Kennel Tour

Thursday May 25th – More guide dog work, hooray! We worked the dogs under blindfold again this time in a light business district. Susan and I traded dogs so we could each experience a different type of worker.
Look Kristin, I finally found a red dog to work! We each had a chance to do a “Back Left” or a 270 degree left turn. From what I understand, these turns are similar to ones they do both at The Seeing Eye and in the UK. Used in a situation where there are obstacles close on the left side of the dog you step back, giving the dog a back command, and the dog pivots to your right. Once you are facing opposite of your original direction (180 degrees) of travel you tell the dog “find right” and they make a 90 degree right turn. It seems really handy in those situations but I have to admit I was a bit disoriented during the turn, guess I need to practice more!

In the afternoon we finished watching the video we started yesterday then went for a tour of the kennel complex. The kennel manager, Mia gave us the grand tour and answered all our many questions. The kennel can house up to 60 dogs but more often they have between 40 and 50 dogs. They include current training dogs, as well as boarding guides and boarding puppies. The staff consists of 4 full time employees and about 15 of what they call “casual” employees. The “casuals” work evening shifts (4 to 8pm) and weekends. They do all the cleaning, feeding, and medicating of the dogs. They also spend time playing with them and supervising “toy time” as well as taking them into the GIANT grass free run area.


This area is about an acre of fenced in grass where as many as 8 dogs can run, chase, and play to their heart’s content. We watched this group of dogs come out and start running! You can just make out the back fence in the distance. The kennel office has a small exam room where the consulting veterinarian sees any dogs on campus as well as puppy in the raising program. She is on campus twice each week and handles all the minor, non emergency type of problems. All surgeries and emergencies are done by vet clinics in the local area. They also have an “enrichment yard” which used to be one of the community runs that wasn’t being used very often. Mia has brought in tunnels, ramps, hanging toys, and a variety of chew toys and is about to begin a study of the effects of kennel enrichment and stress levels in kenneled dogs. This study is a part of her post graduate work and will include testing the cortical hormone levels of the dogs as a measure of level of stress. Fascinating stuff which I hope she will keep us up to date on.

This evening I went with Sue who had another basketball game. Unfortunately her team lost badly… Sue played well though!