Q: Is it okay for a pet dog to greet a guide dog?
Before you consider allowing your dog to greet a working guide dog, please understand the importance of asking permission first, so the handler can be prepared. Your dog should also be on leash and under control. Guide dogs are also not trained to be protection dogs they are busy safely guiding their partners when out in public.
What kinds of dogs do we offer?
Guide dogs lead the way, opening doors to confidence, independence, opportunity, and companionship. Our superhero dogs learn over 40 skills, including intelligent disobedience—situations when they choose to refuse a cue whenever safety is in jeopardy.
Gentle, skilled Kids Companion Dogs provide companionship and teach responsibility to visually impaired children of any age, building a bridge to a future guide dog. Children gain confidence by learning how to care for the dog, leading to greater self-worth.
At Guide Dog Camp, 14- to 17-year-old teens with vision loss and their parents learn how our guide dogs can change a teen’s life. There’s no charge for this overnight, two-day camp. Campers learn about caring for a guide dog, working with a dog in harness, and much more.
A: This is a team effort between the dog and its owner. The owner knows where and how he wants to get to a certain place, and he or she is responsible for telling the dog through verbal and hand signals. Directions include forward, left and right. When at a street crossing, the owner is responsible for judging when it is safe to cross based on the sound of the cars, and should then command the dog to begin crossing. Intelligent disobedience is when a dog refuses to cross the street because it is unsafe to do so, even when the owner has commanded it to go forward.
A: Guide dogs can either be trained at special schools, or by owners themselves. Regardless of the training method, the dogs must learn how to guide their owner safely around all types of obstacles. Owners also have to learn how to give the dog the different commands for when traveling out and about.
A: If you see a dog guide wearing a harness, that means it is working and should not be pet, fed or distracted. Doing so can put its owner in great danger, because it is not focusing on guiding. Never come up to a dog guide and pet it without asking its owner! Always check if it is ok, and please do not feel offended if he or she says no. This Sandy’s View post explains more about why dog guides should never be distracted.
A: Only about 5 percent of people who are blind or severely visually impaired use dog guides. Like with anything else, this all depends on many factors, including a person’s lifestyle, travel skills and preferences. Some people prefer to travel with a white cane, while others are more comfortable using a dog. You can read this Sandy’s View post about different thoughts and experiences from various cane and dog guide users.
Sandy Murillo works at The Chicago Lighthouse, an organization serving the blind and visually impaired. She is the author of Sandy’s View, a bi-weekly Lighthouse blog about blindness and low vision. The blog covers topics of interest to those living with blindness and vision impairments. Being a blind journalist and blogger herself, Sandy shares her unique perspective about ways to live and cope with vision loss.