SYSK Selects: How Guide Dogs Work

You know how when you see a guide dog leading a blind person to their destination and you think, "There goes a truly great dog?" It turns out you are absolutely correct. Guide dogs are about as special as dogs can get and it's through years of hard work. Learn about the ins and outs of guide dogs in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M Hey everybody, it's me Josh and for this week's
s Y s K Selects, I've chosen how guide Dogs Work.
It's a heartwarming look at some amazing animals that work
really really hard to help humans out and do some
extraordinarily amazing things. And keep an ear out for a
surprise appearance by the Globe of Death. Before we knew

(00:22):
it was called the Globe of Death. Enjoy. Welcome to
Stuff you should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,

(00:43):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, there's Chuck and
we hope we sound correct. Yes, yeah, what does that mean? Well,
Jerry was looking at her putting the headphones up to
her tears, so like, she's not you paying attention to here. Basically,
what you're saying is we have no quality control on
the onne right now. Well, no, we did, because Jerry
had the headphones up to her years. Yeah, now we don't.

(01:04):
She checks and occasionally she wakes up and says, yeah,
yeah what so Chuck, Yes, how's it going. It's going great?
How are you I'm doing good? Good? Um? Huh you
look well, thank you very much, healthy, fit, well, happy,
sun kissed, sun kissed. Yeah, I feeling good. Um, Chuck,

(01:29):
have you ever seen a guide dog a guy dog guide? Oh? Yeah, yeah, sure,
guide dogs see them all the time. Do you know
why they are also called seeing eye dogs are used
to be uh well, because guide dogs specifically, unlike the
general term service dogs, are to help guide around people

(01:51):
who cannot see. That is a pretty nice story, but
it's not entirely correct. And I had a feeling seeing
eye dogs were actually UM part of a company called
the Seeing Eye was the first American guide dog training company. Uh.
And it wasn't the Americans who came up with training
guide dogs, it was actually the Germans UH. In Potsdam, Germany,

(02:16):
the first UM guide dog training academy was set up
to help veterans that had been blinded in World War One.
UM and it was successful. It didn't really take off, UM.
But a woman, an American woman living in Switzerland. Her
name was Dorothy Harris Eustace. She was very wealthy American,
heard about this when visited the school and said this

(02:37):
is pretty awesome. Came back, waited a few years before
she got around to writing an article and it was
published in the Saturday Evening Post and a young uh,
blind whipper snapper named um Norman Rockwell, No, his name
was Morris Frank. He heard about it and he got

(02:57):
in touch with Mrs Eustace and said, I would like
one of these dogs. Can you help me out? He said?
She said, not only will I help you out, I'm
gonna fly you to pot Stamp, to Switzerland. Actually you're
going to be trained with a dog, and we can
give you ten thousand dollars to go start the first
school in America. So more's Frank took the took her
up on it, took the ten tho dollars and started

(03:19):
in Tennessee the Seeing Eye Dog School. So are you
saying that Seeing eye dogs are the cleanex of the
working service dog world? Is very apt? It's actually a
brand name. Interesting. I never knew that to see. He
asked how I liked this, and I said, nothing really
surprised me. It was a good article, but I wasn't surprised.

(03:39):
And here you go surprising me right off the bat. Thanks.
All right, guy dogs, let's get to it. Eight. Yeah,
it's a pretty straightforward stuff, but it's neat to know
the details of things, like first of all, if you
ever see a guy dog, it's actually working and you
should leave it alone. Yeah, that's um in my house.

(04:00):
That's difficult with Emily. Yeah, you're really not supposed to
do that. I know, and she doesn't. But dude, she's
like a five year old like she will. I have
seen her fake like she's going to look for something
and just brush up her hand against the dog's head,
like in a store, like let me go look at
the cereal, and she'll just brush up and be like, said,

(04:21):
didn't mean to bet your your guide dogs. She's like
a frauder. She's like a frauderist for guide dogs. Yeah.
Basically is that people who rub up against yourself in public? Yeah, yeah,
she can't help it. Dude, when she sees a dog,
she's like she cannot not touch her. So and it's understandable,
especially with guide dogs. Why Emily would do that because

(04:41):
it's like dogs and then five echelons up guide dogs, right,
not only are they dogs, which are great animals to
begin with, but they're dogs that actually help not only
just regular people, but people who can't see. So it's
like you just want a petal and be like, here's
the greatest thing on the planet and they look sad,

