Speaker 1: M Hey everybody, it's me Josh and for this week's
Speaker 1: s Y s K Selects, I've chosen how guide Dogs Work.
Speaker 1: It's a heartwarming look at some amazing animals that work
Speaker 1: really really hard to help humans out and do some
Speaker 1: extraordinarily amazing things. And keep an ear out for a
Speaker 1: surprise appearance by the Globe of Death. Before we knew
Speaker 1: it was called the Globe of Death. Enjoy. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Stuff you should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, there's Chuck and
Speaker 1: we hope we sound correct. Yes, yeah, what does that mean? Well,
Speaker 1: Jerry was looking at her putting the headphones up to
Speaker 1: her tears, so like, she's not you paying attention to here. Basically,
Speaker 1: what you're saying is we have no quality control on
Speaker 1: the onne right now. Well, no, we did, because Jerry
Speaker 1: had the headphones up to her years. Yeah, now we don't.
Speaker 1: She checks and occasionally she wakes up and says, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah what so Chuck, Yes, how's it going. It's going great?
Speaker 1: How are you I'm doing good? Good? Um? Huh you
Speaker 1: look well, thank you very much, healthy, fit, well, happy,
Speaker 1: sun kissed, sun kissed. Yeah, I feeling good. Um, Chuck,
Speaker 1: have you ever seen a guide dog a guy dog guide? Oh? Yeah, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: guide dogs see them all the time. Do you know
Speaker 1: why they are also called seeing eye dogs are used
Speaker 1: to be uh well, because guide dogs specifically, unlike the
Speaker 1: general term service dogs, are to help guide around people
Speaker 1: who cannot see. That is a pretty nice story, but
Speaker 1: it's not entirely correct. And I had a feeling seeing
Speaker 1: eye dogs were actually UM part of a company called
Speaker 1: the Seeing Eye was the first American guide dog training company. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't the Americans who came up with training
Speaker 1: guide dogs, it was actually the Germans UH. In Potsdam, Germany,
Speaker 1: the first UM guide dog training academy was set up
Speaker 1: to help veterans that had been blinded in World War One.
Speaker 1: UM and it was successful. It didn't really take off, UM.
Speaker 1: But a woman, an American woman living in Switzerland. Her
Speaker 1: name was Dorothy Harris Eustace. She was very wealthy American,
Speaker 1: heard about this when visited the school and said this
Speaker 1: is pretty awesome. Came back, waited a few years before
Speaker 1: she got around to writing an article and it was
Speaker 1: published in the Saturday Evening Post and a young uh,
Speaker 1: blind whipper snapper named um Norman Rockwell, No, his name
Speaker 1: was Morris Frank. He heard about it and he got
Speaker 1: in touch with Mrs Eustace and said, I would like
Speaker 1: one of these dogs. Can you help me out? He said?
Speaker 1: She said, not only will I help you out, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fly you to pot Stamp, to Switzerland. Actually you're
Speaker 1: going to be trained with a dog, and we can
Speaker 1: give you ten thousand dollars to go start the first
Speaker 1: school in America. So more's Frank took the took her
Speaker 1: up on it, took the ten tho dollars and started
Speaker 1: in Tennessee the Seeing Eye Dog School. So are you
Speaker 1: saying that Seeing eye dogs are the cleanex of the
Speaker 1: working service dog world? Is very apt? It's actually a
Speaker 1: brand name. Interesting. I never knew that to see. He
Speaker 1: asked how I liked this, and I said, nothing really
Speaker 1: surprised me. It was a good article, but I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 1: And here you go surprising me right off the bat. Thanks.
Speaker 1: All right, guy dogs, let's get to it. Eight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty straightforward stuff, but it's neat to know
Speaker 1: the details of things, like first of all, if you
Speaker 1: ever see a guy dog, it's actually working and you
Speaker 1: should leave it alone. Yeah, that's um in my house.
Speaker 1: That's difficult with Emily. Yeah, you're really not supposed to
Speaker 1: do that. I know, and she doesn't. But dude, she's
Speaker 1: like a five year old like she will. I have
Speaker 1: seen her fake like she's going to look for something
Speaker 1: and just brush up her hand against the dog's head,
Speaker 1: like in a store, like let me go look at
Speaker 1: the cereal, and she'll just brush up and be like, said,
Speaker 1: didn't mean to bet your your guide dogs. She's like
Speaker 1: a frauder. She's like a frauderist for guide dogs. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Basically is that people who rub up against yourself in public? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: she can't help it. Dude, when she sees a dog,
Speaker 1: she's like she cannot not touch her. So and it's understandable,
Speaker 1: especially with guide dogs. Why Emily would do that because
Speaker 1: it's like dogs and then five echelons up guide dogs, right,
Speaker 1: not only are they dogs, which are great animals to
Speaker 1: begin with, but they're dogs that actually help not only
Speaker 1: just regular people, but people who can't see. So it's
Speaker 1: like you just want a petal and be like, here's
Speaker 1: the greatest thing on the planet and they look sad,
Speaker 1: which makes you want to pet him even more. But people,
Speaker 1: they are not sad. They are working and they're delighted
Speaker 1: to be working. Because if they're not delighted to be working,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be guide dogs. They wouldn't make it through
Speaker 1: the process. That's exactly right. So that's not to say
Speaker 1: that you can never um touch a guide dog. Normally
Speaker 1: you want to leave them alone. Just rubbily gets to
Speaker 1: the story, right, But um, if you really can't resist
Speaker 1: the urge Emily, UM, you can ask the handler, the
Speaker 1: guy dog owner, the person who the guy dog is assisting,
Speaker 1: if you compet their dog that way, they can say
Speaker 1: not really, he's really concentrating now, or no, you can
Speaker 1: go ahead and pet them, and then the owner knows
Speaker 1: that now he needs to get the dog back into
Speaker 1: his concentration working mode after he's been petted. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: rule number one. Okay. Guide dogs are rule number two.
