Friday, May 11, 2012
The Saturday open house offers a tour, a blindfolded walk with a guide dog and a chance to play with puppies.
Southeastern Guide Dogs opens its campus five days a week for volunteer puppy huggers and dog walkers, but this Saturday, May 12, is a great opportunity to learn all about Southeastern and their superb dogs because it is open house. How is open house different from any other time you can come to the Palmetto campus? There are a number of activities happening this Saturday that don’t normally occur. Volunteers will be leading guided tours, filling guests in on the history and inner workings of Southeastern. While readers of this column have gotten an inside look at what Southeastern does, the tour will give you a chance to see the training grounds and kennels for yourself. You’ll also get the chance to interact with the adorable bundles of…
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Friday, May 4, 2012
This week we have another guest post from trainer Karen Mersereau – it’s all about an interesting situation we experienced when we started using clicker training during the early phases of guide dog training.
We all have had unintended consequences, like supporting the Girl Scouts by buying four boxes of cookies, and then having to amp up your workouts to get rid of the pounds they added to your thighs. Well, here’s the story of other unintended consequences brought about by treats. Puppy raisers know not to make their dogs sit at curbs while waiting to cross the street. This creates a bad habit that trainers have to break when we get the dogs in for guide dog training. So, I couldn't figure out why I had a whole string of dogs sitting at curbs. After a few days of puzzling over this, and watching the dogs closely, I suddenly realized that the dogs weren't sitting for the curb, they were sitting for the treats that are part of clicker training…
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4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, April 27, 2012
We’re taking a few weeks to look behind the scenes at Southeastern Guide Dogs and learn about all the people who have a hand in creating great guide dogs.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have introduced you to some of the departments at Southeastern Guide Dogs. Last week we talked about the Medical Team and all they do to keep our dogs in tip-top shape; Buildings and Grounds who keep our campus beautiful and welcoming; and we learned a bit about the roles of our Director of Training and Apprentice Trainer Manager. Now we are going to take a peek at what the folks up in the Administration building do all day. Visitors who come up to Administration along with students arriving for training always receive a cheerful greeting from our receptionist and usually a volunteer or two. They are also the friendly voice answering the phone and assisting with various tasks throughout the offices. The …
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4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, April 20, 2012
For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to take a look behind the scenes at Southeastern Guide Dogs and learn about all the people who have a hand in creating great guide dogs.
Last week we introduced you to some of the departments at Southeastern Guide Dogs. We talked about the folks in the Genetics and Reproduction Department and their effect on creating the highest quality guide dogs; the Puppy Kennel staff and their enviable job of taking care of adorable puppies all day long; Puppy Raising Services and their task of finding and coordinating puppy raisers for all the adorable puppies and finally the staff in the Receiving and Training Kennels who care for the guide dogs-in-training when they return to campus. There’s another group of individuals who have a dramatic part to play in the health and welfare of our dogs – the Medical Team. Led by Dr. Jerry Edington this team is responsible for making sure all the …
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Southeastern Guide Dogs
4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, April 13, 2012
For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to take a look behind the scenes at Southeastern Guide Dogs and learn about all the people who have a hand in creating great guide dogs.
It’s funny, whenever I tell someone I work for Southeastern Guide Dogs, they immediately ask if I am a trainer. Clearly they must not know my personal dogs if they think I could make a living training dogs. Well, I am here to say that training guide dogs is not the only way to have a career with Southeastern Guide Dogs. There are many people who work behind the scenes to produce world class guide dogs. Let’s start at the beginning with our Genetics and Reproduction Department. Our Breeding Manager and Technician are responsible for ensuring that we have the highest quality dogs to train as guides. They keep detailed pedigrees on each of our breeders to make sure genetically there is enough diversity within the breeding colony, determine…
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Southeastern Guide Dogs
4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
/articles/pay-no-attention-to-the-people-behind-the-curtain
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Friday, April 6, 2012
We all know that a guide dog’s job is to provide mobility for a visually impaired person, but did you know their first priority is safety?