(05:02):
which makes you want to pet him even more. But people,
they are not sad. They are working and they're delighted
to be working. Because if they're not delighted to be working,
they wouldn't be guide dogs. They wouldn't make it through
the process. That's exactly right. So that's not to say
that you can never um touch a guide dog. Normally
you want to leave them alone. Just rubbily gets to
the story, right, But um, if you really can't resist

(05:26):
the urge Emily, UM, you can ask the handler, the
guy dog owner, the person who the guy dog is assisting,
if you compet their dog that way, they can say
not really, he's really concentrating now, or no, you can
go ahead and pet them, and then the owner knows
that now he needs to get the dog back into
his concentration working mode after he's been petted. Okay, that's

(05:47):
rule number one. Okay. Guide dogs are rule number two.
Typically allowed anywhere the general public is allowed, because if
they're not, then you're saying, oh no, only people who
can see are out into these public areas exactly, which
is one of the best things about him and why
you want you know, why Emily wants to rub up
against them? Because she's like, well, I'm in a library

(06:08):
and there's a dog. This is a bonus, right, you know,
it's a great library. Um. The thing is is, since
they're allowed anywhere and their dog, and because there's people
like Emily walking around who wanted to pet them all
the time, the dog gets up to the dog rather
than Emily to decide, like, let's keep things professional here, right,
I'm not going to create any kind of ruckus or disturbance.

(06:30):
So the dog has to be extraordinarily well trained, um
to concentrate, and what it's concentrating on is a certain
prescribed set of things, specifically how to take a direct
route um. And to stay in front of and just
to the left of the handler yep, at a steady pace. Yep.

(06:52):
You don't want a dog that like runs some and
then stops to smell and eat poop and then runs again. Uh.
The biggest, I would say, probably easily the biggest thing
a guy dog must do is have complete mastery of
the intersection in the crosswalk. Yeah, that's really where I mean.
Stairs and cliffs and things like that are important, but

(07:15):
the crosswalk in the intersection is when it comes down
to brass tacks. That's the most important thing that a
guy dog needs to know how to do perfectly right
in the free time. The way that guide dog trainers
have established. Um. The importance of this is a guy
dogs are taught universally to stop at every curb. Yeah,
and that's a good way to I mean, you should
train your dog to do that anyway. I was thinking, Chuck,

(07:35):
if you can get your hands on a training manual
for a guy dog, just use that. You could use
that for any dog and you have like a super
terrific a one dog. Yeah, I bet you could. Uh,
that sounds like a service Josh is a one dogs
and finger printing powder. Um. Yeah, that's a good point.
And that's a good way to train a dog anyway.
Like I said, you don't want your dog pulling you

(07:57):
into an intersection, even if you can see. Um. But
back to guide dogs, that is the most important thing.
They have to stop at every curb, sit and while
they're sitting. And like I said, these aren't just service dogs,
because there's other dogs. If you have like epilepsy or
if you're in a wheelchair. Sometimes these are specifically for

(08:17):
the blind. Um. But they'll come to an intersection and
they work together as a unit. It's um, the dog
stops and the blind person listens. They listen for traffic
and they listen for traffic stopping, and then they tell
the dog, all right, now we can go forward in
in the intersection. But here's the cool thing, and this
is I think the coolest thing in this article about

(08:38):
guide dogs that the dog doesn't just say okay, let's go.
The dogs as well, you're saying it's okay, but you
can't see, so why don't you let me decide for
sure if it's okay. If there's a car coming, even
if the handler says move forward, the dog won't do it.
The dog will wait, wait until whatever hazard is coming
is cleared, and then we'll follow the man. It's called

(09:00):
selective disobedience. Yes, it's pretty spectacular. Yeah. When I lived
in l A in my first apartment, I lived across
from my I don't know if it was a dog
training school or if it was just a school for
the blind, but all the traffic lights around me made noises.
Oh yeah, like wait, no, it was that would be good. Actually,
it was just like these sounds, like these ticking sounds

(09:23):
that they knew. Oh yeah, they knew what it meant
or go there's even better. There's one's by Umi's in
my house that say wait when you press the button,
wait and then I'll say, um, what what street light
is now red? And what street you can cross depending
on where the intersection is. Is that just a new
thing or is it near dogs voice? Sounds pretty futuristic. No,

