Guide dogs began to be systematically trained to provide assistance to the visually impaired during World War I, but they are still rare in Taiwan, according to Joyce Feng, publicist for Taiwan Guide Dog Association, which is dedicated to guide dog training, the development of local dog breeding and raising public awareness.
“Many German soldiers lost their eyesight in the war, and military working dogs that survived had no other uses, so the Germans trained them as guide dogs to assist the German veterans. However, the first guide dog school—The Seeing Eye—was established in the U.S. in 1928 by Dorothy Harrison Eustis, and it is still going strong today.”
While guide dog training in the U.S. has a history of over 80 years, it is fairly recent in Taiwan. According to Feng, Taiwan Guide Dog Association was founded in April 2002 by William Chen, who took four years of guide dog instructor lessons at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind in the late 1990s, and in 2002 became the first Taiwanese to obtain a guide dog instructor license.
“During his stay abroad, Chen saw how guide dogs made a big difference in the lives of the visually impaired, allowing them to do things with greater speed and safety,” Feng said. “He thought it would be great if the blind in Taiwan could experience the same changes, so he launched the association to introduce, breed and train guide dogs.”
In the beginning, TGDA relied on its counterparts in Japan and the U.S. for healthy and quality dog breeds, Feng said. “But now we have the ability to breed dogs of our own and return the favor.”
Feng pointed out that German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and golden retrievers are suitable guide dog breeds due to their stability. “To become a guide dog, there can be no congenital diseases or record of attacking humans in a dog’s genealogy, because it becomes an integral part of its handler’s life,” she stressed.
“Guide dogs go to places frequented by ordinary people every day, so their stability is top priority. The dogs are screened a number of times during the different stages of their growth, and those that are too active or too timid will be crossed off the list. Guide dogs are the hardest kind of working dog to train, with the highest elimination rate—an average of 50 percent.”
According to Feng, a guide dog’s training comes in three stages. Puppies two to four months old are entrusted to puppy walker families to develop regular daily routines and good habits, meaning they cannot bark, bite, pounce on people or jump onto furniture. Most importantly, they must be thoroughly housebroken and have very regular toilet habits, Feng explained.
“Once the puppies are old enough and can control their bowel movements, the puppy walker families will proceed with socialization training, such as going places by public transportation, taking the puppies to various stores and meeting different kinds of people,” Feng said. “The aim is to familiarize them with the social environment and prepare them for their work as guide dogs later on. Of course, if the families encounter problems during this period, they can call our guide dog instructors for help.”
When the puppies are a year old, TGDA takes the dogs for checkups and assesses their temperaments, Feng continued, adding that some dogs are eliminated because of health problems or instability, while those that stay in the program move on to the next stage—guiding training.
“During this phase, which lasts from one to one-and-a-half years, the dogs come to TGDA every day for core lessons including the commands, tasks and skills a guide dog must master,” Feng said.
Tim Su, a guide dog trainer with TGDA, added that the commands taught to the dogs are all in English, such as “sit” and “stay.” “The purpose is to prevent passersby from distracting a dog by giving it commands in Chinese during training in public areas,” he said.
“After the dogs complete the whole course, they become qualified guide dogs and are put on the working dog list, awaiting a visually impaired person who applies for a dog,” Feng said. “TGDA will then match suitable pairs according to each dog’s size, personality and walking pace. Then, the dog and handler will give it a trial run and live together for two weeks, testing whether they suit each other and whether the handler is capable of and willing to take care of the dog.”
If all matches perfectly, there will be a one-to-three-month client-training period, according to Feng. “The objective is to teach the blind person the correct handling of the dog, including regular bathing, toilet and eating habits, as well as helping them adapt to each other’s personality. They will also practice at least five routes to and from school, work or other frequent destinations.
“Guide dogs take the place of white canes and offer the blind dynamic protection,” Feng explained. “They actively detect obstacles for the visually impaired and help them navigate around such barriers. They also help keep their handlers safe in traffic.”
Unfortunately, most Taiwanese people know very little about guide dogs, Feng lamented. Although a law passed in 2004 protecting the rights of people with disabilities was amended in 2011 to stipulate the right of handlers and guide dogs, including trainers and dogs in training, to enter public areas and take public transport, members of TGDA and puppy walker families have sometimes been prevented from entering restaurants or taking public transportation.
“When this happens we talk with the restaurant owner or station agent, and show them the law,” Feng said. “If they fail to cooperate, we will note down the time, place and people involved in the event and file a suit.”
Other kinds of problems can result from ideas people have about dogs. “I once was on a bus with a black guide dog in training,” Feng related, “when suddenly an elderly passenger swung her umbrella at the dog, saying, ‘Go away! I’m going to beat you!” True to its schooling, the dog did not even look at the woman.
“Many people, especially the elderly, are deeply affected by the traditional notion that black dogs are fierce and will bite,” Feng said. “TGDA hopes to correct such misconceptions and show people that guide dogs are well-behaved, do not freely urinate or defecate, and do not bark or bite. They automatically lie down and rest, keeping to themselves, when they are working in a public place.”
To help educate the public, the association holds educational events from time to time in front of department stores or at schools and enterprises, teaching people not to feed or disturb a guide dog at work, or prevent it from doing its job, Feng added. Instead, they should actively offer help when they see a visually impaired person on the road.
“Calling a guide dog will distract it from its work, and could result in a dangerous situation,” she said. “Feeding it food that humans eat will cause the dog to track the smell whenever it passes a night market, for instance, and worse, could interfere with the dog’s habit of defecating at a fixed time and place.”
According to Feng, there are 60,000 visually impaired people in Taiwan and only 32 qualified guide dogs in service. Without a training school with obstacle courses, roadways for practice in traffic and dormitories for dogs and handlers to spend the two-week trial period together, guide dog training in Taiwan takes twice as long as it does in other countries. Schooling is carried out on public roads, trainers have to pick up dogs from puppy walker families every day, and classes may be cancelled due to the weather.
“It takes six to eight months to train a guide dog abroad, but 12 to 18 months in Taiwan,” Feng said. The nonprofit TGDA is now looking for a possible site for a training school measuring 661.2 square meters, as well as donations to help it acquire the site, she added.
“Whatever obstacles we meet, we will continue to spread the word on guide dogs.” (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw