Family Helps Bridge Gap Between Puppy and Leader Dog Trainee

By Thorin Burkhard-Horn, 18, and Megan Maas, 14, with contributions by Kaitlyn Ball, 10, Dennis Bao, 10, Aminda Johnson, 12, and Eric Wagner, 13.

Since it's inception in 1939, Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester, Michigan has paired over 13,000 blind or visually impaired people with leader dogs. However, the puppies need extensive training before being paired with their teammate. By taking the puppies into their homes for roughly a year, and training them to handle everyday situations, volunteer families play a challenging but rewarding role in that process. Heather Nobert, seventeen, of Marquette and her family accepted that challenge.

"We knew someone who had done it, and we had thought about it for a long time," Nobert said. "We had sent in an application and when a puppy was brought in to be trained they called us and we decided to do it."

Nobert and her family did research and other tasks to prepare for the arrival of, an eight-week-old yellow Labrador retriever purebred, whom they later named Bella.

"We definitely had to clean our house, get everything off the floors so she wouldn't eat it," Nobert said. "We had to read about the rules that the leader dogs have to abide by, the things that we're supposed to teach them, and things that they can have and can't have."

While Leader Dogs for the Blind have their own training facilities, they rely on volunteers to familiarize puppies with every day life. The puppies need to be able to a deal with a huge variety of objects and situations if they are to become reliable companions. Nobert tries to incorporate Bella into her daily schedule as much as possible.

"We have to socialize the dog and take her to restaurants or other places and stores that will let her come in," Norbert said. "There are certain things that they're supposed to get used to, like vacuum cleaners and walking on stairs that you can see through. There are just a lot of basic commands: ‘sit,' ‘stay.' That's what we work on."

Nobert and her family have found ways to make the job easier.

"It's not that difficult because we can include her in a lot of every day things and we can bring her into a lot of stores," Norbert said. "Instead of going for walks by ourselves we bring Bella."

There are also restrictions on what the volunteer families can do with the puppies. Bella is not allowed to chase balls or play tug of war, and she is only allowed certain kinds of bones or chew toys. While she is wearing her official coat she is supposed to be especially disciplined. She has to be taught not to pull too hard or bite on her leash. Also, she has to stay on a leash unless she is in an enclosed area with Nobert or her family. But, despite the restrictions and the training, Nobert feels that raising Bella is not so different from raising a dog to keep as a pet.

"It's fun to raise a leader dog because she's just like a pet most of the time," Norbert said. "She doesn't wear the coat all the time or anything. We get to play with her. But teaching her the commands has been very difficult."

If Bella has any health or personality problems that would make her a less effective leader dog, she could become a police or firedog or be offered to Nobert and her family to keep as a pet.

While Nobert and her family are enjoying their time with Bella, they know that in January and December Bella will have to be sent back, and that will be a difficult time because Nobert has definitely become attached to Bella.

"Very attached," Norbert said. "I always remind myself that she will be going back to the leader dog school and she's not our pet, that she's going to be helping blind people, and it's a little bit easier, but I'm still really attached to her."

Despite her sadness over the fact that, Bella will be leaving, Nobert is glad that Bella will become someone else's companion.

"I know I'll be sad," Norbert said. "I'll probably cry. But at the same time, I'll feel proud because the dog that we raised will be helping someone else, and that's really cool."

Nobert feels raising a leader dog is a rewarding experience overall and she would recommend it to others.

"I'd say to be prepared for a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun, and it's worth it. I think my best advice would be to try not to get too emotionally attached because it's really hard to give the puppies up."

Editor's Note: This story was written by Thorin Burkhard-Horn, eighteen, and Megan Maas, fourteen, with contributions from Kaitlyn Ball, ten; Dennis Bao, ten; Aminda Johnson, twelve, and Eric Wagner, thirteen.