Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Southeastern Guide Dogs: Building a Warm Welcome

As Southeastern Guide Dogs continues to grow, so does the need for updating the various buildings on campus.

If you have followed this column, you may be familiar with the process of creating world class guide dogs.  Puppies begin their training from birth, and are then sent to live with volunteers throughout the southeastern US to learn basic obedience and be socialized to every aspect of life.  When the pups are 14-16 months old, their puppy raisers return them to us to begin formal harness training.  Kind of like dropping a kid off at college, the puppy raisers watch as their charges are trotted off to the Assessment Kennel.  Well, that kennel is in need of some freshening-up therefore, we have launched a fundraising project for a brand new Canine Assessment Center. The current Assessment Kennel has been on our campus for over 26 years, but …

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Nice to Greet You

This week’s article is guest written by one of our puppy raisers – all about the proper way to greet a dog.

Cheryl McLean and her husband raise puppies for Southeastern Guide Dogs.  Coach is their fourth puppy to raise.  Cheryl is also a librarian at Berkeley Preparatory School and is able to bring her puppies to school. This gives the puppies an amazing variety of exposures.  For the last three years the students at Berkeley have raised the money to name her dogs: Berkeley, Joseph A. Merluzzi AKA Jam (after the retiring headmaster) and Coach (Coach Dominick Ciao). This puppy was named by one student, Austin Iglehart, who raised the $3500 himself during Southeastern’s Walkathon. How to Greet a Dog I continue to be amazed at how parents will let their children run up to a stranger’s dog and essentially shove their face into an unknown dog’s face …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

First Days of Guide Dog Class

This week we’ll take a look at what new guide dog trainees (aka the Freshmen Class) face in their first few weeks on campus.

There are three little letters that will bring even the strongest and most seasoned Puppy Raiser to tears…IFT. IFT stands for In-For-Training and is the time when volunteer Puppy Raisers bring their charges back on campus so they can start their formal harness training.  After caring for, loving and training these dogs for the past year to 16 months, the Puppy Raisers now must hand them over to Southeastern Guide Dogs so they can be molded into the confident guides they’re destined to be. Like dropping a kid off for their first year away at college, the Puppy Raisers watch as their pup is walked away by one of the trainers to be taken back to their kennel during Guide Dog U Freshman Orientation (the day-long program Southeastern holds to …

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The Formative Year

Regular readers of this column have heard a little bit about our Puppy Raisers, but I wanted to give you a more complete picture of the incredible commitment they have to Southeastern Guide Dogs’ mission.

They say it takes a village to raise a child and the same can be said for a guide dog.  It’s amazing to realize that somewhere in the neighborhood of 368 people have a hand in the development of each guide dog.  But one crucial person has the most influence – the Puppy Raiser. Puppy Raisers are volunteers who take a cuddly 9 – 10 week old puppy into their homes and hearts; love it, train it, care for it, expose it to the world around them. Then, after 12-16 months, they return it to Southeastern just when it is getting to be a well-behaved young dog.  Sound interesting?  Well, there’s more…they also attend twice a month meetings/exposures/obedience sessions, follow the 100+ page puppy training manual and act as an educator/ambassador for …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

No Summer Break for Puppies

While all the kids are out playing, Southeastern Guide Dogs’ puppies are studying hard in Puppy Kindergarten so one day they will be guide dogs.

If you are looking for something fun to do with the kids this summer, why not take them to Puppy Kindergarten?  While there might not be little puppies to hug during the normal summertime whelping lull, you can still come onto Southeastern’s campus and interact with the older pups that are starting their training. You may have heard about Early Puppy Socialization at Southeastern Guide Dogs starting just two weeks after the puppies are born, where they are exposed to different walking surfaces and sounds and they begin potty training.  Well, when the pups are a bit older, they move into Puppy Kindergarten.  This is the time when they will learn leash manners and a variety of more specialized commands that will come in handy later when they…

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Even Guide Dogs Get Time to Relax and Play!

All work and no play makes anyone grumpy -- human or canine. Southeastern Guide Dogs has recently instituted a program to make sure all of the dogs in training get playtime too.

There’s no question about it, guide dogs work hard. They are responsible for someone’s safety and that’s a lot of responsibility for four paws. Guide dog training is also difficult, learning everything they will need to be the best guide they can be. Staffers in the kennels set about to find ways to take the stress out of kennel life and training for the dogs as they work their way through the program.  Southeastern’s new Kennel Enrichment program started small and now is building as the results seen are remarkable. So you may be asking, “Just what is Kennel Enrichment?”  Well, Canine Care Technicians and volunteers take the dogs one-by-one and spend quality time with them doing a variety of activities. The dogs may get a massage in a nice…

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Bradenton Business Spotlight

Dawg Phonics Trainer Helps Humans and Canines Speak the Same Language

Trisha Robinson-Antonelli, owner and trainer of Dawg Phonics, works with her canine ambassador, Phoenix, to strengthen the bond between man and his best friend.

Trisha Robinson-Antonelli may not be the Dog Whisperer, but the owner and trainer of Bradenton’s Dawg Phonics is certainly well versed in the language of woofs and tail wags. With the help of her canine companion, Phoenix, Robinson-Antonelli works to bridge that inter-species communication gap and promote better obedience and friendship between man and his best friend. A certified trainer of two years and counting, Robinson-Antonelli travels as far north as Tampa and as far south as Nokomis to provide one-on-one training sessions for dogs of all breeds to correct problem behaviors and help pet owners earn and maintain trust, respect and obedience from their dogs. Phoenix, her two year-old Alaskan malamute mix, accompanies her to training …

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Sit. Stay. Good Dog!

Could your dog use a bit of training? Now you can get instruction from the experts who train guide dogs.

If you have been following this column, you’ve heard me mention my dogs, Freud and Anna. I will be the first one to admit that even though they are my pride and joy, they are not the most well-behaved dogs on the block.  But when they were in their formative years, I didn’t have a program available to me like you do now. Southeastern Guide Dogs is now providing dog obedience classes for the general public taught by our experienced guide dog trainers. Our trainers have the unique perspective of having trained a lot of dogs and have dealt with a wide array of personalities, attention spans, and work ethics.  They bring to the table extensive experience and patience – important traits in a dog trainer. There are a variety of classes offered …

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Carolyn and Cricket

5:12 pm on Saturday, June 9, 2012

Jennifer, we love Freud and Anna!! Post more dog training class info for us in Bradenton. The classes in Sarasota are wonderful,,,but the drive is killing me.   more ›

Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Training Trick Brings Unintended Consequences

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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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Pay No Attention to the People Behind the Curtain: Part II

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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