mcastar Farming, Saturday, June 30,1984
Seeing-eye dogs take a ride on the Strasburg Railroad
BY SUZANNE KEENE
STRASBURG The train
lurched, the whistle shrieked and
the rain poured, but the seven
Labradors and golden retrievers
riding the train at the Strasburg
Railroad last Sunday were un-
Steven and Michele Dubois, pose wii ir, a seei
dog they will be caring for during the next several months
Yellow Labrador Fax seems to be enji ng ....
train at Strasburg Railroad, while his guardian, 4-H’er
Jennifer Carrigan, keeps a close eye on him.
concerned about the unfamiliar
environment around them.
The dogs, which will eventually
become seeing-eye dogs, were
accompanied by their temporary
guardians, members of the Lively
Leaders 4-H Seeing Eye Puppy
Club from Wenonah, New Jersey.
The group makes an annual trip to
the railroad to expose the dogs to a
new sitation, club leader Lorraine
Hudson said.
Club members receive the
puppies when they are about eight
weeks old, raise them for 12 to 14
months, then say good-bye to their
friends when they leave for formal
training in Morristown.
During those months, the 4-H’ers
teach the dogs four basic com
mands - Come, Sit, Down, and Rest
- and how to sit and rest at the end
of a lead.
However, “The main thing is to
teach them to respond to love,”
Lorraine said.
The idea, she continued, is not to
beat the dogs into submission or to
be harsh. When correction is
necessary, a quick jerk on the
choke collar usually does the job.
The Seeing Eye school in
Morristown could raise all the dogs
they need in the kennels, Lorriane
explained, but added, “that doesn’t
make the best dogs. ”
Dogs raised in a family at
mosphere, she continued, become
accustomed to people and noise,
and don’t spook easily. The dogs
also receive more individual at
tention in homes than they would in
kennels.
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Club members Steven and
Michele Dubois are working with
their second seeing-eye dog,
Poker, who took his train ride all in
stride. He sat between his
guradians, apparently undisturbed
by his environment.
Poker began his stay with the
Dubois family in October, helping
to relieve the gap that opened when
the family’s first dog, a black
Laborador, left for school. Michele
and Steven’s parents, John and
Barbara, take an active interest in
the dog’s as well.
John said Poker moved in with
the family about one month before
thier first dog, Dega, left, helping
to make the transition easier. Even
so, saying goodbye was difficult.
“It was hard, but you knew it
was going for a good cause,”
Steven said, explaining his feelings
about Dega’s leaving.
“I was'the basket case,” their
monther, Barbara, confessed. “I
had a rough night the night
before.”
John, a Methodist minister, said
that Dega became a member of
both the family and the
congregation. Dega attended
church every Sunday, napping
under a pew during the service.
“He would go to sleep for the
State Zip
sermon and wake up for the
benediction,” John joked.
At first, John said, he was
skeptical about how the
congregation would react to
having a dog in church. But to his
delight “they really took to it. Now
they expect to see the dog,” he
continued.
Sometimes, a dog isn’t able to
progress in the program because
of nealth or temperament
problems. For example, Tony
Kaminski said his family was able
to keep two-year-old Wicki, a
golden retriever they raised for the
customary year but which did not
pass the physical because of
cataracts.
“After a year of training, we’d
certainly like to have any of them
back, ” he explained.
When the dogs have finished
their training at the school, the 4-
H’ers are permitted to observe
them working with the trainers
from a distance, but are not per
mitted to greet the dog.
“When you see the dog with the
trainers, there’s no way in the
world you would really want to
take it back,” Barbara said.
Lancaster County is forming its
own seeing-eye dog program this
summer. Anyone between the ages
of 8 and 19 interested in raising a
seeing-eye dog is invited to attend
an organizational meeting to be
held at the Farm and Home Center
on July 3at 7:30 p.m.
Please send information on
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