Fostering Someone’s Future—

NHS Grad Finds Satisfaction In Raising A Special Puppy

By Nancy K. Crevier

Growing up in Newtown, Kelly Coney and her family had always owned pets. Dogs of all shapes and sizes, horses and cats were all part of the big family picture. So when the 2003 graduate of Newtown High School went off to Ithaca College in New York to study physical therapy, leaving her pets behind was as difficult as saying goodbye to her mother, Susan, and older brother, Kyle.

“I had always been around animals, and I really missed having a pet in school,” she said, during a recent visit to her hometown. After a long, freshman year without any four-footed companionship, she discovered that there was an answer to her yearning. Puppies in training from Guiding Eyes For The Blind in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., could be fostered by Ithaca students living on campus.

Since 1954, Guiding Eyes For The Blind has trained and provided dogs and support services to blind and visually impaired people around the world. To train one guide dog team takes approximately $40,000, all of which comes strictly from donations from individuals and corporations to the nonprofit organization. Guiding Eyes depends upon volunteers, such as Kelly, to help raise and train the dozens of puppies born at the center every year.

“Animals are such a stress reliever, it was really good for me,” she said of her decision to go through the application process and take Vasco, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy, under her wing in May of 2005.

“He was only 7 weeks old,” said Kelly. “It was a huge commitment, like having a kid. I couldn’t go out at first. He needed me in charge of feeding, playing, just caring for him.”

Like all of the other puppies born at Guiding Eyes For The Blind, Vasco was tested three times before being placed with Kelly. “They do things like showing them mirrors to see how they will react, opening and closing umbrellas, and making loud noises. Based on the results, the puppies are either released for adoption or go into the puppy program.”

Nor was it just Vasco who had to score high on an exam. Puppy raisers go through a thorough application process before being allowed to take a puppy home. “All puppy raisers have to go to classes and be trained,” explained Kelly. “We have to learn hand signals, verbal signals, and leash signals for every command, and they have to be taught to the puppy in sequence. Guiding Eyes is very strict about the puppies’ health, too. They are allowed only certain toys: no stuffed toys, no rawhide, no rope toys. The only ones they can have are Nyla-Bones and anything in the Kong line.”

Puppy raisers are trained how to speak to their puppy, too, she said. “For example, we can’t say ‘no’ all by itself. If it is used in a negative sense it has to be connected to what the puppy is doing, like ‘no jumping.’”

Even day-to-day necessities are taught to the tiny puppies. By the time Vasco was 8 weeks old, he knew to only relieve himself on command and to wait for the command to eat before gobbling down his breakfast. Kelly was amazed at the ease with which she was able to train Vasco to these initial commands.

Guiding Eyes does count on the puppy raisers to absorb some of the costs involved in dog care. The cost of any toys, said Kelly, as well as the cost of dog food is the puppy raiser’s responsibility. But because Kelly is able to take advantage of Ithaca’s reciprocity with Cornell University, which has a veterinarian program, she receives dog food at no cost. Veterinarian bills, however, are paid for by The Guiding Eyes program, with shots and visits scheduled to coincide with puppy classes. “We do have to establish what local veterinarian we would use in case of an emergency,” she said, “and if it was an emergency, we would get reimbursed for the cost.”

Because Guiding Eyes puppies are in training from a very young age, but are naturally so lovable and approachable, Kelly found discouraging others from playing with Vasco during training was tricky. “Up until he was about 6 months old, he could interact with anyone. But when he accompanied me to my job at the Campus Center in the fall, he was considered ‘in training’ and I often had to discourage other students from playing with Vasco or distracting him.” As difficult as that is and as hard as it may seem to prevent a playful puppy from playing, “He needs positive social experiences as part of his training, and it is important to take him into all kinds of situations and have him learn to remain calm,” said Kelly.

Little by little, though, Vasco has learned to understand when he is working. “He goes to some classes with me that are hours long, and now he just lies there until I am ready to go. As he gets older, he has more respect for what the person is doing, not just what he wants to do.”

When Vasco was 10 months old, he received his blue training jacket. With his jacket on, said Kelly, Vasco is now allowed to go anywhere. She is amused by the fact that despite the giant lettering on both sides of the jacket that reads “Guiding Eyes For The Blind in Pre-Training,” she still must continue to ask people not to pet her dog when he is working, or more commonly, explain that she is not blind, merely training the puppy for his future career.

Every two weeks, Kelly and Vasco attend classes about ten minutes from the campus in the Finger Lakes region, “along with about 25 other puppies and their trainers,” said Kelly. In the course of the 12 to 18 months that Vasco is under Kelly’s supervision, the puppy’s progress will be evaluated four times by The Guiding Eyes For The Blind Center. At each evaluation, she is told how to adjust her methods and techniques and any undesirable traits that could drop Vasco from the program are noted. “It is very intense for both of us,” Kelly said.

Before Vasco leaves Kelly next summer, he will be administered a final exam that determines his suitability for the formal training program. “Most of the dogs pass this one,” said Kelly, “but during formal training they can fail at any time and be released for adoption.”

Unusual shyness, failure to respond correctly to commands, and personality problems are some of the reasons that put a dog out of the program. So far, Kelly has noticed only one trait that worries her about Vasco. “He really does not like open railing stairways. This could really be a problem for him if he doesn’t get over it.” With gentle encouragement, always ending on a positive note, Kelly hopes to help Vasco overcome this fear before his next evaluation.

As much as she loves her puppy, Kelly is eager for Vasco to move on successfully to his next step in training. “I have just loved being a puppy raiser. It’s been an eye-opening experience. Raising Vasco has taught me so much responsibility, being in charge of not only a pet, but an animal that has a career ahead of him.”

If Vasco fails at any point in the four-to-six-month formal training, he could be placed in another working dog program such as search and rescue or therapy dog training, said Kelly. She will have first right to adopt him if he does not make it through the Guiding Eyes training, but she would prefer, she said, to see Vasco enter another helping program. “That’s what he has been trained for: to help people.”

Anticipating Vasco’s success in the Guiding Eyes program, Kelly plans to attend his graduation ceremony, which could be as soon as early 2007. “I can’t even imagine how great it will be to meet the blind person he will be with,” she said.