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Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

Guide Dog Trainer

Real-Life Activities

Real-Life Communication

As a guide dog trainer, your duties do not begin and end with the training of suitable canines. You are also responsible for organizing fund-raising events.

"Guide dog training has everything to do with communications," says guide dog trainer Joanne Ritter. "There is probably not a day going by in the field where your skills in writing and speaking aren't called into play. We trainers are by our very natures communicators."

You are the general manager and guide dog trainer for a small training school. Although you have direct clients, you also farm out trained guide dogs to a national organization. The organization then matches these creatures up with suitable clients.

In two weeks, the organization will be your sponsor for a convention. You have been asked to deliver a speech as part of a campaign to raise money for the training of guide dogs.

There will be hundreds of clients and many wealthy sponsors at this convention. You want to make sure that what you say will be effective. You will want to keep the following points in mind:

  • This is an essential industry.
  • Guide dogs are trained to be excellent guides for those who are visually impaired.
  • They are also wonderful companions.
  • Guide dogs give the blind mobility.
  • They become a life-support system.
  • They give the owners a sense of freedom.
  • Only dogs that are in excellent physical and mental health are trained. If a problem is detected, behavioral or otherwise, the training will end and another suitable dog will be found.
  • Guide dog training is a long process, beginning with 12 months of "puppy walking," followed by five months of intensive one-on-one training, then one probationary month of training with the client.