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GERMAN SHEPHERD TRAINING TO BE GUIDE DOG
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Suzan Filipek
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TWO-MONTH OLD Valor, here with Ann Benya, will be learning social skills on Larchmont.
Watch for little Valor walking Larchmont Blvd. in the coming months. The black-and-brown furry puppy will also be taking the subway, riding the bus and sitting in the shopping cart during trips to Ralphs to get her socializing skills in tact. The strategy is part of her training to be a Guide Dog of America, said Ann Benya.
The long-coated German shepherd will spend 18 months with Ann and her husband Paul in their historic 1912 Wilton Place home. Then she leaves for a guide dog boot camp: an intensive six-month training session with the Sylmar-based program that matches dogs with new owners who are blind.
Ann, a runner, learned of the all-volunteer program 13 years ago during a 10K race in Griffith Park, where she met a man with a training dog. “I thought it was a really nifty thing to do,” she recalled. Two years later after her Labrador retriever died, she got her first puppy in training.
She asked for a German shepherd, not knowing anything about them. She soon fell in love with the breed, known for their keen intelligence and work ethic. She has also learned they require more socialization than the easy-going Lab, and a fair but stern grip.
When they turn 18 months and it’s time to say goodbye, probably forever, “of course, we cry a lot…“But once you go to a graduation and see how important that dog is to the blind person, it’s not easy… but easier…
“The dog gives them freedom,” she said last month after bringing home Valor, her eighth German shepherd pup.
It’s too early to tell if two-month-old Valor has what it takes. Not all dogs do.
For now she seems more interested in eating dirt in the yard and chewing on toys in the kitchen she shares with eight-year old Zest, a Guide Dog of America graduate who retired early due to incontinence. It was a mild case but unmanageable for a disabled companion.
Ann’s second guide dog Hagrid was also returned— after it was learned the owner planned to keep the dog alone in a caged yard all day, instead of by his side. At first the dog was returned to the training program, but she didn’t do well the second go round, and is enjoying life with Ann’s daughter in Minneapolis.
The other dogs Ann raised have dutifully followed their longtime companions’ commands, led them out of harm’s way and overall relished their work.
Besides wanting the job, they have to be unflappable—such as insensitive to loud noises—and, of course, friendly.
Ann will take Valor to obedience classes, and once a month they will travel to a school at the Sylmar facility. When the dog wears his jacket, or a yellow bib in the case of a puppy, work rules apply: no jumping on people, sniffing the ground or relieving themselves. All skills Valor will be learning on her rounds of the neighborhood.
For more information visit guidedogsofamerica.org |
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