Magazine of

Seeing Dogs

A working name of The Seeing Dogs Alliance

Training Dogs to Guide Blind and Partially Sighted People

Issue No 46 – Summer 2017

Editor Esther Porta

Registered Charity No 1156790 A charitable incorporated organisation

116 Potters Lane

Send Woking GU23 7AL Tel: 01483 765556 Fax: 01483 750846

Email: info@seeingdogs.org.uk

Website: www.seeingdogs.org.uk

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CONTENTS

From the Editor 5 Subscriptions and Donations 5 Secretary’s Report 7 Fundraising News 8 Seeing Dog News 9 Mandy’s Progress, by Puppy Rearers

Margaret & Chris Atkins 11

Updates from our Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, John Grave

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Where it all began, by Neil Ewart, Chairman of the Seeing Dogs’ Alliance

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FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers A warm hello, once again, and welcome to the

summer 2017 issue of Lead On. I am sure we are all enjoying the good weather, and

we are excited to share news with you about three dogs currently in training with John Grave, plus the exciting prospect of Seeing Dogs working with Medical Detection Dogs to train a dual purpose dog. Training a dual purpose dog will certainly open a whole new avenue for us, and is something which you can read more about on page 10, in the Secretary’s Report.

In this issue we also have a short article from two of our puppy rearers, Margaret and Chris Atkins, about their experience with their 10 month old puppy, Mandy. I think your hearts will melt when you read what they say about her!

Also, Neil Ewart, Chairman of The Seeing Dogs Alliance, gives us a fascinating insight into where and when training guide dogs first began. In his in-depth article, Neil refers to Celtish King Odran, who was reportedly blind and lived around 100 BC, and is alleged to have had a guide dog. I am sure you will find it a superinteresting article, and one that may correct some of the understandable assumptions some people might have that guide dogs are relatively new. Not quite so, it would appear! As always, if you would like to contribute a story or article to Lead On, please email esther@3commpr.co.uk

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In the meantime, I do hope you will enjoy reading your summer issue.

Esther Porta

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DONATIONS

To give a donation, or to pay your subscription for one or more years by cheque, you can requst a Subscription and Donation Form.

If you wish to give a donation and/or pay your subscription automatically each year, you can request a Bankers’ Order, complete it and return it to us, as we need to keep a record of who pays their subscription or donates by this method. We’ll send it to your bank. Payments can be made monthly, quarterly or annually by this method. If you want to combine a regular donation with your subscription using this method, £5 of your first payment for the financial year will be considered to be your subscription.

If you are a taxpayer and you request a Subscription and Donation Form or a Bankers’ Order, we should be grateful if you could complete the Gift Aid Declaration on whichever of the forms you use, to give us permission to claim Gift Aid. This now includes people who took out aBankers’ Order before January 2013, as we now have a different charity number.

You can donate online via our website, www.seeingdogs.org.uk or on www.mydonatebt.com.

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Remember that you can also sponsor a puppy or a dog via our website.

You can donate, or pay subscriptions, by a direct bank transfer, although if you wish us to claim Gift Aid, you will have to complete a Gift Aid Declaration. Please use your name as the reference, so that we can recognise your payment. Our bank details are: sort code 40 52 40, account number 00087614. These details are also on the Bankers’ Order.

If you donate or pay your subscription online, or by direct bank transfer, please let us know.

Remember you can also donate anonymously if you wish, either by sending a cheque direct to Caf Bank, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, ME19 4JQ, or via our website. However, we like to acknowledge donations, so we would rather you let us know who you are.

Thank you!