Speaker 1: Typically allowed anywhere the general public is allowed, because if
Speaker 1: they're not, then you're saying, oh no, only people who
Speaker 1: can see are out into these public areas exactly, which
Speaker 1: is one of the best things about him and why
Speaker 1: you want you know, why Emily wants to rub up
Speaker 1: against them? Because she's like, well, I'm in a library
Speaker 1: and there's a dog. This is a bonus, right, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a great library. Um. The thing is is, since
Speaker 1: they're allowed anywhere and their dog, and because there's people
Speaker 1: like Emily walking around who wanted to pet them all
Speaker 1: the time, the dog gets up to the dog rather
Speaker 1: than Emily to decide, like, let's keep things professional here, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to create any kind of ruckus or disturbance.
Speaker 1: So the dog has to be extraordinarily well trained, um
Speaker 1: to concentrate, and what it's concentrating on is a certain
Speaker 1: prescribed set of things, specifically how to take a direct
Speaker 1: route um. And to stay in front of and just
Speaker 1: to the left of the handler yep, at a steady pace. Yep.
Speaker 1: You don't want a dog that like runs some and
Speaker 1: then stops to smell and eat poop and then runs again. Uh.
Speaker 1: The biggest, I would say, probably easily the biggest thing
Speaker 1: a guy dog must do is have complete mastery of
Speaker 1: the intersection in the crosswalk. Yeah, that's really where I mean.
Speaker 1: Stairs and cliffs and things like that are important, but
Speaker 1: the crosswalk in the intersection is when it comes down
Speaker 1: to brass tacks. That's the most important thing that a
Speaker 1: guy dog needs to know how to do perfectly right
Speaker 1: in the free time. The way that guide dog trainers
Speaker 1: have established. Um. The importance of this is a guy
Speaker 1: dogs are taught universally to stop at every curb. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's a good way to I mean, you should
Speaker 1: train your dog to do that anyway. I was thinking, Chuck,
Speaker 1: if you can get your hands on a training manual
Speaker 1: for a guy dog, just use that. You could use
Speaker 1: that for any dog and you have like a super
Speaker 1: terrific a one dog. Yeah, I bet you could. Uh,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a service Josh is a one dogs
Speaker 1: and finger printing powder. Um. Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And that's a good way to train a dog anyway.
Speaker 1: Like I said, you don't want your dog pulling you
Speaker 1: into an intersection, even if you can see. Um. But
Speaker 1: back to guide dogs, that is the most important thing.
Speaker 1: They have to stop at every curb, sit and while
Speaker 1: they're sitting. And like I said, these aren't just service dogs,
Speaker 1: because there's other dogs. If you have like epilepsy or
Speaker 1: if you're in a wheelchair. Sometimes these are specifically for
Speaker 1: the blind. Um. But they'll come to an intersection and
Speaker 1: they work together as a unit. It's um, the dog
Speaker 1: stops and the blind person listens. They listen for traffic
Speaker 1: and they listen for traffic stopping, and then they tell
Speaker 1: the dog, all right, now we can go forward in
Speaker 1: in the intersection. But here's the cool thing, and this
Speaker 1: is I think the coolest thing in this article about
Speaker 1: guide dogs that the dog doesn't just say okay, let's go.
Speaker 1: The dogs as well, you're saying it's okay, but you
Speaker 1: can't see, so why don't you let me decide for
Speaker 1: sure if it's okay. If there's a car coming, even
Speaker 1: if the handler says move forward, the dog won't do it.
Speaker 1: The dog will wait, wait until whatever hazard is coming
Speaker 1: is cleared, and then we'll follow the man. It's called
Speaker 1: selective disobedience. Yes, it's pretty spectacular. Yeah. When I lived
Speaker 1: in l A in my first apartment, I lived across
Speaker 1: from my I don't know if it was a dog
Speaker 1: training school or if it was just a school for
Speaker 1: the blind, but all the traffic lights around me made noises.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like wait, no, it was that would be good. Actually,
Speaker 1: it was just like these sounds, like these ticking sounds
Speaker 1: that they knew. Oh yeah, they knew what it meant
Speaker 1: or go there's even better. There's one's by Umi's in
Speaker 1: my house that say wait when you press the button,
Speaker 1: wait and then I'll say, um, what what street light
Speaker 1: is now red? And what street you can cross depending
Speaker 1: on where the intersection is. Is that just a new
Speaker 1: thing or is it near dogs voice? Sounds pretty futuristic. No,
Speaker 1: but is it tied to the blind or is it
Speaker 1: just Yeah? I think it's what it's for, um, because yeah,
Speaker 1: it directs you, um, verbally across what street you can take? Right? Wait? Wait,
Speaker 1: And it's funny because you can press the button a
Speaker 1: few times will be like wait, wait, wait, wait, that's
Speaker 1: kind of fun. I'm sure you've never done that though, right, Well,
Speaker 1: what else is there to do while you're waiting for
Speaker 1: a crosswalk? Life? Jay walk? That's right, you can get
Speaker 1: a ticket for that in Los Angeles, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's a way of life. In New York. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: do it that way. Um. Another thing the dog has
Speaker 1: to do is to know how to um bring the
Speaker 1: the handler to an elevator button instead of elevator buttons. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: stop its stairs at the bottom and the top until
Speaker 1: told what to do. Um. Lie there quietly when the
Speaker 1: handler is sitting wherever the handler is. That's a big one.