(09:47):
but is it tied to the blind or is it
just Yeah? I think it's what it's for, um, because yeah,
it directs you, um, verbally across what street you can take? Right? Wait? Wait,
And it's funny because you can press the button a
few times will be like wait, wait, wait, wait, that's
kind of fun. I'm sure you've never done that though, right, Well,

(10:09):
what else is there to do while you're waiting for
a crosswalk? Life? Jay walk? That's right, you can get
a ticket for that in Los Angeles, by the way,
it's a way of life. In New York. Yeah, don't
do it that way. Um. Another thing the dog has
to do is to know how to um bring the
the handler to an elevator button instead of elevator buttons. Um, yes,

(10:34):
stop its stairs at the bottom and the top until
told what to do. Um. Lie there quietly when the
handler is sitting wherever the handler is. That's a big one.
Like like part of being a guide dog is you
just have to just cut out all of the other
distractions that would drive any other dog bonkers, um and

(10:55):
just sit there because the first time guide dog acts
like a regular dog in a public setting. A guy
dogs everywhere have a bad name, that's right, you know, well,
and that's why they look sad to me. Like what
I used to take Martha, and there was a guy
dog frequently on the way home um with this lady,

(11:17):
and uh, the dog would just lay down under the
you know seat on the subway and just look so sad.
But I always had to tell myself, this dog is
not sad. When that harness comes off, it's playtime. Were
you saying that with like tear stream, I might have
teared up so Um. Like we said, they work as
a team. It's not the handler just giving orders and

(11:39):
it's not the dog just carrying out orders. They have
to work together, um because they the dog doesn't know
where to go, that's the handler's job, and the handler
doesn't know when to go or yeah, what obstacles are
coming up? Exactly put the two together, you got a
pretty great team. That's right. You have the makings of
a fine sitcom. So, Um, like you said, after hours

(12:03):
after they're working, when the harnesses on the dogs at work,
it's concentrating and knows everything to do. When the harness
is off, it's just like any other dog. It's belly
rub time. Right. A guy dog is both, um, a
service dog and the family pet too, that's right. So
really genuinely don't feel like bad for service animals when

(12:24):
you see them out in public. Like, they're treated just
as well and even better than other dogs back at home,
And from what I understand, they're really enjoying themselves because
they're like concentrating, their stimulated, they're going places. They're just
like sitting at home, you know, all day waiting for

(12:45):
you know, their owner to come home and let them
out for a half hour on a leash. Yeah, exactly.
So there's a lot of a lot of people who
believe that guy dogs leave far more fulfilling lives than
the average house dog. Yeah, well dogs, it depends on
the breed, but in general, dogs have jobs, and if
you have a poorly behaved dog, that means it's probably

(13:05):
a breed that wants a job that doesn't have one,
or you just got a lemon, like one of our
dogs is really bad. Lucy's terrible. She's thirteen and she's
still bad. Well, she was red to be a card dealer. Well,
we haven't taken her to Vegas in a long time.
She was. She is a catahula though, and they're they're
hurting dogs, and she she needs a job. Basically, she's

(13:29):
never had a job. So her job has been to
poop in the house and to eat books and furniture
and stuff like that. Wait, what kind of job are
they supposed to do? Well, the catahoulas were hurds, like
she heard hers and things. Does she hurd you guys
around the house? Like? Does she try to make sure
you're all in the same room at the same time?
Or uh no no? Um, all right, so let's talk

(13:52):
about the process of schooling a guide dog. Um. They're
usually free. They will pair people well up, they're they're
generally nonprofits who run on donations. Yeah, if you wanted
to feel even better about people like guide dogs schools,
it's free. Yeah, you don't have to pay two thousand

(14:12):
dollars for your well trained guide dog. They will pair
you as a person that can't see, with a great
dog for no charge in general, although there could be
a lot of money in that you started a private
one Josh's Dogs. Sure you could get a free one,
but if you want to really give one, you have
to pay for it. Um. So, these the schools are

(14:33):
set up and pretty much handled the whole process from
soup to nuts, which includes breeding them sometimes and if
they're like really great guide dogs, they might go into
a breeding program afterwards. I have the impression that most,
like major guide dog schools, handled their own breeding. Yeah,
probably so. Um. They arrange the puppy raising programs, which

