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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>Subject:</B> New leader dog Harper comes fully
loaded, but...<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
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<P><BR><BR>Midland Daily News, MI, USA<BR>Sunday, February 25, 2007<BR><BR>New
leader dog Harper comes fully loaded, but...<BR><BR>By Cheryl Wade<BR><BR>I
recently came home to Midland with Harper, my $39,000 German shepherd.<BR><BR>I
wouldn't use this expression in guide-dog parlance, but he comes fully
<BR>loaded. He's had nearly a year of socializing with a nice woman from Paw Paw
<BR>who never, ever let him run in an unprotected place off leash and made
<BR>certain he was a very obedient fellow. He's had four months of learning how
<BR>to approach curbs slowly and cross streets straight, jump onto and off
<BR>escalators, locate doors and chairs and stairs, even follow the wall inside
<BR>a mall so his future handler would be able to count entrances to find Sears
<BR>or Target. And, taking into account all his food, veterinary care and
<BR>training, plus the cost of boarding and training me for nearly three weeks
<BR>in a dormitory that's akin to a small hotel, it all adds up to $39,000. And
<BR>yet, the real gig barely has started.<BR><BR>Harper is my fifth guide dog;
he replaces my good-hearted, faithful <BR>yellow Labrador retriever, Scout, who
just turned 11 and who has retired at <BR>the home of my brother, also in
Midland. Harper is a gentle giant of a dog <BR>who appears to think well of me,
although I'm used to receiving approval by <BR>means of a vigorously wagging
tail, and Harper's, which is about as thick as <BR>a tree limb, doesn't wag. His
tongue licks, though, and I'm hoping that's a <BR>good sign.<BR><BR>I have
always been totally blind, seeing light but not objects. So I <BR>never could
relate to what it's like to lose one's sight suddenly or to <BR>grovel around in
the dark trying to find a lost shoe. But, whenever I get a <BR>new dog, it feels
like I'm blinder than I used to be, all over again. I have <BR>to make sure
Harper doesn't walk past the Daily News door on the wrong side <BR>of the
railing on McDonald Street. The first time on the bus bound for an
<BR>interview, I was the one who had to find the door because he didn't quite
<BR>know what to do, although he'd been trained to ride buses.<BR><BR>Harper
hasn't roamed Midland's streets much yet. During his training at <BR>Leader Dogs
for the Blind in Rochester, Mich., there wasn't nearly as much <BR>snow as there
was in Midland when we arrived Feb. 2. He's learned how to <BR>"find the curb,"
but how can you find a curb when my street is flanked by <BR>snow and there's no
curb to be seen? I needed to show him.<BR><BR>Scout had been trained to point to
a door handle with his nose. Harper <BR>was not trained to do so, and I wanted
him to learn how to do it. So we <BR>practice finding the "handle, handle,
handle" of my bedroom door, my <BR>bathroom and closet at Leader Dog. I helped
him get the idea by dabbing a <BR>little bit of peanut butter on all those
handles, so he would go right to <BR>them. I'm still not sure if he knows about
handles yet. One of my trainers <BR>says it takes 30 to 40 repetitions before a
dog learns a concept such as <BR>that.<BR><BR>Harper also veers to the right
sometimes while crossing streets. In <BR>summer, that wouldn't bother me so
much, but in winter, when there's so much <BR>snow and cold, I want him to do it
right the first time so I don't have to <BR>climb up on a snow bank and try to
figure out where the curb would be if <BR>snow didn't cover it. So I asked a
friend to tail me to work a couple of <BR>weeks ago.<BR><BR>The big leap is, how
do I know if I can trust this dog? When I feel him <BR>move in something other
than a straight line, is he taking me around an <BR>obstruction or goofing off?
It'll take us six months to a year to get to the <BR>point where we will almost
read each other's minds the way Scout and I <BR>could. It's sort of scary, sort
of freeing, I hope victorious after all.<BR><BR>By the way, I'm now one of two
Leader Dog teams in Midland County. <BR>Fellow resident Jim Hedelund has just
come home with his big shepherd, <BR>Shaddai. He'll be walking around Thayer
Road, where there are no curbs and <BR>sidewalks, so be courteous and keep a
watchful eye.<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17895950&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472539&rfi=6">http://www.ourmidla<WBR>nd.com/site/<WBR>news.cfm?<WBR>newsid=17895950&<WBR>BRD=2289&<WBR>PAG=461&dept_<WBR>id=472539&<WBR>rfi=6</A><BR><BR>--<BR>BlindNews
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