Speaker 1: Like like part of being a guide dog is you
Speaker 1: just have to just cut out all of the other
Speaker 1: distractions that would drive any other dog bonkers, um and
Speaker 1: just sit there because the first time guide dog acts
Speaker 1: like a regular dog in a public setting. A guy
Speaker 1: dogs everywhere have a bad name, that's right, you know, well,
Speaker 1: and that's why they look sad to me. Like what
Speaker 1: I used to take Martha, and there was a guy
Speaker 1: dog frequently on the way home um with this lady,
Speaker 1: and uh, the dog would just lay down under the
Speaker 1: you know seat on the subway and just look so sad.
Speaker 1: But I always had to tell myself, this dog is
Speaker 1: not sad. When that harness comes off, it's playtime. Were
Speaker 1: you saying that with like tear stream, I might have
Speaker 1: teared up so Um. Like we said, they work as
Speaker 1: a team. It's not the handler just giving orders and
Speaker 1: it's not the dog just carrying out orders. They have
Speaker 1: to work together, um because they the dog doesn't know
Speaker 1: where to go, that's the handler's job, and the handler
Speaker 1: doesn't know when to go or yeah, what obstacles are
Speaker 1: coming up? Exactly put the two together, you got a
Speaker 1: pretty great team. That's right. You have the makings of
Speaker 1: a fine sitcom. So, Um, like you said, after hours
Speaker 1: after they're working, when the harnesses on the dogs at work,
Speaker 1: it's concentrating and knows everything to do. When the harness
Speaker 1: is off, it's just like any other dog. It's belly
Speaker 1: rub time. Right. A guy dog is both, um, a
Speaker 1: service dog and the family pet too, that's right. So
Speaker 1: really genuinely don't feel like bad for service animals when
Speaker 1: you see them out in public. Like, they're treated just
Speaker 1: as well and even better than other dogs back at home,
Speaker 1: And from what I understand, they're really enjoying themselves because
Speaker 1: they're like concentrating, their stimulated, they're going places. They're just
Speaker 1: like sitting at home, you know, all day waiting for
Speaker 1: you know, their owner to come home and let them
Speaker 1: out for a half hour on a leash. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of a lot of people who
Speaker 1: believe that guy dogs leave far more fulfilling lives than
Speaker 1: the average house dog. Yeah, well dogs, it depends on
Speaker 1: the breed, but in general, dogs have jobs, and if
Speaker 1: you have a poorly behaved dog, that means it's probably
Speaker 1: a breed that wants a job that doesn't have one,
Speaker 1: or you just got a lemon, like one of our
Speaker 1: dogs is really bad. Lucy's terrible. She's thirteen and she's
Speaker 1: still bad. Well, she was red to be a card dealer. Well,
Speaker 1: we haven't taken her to Vegas in a long time.
Speaker 1: She was. She is a catahula though, and they're they're
Speaker 1: hurting dogs, and she she needs a job. Basically, she's
Speaker 1: never had a job. So her job has been to
Speaker 1: poop in the house and to eat books and furniture
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Wait, what kind of job are
Speaker 1: they supposed to do? Well, the catahoulas were hurds, like
Speaker 1: she heard hers and things. Does she hurd you guys
Speaker 1: around the house? Like? Does she try to make sure
Speaker 1: you're all in the same room at the same time?
