Kingdom of Pets

Posted by octavop
Mar 6, 2009

JMJ
Dear friends,
we adopted a 3 year old poodle and would like to train it as a guide dog for my disabled daughter.
I know the age is probably a factor in matters of success, but we had no other choice. We signed up at different guide dog communities, but we are A. not high priority, or B. can't afford the professionally trained dog. We have allergies and needed a special breed for which even puppies are terribly expensive. We would like to train him ourselves and are asking for any help possible. What we need him to do is to help her find her way back home and to the bus stop etc. so she will become more independent. I'll send more info if you need it.
Any ideas on how best to proceed. Oh, jah the dog is a mediums sized poodle.
Not very common in the US. It's not quite as tall as a French poodle but somewhere between a standard and that.
christiane

Posted by KOPsBecks
Mar 23, 2009

Thanks very much for the post, unfortunately the guide dog training schedule is well beyond my knowledge of training as it is a very intense course. I would suggest talking to local guide dog authorities about getting in contact with their trainers for some advice. Sorry I can't be of any further assistance,

Good luck with everything,

Becks

Posted by LetsPlay
Mar 24, 2009

Hi there,
getting in touch with a local guide dog association is probably your best bet. I'm sure there are books out there to help you along as well.
Have you trained or owned dogs before?
I think it is a pretty specialized field, so you will need to be very consistent and have heaps of time.
Training an older dog is usually harder anyway, especially if you need him to 100% reliable. What's his character like?
Normally guide dogs get selected when they are still puppies and they will do extensive testing with the puppies before finding one that is suitable. It definitely needs to be a dog that is eager to please and confident, but not dominant.
It also depends what kind of disability your daughter has. If she is blind then the dog would need to be able to guide her past obstacles safely, which requires a lot of training.

Training your dog to find it's way back home shouldn't be too hard to train.
If you could give us some more background information we might be able to give you some advice.

John

disability guide dog