(14:54):
is where it all starts, which we'll get into in
a minute. They evaluate these dogs along the way, they
train them. Once they're ready, they train the instructors, they
train the handlers, They match the dog with the handler,
reevaluate them after a while, and eventually retire the dogs,
which is very sad and happy, which we'll we'll get

(15:15):
to that too. That's at the end. But you're talking
Golden retrievers labs. German shepherds are generally who you're going
to see because they're all whip smart and generally pretty nice, loyal, obedient, training,
very trainable, and confident too. That's a one of the
A number one again qualities of UM a guide dog

(15:36):
is self confidence. UM. And that self confidence is UM
built up as a puppy. That's one of the main
things in a guide dog in training or pre training
puppy guide dog raising person. Yeah, they who I think

(15:56):
Alicia Hoyt wrote this. She interviewed, Um, No, this is
a Tom Harris joint. Was it okay? Tom interviewed someone
at a place called Guiding Eyes for the Blind in
New Yorktown Heights, New York. And we're gonna be referencing
them a lot as far as or that's who we're
talking about when we throw out some of these common stats, UM,
like of the original puppies aren't suitable for to even

(16:17):
enter the program, Like they start weeding them out really early. UM.
They sell them as pets if they're not, you know,
if they're part of that, or they may just not be.
They may be okay for service dogs but not good
for guide dogging, so they'll um maybe send them to
another organization that will help people like with epileps here
in a wheelchair or something. Um. The ones that do

(16:40):
make it though, the ones that are like, Okay, you're
six week old puppy, and we can tell already that
you are probably going to be worth a shot, so
we're gonna send you into into training school, pre training school.
Puppy raising is what it's called. With just regular people
like you can go out and do this. Is if
you have the time, and you have the patients, and

(17:03):
you have the resources, you can actually get puppies to
the point where a year later you will then turn
them back over to a proper school a year to
a year and a half depending Um. And along the way,
you're you're going to be trained on how to raise
a puppy according to the standards of the school. Um.
They're not just gonna say here's a puppy, don't screw

(17:24):
it up. Um. There's usually weekly, monthly, quarterly meetings with
other puppy raisers where all the puppies get together to
ensure their socialized update things to make sure everybody's on
the same page with raising their puppies so that there's evaluations. Um.
And uh, Like we said that what they're trying to

(17:44):
do is they're not training the puppies at all. The
main point of puppy raising is to start to set up, um,
how a puppy can become confident, make it feel good
about itself. And I take that back. They are training
himself to train them in the base su sit, stay,
lay down, that kind of thing. Yeah, nothing advanced, just
good basic obedience exactly there. And then they're also getting

(18:07):
the puppies used to the idea of training for extended
periods of time on a daily basis. Um. And they're
doing that by taking the dog all over the place
anywhere that they can get a dog into. They're going
to take this dog to expose it to new, um,
new experiences every week. Yeah, and after um, a certain
amount of time, they'll get their little coat that says

(18:30):
I'm a puppy dog in training. Very cute little situation there,
and uh, that's when they can really take it anywhere
they want to go. Um, as I understand it, not
necessarily like well, by law, yeah, right, by law you can't.
You're supposed to ask. But for the most part, it's like, yeah,
but socialization is a big deal. Um. Like you said,

(18:50):
they tried to expose puppies to at least five new
experiences a week. So um, everything from other dogs being around,
to being in a shop mall to going to jim
Boree and having screaming kids, you know, throwing their poop
all over the place. Actually, I don't know if I'd
take a puppy to be trained to gimperate. Probably it's

(19:11):
probably like the proving ground, yeah, if they can ignore that. Um.
But basically what they want to do is develop a
good relationship with a dog, which will eventually transfer to
their handler. And we're talking about learning obedience, like just
basic obedience. Um. All guide dogs are taught not with treats.

(19:32):
And there's a very very good reason why you don't
want to teach a dog with treats because if you
have a guide dog, that's like food is a reward,
and I think a lot about food. As a matter
of fact, you could say I'm fixated on food that
your dog boys. Yeah, and you take that guy dog
into like a diner or a Nathan's, that guy dog's
gonna have some real problems concentrating. Yeah. So you use

(19:55):
a praise and then correction through like just a tug
on a leash. Yeah, the typical like Caesar Milan stuff Yeah,
one of those two. I saw one the other day
where he was training a dude. He was scared of dogs.
An adult, he had grown kids, he was like in
his probably late forties, and he was still frightened of dogs.