Speaker 1: Or uh no no? Um, all right, so let's talk
Speaker 1: about the process of schooling a guide dog. Um. They're
Speaker 1: usually free. They will pair people well up, they're they're
Speaker 1: generally nonprofits who run on donations. Yeah, if you wanted
Speaker 1: to feel even better about people like guide dogs schools,
Speaker 1: it's free. Yeah, you don't have to pay two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for your well trained guide dog. They will pair
Speaker 1: you as a person that can't see, with a great
Speaker 1: dog for no charge in general, although there could be
Speaker 1: a lot of money in that you started a private
Speaker 1: one Josh's Dogs. Sure you could get a free one,
Speaker 1: but if you want to really give one, you have
Speaker 1: to pay for it. Um. So, these the schools are
Speaker 1: set up and pretty much handled the whole process from
Speaker 1: soup to nuts, which includes breeding them sometimes and if
Speaker 1: they're like really great guide dogs, they might go into
Speaker 1: a breeding program afterwards. I have the impression that most,
Speaker 1: like major guide dog schools, handled their own breeding. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably so. Um. They arrange the puppy raising programs, which
Speaker 1: is where it all starts, which we'll get into in
Speaker 1: a minute. They evaluate these dogs along the way, they
Speaker 1: train them. Once they're ready, they train the instructors, they
Speaker 1: train the handlers, They match the dog with the handler,
Speaker 1: reevaluate them after a while, and eventually retire the dogs,
Speaker 1: which is very sad and happy, which we'll we'll get
Speaker 1: to that too. That's at the end. But you're talking
Speaker 1: Golden retrievers labs. German shepherds are generally who you're going
Speaker 1: to see because they're all whip smart and generally pretty nice, loyal, obedient, training,
Speaker 1: very trainable, and confident too. That's a one of the
Speaker 1: A number one again qualities of UM a guide dog
Speaker 1: is self confidence. UM. And that self confidence is UM
Speaker 1: built up as a puppy. That's one of the main
Speaker 1: things in a guide dog in training or pre training
Speaker 1: puppy guide dog raising person. Yeah, they who I think
Speaker 1: Alicia Hoyt wrote this. She interviewed, Um, No, this is
Speaker 1: a Tom Harris joint. Was it okay? Tom interviewed someone
Speaker 1: at a place called Guiding Eyes for the Blind in
Speaker 1: New Yorktown Heights, New York. And we're gonna be referencing
Speaker 1: them a lot as far as or that's who we're
Speaker 1: talking about when we throw out some of these common stats, UM,
Speaker 1: like of the original puppies aren't suitable for to even
Speaker 1: enter the program, Like they start weeding them out really early. UM.
Speaker 1: They sell them as pets if they're not, you know,
Speaker 1: if they're part of that, or they may just not be.
Speaker 1: They may be okay for service dogs but not good
Speaker 1: for guide dogging, so they'll um maybe send them to
Speaker 1: another organization that will help people like with epileps here
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair or something. Um. The ones that do
Speaker 1: make it though, the ones that are like, Okay, you're
Speaker 1: six week old puppy, and we can tell already that
Speaker 1: you are probably going to be worth a shot, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna send you into into training school, pre training school.
Speaker 1: Puppy raising is what it's called. With just regular people
Speaker 1: like you can go out and do this. Is if
Speaker 1: you have the time, and you have the patients, and
Speaker 1: you have the resources, you can actually get puppies to
Speaker 1: the point where a year later you will then turn
Speaker 1: them back over to a proper school a year to
Speaker 1: a year and a half depending Um. And along the way,
Speaker 1: you're you're going to be trained on how to raise
Speaker 1: a puppy according to the standards of the school. Um.
Speaker 1: They're not just gonna say here's a puppy, don't screw
Speaker 1: it up. Um. There's usually weekly, monthly, quarterly meetings with
Speaker 1: other puppy raisers where all the puppies get together to
Speaker 1: ensure their socialized update things to make sure everybody's on
Speaker 1: the same page with raising their puppies so that there's evaluations. Um.
Speaker 1: And uh, Like we said that what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do is they're not training the puppies at all. The
Speaker 1: main point of puppy raising is to start to set up, um,
Speaker 1: how a puppy can become confident, make it feel good
Speaker 1: about itself. And I take that back. They are training
Speaker 1: himself to train them in the base su sit, stay,
Speaker 1: lay down, that kind of thing. Yeah, nothing advanced, just
Speaker 1: good basic obedience exactly there. And then they're also getting
Speaker 1: the puppies used to the idea of training for extended
Speaker 1: periods of time on a daily basis. Um. And they're
Speaker 1: doing that by taking the dog all over the place
Speaker 1: anywhere that they can get a dog into. They're going
Speaker 1: to take this dog to expose it to new, um,
Speaker 1: new experiences every week. Yeah, and after um, a certain
Speaker 1: amount of time, they'll get their little coat that says
Speaker 1: I'm a puppy dog in training. Very cute little situation there,
Speaker 1: and uh, that's when they can really take it anywhere
Speaker 1: they want to go. Um, as I understand it, not
Speaker 1: necessarily like well, by law, yeah, right, by law you can't.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to ask. But for the most part, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but socialization is a big deal. Um. Like you said,
Speaker 1: they tried to expose puppies to at least five new
Speaker 1: experiences a week. So um, everything from other dogs being around,
Speaker 1: to being in a shop mall to going to jim
Speaker 1: Boree and having screaming kids, you know, throwing their poop
Speaker 1: all over the place. Actually, I don't know if I'd
Speaker 1: take a puppy to be trained to gimperate. Probably it's
Speaker 1: probably like the proving ground, yeah, if they can ignore that. Um.
Speaker 1: But basically what they want to do is develop a
Speaker 1: good relationship with a dog, which will eventually transfer to
Speaker 1: their handler. And we're talking about learning obedience, like just
Speaker 1: basic obedience. Um. All guide dogs are taught not with treats.
Speaker 1: And there's a very very good reason why you don't
Speaker 1: want to teach a dog with treats because if you
Speaker 1: have a guide dog, that's like food is a reward,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot about food. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, you could say I'm fixated on food that
Speaker 1: your dog boys. Yeah, and you take that guy dog
Speaker 1: into like a diner or a Nathan's, that guy dog's
Speaker 1: gonna have some real problems concentrating. Yeah. So you use
Speaker 1: a praise and then correction through like just a tug
Speaker 1: on a leash. Yeah, the typical like Caesar Milan stuff Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of those two. I saw one the other day
Speaker 1: where he was training a dude. He was scared of dogs.
