My fourth guide dog had unexpectedly retired at the early age of five, and a couple of months later the mandatory lockdown of 2020 happened. Since my last service dog’s untimely departure, I had applied and been accepted to three guide dog schools for the blind, and was waiting for an opening at one of them to find a match for me, but they were closed with the rest of the world, so I decided to take the unconventional and mostly unheard-of way, of training my own guide. Very few people have trained their own service dogs, and especially people who are totally blind, as most people, –blind or not, think training requires sight.
I decided since I had lots of time, –who knew how long the closure of our world would go on, and with my history of four guides over a 30-year period, why not train a dog myself? I thought, if I could find a candidate between the ages of one to two years, that showed potential for guide work, why not take on the challenge? I sure was going to have lots of time, now that my two businesses were closed, and I knew I wouldn’t want to take on the arduous and slow task of walking around my neighborhood with my cane. I wondered if I would have the patience and skills, I knew training a dog from scratch would require but “Why not give it a go?” I thought, as I began my online search for reputable breeders in my area.
I preferred and had the most experience with German Shepherds, so I called three reputable breeders in the state to see if they had any prospects. I talked with a breeder who had three dogs that met my age criteria and she thought had the correct temperament for guide work. I immediately made an appointment, before kennels were closed to the public, and a friend drove me to her place to evaluate all three. I interviewed with each dog individually, walking them on a leash with my cane as I knew I would have to use it to train them. The first dog was a large, majestic 16-month-old male. I walked around with him, doing such things as moving my cane back and forth on the ground in front of him to emulate how I would train him, seeing how he walked on a leash, and how he interacted with me. He was a bit wild but I could work with that; however, he was already 85 pounds and growing. I was reluctant to have such a large dog that I would need to put under seats in airplanes and restaurants, transport in Ubers, and navigate within crowded and confined spaces as I traversed the world. The second dog was a nine-month-old male. When I walked with him, he was wild and pounced on my cane in an attempt to attack it; that was too much prey drive for a guide dog so I knew he wouldn’t work for my needs. Finally, the breeder brought out a 15-month-old female. Right away I felt an innate connection with her, and even the breeder noticed it. The dog had no prior training, wasn’t house broken, and had never even been in a car or even off the property, but she mostly walked by my side and, when I moved my cane across the ground in front of her, she completely ignored it. I told the breeder that I wanted to take the female, and she said I could have her on a trial basis for two weeks to see if she would work for me.
I am calling her Athena, but that isn’t her real name – I never tell anyone the names of my working guides. As I’ve had experiences in the past where people have tried to get close to my working dogs by calling their names and distracting them, at inappropriate times when it could prove dangerous for my safety. In my early days of having a guide, I was crossing the street at an intersection and a friend with whom I had shared her name, was stopped in her car at the intersection. She yelled out to my dog from her window. My dog, who heard her name and recognized my friend, totally unsafely took off diagonally crossing an intersection of busy streets, to get to her. Suddenly, I heard several horns blaring and I knew I was in danger. I managed to get my guide’s attention and we crossed safely, but that day I saw the brilliance of keeping my service dog’s name to myself. These dogs are here to work for us blind people; they are not pets. If we want them to guide us safely, they need to be fully and loyally focused on their jobs.
Athena was a beautiful 70-pound, black and red, female German Shepherd. Once Athena was bathed and I paid for her, I put her on a leash, pushed back the front seat of the car, beckoned her inside, and she sat on the floor between my feet. We took off and soon Athena lay down, curled up, and put her head down to rest. After only four days of the two-week trial period the breeder offered me, my intuitive genius told me that me and this dog had a special connection. In spite of the fact that Athena had no experience with any of the things I was asking her to do, she learned extremely quickly and I recognized that there was a magical bond between the two of us. I called the breeder and told her I wanted to keep Athena. She responded that I had a week and a half left to decide, but I replied I already made my decision – she’s going to be my next guide. The breeder, a sensitive woman who was so happy to know that this girl would be a service dog, wept upon hearing my decision.
As a totally blind handler, I knew the only way to figure out what she was doing was to keep her close to me. For the first few weeks, I kept Athena tethered to me on a leash in my house, except for the brief times I placed her safely in her kennel when I could not pay attention to her, like when I showered or cooked. She was not yet house broken, nor had she had any formal obedience instruction, and I needed to be able to tell exactly what she was doing at all times, before I let her free and unsupervised in my house. It is vital when training an animal to reward the positive and correct the negative behaviors to reinforce what I wanted her to do. I discovered that training takes a lot of patience, a passion for working with dogs, prior experience using a guide dog also helped, and trusting my inner knowing absolutely. As our initial bond grew, I noticed that Athena would often do what I was thinking before I could even verbalize my command, and this happened on a regular basis, showing me there was an innate intelligence at work between the two of us.