(20:18):
And it was like every stupid episode of that show,
very emotional. Well, it's that music is pretty mane up
right at the right time. That's why sks should know

(20:45):
st um. So wait, hold on, Chuck. Yeah, I think
we should do a little public service for our listeners
out there and teach them. Yeah, the wi Is Bang
a one no fail method of house breaking a dog

(21:05):
in as little as one day. All right, let's hear it.
Do you want me to Yeah, I've had my me.
My dog poops every day and eats it herself, so
I've done a poor job. Luckily peace when it thunders.
Do you have a thunder shirt for him? Yeah, I got,
we call it thunder Buddy. It helps a little bit.
But if we're not home and it's thundering, he'll he'll pee.
Do you give him sedatives or anything? No, it's just

(21:28):
you know, I just clean up the pakay Alright. So
if you have a puppy, yeah, they say you can't
teach an old dog new tricks. I don't know if
that's true or not, But with a puppy it's easier.
I think that should be you can't teach an old
dog new tricks comma, I don't know if that's true
or not, semi colon. With a puppy, it's easier. That

(21:48):
should be the full adage. That's the A one slogan.
So you take you take your puppy outside once an hour,
pretty much, and you take them to the same place outside,
and you wait, wait until they finally start to go,
and when they go, you say, puppy's name, insert it here,
do your thing, yeah, or whatever you choose to say,

(22:11):
and then you praise that dog like it just saved
your life. And then the next time you take the
dog out again, and you wait. You do that a
couple of times, and then maybe by the third or
fourth time, you take the dog out to the same
place and you say, puppy, do your thing, and that
dog will probably pier poop on command for the rest

(22:31):
of its life. Yeah, I say, go potty, and it
works still, especially when it's thundering, Go potty. He's like, dude, perfect.
And again The reason why you want a dog to
that will only pier poop on command is because again,
you can't have a guide dog pooping in public because
people be like, well, what's we need to legislate guide dogs?

(22:55):
You dog poop in a library? Yeah exactly. This lady
over here is rubbing against the dog while it's pooping. Yeah. Plus,
you know you don't want your dog taking a big
dump in front of Forever twenty one because little kids
at them all will be turned off by that. Uh So,
like you said, puppies are evaluated um every few months,
UM during training and um. Eventually, like we said, at

(23:19):
about the year a year and a half mark, the
saddest day ever happens and you have to take that
puppy that you raised and turned them over to a school. Um.
And they did an interview with a lady who raised
a dog named Sonar. Her name is Mary Kantando. Yeah,
and it sounds like she does this a lot, and
she had a really good attitude. She's like, here's I'll

(23:40):
look at it. I had three kids and I raised
them and eventually sent them out into the world, So
I'm gonna do this with this dog. And they provide
a service, and we don't look at it as losing
this dog. We look at it as like we've given
someone a gift of a well trained, uh puppy and
uh a lot of people will get another one right

(24:00):
after that and start all over again. Yeah. I think also,
once you prove yourself as an able and capable UM
guide dog puppy razor, like, they'll they'll keep coming back
every time to ask you if you wanted to do
it again. Yeah, and you may one day, actually maybe
one day soon get that dog back if it gets

(24:21):
kicked out of the program. Yeah, because like you said
right off, the bat aren't even aren't even trained as puppies. Um.
Of the ones that go through puppy training and are
brought back after eighteen months, fifty of those will just
be like turned down. Yeah. And a lot of times
they'll offer them back to the original puppy razor say, hey,

(24:43):
do you want this dog? Um, you failed? Would you
like the dog back as a token to commemorate your failure?
Or the sweetest thing ever, perhaps when that dog retires
you might get it back. Yeah. Usually if the person
who has the guide dog, yeah, the handler. The handler

(25:04):
can't because they need another guy dog after that one retires.
If they can't keep two dogs, keep the other one
as a pet, then I think you have first shot
if you raise it as a puppy. Yeah. Could you
imagine like raising this puppy, giving away and like ten
years later getting it back Christian a lion or something. Yeah,
you know that's right. Uh So, once your puppy has