Speaker 1: An adult, he had grown kids, he was like in
Speaker 1: his probably late forties, and he was still frightened of dogs.
Speaker 1: And it was like every stupid episode of that show,
Speaker 1: very emotional. Well, it's that music is pretty mane up
Speaker 1: right at the right time. That's why sks should know
Speaker 1: st um. So wait, hold on, Chuck. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we should do a little public service for our listeners
Speaker 1: out there and teach them. Yeah, the wi Is Bang
Speaker 1: a one no fail method of house breaking a dog
Speaker 1: in as little as one day. All right, let's hear it.
Speaker 1: Do you want me to Yeah, I've had my me.
Speaker 1: My dog poops every day and eats it herself, so
Speaker 1: I've done a poor job. Luckily peace when it thunders.
Speaker 1: Do you have a thunder shirt for him? Yeah, I got,
Speaker 1: we call it thunder Buddy. It helps a little bit.
Speaker 1: But if we're not home and it's thundering, he'll he'll pee.
Speaker 1: Do you give him sedatives or anything? No, it's just
Speaker 1: you know, I just clean up the pakay Alright. So
Speaker 1: if you have a puppy, yeah, they say you can't
Speaker 1: teach an old dog new tricks. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's true or not, But with a puppy it's easier.
Speaker 1: I think that should be you can't teach an old
Speaker 1: dog new tricks comma, I don't know if that's true
Speaker 1: or not, semi colon. With a puppy, it's easier. That
Speaker 1: should be the full adage. That's the A one slogan.
Speaker 1: So you take you take your puppy outside once an hour,
Speaker 1: pretty much, and you take them to the same place outside,
Speaker 1: and you wait, wait until they finally start to go,
Speaker 1: and when they go, you say, puppy's name, insert it here,
Speaker 1: do your thing, yeah, or whatever you choose to say,
Speaker 1: and then you praise that dog like it just saved
Speaker 1: your life. And then the next time you take the
Speaker 1: dog out again, and you wait. You do that a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and then maybe by the third or
Speaker 1: fourth time, you take the dog out to the same
Speaker 1: place and you say, puppy, do your thing, and that
Speaker 1: dog will probably pier poop on command for the rest
Speaker 1: of its life. Yeah, I say, go potty, and it
Speaker 1: works still, especially when it's thundering, Go potty. He's like, dude, perfect.
Speaker 1: And again The reason why you want a dog to
Speaker 1: that will only pier poop on command is because again,
Speaker 1: you can't have a guide dog pooping in public because
Speaker 1: people be like, well, what's we need to legislate guide dogs?
Speaker 1: You dog poop in a library? Yeah exactly. This lady
Speaker 1: over here is rubbing against the dog while it's pooping. Yeah. Plus,
Speaker 1: you know you don't want your dog taking a big
Speaker 1: dump in front of Forever twenty one because little kids
Speaker 1: at them all will be turned off by that. Uh So,
Speaker 1: like you said, puppies are evaluated um every few months,
Speaker 1: UM during training and um. Eventually, like we said, at
Speaker 1: about the year a year and a half mark, the
Speaker 1: saddest day ever happens and you have to take that
Speaker 1: puppy that you raised and turned them over to a school. Um.
Speaker 1: And they did an interview with a lady who raised
Speaker 1: a dog named Sonar. Her name is Mary Kantando. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like she does this a lot, and
Speaker 1: she had a really good attitude. She's like, here's I'll
Speaker 1: look at it. I had three kids and I raised
Speaker 1: them and eventually sent them out into the world, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this with this dog. And they provide
Speaker 1: a service, and we don't look at it as losing
Speaker 1: this dog. We look at it as like we've given
Speaker 1: someone a gift of a well trained, uh puppy and
Speaker 1: uh a lot of people will get another one right
Speaker 1: after that and start all over again. Yeah. I think also,
Speaker 1: once you prove yourself as an able and capable UM
Speaker 1: guide dog puppy razor, like, they'll they'll keep coming back
Speaker 1: every time to ask you if you wanted to do
Speaker 1: it again. Yeah, and you may one day, actually maybe
Speaker 1: one day soon get that dog back if it gets
Speaker 1: kicked out of the program. Yeah, because like you said
Speaker 1: right off, the bat aren't even aren't even trained as puppies. Um.
Speaker 1: Of the ones that go through puppy training and are
Speaker 1: brought back after eighteen months, fifty of those will just
Speaker 1: be like turned down. Yeah. And a lot of times
Speaker 1: they'll offer them back to the original puppy razor say, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want this dog? Um, you failed? Would you
Speaker 1: like the dog back as a token to commemorate your failure?
Speaker 1: Or the sweetest thing ever, perhaps when that dog retires
Speaker 1: you might get it back. Yeah. Usually if the person
Speaker 1: who has the guide dog, yeah, the handler. The handler
Speaker 1: can't because they need another guy dog after that one retires.
Speaker 1: If they can't keep two dogs, keep the other one
Speaker 1: as a pet, then I think you have first shot
Speaker 1: if you raise it as a puppy. Yeah. Could you
Speaker 1: imagine like raising this puppy, giving away and like ten
Speaker 1: years later getting it back Christian a lion or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that's right. Uh So, once your puppy has
Speaker 1: been raised and it goes to regular school, um, they're
Speaker 1: going to basically reinforce and train everything they've already learned
Speaker 1: and then introduced like all the serious parts of schooling.