Before I started working at Southeastern Guide Dogs, I was under the assumption that if I was blind, and told my guide dog that I wanted to go to the library, he would just take me there and I would follow along. Well, that’s not the case. Apparently, I would have to have enough “orientation and mobility” skills to get myself there without the help of the dog. Orientation and mobility is the way someone understands their place in their environment and how to move about within that environment either using other mobility aids such as a cane or a sighted guide. Why are these skills important? Why not just tell the dog where you want to go and expect him to get you there? Well, even if your dog knew the route to a variety of familiar …
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4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Before you get too excited, no, we aren’t offering camp here on campus this summer. Puppy Camp is for our puppies-in-training and a very important part of the process of making great guide dogs.
Certified trainer Karen Mersereau explains the thought process behind Puppy Camp and why it is so important during training. For the puppy raisers out there, you may recognize this piece as it was originally posted on the Blue Coat Journal in May 2011. Sometimes I think the second most feared phrase in puppy raising after “time for IFT” (in-for-training – when the dogs come back to campus for formal harness training) is “time for puppy camp.” I can understand this. You like this dog. You just got them somewhat under control and singing off the same page with you (or at least out of the same songbook). The last thing you want is to send them off to someone else. But puppy camp is a very important part of the dog’s socialization. Our dogs …
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4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, March 23, 2012
This week saw another group of students graduate from Southeastern Guide Dogs’ program with their new guide dogs. Here is the profile of just one of those inspiring people.
Frank Obremski, born with congenital retinitis pigmentosa, has been legally blind since birth and ten years ago became totally blind. But that didn’t stop him from making a lasting impression on the moon. You see, Frank was a vendor at the Kennedy Space Center for 42 years and while there, he was able to “have a look” at the lunar space rover by giving it a once-over with his hands before it was sent up to check out the moon. Frank came to Southeastern Guide Dogs for his third guide. Upon arriving, he was paired with a petite black Labrador named Berniece, but lovingly called Niecey with whom he bonded instantly. Niecey won’t have to make her way around the Kennedy Space Center and its enormous buildings, but she will have plenty of …
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Southeastern Guide Dogs
4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Southeastern Guide Dogs’ campus has been abuzz all week with Spring Break visitors. Here’s how you can bring the Spring Break fun home all year.
With Spring Break come big crowds for Puppy Hugging and Dog Walking on Southeastern Guide Dogs’ campus. Southeastern is the only guide dog school that opens its campus five days a week to the general public to enlist their help in socializing the puppies and exercising the dogs-in-training and people come in carloads to the picturesque campus. While this socialization and exercise is very important, there are also other ways the whole family can get involved with Southeastern Guide Dogs. One major way would be to become puppy raisers. These selfless folks bring a cuddly bundle of puppy energy into their homes, love it, teach it basic obedience and expose it to the wide world. Then once the pup has become a well-behaved dog, they return it…
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Southeastern Guide Dogs
4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
/articles/weekly-tails-from-southeastern-guide-dogs-a-family-affair
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Friday, March 9, 2012
Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon was last weekend. In case you didn’t make it to Vinoy Park, here’s a wrap-up of the day’s events.
It was a gorgeous day March 3 down by the waterfront in St. Petersburg when people gathered for the 26th Annual Southeastern Guide Dogs Walkathon. The site was laid out with a variety of activities for the whole family – there were three giant bounce houses/slides for the kids, food trucks with delicious fare, dog massage, and a giant tent that housed both of Southeastern’s gift shops. By dinner the day got even better with volunteer awards and a big surprise for Southeastern Guide Dogs. The walk was led by Petey, the First Pup of St. Petersburg, and Miss St. Pete. The line of walkers seemed never-ending as they made their way along the 3K walk. Many different breeds of dog were in attendance from Great Pyrenees to teacup Pomeranians, all…
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Southeastern Guide Dogs
4210 77th St E, Palmetto, FL
/articles/weekly-tails-from-southeastern-guide-dogs-walkathon-wrap-up
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cheryl castle
9:19 am on Friday, April 6, 2012
This is so amazing. Every time I see Lucy workin g it amazes me. more ›