(25:27):
been raised and it goes to regular school, um, they're
going to basically reinforce and train everything they've already learned
and then introduced like all the serious parts of schooling.
Like here's an intersection, here's a cliff, here stairs. A
lot of the schools have fake intersections built so they

(25:47):
can really you know, do like hands on training there
on the campus, right. And this is like intensive training.
This isn't like whenever some burnout who like lives at
the school gets around to it. Like, this is intensive training,
like every every day from multiple people, one of whom
the dog trainer, the master trainer is actually assisted by

(26:09):
other apprentice trainers. Um, and and like it's a very
intensive um months long training. Yeah, about six months, I think, Yeah,
And that's after a year to a year and a
half of puppy training. So by the time I Handlered,
uh gets it, that's you know, a couple of years old. Well,
not only is there. So there's puppy training, six months

(26:31):
of intensive dog school training, and then when the handlers
finally matched, there's a whole month where the handler and
the dog are trained together. And the matching process takes
a little while too. You know, they don't just throw
any dog with any person. That's got to be a
just like adopting any dog, it's gotta be a good
personality match for you. So, Chuck Water, let's go back

(26:52):
to dog training school. We got a little excited. Okay,
um school right, So, like you said, a lot of
places have their own intersections built simulated. Um. The first
step before they ever get to that point is learning
to walk like a guy dog in a straight line,
a little forward ahead of the handler and slightly to

(27:14):
the left, up and to the left. One and this
is a big one. The guy dog has to be
taught to think of it's of the world in human size. Yeah,
dog's eye view any longer, but human size, because apparently
they pick up pretty easily, like, well, there's a garbage can,
I need to make a wide arc around the garbage

(27:34):
cancer that the guy I'm leading doesn't run into the
garbage can, But what about that narrow cravasse that I
can fit through no problem, But my blind guy is
a big fatty in the way he can fit through
their Look at this guy exactly, I'm gonna have to
go around the block because he can't go down this alleyway. Right.
A dog has to think in terms of of its

(27:56):
world like that, and that's that's enormous. To be able
to train something like that and for the dog to
be able to learn like that, that's just really my
hat is off, like over and over again. I'm just
not even putting it back on for the rest of
this episode. Uh Yeah, the one that really knocked me
out was the headroom. Like the dog, even though it's
two and a half feet off the ground, will be

(28:18):
able to look up and say, this guy might or
lady might bang her head on this low hanging beam.
I shouldn't go into the street and go in there
yet stay out of the sewer. So that's just amazing.
Like the dog has to look up and know how
tall the owner is and gauge how low that beam is. Yeah,

(28:39):
unreal that matched again with the most spectacular thing in
the world. Selective disobedience. Yeah, um, stopping at all curbs,
all stairs, um, learning all of the commands, Uh, go
to the right, go to the left, forward you mean?
And I watched Short Circule last night. Holds up pretty well, um,

(29:00):
except that just as crappy as it was when it
was exactly the Fisher Stevens character. The Indian Programmer is
so racist contest because it's a white guy doing like
the worst Indian impression at Mickey Rooney and and what's
it called, I have no idea breakfast at Tiffany's. He

(29:20):
played Mr Moto or whatever the Chinese. Oh yeah, oh,
I have to watch that very famous racist portrayal. But anyway,
like Johnny do, they couldn't get Johnny five to to
come for Ali Shed. He couldn't until she stumbled upon forward.
She's like, come here, come this way, walk and he
was just standing there and she's like forward and he's like, oh,
forward goes forward. So guide dogs and sentient robots, you

(29:44):
have to stay forward from the eighties, all right, So
we said before of the puppies are weeded out off
the top, out of those puppies who go to school,
about fifty of those are kicked out of school. And
then finally once those were training or in school, only
about se those graduate, So they really weed out. To say,

(30:07):
out of four hundred dogs that go through puppy training,
you've got like a hundred and forty that can eventually
graduate and go on to be matched with a handler. Um.
And you know, there there are a few things that
will weed a dog out, even if they're pretty good.
If they're like aggressive towards cats or something, you know,
that'll weed them out. So they really get the cream
of the crop. Drug problem, drug problems gone. They don't

(30:31):
want any drug abusers in there, so they get the
cream of the crop. At the end, make sure they're
compatible with their handler, train the handler with the people,
and then boom, you've got a match made in heaven. Yeah.
In the article, Tom Harris says, like if you're if
you're taking a first time handler, somebody who hasn't had
a guy dog before. Um, by the time the handler

(30:53):
comes and you're putting it together with the dog, now
you're basically in people training mode. Your guide dogs already trained.
The process is training the handler in the commands that
that the dog already knows, um, training the handler how
to walk and basically taking these this person and this
dog and teaching them how to work as a team. Yeah.