Speaker 1: Like here's an intersection, here's a cliff, here stairs. A
Speaker 1: lot of the schools have fake intersections built so they
Speaker 1: can really you know, do like hands on training there
Speaker 1: on the campus, right. And this is like intensive training.
Speaker 1: This isn't like whenever some burnout who like lives at
Speaker 1: the school gets around to it. Like, this is intensive training,
Speaker 1: like every every day from multiple people, one of whom
Speaker 1: the dog trainer, the master trainer is actually assisted by
Speaker 1: other apprentice trainers. Um, and and like it's a very
Speaker 1: intensive um months long training. Yeah, about six months, I think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's after a year to a year and a
Speaker 1: half of puppy training. So by the time I Handlered,
Speaker 1: uh gets it, that's you know, a couple of years old. Well,
Speaker 1: not only is there. So there's puppy training, six months
Speaker 1: of intensive dog school training, and then when the handlers
Speaker 1: finally matched, there's a whole month where the handler and
Speaker 1: the dog are trained together. And the matching process takes
Speaker 1: a little while too. You know, they don't just throw
Speaker 1: any dog with any person. That's got to be a
Speaker 1: just like adopting any dog, it's gotta be a good
Speaker 1: personality match for you. So, Chuck Water, let's go back
Speaker 1: to dog training school. We got a little excited. Okay,
Speaker 1: um school right, So, like you said, a lot of
Speaker 1: places have their own intersections built simulated. Um. The first
Speaker 1: step before they ever get to that point is learning
Speaker 1: to walk like a guy dog in a straight line,
Speaker 1: a little forward ahead of the handler and slightly to
Speaker 1: the left, up and to the left. One and this
Speaker 1: is a big one. The guy dog has to be
Speaker 1: taught to think of it's of the world in human size. Yeah,
Speaker 1: dog's eye view any longer, but human size, because apparently
Speaker 1: they pick up pretty easily, like, well, there's a garbage can,
Speaker 1: I need to make a wide arc around the garbage
Speaker 1: cancer that the guy I'm leading doesn't run into the
Speaker 1: garbage can, But what about that narrow cravasse that I
Speaker 1: can fit through no problem, But my blind guy is
Speaker 1: a big fatty in the way he can fit through
Speaker 1: their Look at this guy exactly, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: go around the block because he can't go down this alleyway. Right.
Speaker 1: A dog has to think in terms of of its
Speaker 1: world like that, and that's that's enormous. To be able
Speaker 1: to train something like that and for the dog to
Speaker 1: be able to learn like that, that's just really my
Speaker 1: hat is off, like over and over again. I'm just
Speaker 1: not even putting it back on for the rest of
Speaker 1: this episode. Uh Yeah, the one that really knocked me
Speaker 1: out was the headroom. Like the dog, even though it's
Speaker 1: two and a half feet off the ground, will be
Speaker 1: able to look up and say, this guy might or
Speaker 1: lady might bang her head on this low hanging beam.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't go into the street and go in there
Speaker 1: yet stay out of the sewer. So that's just amazing.
Speaker 1: Like the dog has to look up and know how
Speaker 1: tall the owner is and gauge how low that beam is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: unreal that matched again with the most spectacular thing in
Speaker 1: the world. Selective disobedience. Yeah, um, stopping at all curbs,
Speaker 1: all stairs, um, learning all of the commands, Uh, go
Speaker 1: to the right, go to the left, forward you mean?
Speaker 1: And I watched Short Circule last night. Holds up pretty well, um,
Speaker 1: except that just as crappy as it was when it
Speaker 1: was exactly the Fisher Stevens character. The Indian Programmer is
Speaker 1: so racist contest because it's a white guy doing like
Speaker 1: the worst Indian impression at Mickey Rooney and and what's
Speaker 1: it called, I have no idea breakfast at Tiffany's. He
Speaker 1: played Mr Moto or whatever the Chinese. Oh yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: I have to watch that very famous racist portrayal. But anyway,
Speaker 1: like Johnny do, they couldn't get Johnny five to to
Speaker 1: come for Ali Shed. He couldn't until she stumbled upon forward.
Speaker 1: She's like, come here, come this way, walk and he
Speaker 1: was just standing there and she's like forward and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: forward goes forward. So guide dogs and sentient robots, you
Speaker 1: have to stay forward from the eighties, all right, So
Speaker 1: we said before of the puppies are weeded out off
Speaker 1: the top, out of those puppies who go to school,
Speaker 1: about fifty of those are kicked out of school. And
Speaker 1: then finally once those were training or in school, only
Speaker 1: about se those graduate, So they really weed out. To say,
Speaker 1: out of four hundred dogs that go through puppy training,
Speaker 1: you've got like a hundred and forty that can eventually
Speaker 1: graduate and go on to be matched with a handler. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, there there are a few things that
Speaker 1: will weed a dog out, even if they're pretty good.
Speaker 1: If they're like aggressive towards cats or something, you know,
Speaker 1: that'll weed them out. So they really get the cream
Speaker 1: of the crop. Drug problem, drug problems gone. They don't
Speaker 1: want any drug abusers in there, so they get the
Speaker 1: cream of the crop. At the end, make sure they're
Speaker 1: compatible with their handler, train the handler with the people,
Speaker 1: and then boom, you've got a match made in heaven. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In the article, Tom Harris says, like if you're if
Speaker 1: you're taking a first time handler, somebody who hasn't had
Speaker 1: a guy dog before. Um, by the time the handler
Speaker 1: comes and you're putting it together with the dog, now
Speaker 1: you're basically in people training mode. Your guide dogs already trained.
