When I was six years old the doctor gave me my first pair of glasses. They were round, thick, and made my face look like a pumpkin. My vision has been worsening ever since. My last doctor’s appointment, I was told that I have a chance of my retina completely detaching...after he did the examination for my potential premature glaucoma. Blindness in my left eye seems almost inevitable. However, I am not afraid. My family started raising guide dogs when I was ten. Something that was always talked about in the GDB community was bond. Many raisers discussed the theory that the dogs only bond with whoever has the food bowl, while others thought that the dogs have a special ability to deeply bond with their blind person. Guide dogs for the blind and …show more content…
their bonds can be evaluated by examining the background of the GDB organization and training, dog critical periods and chemical releases, personal accounts of guide dogs, and a project proposal to answer the question, “do guide dogs bond with the bowl?” Guide Dogs for the Blind is an outstanding organization. The world was at war in 1941. A guide dog trainer, Don Donaldson, found that injured American servicemen were returning home from the Pacific blinded from battle. He and Lois Merrihew decided to create Guide Dogs for the Blind. Today, Guide Dogs serves people from all across the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in San Rafael, California and also has a second campus in Boring, OR (Guide Dogs). Don Donaldson, with the assistance of many other trainers, developed a breeding and training program that has been proven successful. The training that a guide dog goes through to become a certified guide is specialized. The puppy raiser typically will receive the puppy when it is eight weeks old. From there, it is the responsibility of the raiser to socialize the puppy and teach it basic commands. After living with the puppy raiser for a full year, the puppy will then be recalled to campus to receive intensive training. The dogs are forced to re-bond with a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor. They receive training that includes basic harness/guide work. After two or three months of training with Guide Dog Mobility Instructors, the dogs are paired with blind or visually impaired students from throughout the United States and Canada (Guide Dogs). This is the final time that the dog will have to re-bond with a new owner. Typical instruction includes rural areas and busy city sidewalks. All of the dogs at this point are eager to please and are willing to work. Critical periods play an important role in canine development. Also known as the, “imprinting period,” by dog breeders, this is considered the time in a dog’s life where they will bond with “their human.” Canine Companions for Independence has in their puppy manual a few dates of breeder-caretaker critical periods, including: the human socialization period (7 to 12 Weeks), fear impact period (8-11 weeks), seniority classification period (13-16 weeks), flight instinct period (4 to 8 months), second fear impact period (6 to 14 months), and maturity (1 to 4 years). All of these critical periods, excluding a portion of the maturity period, are spent with the puppy raiser. Although these critical periods are important for dog-human socialization, it does not say how important these periods are for specific human bonding. Guide dogs spend the majority of their critical periods with a puppy raiser, but spend the rest of their lives with their blind owner. There is no evidence stating just how important these critical periods are for bonding, however I would like to believe that they are important for socialization and are not specific to bonding with one person. If my theory is true, it would explain how guide dogs can bond with multiple people (not just their first owner). But, there are other dog breeder/scientific reasons for dogs being able to bond with their owners. A lot of scientists believe that the bond between man and his best friend has more to do with the release of oxytocin, the love hormone, and not critical periods. In a scientific study done by Miho Nagasawa, it was found that dogs and their owners release oxytocin with eye gazing. Eye gazing in this case is simply just eye contact. People who are blind do not have the ability to gaze into their dog’s eyes, however Nagasawa and many other researchers believe that touch triggers a larger oxytocin release than eye gazing comparably. The blind are in constant contact with their guides, whether it be in active day to day life or in a home setting. The blind are dependent upon their dogs. From the release of oxytocin, we can assume that the guide dog-blind person relationship would be a deeper relationship than that of a guide dog-puppy raiser relationship. Both relationships are capable of existing due to the scientific reasoning of critical periods and oxytocin release. Four of my guide dog puppies went on to become actual guide dogs, while one failed out.
