Training Service Dogs at Guiding Eyes

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to train a mobility guide dog? In this Ask About the ADA interview, Ben Cawley, an instructor for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, explains how his organization trains guide dogs and pairs them with compatible handlers. What kind of tasks can these dogs help accomplish? What breeds make good guide dogs? How long is their work life? Listen to the full interview for the answer to these questions and more.

Visit the Guiding Eyes for the Blind website.

NortheastADA.org

Transcript

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 JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to Ask about the ADA, the podcast where we talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to everyday life. This is Joe Zesski, the program manager at the Northeast ADA Center. Joining us this week we have a special guest, Ben Cawley, who we'll introduce in just a moment. Grace Fairchild, our producer and student worker is joining me again to conduct this interview where we are going to talk about service animals, particularly service dogs, from the perspective of one organization. Let's get to the interview. First of all, Ben, let me welcome you the podcast. Thank you for joining us today. 

BEN CAWLEY: Thank you for having me, Joe. 

JOE ZESSKI: It's our pleasure. And I think we should first begin by introducing you a little bit more and maybe talking about your work and your organization at Guiding Eyes. Would you first tell us a little bit more about yourself? 

BEN CAWLEY: Sure. Yeah. So my name is Ben Cawley. I'm a guide dog mobility instructor. My current role at Guiding Eyes for the Blind is the director of regional training programs. I oversee all of the field work that happens with our graduates. Guiding Eyes for the Blind is a nonprofit that produces guide dogs for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. And we serve individuals all over the United States and Canada. 

So our team of regional guide dog mobility instructors that I work with is responsible for conducting in-person home interviews as well as providing follow-up services in the field for graduates and teams that need assistance. I've been in the industry for approximately 20 years. I started out at another school in California and came to Guiding Eyes for the Blind in 2012. And it's just a fantastic organization to be a part of. And I look forward to sharing it with you and Grace. 

GRACE FAIRCHILD: Yeah. So thank you for kind of explaining to us what the organization does. So probably a lot of people are familiar with the basic premise of what a guide dog does. But can you explain with more specificity and detail what guide dogs might help people with disabilities do. 

BEN CAWLEY: Sure. Yeah. So a guide dog is a type of service dog. And the service that it provides its handler is to help them with locating obstacles in their path as well as finding changes in elevation like curves and stairs. That's the main job that they have and the main tasks that they're trained by the trainers who are Guiding Eyes for the Blind. 

JOE ZESSKI: I think that's an interesting point. I think sometimes people sort of are under a misconception that the dog is sort of directing the person where to go. And it doesn't sound like that's actually the case. It's more-- although people may not think of a dog that way, it's almost like using a tool, granted a very cute or perhaps very furry tool. But the dog's role is a little bit like how people may think of someone who is a sign language interpreter, where the interpreter in that case is a person who is just meant to interpret what one person is saying to another. And in this case, it sounds like what the dog does is to act as sort of like a tool in this situation, where they're not telling the person where to go, but more what's along the way. Is that pretty accurate? 

BEN CAWLEY: Yeah. That's correct. So in order to qualify for one of our dogs, our handlers who are students who come to us who are applicants have to go through orientation and mobility training and be proficient with traveling through-- whichever environments they want to work their dog in, they need to be able to do it independently with a white cane. So in their orientation and mobility training are individuals who are newly blind. Or sometimes individuals will get refresher orientation and mobility training when they move to a new location or have a new job. 

They really learn how to move about their environment independently and using things like the sound of traffic, the things that they can feel under their feet like wheelchair ramps and other inclines and declines. And so what a guide dog does is it helps someone who has that background be a little bit more efficient with their travel. And instead of finding obstacles with a cane, the dog is taught to move the person around the obstacles so they can move through space a little bit more efficiently. 

Now that being said, there are a lot of cane travelers who travel incredibly efficiently through environments. So there are some individuals who choose not to have guide dogs, which is just a lifestyle choice, right. Dogs are a lot of work. And you have a pet dog when you get home with a guide dog. So it's a personal choice to get a guide dog. 

