Guide Dogs Take Blind Couple Out on the Town

Sergei Kosnikov and Nelli Sudapina met during a computer course about a year and a half ago. They fell in love and got married last June. It's an ordinary love story, but with a certain heartbreaking twist. Both Kosnikov and Sudapina are blind.

According to statistics provided by the All-Russian Society for the Blind, they are among the 277,000 sight-impaired people living in Russia. Many of them are confined to their homes and lack much communication with the outside world.

But Kosnikov and Sudapina are able to get around -- thanks to the guide dogs that live in their apartment.

The first professionally trained guide dogs for the blind appeared in Russia after WWII, as many young men came back from the war blind and in need of mobility. The first guide dogs for the blind in Russia received training in the Central School of Guard Dog-breeding.

It was only in 1960 that a centralized guide-dog training school was created by the central board of the All-Russian Blind Society. The school still exists today in the town of Kupavna, in the Moscow region.

Before perestroika, every year the school produced more than 100 guide dogs that went to new owners across Russia. The demand for the dogs was high, and the blind had to wait for a long time to get a dog, which was provided to them free of charge.

In the early '90s, the school hit financial struggles. By the end of the 1990s, two thirds of the dog trainers had been sacked. Several more left on their own in the stifling environment.

The school still exists today, but only Society members can get a dog for free. For others, the cost runs to roughly $5,000, which includes the purchase, vaccination and training of a newborn pup.

In 1998, a group of dog trainers came to the rescue, forming a new organization to train and provide guide dogs for free. In February last year, the group received official registration. Dogs: Assistants to the Blind is more or less stable now. There are five to seven trainers who work with dogs in their free time and completely free of charge. Since 1998, they have trained 15 dogs.

"Each of us could train more dogs, like five to six a year, if we did it exclusively," said Yelena Orochko, the director of the school.

"It is absolutely easier and quicker and simpler to move about with a dog," said Sudapina, 29, who stays at home as a housewife. "When I am without her, the strain is terrible. It is also much safer with a dog."

Without a dog, Kosnikov once fell onto the metro tracks, something he could have avoided with the help of a dog who knows where to stop on the platform.

Shopping can present a challenge of a different sort. Even though guide dogs are officially allowed into shops, hardly anyone is aware of the rule. Recently, when Sudapina and Kosnikov went to a sports clothing store, they were denied entry at first but a manger subsequently provided them with personal service.

Sometimes it takes help from outside.

"I didn't think about getting a dog," Kosnikov said. "But a month before I met Nelli, I was walking in the metro and someone helped me and wanted to know why I didn't have a dog. Why do I need a suitcase with a handle?' I said."

Then he met his future wife, who lost sight at 17. A diabetic, she contracted a blood infection after having her tooth pulled. When she was 20, Sudapina got her first guide dog, a German shepherd. Sudapina, who has auburn hair and black sun glasses, has had her present dog, also a German shepherd, Betti for the last three years.

Betti was a wedding gift, and it took some getting used to. "At first you don't trust the dog," Kosnikov said. "You drag it along, not letting her lead you."

Kosnikov, who is 25, is a Moscow State University student, now in his fourth year in the mechanical and mathematical faculty.

"I am the only blind person in my computer science course," said Kosnikov, who lost his sight at the age of 12 after a bad burn. His dark glasses can't hind all the scars. "During the first two years my brother used to help me, coming to lectures with me and reading notes to me, but then he stopped coming. It is difficult to find materials on the Internet. There are no individuals sessions with me, and books are for those who can see."

There are roughly 30 guide dogs in Moscow. Depending on their health, dogs can work eight to 10 years.

"A dog is a helper," said Galina Aksyonova, who's been training dogs since 1987. "It helps improve the quality of life. It allows for a greater freedom of movement, and help in the psychological sense. A person without a dog stays at home all the time."

Sveta Graudt
The Moscow Times

Also published in The St. Petersburg Times