Speaker 1: The process is training the handler in the commands that
Speaker 1: that the dog already knows, um, training the handler how
Speaker 1: to walk and basically taking these this person and this
Speaker 1: dog and teaching them how to work as a team. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the dog has you know, this is their new master.
Speaker 1: They've had their instructor for six months or more. So
Speaker 1: it takes a little while to adjust to this fact
Speaker 1: that hey, this is my new my new alpha dog. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And usually it takes I think on average, about a month.
Speaker 1: That's about the time that's set aside. Um. And so
Speaker 1: these nonprofit guide dog schools have like facilities for blind
Speaker 1: people to come live while they're spending a month learning
Speaker 1: how to work with their guide dog. Yeah. Some of
Speaker 1: them have dorms. That's pretty cool. That's very cool. And
Speaker 1: again we should say all of this is free. The
Speaker 1: nonprofit group is shouldering all of the financial burden. The
Speaker 1: puppy razors um, they're given a stipend or food, all
Speaker 1: vet bills are paid by them, the guide dog school. UM.
Speaker 1: They everything everything that has to do with the training
Speaker 1: and the raising of these dogs is paid for um
Speaker 1: by these nonprofit groups. So amazing. If you're looking for
Speaker 1: a place to uh leave an inheritance, you could do
Speaker 1: worse than a guide dog school. Yeah, that Josh is
Speaker 1: a one dog school. Right. I'll give you my text
Speaker 1: information if you email me directly. UM. So if you
Speaker 1: want to be an instructor, it's gonna vary depending on
Speaker 1: what school you're gonna try and go to, but generally
Speaker 1: you have to have two to three years UM experience
Speaker 1: as an apprentice supervised apprentice. Uh, and then different states
Speaker 1: have certification processes. Um, you're probably a college graduate. Um.
Speaker 1: Even though the job doesn't pay, it's still really hard
Speaker 1: to get this job. People want to do this, so
Speaker 1: it's it's wait listed a lot of times, not a
Speaker 1: lot of openings, and it's a tough job to get.
Speaker 1: It's very to manding uh physically and emotionally, and it's
Speaker 1: a real challenge as a trainer, but super rewarding. What
Speaker 1: don't you think? Yeah, And if you are interested in
Speaker 1: becoming a master trainer, from what I understand, the best
Speaker 1: route to take is to start by being a puppy razor,
Speaker 1: work your way up to apprentice trainer and then to
Speaker 1: master trainer. And who knows, you may just feel like
Speaker 1: topping out at um puppy razor. Anybody can do it
Speaker 1: violent application have to be you know, pass of course
Speaker 1: to screen you. It has to I would imagine you.
Speaker 1: I don't see how you could have a job like
Speaker 1: a regular that's probably position, yeah, because I mean if
Speaker 1: you're exposing a dog to five new things a week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess you could balance the two if it was
Speaker 1: like my work and this puppy. Yeah, but even still,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I would think you'd probably get bumped
Speaker 1: off a lot easier. And they're screening you two to
Speaker 1: make sure you're like a super awesome person, right, and
Speaker 1: you're not, like I'm not gonna expose them to the
Speaker 1: back of my hand. You have like stains on the
Speaker 1: sleeveless undershirt that you wore to that puppy raising application meeting.
Speaker 1: Give me like four of them puppies, right, I'll train
Speaker 1: them good. They may pass you by. Yeah. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: uh yeah, anybody can do it, I guess, is what
Speaker 1: we're trying to say. Almost anybody. Yeah, And I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if they how heavily they screen as
Speaker 1: far as like if you have kids or you can
Speaker 1: have other dogs, even other puppies, but your puppy has
Speaker 1: to be I think seven months old. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: guess the whole point is they have to deal with
Speaker 1: those distractions anyway a bad thing. That's exactly what the
Speaker 1: mind thought processes behind that. Uh. And like we said,
Speaker 1: they retire generally eight to ten years old, um, although
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean they're like old and feeble. That just
Speaker 1: means it's probably time to get a new guide dog. Right.
Speaker 1: They are sharp mentally typically um, but they're starting to
Speaker 1: slow down a little bit and they have to be
Speaker 1: able to keep pace with their their handlers. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think about eight to ten is the usual aide
Speaker 1: that they're retired. Yeah, And like you said, they'll offer
Speaker 1: it to the handler. If the handlers like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can handle like keeping this dog and still get my
Speaker 1: new guy dog, then great. If not, they may offer
Speaker 1: to the original puppy raiser, or you might be lucky enough.
Speaker 1: It's another waitless deal because people want to adopt retired
Speaker 1: guy dogs because they're pretty much the best and you
Speaker 1: may not have as much time with them, but it's
Speaker 1: you're providing them with Like it's almost like you know,
Speaker 1: taking in an old person and giving them something great
Speaker 1: in their twilight years, right, like just letting them a
Speaker 1: good whip cream right out of the can in time.
Speaker 1: They want kind of thing, woop wherever you want, and
Speaker 1: they're like, dude, what's wrong with you? Poop into my hand?
