What a Stud

On October 7, 2009, the Vet Tech Club and the Kappa Beta Delta organized a presentation regarding training guide dogs. Great Bay's own Professor Dan Murphy has been training Sebastian, an 18 month old yellow lab for the Guiding Eyes Organization.

http://donate.guidingeyes.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Sebastian is a stud. He is just about ready to be given back to the program so he can begin work. Throughout the presentation Professor Murphy demonstrated how Sebastian was and is currently trained. He fed Sebastian cooked chicken and constantly gave him positive reinforcement. Prof. Murphy informed us that when training a dog, you always want to be positive and never reprimand or punish the dog.



Here were some of the commands that Sebastian knows and some no-no's when you see a guide dog in uniform:
Stand - right at side
Heel - touching leg
Sit Stand - Sit - Down - comes to owners' side, sits, and then lays down
Close - dog will come
Place - will sit or lay anywhere that owner wants
Free - dog can go wherever they want

Common Guidelines: when the dog is wearing his vest - ignore the dog, do not pet the dog, and please do not to ask if you can touch or feed the dog.

Professor Murphy described his job as a dog trainer like being a foster parent. This (hopefully) will make it easier when he has to give up Sebastian. One of the students at the presentation informed us that guide dogs cost about $20,000. Most of the time hearing and sight foundations will help to offset these costs. Adopting a guide dog can be frustrating because the waiting list is long. Prof. Murphy was very thankful to the school administration, staff and students for letting him bring Sebastian to class with him.
Training Sebastian is a "good thing" and we thank Professor Dan Murphy for sharing his experience with us.