Has anyone ever trained a dog to be a guide dog for another dog?
We have a deaf blind puppy and we are looking at getting him another dog to act like a guide dog for him has anyone done this? if so how did you go about the training?
yes, there have been many people with dogs who learn to guide another dog with a disability. i have not personally done this, but i know it can be done. you might want to get a second dog and train him the way a seeing eye dog for a person is trained (see below) and work from there. maybe if your puppy bonded with a new dog, it would take it’s course all by itself. (i know this sounds like "wait and see" advice but there aren’t websites dedicated to this problem sadly)
November 7th, 2009 at 7:22 am
I haven’t trained any guide dogs, but my mom has a dog she adopted that is totally blind from birth. She has three other dogs, and they help him some, plus he circles, and you can train him to stop when you tell him so he doesn’t run into stuff, and put something different before stairs so he’ll know that they are there and not get hurt.I think a good lab/retriever type dog would be easiest to train, they kinda train themselves.
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November 7th, 2009 at 7:49 am
yes, there have been many people with dogs who learn to guide another dog with a disability. i have not personally done this, but i know it can be done. you might want to get a second dog and train him the way a seeing eye dog for a person is trained (see below) and work from there. maybe if your puppy bonded with a new dog, it would take it’s course all by itself. (i know this sounds like "wait and see" advice but there aren’t websites dedicated to this problem sadly)
References :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5897234/Blind-border-collie-gets-his-own-guide-dog.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2086316_train-seeing-eye-dog.html
November 7th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Any animal I’ve actually seen doing this for another animal was instinctual and they did it of their own accord. It had absolutely nothing to do with training. Also, handicapped animals don’t really need guide dogs so much like people do. They adapt much better than we do. They rely on their other senses to get them around and they’re okay. They don’t get depressed or feel sorry for themselves like people do. They just adapt and move on with life.
I have a blind cat and she relies on her whiskers to navigate her way around and her sense of smell. At the beginning, it looked like she was smashing into everything until I actually sat on the floor and saw that she was using her whiskers to navigate with. Being deaf along with being blind will handicap him a little bit more than my cat but, like I said, they really do find ways to adapt much better than people do. Maybe you can stomp your foot on the ground or something like that so he’ll feel a vibration and use that for different kinds of signals to him….. Something like that. Best of luck to you.. You’ll figure things out in working with him and what works best for the two of you.
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November 7th, 2009 at 9:01 am
A dog would naturally help a blind dog, its like a human seeing a blind man in the street and helping.
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