(31:15):
And the dog has you know, this is their new master.
They've had their instructor for six months or more. So
it takes a little while to adjust to this fact
that hey, this is my new my new alpha dog. Yeah.
And usually it takes I think on average, about a month.
That's about the time that's set aside. Um. And so
these nonprofit guide dog schools have like facilities for blind

(31:39):
people to come live while they're spending a month learning
how to work with their guide dog. Yeah. Some of
them have dorms. That's pretty cool. That's very cool. And
again we should say all of this is free. The
nonprofit group is shouldering all of the financial burden. The
puppy razors um, they're given a stipend or food, all

(32:01):
vet bills are paid by them, the guide dog school. UM.
They everything everything that has to do with the training
and the raising of these dogs is paid for um
by these nonprofit groups. So amazing. If you're looking for
a place to uh leave an inheritance, you could do
worse than a guide dog school. Yeah, that Josh is

(32:22):
a one dog school. Right. I'll give you my text
information if you email me directly. UM. So if you
want to be an instructor, it's gonna vary depending on
what school you're gonna try and go to, but generally
you have to have two to three years UM experience
as an apprentice supervised apprentice. Uh, and then different states

(32:43):
have certification processes. Um, you're probably a college graduate. Um.
Even though the job doesn't pay, it's still really hard
to get this job. People want to do this, so
it's it's wait listed a lot of times, not a
lot of openings, and it's a tough job to get.
It's very to manding uh physically and emotionally, and it's

(33:04):
a real challenge as a trainer, but super rewarding. What
don't you think? Yeah, And if you are interested in
becoming a master trainer, from what I understand, the best
route to take is to start by being a puppy razor,
work your way up to apprentice trainer and then to
master trainer. And who knows, you may just feel like
topping out at um puppy razor. Anybody can do it

(33:25):
violent application have to be you know, pass of course
to screen you. It has to I would imagine you.
I don't see how you could have a job like
a regular that's probably position, yeah, because I mean if
you're exposing a dog to five new things a week. Yeah,
I guess you could balance the two if it was
like my work and this puppy. Yeah, but even still,

(33:47):
I don't know. I would think you'd probably get bumped
off a lot easier. And they're screening you two to
make sure you're like a super awesome person, right, and
you're not, like I'm not gonna expose them to the
back of my hand. You have like stains on the
sleeveless undershirt that you wore to that puppy raising application meeting.

(34:09):
Give me like four of them puppies, right, I'll train
them good. They may pass you by. Yeah. Yeah. So
uh yeah, anybody can do it, I guess, is what
we're trying to say. Almost anybody. Yeah, And I don't
I don't know if they how heavily they screen as
far as like if you have kids or you can
have other dogs, even other puppies, but your puppy has
to be I think seven months old. Yeah, and I

(34:29):
guess the whole point is they have to deal with
those distractions anyway a bad thing. That's exactly what the
mind thought processes behind that. Uh. And like we said,
they retire generally eight to ten years old, um, although
that doesn't mean they're like old and feeble. That just
means it's probably time to get a new guide dog. Right.

(34:50):
They are sharp mentally typically um, but they're starting to
slow down a little bit and they have to be
able to keep pace with their their handlers. So yeah,
I think about eight to ten is the usual aide
that they're retired. Yeah, And like you said, they'll offer
it to the handler. If the handlers like, yeah, I
can handle like keeping this dog and still get my
new guy dog, then great. If not, they may offer

(35:10):
to the original puppy raiser, or you might be lucky enough.
It's another waitless deal because people want to adopt retired
guy dogs because they're pretty much the best and you
may not have as much time with them, but it's
you're providing them with Like it's almost like you know,
taking in an old person and giving them something great
in their twilight years, right, like just letting them a

(35:33):
good whip cream right out of the can in time.
They want kind of thing, woop wherever you want, and
they're like, dude, what's wrong with you? Poop into my hand?
The dog just thinks are crazy. It's like I remember
I used to work, Yeah, asked me to do things.
I love that blind guy so much more? Did you?

