THEY‘RE JUST LIKE KIDS!

 by Lynn Veale 

Raising a guide dog puppy is very much like raising a child. I received my first guide dog puppy in 2001 and am now raising my seventh pup. The return of an old puppy and the delivery of a new puppy occurs on the same day so I have had a revolving door of puppies for eight years. What is that like, you ask? It is like having a perpetual toddler! 

We receive our puppies from Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. when they are eight to ten weeks old. They have no potty skills, no social skills, are not sleeping through the night, are not able to tell you what they want, yet they selfishly demand meal time and play time, and, as with a toddler, everything goes in the mouth. Over the years I have pulled many items from between my puppies’ clenched jaws, including rocks, sticks, bugs, plants, poop, AA batteries, used Kleenexes, bits of unidentifiable junk, a pet mouse, and even a baby toad (actually, that one was swallowed resulting in three days of nonstop drool). However, as with a toddler, close supervision will eliminate all indigestibles from the diet so I try never to turn my back on my puppies, even for a second.

Of course, what goes in must come out, and as with a young child, a young puppy will not always let you know when he has to go to the bathroom, he will just do it. No matter where he is. Sometimes it is not a big issue and other times it is downright mortifying! Like when my puppy had a smelly, runny event in the produce department of our local Safeway and I forgot to take a clean-up kit into the store with me. I was very relieved to have my husband shopping with me that day, although he was at the opposite end of the store. Never have I been so thankful to live in the age of cell phones! While my husband was trying desperately to find the paper towel aisle, a very kind and observant employee rushed over with a handful of paper towels from the butcher department. “When ya gotta go, ya gotta go!” he said. I love my local Safeway! They’ve watched me bring seven puppies into their store over the years and they have never failed to greet me or the dogs with enthusiasm, even when the puppies have an accident!

Like a baby in a crib, my puppy will sleep in a crate until four to six months old at which time I move him to a tie-down. A tie-down is a plastic-coated cable with one end attached to my bed and the other end clipped onto the puppy’s collar. It teaches the puppy to sleep in one place, not to roam the house at night, and lets me know exactly where he is. A cable is used instead of nylon or rope to prevent the puppy from chewing through it, although it has never prevented my puppies from trying. There is no plastic left on my tie-down as all of it is in the stomachs of my various dogs.

Having a puppy, like having a child, often means too little sleep due to middle of the night tummy aches. My current puppy-in-training, Olympic, is ten months old. He loves to chew on Guide Dog approved toys, but even Guide Dog approved toys are not indestructible. He chews pieces off his toys quicker than any puppy I’ve had. If I’m not diligent in watching him, he will swallow those pieces then spend the night throwing up on the carpeting. Nothing gets me out of bed faster than hearing one of the dogs retch! My feet hit the floor before I’m even awake and I’m quickly grabbing the dog by the collar and pulling him toward the door. Sometimes we make it, sometimes we don’t. When one of my earlier puppies started retching in the middle of the night I seemed to have trouble getting him to understand that I wanted him to throw up outside, not in the bedroom. He refused to come to the door with me. I turned to him, grabbed his collar with both hands and pulled with all my might. He planted all four paws as firmly as he could and when my hands slipped off his collar I went flying backward and landed on my seat. Only then did I realize that I forgot to take my poor puppy off tie-down which, of course, was why he muled. That was one time we didn’t make it off the carpeting.

Like children, puppies each have unique and wonderful personalities which allow them to adapt to their world in unique and wonderful ways. My fourth puppy, Renata, was very responsive to things that began with the letter B, specifically birds, bugs, bunnies, blowing leaves, and bow wows. She wanted to chase any and all of them. My sixth puppy, Gary, was a dream and never got into any trouble. Olympic is so curious about everything that at first he had a hard time functioning out in the big, wide world. Many of his training sessions consisted of nothing more than letting him sit and observe what went on around him. It is the distinctive, individual personalities of the puppies that make each raising experience special and unique.

When we receive our puppies at eight weeks of age training begins immediately, relies on consistency, and usually results in fairly quick progress. Although I tend to find the first three months of having a puppy difficult and the second three months frustrating, the last six months are total fun. As any parent will attest, having a newborn or a toddler (or even a teenager) is difficult, demanding, time consuming, and absolute, incomparable, pure joy! Puppies are no different. The good times far outweigh the bad and the end result is so worth any trying times that were had along the way. Although I sometimes feel it takes “forever” for my puppy to get through a difficult stage, when I look back I can see the difficult times pass very quickly, as do the good times. A year spent raising my puppy will be gone in the blink of an eye, and before I know it I am kissing my dog goodbye and sending him on his way to complete his formal training. The hard times we had over the year have turned into funny stories and the wet kisses, whole body wags, many training accomplishments, and all the good memories are stored away in my heart forever. I say goodbye to my puppy secure in the knowledge that he is ready to continue his formal training. I made sure he was ready. And I, too, am ready to start again with yet another puppy.