 Guide
dog training
 At around 12 months of age, the young dogs are brought to the Center for a vigorous health, physical and temperamental assessment. After that they are taken for a two-week temperamental assessment. Our instructors note the dog's reaction to different situations that are common in many environments. For example they assess their reaction to other dogs and cats. They also assess whether they are distracted by food, noise or other circumstances that would be likely to produce an anxious reaction in the average pet dog. The criteria for selection are extremely stringent as the personal safety of their future vision impaired handler is paramount. This is why just under fifty per cent of pups are accepted into the Guide Dog program. Dogs assessed as having the potential to train as Guide Dogs undertake five months intensive Guide Dog training. Dogs which are unsuitable for Guide Dog work may be trained for our Dogs as Therapy program, be trained for other categories of disabled people or they may be offered to the Puppy Raiser or members of the general public as pets.
Guide Dog training is conducted with each dog individually for each disabled person who will get the dog. We select the Guide Dog Team at the beginning of the dog's training. We register every disabled person that contacts our Center, fill in individual questionnaire based on which we find a dog and plan its training program.
Each Guide Dog Instructor will work a group of 2-3 dogs and during the training period they will develop a detailed understanding of each dog's physical, temperamental and working abilities. In order to find all possible defects that can affect future work of a Guide Dog we conduct additional temperamental test of each dog and maintain their continuing veterinary control during their training. Training and testing of dogs are conducted in accordance with international methods and requirements for Guide Dogs and assistant dogs for disabled people.
During 4 to 6 months of training with the Guide Dog Instructor, the dog learns to walk in a straight line; ignore distractions like cats, food and other dogs; indicate a curb by stropping, and the meaning of many commands such as "stop", "forward", "left", "right", "slow". The dogs are trained under various conditions: in suburban residential, city center and rural conditions. A fully trained Guide Dog will have had experience in guiding a vision impaired handler whatever their home locality is likely to be. Through complicating work conditions and increasing requirements for a dog a Guide Dog Instructor makes a dog to do certain work independently – walking around obstacles that block its way, maneuver in a crowd, notice hanging obstacles (such as tree branches) without running their handler into them. When the dog is demonstrating the correct behavior, it receives lavish praise and encouragement.
During the final stages of Guide Dog training, the dog is checked for traffic safety. Trips on public transport, suburban trains, work inside a shop, a post office, or a bank are all important part of a Guide Dog training. A dog is also trained to learn its routes so that it could work using its memory. Moreover, a dog should learn to analyze the environment in which it works and make the right decisions to the extend possible for a dog. Otherwise its help to its handler would not be complete.
It is very important for a dog to learn certain rules that help its handler to control its work. A dog is trained to refuse to obey a wrong command for safety reasons. Together with the Guide Dog training a dog is also taken through an obedience course. It includes walking alongside, obeying commands like "sit", "lie", "stand", bringing lost objects.
Guide Dog training finishes with exams during which a Guide Dog Instructor works in lightproof glasses that don't let him see where he's going. This way we check whether a dog is ready to work with a vision impaired person. We pass a dog to its new owner at a place where he lives. Sometimes, disabled people from outside of Moscow are invited to the Center for a transfer of a dog.
Passing a dog to a disabled person is the most difficult and responsible part of our work on which the future success of a Guide Dog work depends. A dog will listen to its owner only when he shows certain leadership qualities. Disabled people normally take a 2 week course during which we teach them certain practical situations that they can encounter in real life, whether in the country or in the center of a town. Together with a Guide Dog Instructor they'll learn the most important routes that make day-to-day life of a vision impaired person, such as trips to work, local shops, schools, bank, etc.
At the end of their training the Guide Dog Team has to pass a test to prove their ability to work together as a team. The new handler receives a passport for a dog, veterinary certificate and a special dog equipment.
The Center keeps monitoring work of its Guide Dogs throughout their life. Our Center controls the use of dogs and provides necessary assistance for their handlers.
How you can help
- You can assist blind and vision impaired people accompanied by a Guide Dog by resisting the urge to distract or pat the dog while it is working, as this may endanger the Guide Dog team's safety.
- Don't whistle or offer food to a Guide Dog. If you are walking with your own pet dog, it does help the Guide Dog team if you avoid confrontation with them by crossing the street before you reach them, rather than requiring the dogs to pass closely.
Training
dogs for other categories of disabled people
We train dogs for other categories of disabled people through individually tailored programs. It all depends on physical abilities of a person for which we train a dog and his need for certain assistance. Generally, it includes bringing various objects by their names, assisting to move, accompanying a disabled person in a wheelchair, barking in order to attract attention to a disabled person.
Of course, these dogs take an intensive obedience course. And they are tested and carefully selected. Dogs that could not become Guide Dogs can assist other disabled people because of different requirements for their work. When training dogs for other categories of disabled people a dog instructor imitates their infirmities.
Dogs as therapy
 Our Center just started its Pets as Therapy program. Even a short visit of a happy and cheerful dog brings a lot of joy to disabled and ill people. After its visit they feel much happier and calmer. For some, such dogs are a link to the outside world, sometimes the only one. Such dogs bring the most for disabled children. Showing these children how dogs obey the most basic commands make them very excited and they remember it for a long time! Such programs have long existed abroad. American psychiatrist Dr. Levinson suggested to use dogs for therapy in 1961.
Golden retrievers and Labradors are nice, obedient and optimistic creatures and they are perfect for the job. This is not very developed in our country and we hope for success. We plan to use reclassified dogs for this program.
Golden retriever Olly, that we trained as a companion dog for an ill child now successfully works as a therapist.
Rehabilitation of disabled people
Our Rehabilitation program consists of teaching vision impaired people to find their way (independently or with a help of a Guide Dog). Very often people that get Guide Dogs are not able to move around independently or look after themselves. Our goal is to make them more mobile in an enclosed or open space, teach them to use a cane. It is important to teach them to correctly choose guiding lines and use help of a guide. First of all it will help them to be more independent. It is also necessary for their successful work with a Guide Dog.
Guide
training for friends and relatives
In the future, if there is interest, we plan to train friends and relatives how to correctly guide vision impaired people.
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