When I first began training Athena, I took her out on a leash and used my cane to guide me while she walked next to me, but not healing, as pulling ahead is essential for a dog to guide. Every time we arrived at something I wanted her to show me when guiding, I would instruct her and verbalize what I wanted. I called out every curb, left and right turn, tree branch and other obstacles along the way, showing her exactly what it was I wanted her to become aware of. As we approached the curb, I would say “find the curb” or when we turned left, I would say “left” as I gestured left using guide commands and gestures, exactly like I would do if she were in her harness working. Over and over, we took every possible variation of routes around my neighborhood as I taught her the directions, she needed to learn to be my guide. One of the most challenging aspects of training, was that I had only lived in my neighborhood for two months before I got Athena, and it was in the winter, so I was unfamiliar with the layout of the streets. The winter ice and snow, complicated my routes, I used my GPS, mobility skills, and again my ever-present intuitive genius, which kept me challenged but safe, while I taught my dog how to guide me. I also worked with her daily on obedience commands, such as sit, down, stay, and come. She quickly learned what I wanted her to do.
Athena also showed me her way of communicating with me. One day, shortly after I brought her home, we were out walking and she kept looking over to the grass next to the sidewalk. I didn’t understand, of course, and commanded her forward. She did proceed, but became more obsessed with looking at the grass on our left. After about a block of her being completely distracted, I thought maybe she was trying to tell me that she had to relieve herself, even though I had given her the opportunity before our walk. I stopped, took off her harness, and she immediately hunched and dumped. I gave her lots of praise as I followed her butt to locate and pick up her poop with a baggy over my hand. Then there was the matter of finding the trash. I used this as another opportunity to teach her. When I retrieved my cane from my bag, which I carried with me for this exact purpose, and located the garbage can, I tapped it and said “find the trash”. During her training, we encountered a few bumps and bruises along the way as she learned how to show me head high branches, big cracks in the sidewalks, and how to stay on the pavement. These were all things I had experienced and shown to my previous guide dogs, even though they had formal training at schools. The only difference now was that I was the trainer, and that meant I had to trust my intuition, and use a lot of repetition, consistency, and patience. Even when I didn’t feel like reworking errors, I still had to do so to ensure my safety as best I could.
The first two months of working with Athena were stressful as it was my first-time owner-training, but I persisted and grew and trusted my intuitive skills, and it paid off. A month and a half after I got Athena, it was time to test my hard work. I put down my cane and picked up the harness handle to see how well I had trained her. It was difficult at first to put my trust in Athena, as I knew she didn’t completely comprehend what she was doing, but I intuited (which is a lot of what constitutes owner-training) it was time to take off the proverbial training wheels and let her guide. I kept my cane in my bag with me for weeks after Athena started leading, in case I needed it to detect what was happening at any point during our walks. I had to consciously allow myself to relax and trust her to guide. Whatever we as the master’s feel is transmitted down the harness handle to the dogs so I knew it was very important for her confidence that I let her do her job. It took me a few hesitant weeks before I felt safe enough to boldly stride out when I walked.
People sometimes ask me if there is a guidebook for owner-trading. I found that each dog is so different, a book couldn’t cover all possible scenarios involved in training, just as there is no exact way to raise every child. Each dog is an individual and the handler should have a well-developed intuitive skill, and prior experience with a guide dog before attempting to train one, which is so crucial to the safety of the blind handler. It was truly a challenging experience at times, but letting go and trusting my intuitive genius is the name of the game, both in training a service dog as well as in life. The first walk went well and as I worked Athena on a daily basis, her confidence grew and so did my trust. I have had her for four years and she exhibits excellent behavior and loves her job. We have a deep connection, that is rooted in our innate knowing what the other is going to do, and this trust cements the foundation of our successful relationship. She guides as well as did my former and best guide, Annabelle. She loves her work, and has actually proven to be a city dog. To date, Athena has guided me to many unique places and through a variety of challenging situations. This includes all types of restaurants and businesses, paths out in nature, as well as several trips to other cities and states including twice to midtown Manhattan, and even a trip to Switzerland and Italy. I love owner-training, and will always take the challenge of selecting and training my own service dogs in the future.