(35:55):
I can't even mention it on this, I think? All right?
All right? Uh, got anything else about guy dogs? This
was a little wackier than I thought it was gonna be. Okay, Well,
if you want to learn all about guide dogs, you
can type guide dogs into the search bart how stuff
works dot com. And since I said search bar, it's
time for friends a message break hit the jingle. Uh now, chuck,

(36:35):
it's time for listener mail. That's right, and this is
dog centric. It just worked out that way. Uh. This
is from an e R doctor whose passion is animal
rescue and her name is Jane M. Gene app j
e n a B. I never heard that j E
n a B. Yeah, Jeaneppe. Uh So, Jane says, I

(36:57):
have a charity knitting site, guys, where I donate sent
of the proceeds from selling my hand knitted items to
an animal Rescue in your neck of the woods. Actually
Angels among Us pet Rescue in Alpharetta, Georgia. Do you
remember them? Yeah? Well, how do I know that name?
In either may be like the can dogs detect like death?

(37:18):
Or can dogs tell when you're gonna die? Or you
can dogs detect illness? Remember the chihuahua that could detect
breast cancer? And um, I feel like we talked about
that organization in that episode. I think you're right. So
Angels among Us in Alpharetta they rescue thousands of dogs
and cats from kill shelters right before being euthanized and

(37:38):
found them loving homes. Last year, my knitting site donated
five thousand dollars to their cause, and this year my
goal is six thousand dollars. And this is like she's
just knitting, selling this stuff and given all the money
away knitting, knitting, knitting. A few days ago, I lost
my fifteen year old rescue girl Rica Japanese for Beautiful

(37:59):
Girl role. I rescued her when she was eight weeks
old and she was with me through marriage, divorce, medical school, residency,
and first four years of practice. She moved with me
from Denver to Tulsa to Kansas City, to Grand Junction, Colorado,
to Mendesito, California, and back to Denver. Her loss has
broken my heart, but it is also inspired me to

(38:20):
work even harder to accomplish my goal for other homeless animals,
including asking for help spreading the words. Guys, I would
love it uh to make you both some hand knitted
hats for the winner if you think you'd enjoy them.
The links to my page on Facebook and two Angels
among Us or below you can see pictures of the hats,
baby hats, dog sweaters, all kinds of things I can knit. Um,

(38:43):
thanks for your consideration, but more than anything, thanks for
a fantastic podcast that keeps me entertained and educated. Uh So,
this is from Jane genab m D, owner of Jane's Creations,
and we would like to challenge people to go out
and buy one of her knitted gifts because that money
is going to go to Angels among Us Pet Rescue.
That is so cool. So go to our Facebook page UM,

(39:05):
Facebook dot com, slash Jane's Creations, j A. N. E.
S Creations of Denver, Colorado, or just check out Angels
among Us pet Rescue at Facebook dot com slash Angels Rescue,
and let's help her reach that goal of six thousand
bucks because that's pretty awesome. Let's do it. Let's make
it an official s y s K thing. And hey,

(39:28):
you know what, Jerry adopted her cute little dog Tooley
from Angels among Us doing with the drum comb Yeah,
doing that washed out a guide dog school. Yeah, the
tweaker but uh yeah, so we have a personal connection
to and um, let's let's do it, Chuck, Let's make
it an official s y s K thing to raise
some money for this. Yeah, so go to Facebook dot com,
slash Jane's creations and uh ja dot cars. Corresponding with

(39:51):
her own email, it was very sad to hear about Rica,
but she's got other animals because she's an animal crazy
person just like me. It's nice. Animal crazy people are
the best crazy people around. Agreed. Uh, if you want
us to help try to raise some money for a
very worthy cause, via you get in touch at us,

(40:12):
We're gonna have to check you out, make sure you're legit,
make sure you're not you know, making money off of
other people's good will tacky. And we get a lot
of these, so unfortunately we can't like get everyone on
the air, but we do our best. We try UM.
You can get in touch with us via Twitter at
s y SK podcast, You can join us on Facebook,
dot com slash stuff you Should Know, You can send

(40:33):
us an email directly, and you can join us on
our website, which is pretty awesome. It's called stuff you
Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com.