* pleased.

Other than that instance, we were able to train her with whatever methods we saw fit, so long as her skills were up to par. She definitely received treats, and playing fetch wasn't frowned upon, either! The only "rules" were to not allow able feeding, use "go park" as the potty command, to crate train, to not let off leash in an unsecure area, and to not allow on furniture/car seats.

Sadie was an awesome dog and their breeding program definitely produced some great dogs. Giving her up after a year was god-awful. That being said, I'd be interested in doing it again at some point!

Find a better org.

I am raising a puppy for a service dog organization- they don't train guide dogs, but they do train service dogs for a number of other disabilities.

I have a 50/50- half lab and half golden, he's black colored and about 4.5 months.

I'm allowed to play fetch with him, we do R+ foundation training for everything. I've worked with the trainers and all of the task training also starts with clickers and cookies, which I love. They have classes at their facility or you can train elsewhere with approved plan, quarterly check ins/updates, they cover medical if you can take the dog to their vet. They give you a ton of resources for training the way they need, and a list of commands they need to know by 18 months when they go back for training.

So far, I like the organization a lot and what they stand for, how they house and train dogs, and the realistic guidelines for raisers.

Well yes, but there are only so many working in each state.

It's interesting that this came up because I just contacted Guide Dogs For the Blind about raising a puppy. Their main campus is in California, but they also have one in Boring, Oregon. I contacted the leader of a puppy raising group near me to see what I need to do to get started and am waiting for her reply.

I've heard nothing but amazing things about this organization and am eager to start puppy raising. One of the gals I work with at the rescue has raised puppies for them for 15 years and owns 2 labs that flunked out of formal training.

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, so I'm super excited about what's going to come of it.

I usually just browse this forum but did want to comment on this thread since I have experience! I have raised for a few schools, including another ADINA credited guide dog school (I think there are 10 or so in the US?)

In short, my experience has been that the manuals and training information are old school, but many organizations are moving towards using more positive reinforcement and more current techniques, such as clicker training, food rewards, ect. The short answer is to just talk to a representative as each organization will be different. I have never felt "forced" to train in a way I didn't want to, if that makes sense.

Also with fetch, again not sure about other organizations but the one I work with does allow for a modified fetch- in short, the dog must wait while toy is thrown for the release command and then is allowed to "fetch" it. Just designed to discourage unauthoriZed fetching, for example if a blind handler is attending their child's tennis lessons.

Please PM me if you have questions! For the privacy of recipients and raisers I try not to discuss identifying info publicly but I would be happy to talk to you about anything!

Yes, that is the feeling I've got from people. The problem as I see it though, is the manual is THE MANUAL. Sure, they may not have a problem with deviations if it works out, but if you have a problem...

Or for the groups that do dog switches for a week or so. If I train mine with food chances are it wont do very good with someone training like its 1980. And it would probably be me that is wrong, after all... the manual.

I really wish they would update it to actually include anything they'll accept.