Harlan, my first dog, is now a guide for a professor at the University of Washington. Something peculiar happened with Harlan. While living with us, he was very depressed and was quite Eeyore-like. However, we discovered at his graduation that he had become deeply attached to the head mobility trainer. At GDB the trainers are allowed to take one dog with them when they retire. The head trainer was going to retire early so that he could keep Harlan. During his graduation ceremony, Harlan followed the man wherever he walked. Gazed at him, actually. Although his blind owner was dependent upon him and deeply attached, Harlan did not seem to care. He wanted his trainer. Harlan was so bonded with the trainer that he almost seemed to neglect his duties as a guide. Another one of my guide dogs, Zorro, graduated with a lady who is married to the producer of Shark Week. They traveled all throughout Europe together, trying to get the service animal portion of those countries’ disability acts revised for the public use of service animals. Zorro eventually got into a fight with a pit bull in Switzerland. The trainers theorized that the fight was because of his over-protectiveness of his owner. He did not have a home or a place to protect, so his owner became his property. Zorro now lives with my family, and seems to be the happiest he has ever been. He has become very attached to my littlest sister, Ivy. He wakes up in the morning when she wakes up, and only goes to bed when she is resting. From my own personal accounts of guide dogs, I can honestly say that I believe guide dogs are capable of bonding with multiple owners, but on different levels. Susan Krieger, Fresco’s proud owner and professor of women’s gender and sexuality studies at Stanford, has written many novels about traveling blind with her dog by her side. Her most recent novel Come, Let Me Guide You she describes her dogs as
being the most loving creatures on the face of the planet. To her, it is almost unexplainable as to why the dogs are so willing to work for a human. Most of her ideas stem from the same commonplace: intimate bond. When I asked Susan about her bond she said, “I think it’s deep. I think it continues to deepen over time. I also notice that Fresco often seems perfectly happy to walk off with someone he hardly knows who comes to visit us. I then wonder, Is he really attached to me? But I think perhaps the dogs are like that: they bond very quickly to people they like. But I don’t think they then forget the others with whom they have connection.” Many of my dogs owner's express their relationships as being deep bonds, and not just companionship. Only 5% of guide dog owner site companionship as the reason for obtaining a guide dog, while the other 95% state that independence (Service Animals). Maybe we as humans anthropomorphize our animals too often. We are too quick to label our dogs as being deeply attached to us, because we are deeply attached to them. Ghandi once said, “Independence is and ought to be as much ideal of man as self-sufficiency.” With these dogs providing the blind with independence and freedom, two things that are deeply imbedded within the human spirit, it is almost too hard to explain a guide dog’s bond without anthropomorphizing onto the dogs interpersonal feelings. To do my own study of guide dog-blind owner bond, I surveyed twenty puppy raisers from my old guide dog group. The survey I gave the raiser's asked them about the differences in bond and behavior between when they had the dog and when the dog was owned by it’s blind person. I asked questions about how the dog cuddled, attachment problems, how often the dog licked, how often the dog wanted to play, etc. I found a statistically significant difference between how the puppies interacted with their original raisers and how they interacted with their blind owners. The dogs were more willing to play, and were way more attached to their owners than their prior puppy raisers. Also, while interviewing Susan, we compared Fresco’s interactions. He now follows Susan around the house, plays frisbee, and lies underneath her bed at night. These are all traits that exhibit deep bond, things that he did not show while living with my family. My study was very limited and anecdotal. Therefore, I have devised an alternate experiment to study the difference in the bonds that the dog experiences between puppy raiser and blind owner. I would first find five litters of puppies that were not genetically related and born within two weeks of each other at GDB. I would have the puppy raisers fill out periodic surveys about behavior and bond, similar to that of the MPAWS survey developed by Kotrschal K. Then, I would send the puppies into the fMRI machine, right before their recall to GDB campus. It would be easy to measure the dog’s reward center. This recognition would be done through scent, to eliminate blind/non-blind variables (i.e. eye gaze, clever-hans type indicators). There would also have to be control-scents of non-familiar humans as well. I then would take the successful graduating dogs, and scan their brains after one year of living with their blind person, or the same duration as living with the puppy raiser. In comparing the reward center scans of the dog with its puppy raiser and blind person, you could measure the difference in bond between the two. If the reward center of the brain for the dog after looking at it’s blind person was more active than that of its puppy raiser, then you could assume that the dog experiences more of a mental attachment to their blind person (and vice versa). This experience in bond would be similar to that of the early tests/training at Emory in the fMRI machine, only alternating scent between the original puppy raiser and blind person. There could be flaws in this experiment due to the amount of years between each scan/change in age, however this could be accounted for with some scientific algorithms. It is inconclusive as to how guide dogs differ in the bonds that they experience with their blind people versus puppy raisers. Guide dogs are a very special breed of dog, who almost seem as though they were perfectly developed to bond with multiple people. My experience as a puppy raiser with guide dogs has been very rewarding, but in some distant future I may be on the opposite end of the guide dogs experience….an owner of a guide dog. Someday I hope that I will have my question of service animal bond answered, but for now it is easier just to assume that guide dogs just bond with their bowls and whoever is putting the food in them at that given moment.