JOE ZESSKI: It definitely is. And a lot involved in it to be sure. How long does that process take to train a guide dog? How long does that process take? 

BEN CAWLEY: So before you talk about the formal training, you really have to talk about the genetics and the breeding because we have incredible dogs, some of the best dogs I've ever, in my 25 years of working in the industry, I've ever experienced. Mainly, we train Labrador retrievers. We also train German shepherds at Guiding Eyes for the Blind. There are some schools that train golden retrievers and mixes between goldens and Labs. But Guiding Eyes for the Blind focuses on German shepherds and Labrador retrievers. 

Once we breed them here and we start socializing them as soon as they're born, getting them ready to move through the world confidently. They're trained some incredibly complex tasks. And then we ask them to do it in complex environments as well. So it's one of the toughest jobs that a dog can be asked to do. And it really takes a special dog from a breeding and socialization standpoint to make it through the training. We have volunteer puppy raisers that take the eight-week-old puppies that have already been socialized a little bit. 

They take them into their homes. They teach them basic obedience and open up their hearts and their homes to them for a year and a half. And they also heavily socialize them by bringing them out into public, bringing them to their places of employment, to school if they're students. And we get them when they're about a year and a half old. The puppy raisers return them to the training center, where they're assigned to a guide dog mobility instructor. And they're trained their formal guide work, which is the obstacle avoidance and elevation change training that I talked to you about previously. They're also trained some complex intelligent disobedience tasks. That's a fancy way of saying we teach them that it's OK to say, no, I'm not doing because it's not safe. 

So when it comes to being around moving automobiles or working on a platform when the train is not there, we teach the dogs just to be aware that if your handler doesn't hear the car or doesn't realize they're facing the platform and they ask you for a forward that it's OK to say no in that situation. In fact, it's not just OK, but it's expected. It's a good thing for you not to move forward. 

So that training, all that training and exposing them to different environments in their training, takes anywhere from three to six months, depending upon the dog and who they're being trained for. We really pride ourselves on customizing our training to each individual applicant and student that the dog is going to be going to. So once we identify a match, then that kind of determines how long the training is going to be because some people need more specialized training than others. 

GRACE FAIRCHILD: And as you mentioned, customizing some of the training to match the specific guides that the dogs will be assigned to. How do you normally pair a guide dog to a handler? 

BEN CAWLEY: Well, that's a great question, Grace. So it's kind of like a-- for lack of a better term-- a dating app, where you have all these different parameters that you're looking at. It really is a relationship and an important relationship that you're trying to make between the handler and the dog because in addition to, will the dog be comfortable in your environment that you're going to be asking it to work in, are you going to be comfortable with this particular dog in your house? Is it the type of dog that you enjoy being around? 

Our potential applicants come to us with a wide range of experience with dogs. Some, it's the first time they have ever been around a dog sometimes. And they're not even sure how they're going to react to it. And sometimes, it's someone that it's their fourth guide dog. And they love dogs. They've grown up with dogs. And so it really depends upon the person. We look at their walking pace. We look at their environment. We look at how quick they are to react and notice things that are happening. And we take all that into consideration, as well as how active they are when we're making the match. 

And the trainers get to know the dogs really well. And our regional trainers who do the home interviews get to know the students really well or the applicants really well. And we come together and make those matches. And we take it pretty seriously because we want-- once someone gets a dog, they're going to be really emotionally invested in the dog. And we want to make sure that from day one it goes well. 

GRACE FAIRCHILD: So Ben, how long is the typical work life for a guide dog? 

BEN CAWLEY: So the typical work life of a guide dog is anywhere from 8 to 12 years. And that's a pretty wide range. But it really depends on the individual who has the dog, their lifestyle, what they use the dog for on a regular basis, whether or not they can slow down with the dog as it ages, or if they are using the dog to commute and kind of need the dog to be at the top of its game, so to speak. 

