Guide Dogs for the Blind

Dogs have always been considered as a man’s best friend. They have been known to warn people of imminent natural disasters and save lives. They have been used on farms from time immemorial to keep the wolves away and keep the sheep safe. They have also been playing the role of a guide to the blind people to help them lead an independent life with the need of another human being to go about their daily tasks and also career.

Guide Dogs

Guide dogs are trained dogs that serve as the eyes of the blind people and are provided free of cost by various organizations across the world. These dogs are the result of a dedicated effort of the collective aspirations of an organization, their staff, puppy raisers, volunteers, donors and the visually impaired people who place their trust in the dogs.

The relationship that develops between a visually impaired person and a dog is rather complex and it would be fair to day that they both depend on each other for existence. The dogs help in the individual’s movement in the house and on the road warning them of any dangers if a stranger approaches the house or alerting them about the traffic on the road while crossing it. They have to be taught to recognize the traffic signals and body movements through which they can alert the individual. They also have to be taught certain commands and key words to which they must respond immediately. The dog in turn is dependant on the individual for food and other normal upkeep.

Fortunately, the organizations that train the guide dogs understand this and are very adept in grasping the unique personality and attributes that a dog that would make a good match with a visually impaired person. This is the reason that they incorporate the circumstances that surround the lifestyle of each visually impaired person in their training program.

The entire process makes it imperative that the visually impaired person must undergo a thorough and careful evaluation when applying for a blind dog. Based on the needs of the individual, the dog is picked out. Even after a dog has been selected for an individual after careful evaluation, both the dog and the individual will have to undergo further training and practical sessions to understand each other and what can be expected from each other.

How You Can Help?

If you understand the importance of dogs in the blind people and want to help then there is tremendous scope. You can help by bringing up the puppies provided by the organizations that train dogs to be a guide to the blind. Once you are accepted into their program, a pup will be delivered to you when it is 7 weeks old. You will have to keep the pup till it is 14 months old and in the meantime housebreak it, socialize it in different environments and teach it good manners along with all the love and attention that you and your family can provide. Once the pup is about a year old and the organizations feel that the pup is old enough to begin training, they will take it away and train the dog to become a guide dog for the blind.

These organizations could also use any kind of monetary donations that you or your organization would like to make. Training and raising dogs is an expensive affair. Further, these trained dogs should be available to the blind people free or at a very nominal cost.

Guide dogs are no longer limited to the blind people. Recently, these dogs were also provided to autistic people and it has been observed that people suffering from autism have benefited a lot from guide dogs. However, here the dogs are termed as ‘Assistance Dogs’. The needs of an autistic individual are very different from that of a visually impaired person and hence the training programs are very different.

If you know someone who you think can benefit from a guide or an assistance dog then you can look up an organization in your locality and make life much easier for the individual.