It can be a companion, an aide, or both. Pet dogs are loyal and make wonderful company, and an emotional support dog creates bountiful joy, but a service dog is much more. A service dog not only serves the same role as a pet, but creates a safer environment for its owner. Without the service dog it would be much harder for the owner to get around on a daily basis indecently. However service dogs and their owners are discriminated against because people are skeptical of the dog’s legitimacy, but instead the service dogs and their owners should be respected and treated as
Almost all the families that own dogs treat them like a part of the family. In the story How the Dog Became Part of the Family, it stated "According to a 2015 survey by the Harris Poll, ninety six percent of owners consider their dogs to be a part of the family." Since the dogs get special treatment from their owners they will do things for them, like encroachment foxes, clean out rats from somewhere, hunt ducks, and also even pull sleds on snowy days. Dogs can be malign gard dogs for people that treat them like kinfolks. The dogs and humans can have a very special bond. "When a dog and a human gaze in each others eye a chemical is released that causes the dog and human to feel adjacent." For example, in the story How the Dog Became Part of the Family, it states that, "The Harris Poll found that 38 percent of U.S. dog owners cook special meals for their dogs," Another thing is walking a dog a lot can improve people's health and can cause less accentuation. Less accentuation causes a better day and it is helpful to kids with autism. When dos get walked it makes you and the dog feel
Imagine this, you are in a mall and a dog wearing a vest comes prancing in with its owner. What would you think? How would you react? Is it trained? Why does the owner bring in his/her dog to a store? Chances are, this is a service dog. Service dogs are used to help people with mental health issues, physical health issues, and social issues. Why do we need service dogs? The people could just go to therapy right? Well, wrong. Service dogs go through extensive training, to ensure they will be able to allow socially inept people to find a place in society, even though there may be some alternatives to their job. Together, let’s explore the ways that a service dog can help people function in society.
Throughout the ages of time, man has called his own dog one of his dearest companions. Wilson Rawls unveils that the influence of a dog is capable of producing an effect on the behavior of others. Dogs will accept their owner without question “… I so desperately wanted to see them and hold them” (Rawls 27). Dogs will never disapprove others, be prejudice, racist, betray, criminal personalities, and maim each other. Dogs are very loyal and will protect their owner with everything they have. That is why a friendship with a dog is incomparable to anything else, disclosing to the reader the importance of such a friend. “I looked at his grave and, with tears in my eyes, I voiced these words: “You were worth it, old friend, and a thousand times over” (Rawls 235).
" The Impact of a Resident Dog on an Institution for the Elderly: Effects on Perceptions and Social Interactions." Gerontologist. 29 (1989): 216-23.
Service dogs are selected and trained by organizations such as Canine Companions for Independence. These organizations choose potential service dogs by looking at a dog’s ancestral history. The health history of the dog is reviewed along with the health history of the dog’s parents. Sometimes dogs are bred to be service dogs. They can even be bred to be smaller or bigger depending on the tasks that may need to be completed . The cost of selecting and training dogs to become a servi...