So you might have a handler who lives in Manhattan who commutes to work every day and really needs a dog that is on its game, and works at a brisk pace, and can handle the intensity of Manhattan. They might decide to retire their dog a little bit earlier than someone who might live in a rural area and might be retired and uses their dog mainly for pleasure walks in their home environment. 

So it's a real personal decision. It's also a very emotional decision. Guide dog handlers have shared with me that the relationship they have with their guide dog is much more powerful than the relationship they've ever had with any of their pet dogs just because the sheer amount of hours they spend together each day, as well as the trust they put in the dog and the enhancement that the dog brings to their life. So it's a very challenging decision to make. They oftentimes will lean on support networks to help make that decision. We as an organization help them with our guide dog mobility instructors can often-- that's part of our job is to have those conversations with graduates and help them to decide when it's time to retire. 

A lot of our graduates-- we have a fantastic graduate community that communicates with each other. And they'll turn to each other for support in making that decision as well. But ultimately it's up to the graduate when they want to retire the dog. There are rare instances where dogs are retired before eight years old. Sometimes for health, or behavior, or their graduate's health. Guiding Eyes, really, we pride ourselves on committing to each and every dog and each and every graduate and team that if a dog needs to be placed after retirement, we will do so. 

But we do leave it up to the graduate. It's really their decision if they want to keep the dog in retirement. Some aren't able to. And I can tell you, for anyone listening who's known a guide dog, they tend to be just such nice dogs. And there's usually a line out the door of people who are willing to adopt the retired dogs, both from the graduate-- sometimes, the graduates place them locally. And sometimes, the graduates place them back with their puppy raisers. Or if neither one of those avenues are available, then we as an organization have a waiting list of people who would like to adopt our retired guides. 

They really make great pets because they have zero house issues. They're quiet. They're older. So they're nice and settled. They don't need much exercise. So there's really no lacking for homes for retired guides. And most of the time, they are able to stay with their graduates. Oftentimes, the graduates will have a retired dog at home while they go out and get their new dogs. So they have two dogs, one in retirement and one active. 

GRACE FAIRCHILD: Yeah. I hadn't thought about guide dogs being such good pets afterward. But that makes a lot of sense. 

JOE ZESSKI: It does and how people have to sort of manage that transition from one dog to another. And do you keep both dogs? Or do you, like you were saying, find sort of an adopted home for the older dog. It's a very complex issue with lots of considerations. 

BEN CAWLEY: And there are housing constraints too. Some of our graduates, they're only able to have the dog in their housing because the law allows them to. But once the dogs retire, they can't keep it anymore, especially if they want to get a second guide dog. So unfortunately, that's often one of the deciding factors when graduates do have to place the retired dog with someone else. 

JOE ZESSKI: Again, we appreciate you being with us today. If people want to find out more about your work and what you do, what's a good way for them to find out more? 

BEN CAWLEY: Yeah. It's been such a pleasure, Joe and Grace. Thank you for having us. Guiding Eyes for the blind is a not for profit. So all of our services are provided free of charge to our students and graduates. If you want to learn more about how to support our organization, or just become part of the fantastic community of volunteers, or become a graduate, you can visit us at www.guidingeyes.org and learn more about us there. 

GRACE FAIRCHILD: Thank you so much. 

BEN CAWLEY: Thank you for having me. 

JOE ZESSKI: And this has been this edition of Ask about the ADA. Thank you again to Ben Cawley for joining us today to talk about Guiding Eyes for the Blind and the important work that they do. Again, we didn't talk specifically about the ADA today. However, as I mentioned, service animals are always a frequently asked about topic here at the Northeast ADA Center and across the ADA National Network. 

So if you have questions about service animals, please don't hesitate to call or email us. You can visit our website, northeastada.org. You can email us at northeastada@cornell.edu. And you can call us at 1-800-949-4232. And again, look for us on social media as well. Thanks again to Grace for interviewing alongside of me today, and as always, for producing and editing our podcast. Thank you as well to Peter Quinn of the YTI media team for assisting and doing final edits. And as always, thank you for listening. And let's continue the conversation. 

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