SECRETARY’S REPORT Hi everyone, here is my summer 2017 report. I am pleased to confirm that our AGM will be held

on 2 September at the RNIB in London, at 2pmm after the Trustees’ Meeting in the morning. I hope you will be able to join us on the day, then. On another more personal matter, I know some

of you are already aware that Geoff is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia (LBD). For those of you who aren’t aware of this and who don’t know about the condition, LBD is actually a common type of dementia, estimated to

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affect more than 100,000 people in the UK. The positive news is that Geoff is now on a course of medication, which I hope will help him better manage his condition. Everyone can rest assured that the charity will carry on as usual! I’m determined to keep it going - Geoff and I wouldn’t have it any other way! We both appreciate the kind support that many of you have shown us recently, so thank you again.

So that’s all I have to say this time, and I look forward to updating you in the autumn.

Chris Parker

FUNDRAISING NEWS I am pleased to inform you that we have had more

money from trusts this year, but we still need more! I have started writing to those trusts which kindly

gave us money last year, so hopefully, they will dig deep and help, as we are always grateful for anything they can offer.

We have had one or two subscriptions and donations, which are always well received.

That’s all the fundraising news I have for this time, but I shall update you with more news in the autumn.

Chris Parker

SEEING DOG NEWS We trained two partnerships early this year; however,

one of the clients has, sadly, returned her dog because

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the partnership wasn’t really working out, which can occasionally happen. The dog in question was Zena, the Hungarian wire haired vizsla, which Penny Stratton obtained from breeder, Caroline Busby, in Egham, Surrey, from whom she obtains all our Hungarian wire haired vizslas. John Grave, our Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, is now training a fairly recent applicant,

Yvette Hollingsworth, with Zena. John saw a good walk from Yvette when he matched her with Zena, and she was thrilled with Zena. We are pleased that there will now be a successful new partnership between Zena and Yvette.

John is also training three dogs: Ivy, the German shepherd we bought from Guide Dogs last year - who was puppy reared by Gemma Watton, of Birmingham, Obi, the yellow Labrador cross golden retriever, which we also bought from Guide Dogs, and was puppy reared by John’s partner’s daughter, Carla Brown, and Zachary, known as Zach, the last Hungarian wire haired vizsla Penny obtained for us. Ivy has a problem with platform work on stations, and becomes nervous when a train approaches the platform. Gemma and our Chairman, Neil Ewart, tried to resolve the matter, but the issue still seemed to prevail. Therefore, John took her for training earlier than originally planned, to try to address the matter. Whilst he made some progress, we don’t think Ivy will ever be entirely happy with platform work. Neil thinks it’s an ingrained problem in the dog, and so we are now planning to give her to someone who doesn’t use or depend on trains very often.

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We have another puppy being reared by Chris and Margaret Atkins in Peacehaven. This is Mandy, a golden retriever cross yellow Labrador, whom we bought from Dogs for Good, and whose father is a Guide Dogs stud. Chris and Margaret walked several puppies for Guide Dogs when they lived in Billericay, but Guide Dogs don’t have a puppy walking scheme in Peacehaven, so Margaret applied to us. They are thrilled with Mandy, who is rather a large puppy, but responds well to commands and is very obedient. She will be trained next year.

The client who would like a dual purpose dog, a Seeing Dog and a diabetes dog from Medical Detection Dogs, has been interviewed by us and Medical Detection Dogs. John has recommended that we accept her for training with a Seeing Dog; however, she would like a dog to walk on her right hand side, as she says her right arm is stronger than her left one. When he interviewed this client the first time, John put the harness handle in her left hand, and she immediately asked him to put it in her right hand, so he didn’t fully see the weakness in her left hand or arm, so this is something he will be addressing.

We look forward to working with the team at Medical Detection Dogs, so watch this space for how things pan out there.

Chris Parker

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MANDY’S PROGRESS, BY

PUPPY REARERS, MARGARET AND CHRIS ATKINS Hi everyone! It’s great to

share news about Mandy with you. She is the sweetest, gentlest puppy we have ever had. She is very bright, and learns very quickly. Given that

she is so pretty and calm, people always want to talk to her, and she will just sit quietly whilst they stroke her. Mandy has been very easy to rear, and she is so well behaved when we are out. She also has perfect recall when free running. She is also great in shops, restaurants and buses, and in busy towns like Brighton, nothing seems to worry her at all. Our 17 month old granddaughter also adores Mandy; she can hug and cuddle her with no problem, because she is such a gentle dog. Recently, she had a ride on a miniature railway in Dorset. The railway staff were so thrilled to have her on their train that they treated her like royalty, even offering her a second ride, free of charge! She took it all in her stride, and wasn’t at all fazed.