Speaker 1: The dog just thinks are crazy. It's like I remember
Speaker 1: I used to work, Yeah, asked me to do things.
Speaker 1: I love that blind guy so much more? Did you?
Speaker 1: I can't even mention it on this, I think? All right?
Speaker 1: All right? Uh, got anything else about guy dogs? This
Speaker 1: was a little wackier than I thought it was gonna be. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if you want to learn all about guide dogs, you
Speaker 1: can type guide dogs into the search bart how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. And since I said search bar, it's
Speaker 1: time for friends a message break hit the jingle. Uh now, chuck,
Speaker 1: it's time for listener mail. That's right, and this is
Speaker 1: dog centric. It just worked out that way. Uh. This
Speaker 1: is from an e R doctor whose passion is animal
Speaker 1: rescue and her name is Jane M. Gene app j
Speaker 1: e n a B. I never heard that j E
Speaker 1: n a B. Yeah, Jeaneppe. Uh So, Jane says, I
Speaker 1: have a charity knitting site, guys, where I donate sent
Speaker 1: of the proceeds from selling my hand knitted items to
Speaker 1: an animal Rescue in your neck of the woods. Actually
Speaker 1: Angels among Us pet Rescue in Alpharetta, Georgia. Do you
Speaker 1: remember them? Yeah? Well, how do I know that name?
Speaker 1: In either may be like the can dogs detect like death?
Speaker 1: Or can dogs tell when you're gonna die? Or you
Speaker 1: can dogs detect illness? Remember the chihuahua that could detect
Speaker 1: breast cancer? And um, I feel like we talked about
Speaker 1: that organization in that episode. I think you're right. So
Speaker 1: Angels among Us in Alpharetta they rescue thousands of dogs
Speaker 1: and cats from kill shelters right before being euthanized and
Speaker 1: found them loving homes. Last year, my knitting site donated
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars to their cause, and this year my
Speaker 1: goal is six thousand dollars. And this is like she's
Speaker 1: just knitting, selling this stuff and given all the money
Speaker 1: away knitting, knitting, knitting. A few days ago, I lost
Speaker 1: my fifteen year old rescue girl Rica Japanese for Beautiful
Speaker 1: Girl role. I rescued her when she was eight weeks
Speaker 1: old and she was with me through marriage, divorce, medical school, residency,
Speaker 1: and first four years of practice. She moved with me
Speaker 1: from Denver to Tulsa to Kansas City, to Grand Junction, Colorado,
Speaker 1: to Mendesito, California, and back to Denver. Her loss has
Speaker 1: broken my heart, but it is also inspired me to
Speaker 1: work even harder to accomplish my goal for other homeless animals,
Speaker 1: including asking for help spreading the words. Guys, I would
Speaker 1: love it uh to make you both some hand knitted
Speaker 1: hats for the winner if you think you'd enjoy them.
Speaker 1: The links to my page on Facebook and two Angels
Speaker 1: among Us or below you can see pictures of the hats,
Speaker 1: baby hats, dog sweaters, all kinds of things I can knit. Um,
Speaker 1: thanks for your consideration, but more than anything, thanks for
Speaker 1: a fantastic podcast that keeps me entertained and educated. Uh So,
Speaker 1: this is from Jane genab m D, owner of Jane's Creations,
Speaker 1: and we would like to challenge people to go out
Speaker 1: and buy one of her knitted gifts because that money
Speaker 1: is going to go to Angels among Us Pet Rescue.
Speaker 1: That is so cool. So go to our Facebook page UM,
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, slash Jane's Creations, j A. N. E.
Speaker 1: S Creations of Denver, Colorado, or just check out Angels
Speaker 1: among Us pet Rescue at Facebook dot com slash Angels Rescue,
Speaker 1: and let's help her reach that goal of six thousand
Speaker 1: bucks because that's pretty awesome. Let's do it. Let's make
Speaker 1: it an official s y s K thing. And hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, Jerry adopted her cute little dog Tooley
Speaker 1: from Angels among Us doing with the drum comb Yeah,
Speaker 1: doing that washed out a guide dog school. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: tweaker but uh yeah, so we have a personal connection
Speaker 1: to and um, let's let's do it, Chuck, Let's make
Speaker 1: it an official s y s K thing to raise
Speaker 1: some money for this. Yeah, so go to Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: slash Jane's creations and uh ja dot cars. Corresponding with
Speaker 1: her own email, it was very sad to hear about Rica,
Speaker 1: but she's got other animals because she's an animal crazy
Speaker 1: person just like me. It's nice. Animal crazy people are
Speaker 1: the best crazy people around. Agreed. Uh, if you want
Speaker 1: us to help try to raise some money for a
Speaker 1: very worthy cause, via you get in touch at us,
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to check you out, make sure you're legit,
Speaker 1: make sure you're not you know, making money off of
Speaker 1: other people's good will tacky. And we get a lot
Speaker 1: of these, so unfortunately we can't like get everyone on
Speaker 1: the air, but we do our best. We try UM.
Speaker 1: You can get in touch with us via Twitter at
Speaker 1: s y SK podcast, You can join us on Facebook,
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you Should Know, You can send
Speaker 1: us an email directly, and you can join us on
Speaker 1: our website, which is pretty awesome. It's called stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com.