Fostering of guide dogs

A DOG TRAINED IN THE RIGHT WAY, ASSUMING A SUITABLE NATURE, GIVES PREFERENCE TO ITS MASTER OVER ITS OWN INTERESTS.

Dog fostering is a time-intensive process, whereby the trainer defines the rules.
The whole process must proceed in accordance with a dog’s ethology, because a group of animals has different rules than a society of people. It is important to pay heed to this fact while breeding and training dogs.

Socialization is the consecutive integration of an individual into society. Accordingly, it is the consecutive recognition of all environmental signals.
These two phenomenon are not identical but in this case are closely related.

The immense importance of quality socialization was proved in the 1950s by a project headed by professors J. P. Scott and J. L. Fuler, who analysed the relationship between the genetic make-up of a dog and its social behaviour.
During 20 years of an absolute and precise observation of all development phases of puppies from the training school in San Rafaelo, these two professors proved that puppies during their first 12 weeks develop habits based on experience from their surroundings. In fact, in the case of the lack of such experience the puppies do not fully socially develop. This would mean a minimal chance of success for guide dogs.
Consequently, even extremely talented puppies lag behind without such social experience, and in contrast average animals with quality socialization are able to achieve superior performance. This fact has been observed both in practice and research.

A dog’s contact with people starts at birth. A puppy gets to know the smell of a human - the touch, voice, and appearance. A puppy is very sensitive and a human’s effect should be as positive as possible, because in spite of being a puppy, early sensations influence the subconscious. During this period, we don’t talk about “fostering” because there is nothing to guide and the rules are usually defined by the mother dog. We call this process “youthful socialization”, from birth to approximately 6 to 8 weeks.

The fostering of a dog starts when the need to guide their steps arises, this usually happens in the period after the weaning of puppies, approximately at eight weeks of age. Puppies are transferred to human families where certain rules of behaviour are stated (or should be) and training begins. Of course, the integral process of socialization remains.

Our dogs learn things that should be handled by each well-mannered dog, and also something additional.

In the domestic environment we teach them:

• hygienic habits
• not to steal and not to take things that don`t belong to them
• not to spoil interior furnishings
• not to beg for food
• not to jump onto furniture
• not to start eating without permission
• to stay alone calmly for some time
• not to bark
• not to ask for attention constantly
• not to jump on people, to behave calmly when greeting them
• always to wait by front door until paws are cleaned

Outside we teach them:

• to walk in a harness
• discipline on a short lead
• the correct recall
• fetching – retrieving things used in daily life
• practice of basic commands
• to toilet only on command