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We are so happy to be Mandy’s puppy rearers, and whilst it is still early days, she is showing all the signs of making an excellent Seeing Dog.

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UPDATES FROM OUR GUIDE DOG MOBILITY INSTRUCTOR

JOHN GRAVE Obi, the one year old Golden

Retriever Cross Labrador Obi is a dynamic, intelligent,

sensitive one year old male. Although in the early stages of training, he is accepting his role with enthusiasm and learns very quickly. hE is wo nderful to

work with. He is now learning his straight line principle, and stopping for down and up kerbs. He is always willing to please.

His puppy rearer, Carla, has produced a biddable, nice-natured dog.

Great job, Carla!

Ivy, the one year old, German Shepherd

Ivy came into training early, due to an increased awareness of getting on

and off trains. Her puppy rearer, Gemma, has developed and nurtured a wonderful, easygoing, intelligent dog, but was finding it difficult to overcome Ivy’s issue with the

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train. However, thanks to the co-operation of the train staff at Gillingham train station, Ivy has overcome her worries and concerns of getting on and off the train, but this will need careful monitoring over her training period.

She walks well on the streets, with little distraction, and is keen to learn all aspects of her work.

She’s well on her way, and I am sure that we can keep her going in the right direction.

Zachary, the one year old,

Hungarian Wirehaired Viszla

Zach is a highly motivated, confident male. This is our fifth Viszla from our experienced puppy rearer, Penny, who has done a great job with all the dogs we have received from her. Zach is bold and self-confident in his training, and calm when approached by the general public. Socially, he is a bright, lively dog who likes to explore his environment and interact with the other dogs. He is a pleasure to train.

And to end, one more piece of good news! Earlier this year, I was asked by a client to carry out a training trip on an airplane over to Milan in Italy. The trip went well, and the dog behaved impeccably, enjoying the attention of the cabin crew, both at take-off and landing.

In fact, the journey was so good, that last week I received a message informing me that both my client, Loane Ferbac, and the Seeing Dog in question, Marvin,

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will be leaving the shores of the UK once again, only this time to enjoy six weeks of the summer in their family home in Italy.

This is a fantastic testament to all our clients’ hard work, and to the public funds that enable this kind of mobility to happen.

Where it all began, by Neil Ewart, Chairman of The Seeing Dogs Alliance Guide Dogs are trained throughout the world, and it

is tempting to assume that it is relatively new. This is not unreasonable, as it is well known that the

first, truly scientific work training dogs to lead the blind was undertaken in Germany during World War One, and throughout the twentieth century that the concept then spread across the globe.

But it is a fact that dogs have helped the blind and, undoubtedly, aided others with disabilities, for hundreds of years. We can never know how effective many of these early dogs actually were, but they undoubtedly did serve a very useful purpose. I do think it is safe to surmise that many would have also acted as guards or an aid to begging, which, incidentally, is something strictly frowned upon today.

Incredibly, a very early wall painting was uncovered of a blind person apparently being led by a dog, which was found when Pompeii was excavated. This had been buried beneath a sea of ash and volcanic mud when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The painting depicts a

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woman and her maid in the marketplace being approached by what seems to be a blind man with a staff, and being led by a small dog, which is seen turning to his master, as if asking for instructions. There is also an, admittedly, legendary story of the Celtish King Odran, who was reportedly blind and lived around 100 BC. He too is alleged to have had a guide dog!