1.Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to raising the perfect pet with love
They are a part of many organizations to serve and help people in various amounts of ways. Dogs provide assistance in law enforcement, work as service dogs, are therapeutic, psychological role, etc. For example, the Pit Bull Rescue Central mentions, “Pit bulls still loyally serve society in many roles: search and rescue, therapy dogs visiting hospitals and senior communities, working in law enforcement as narcotics and bomb detection dogs, educational dogs teaching children about canine safety, and service dogs.” This illustrates that dogs are a huge part of our society and make our lives easier in one way or another. Many nursing homes and hospitals use different dog breeds including pit bulls to make their patients feel comfortable and to provide affection as well. For instance, the European Pet Food Industry states, “Pet animals are used for therapeutic reasons in hospitals and nursing homes where the benefits are increasingly being recognized... Perhaps of all these positive effects on the well-being of a human patient, the most dramatic is that of a dog or a cat in the non- communicative clinically depressed patient whose withdrawal can be gently alleviated by the introduction of the pet. Such practices and their psychological benefits have received endorsement from the medical profession.” This reveals that pit bulls and other breeds are to not be discriminated against anywhere at any
Beverly Kramer has been raising Leader Dogs for 20 years now. In 1998 at her towns, local Chamber of Commerce annual dinner visually impaired women and her Leader Dog came to give the keynote speech about the work done at Leader Dogs. Beverly husband was the president of the Chamber of Commerce and had the responsibility of hosting the keynote speaker. “It was amazing to hear this woman’s story, I learned so much from her. She told me all about the puppy raising program,” Says Beverly.
The use of therapeutic dogs in nursing homes and other care or incarceration facilities is necessary in today’s world of young people, geriatric patients, and the mentally ill who exhibit various behavior and emotional problems. Dogs bring emotional support and open avenues of expression for segments of society that find it difficult to experience that support or to express otherwise.
Armbruster, K. (2002). “Good Dog”: The stories we tell about our canine companions and what they mean for humans and other animals, 38 (4), 351, 26. Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/PLL/
“A dog is a man’s best friend” goes much deeper than the phrase might initially imply. Recently many medical journals have begun to identify with the many and varied benefits of pet ownership. Men have always relied upon animals for work, transportation, and survival. As times have changed, man has begun to appreciate a different bond with animals. Gone are the days of animals running free outside around the homestead, for now animals are allowed inside and are considered by many to be an integral part of our daily lives! Medical studies have found that animals have a much greater intelligence level than originally thought. Through proper training and experience, animals are not only household pets, but also are becoming an accepted form of medical treatment.
As a kid, I fell in love with the idea of getting a puppy for Christmas. Wrapped in a small box with a bow on top sitting under the tree just like the movies and tv shows I had seen. I can remember making a Christmas list of all the things I wanted that year, and every year the same thing that I wanted had said “puppy” with it underlined so that my mother knew which was my favorite on the list. Every year no surprise, I didn’t find a dog. I never understood why I never received one. When the kids at school talked about the few dogs they had at home made me so jealous, but I hoped that one day it would be me to have my own best friend at home.
As discussed earlier, Pit-bulls have serviced humans in various walks of life. This has been viewed throughout history. A Pit-bull aided the military during the Battle of Gettysburg, another helped guide Helen Keller, who is deaf, blind, and cannot speak, but they can also serve as detectives on the police force. Sniffing out drugs, finding items that are buried, and running down stray criminals has proven that Pit-bulls are loyal to their masters, as long as their master are devoted and nurture their loving companions (Tullis 54). Training these Pit-bulls to protect their owner, their master, can have adverse effects on any other person entering the home or approaching the owner.
"Honey," my mom yelled to me one sunny afternoon, "Go out and feed Sugar." Sugar was our dog, a big, husky lap dog. I went to our kitchen, and got some food. Then I stepped outside, into the warm, fresh August air, looking for Sugar. I glanced to where I kept Sugar, and couldn't believe my eyes. Sugar was not there. I ran to the place where Sugar slept, I saw that the leash was elegantly coiled up. I knew that Sugar could not have run away. I thought that she must have chased a deer or another animal. Then a disturbing thought hit me, Sugar might have been abducted. As I tried to push that thought out of my mind, I thought that my mom could have put Sugar out in the garage. I went to the garage to check, but unfortunately Sugar wasn?t there. ?Mom,? I cried after a couple of seconds, ?Do you know where Sugar is??