Then there is a 13th century Chinese scroll, and this also shows a blind man being led by a dog. It depicts thousands of busy figures, and amongst them, undoubtedly, is a blind man walking through the crowd with a dog preceding him on a tight leash, in a manner to indicate a form of prior training. The man holds the leash in his left hand, whilst in his right carrying a staff. This can be viewed in The Metropolitan Museum in New York.

These early pictures all show the dogs leading, rather than walking alongside, their handlers, and a sturdy stick is clearly evident.

In the 16th century, similar images became common. Gainsborough painted a Blind Man on The Bridge, which depicts a dog acting as a guide. William Bigg also shows a dog helping a man in his ‘’The Blind Sailor’’. It is not just paintings, but woodcuts and engravings that illustrate comparable scenes.

Around 1715, there was a popular ballad, ’The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green’. This was the story of a knight who lost his sight in batte, and was then reduced to begging. His mates gave him a bell and a dog.

It is quoted that the dog was ‘trained to the business and had before been the companion of a blind beggar

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now deceased. He trudged home with his tractable guide, which thereafter proved serviceable to him.

Thomas Berwick actually confirms that a dog in one of his pictures really is leading his master, as he wrote ‘some of the more common instances of this creature’s sagacity.., amongst these, its care in directing the steps of a blind man.

In Trollope’s novel ‘Can You Forgive Her,’ a character tells another that she will lead him ‘as the little dogs lead the blind men’. This was published in 1864.

By the end of the 1800s, there was an exemption from the excise licence granted by Parliament in Great Britain to shepherds’ dogs and those kept by the blind as guides, which suggests the numbers of dogs being accepted as being guides must have been quite high.

It must be assumed that these dogs would act as very simple guides and companions, and whether most were actually trained in any way can only be open to conjecture.

However, there are records of a system of training guide dogs, which were published in Vienna around 1819. There is also another book from the same area, published a little earlier in 1813, which refers to well trained dogs being used prior to 1780 by blind persons of the Quinze-Vingt hospital in Paris. In fact, there was a painting hanging in the Louvre depicting these dogs.

There are also records of a blind Viennese named Joseph Reisinger who, at the end of the 18th century, trained a Spitz to guide him. It is reported that he made such a good job of it that many accused him of feigning

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his blindness. He then went on to train two more dogs, one of which was a Poodle. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that any of his methods were ever developed.

Speculating how an individual may have trained his dog should take into account that there is a possibility that the handler was partially blind, but who knows? The Director of the Institute for the Blind in Vienna stated that the Poodle and the Shepherd dog made the best guides. He even went on to describe a method of using dogs in which a stick was attached to the dog’s collar, and was then held in the left hand. This Director was named Klein and he continues: ‘The rigid stick must run through a loose brace around the body of the dog, so that a side movement of the dog is fully felt in the hands of the blind person. The use of a guiding stick has the advantage that the blind person notices at once when the dog is standing still, which is not true when he is led by a strap‘.

His next observations sound very familiar to us in the twenty-first century:

‘The training of a dog, at least in the beginning, must be done by a sighted person. One leads him, many times on the same road and drills him, particular attention being paid to places where through turning, through slow pace, through standing still, or through other movements which might be useful to the blind in situations such as the turning of the street and in the avoidance of obstacles that lie ahead -through all this the dog will be made alert to various kinds of dangerous situations. Then the blind person takes the dog in hand himself and goes with him, at first on the same road with which he is already

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acquainted, in order to become accustomed to the movements and signals of the animal. It is obvious that from now on the dog will be fed and cared for by the blind person himself, in order to arrive at a mutual understanding and to establish a true and faithful attachment with the leader dog.

It is worth reminding ourselves that this was written at the end of the 18th century, and the principles are certainly still relevant today.

I will turn my attention to the 20th century in the next issue of Lead On, in order that you might see how many of the applications and principles of training laid out centuries ago, prevail today.

See you again in the autumn!

Want us to feature your stories and news? Please email your photos and personal stories, by 30 November 2017,

to: esther@3compr.co.uk