Puppy Tails Seeing Eye 4-H Club helps
train guide dogs
February 24, 2010
By Katelyn Farago
RandolphRoxbury This Week
Linda Kabis of Ledgewood began raising
puppies for the Seeing Eye more than 13 years ago when her daughter
expressed an interest in getting a dog.
Since then, Kristin — now 25 — has
raised 11 guide dogs. Her mother is in the process of training her
17th.
Letting the dogs go after she spends
more than a year training them is " hard," Kristin said.
"It never really gets easier, but it's
worth it."
One of Kristin's dogs went on to guide a
college student who was blind, she said, while another left to serve
a blind woman who was the mother of twin 2-year-old boys.
"It's a really wonderful public
service," said Linda. "And it's a really nice way to learn to love
something and let it go."
In 1997, Linda Kabis and Sue Filak took
over leadership of Puppy Tails, a Morris County 4-H Club that
partners with Seeing Eye to train volunteers to raise puppies for
the blind. Every Tuesday, the two conduct host a training workshop
at Bethlehem Church in Randolph, where members work on basic
obedience skills with their pups. The workshops cover everything
from basic commands such as "sit" to training the dogs to stay off
of the furniture and preparing them for things they might encounter
while serving their owners.
At a recent meeting, the dogs were
exposed to a large American flag in the hope that they would be
accustomed to it the next time they saw one. Filak also tried to
expose the dogs to several other distractions, such as a crinkling
plastic bag, to train them to stay focused.
Puppy Tails has a membership of 26
puppy-raisers, 9 and older. Twenty-six canines between the ages of 7
weeks and 15 months old are being trained. Once the dogs are about a
year old and have learned basic obedience, Seeing Eye recalls them
for more intensive training.
"It's like, just when you get them
behaving like you want them to, they take them back," Filak of
Hopatcong said with a laugh.
When the dogs finish their training,
they are placed with their visually impaired owners. The puppy
raisers receive letters from Seeing Eye, updating them on where
their dogs are in training or where they will be living with their
new owners. And every August, the Seeing Eye hosts a picnic for the
puppy raisers, during which various recipients with guide dogs speak
about what the dogs have done for them.
"That's a big part of why I do it," said
Shaina O'Connell of Succasunna, who has been a part of Puppy Tails
for nine years.
Now 24, O'Connell began raising dogs for
the Seeing Eye when she was 15. At the time, she said, she wanted a
dog and was looking for a volunteering opportunity. Because her
parents were not too keen on the idea of getting a dog, she said
taking one in temporarily was a compromise.
Today, O'Connell is raising her 11th
Seeing Eye dog — a 6-month-old yellow Labrador named Van Gogh. By
day, she is a veterinary technician at an animal hospital. She
described one of her fondest memories volunteering with Seeing Eye
as one particular August picnic, when a student thanked her for her
volunteer work as if she had personally raised that student's dog.
She said the experience has stuck with her over the years.
Diane Spadola of Randolph is raising her
second Seeing Eye pup. The activity began as a 4-H project for her
daughter, but when their first puppy, Joyce, ended up being too
strong for her daughter to handle, raising Joyce became a family
project. Joyce is now in the intensive phase of training at the
Seeing Eye in Morristown, and Spadola said her family is raising
Vernie, a 9-week-old golden retriever.
It was difficult to see Joyce move on,
Spadola said, but she tries to remind herself that the puppies she
fosters are meant for other things
"It's not our dog," she said of Vernie.
"We have them because they are destined for bigger and better
things. I just think it's really rewarding when you see how much
freedom that these dogs can provide."
Kayla of Chester is only 12, but she
already has fostered three dogs. She is currently raising Skittles,
an 11-month-old German shepherd.
"It's really fun because you get to have
a different kind of dog every year, and they all have different
personalities," she said.
It feels good to know that they are
going to help people when they leave, she said, "but it's still sad
to let them go."
Eleanor Abramson of Wharton expressed a
similar sentiment about seeing her last pup move on to the Seeing
Eye training.
"It's really sad, and I really missed
her because she was my friend," she said. "And yet, at the same
time, the more you're involved in the program, the more you want
them to succeed."
Abramson is now raising Odette, an
11-week-old German shepherd whose two sisters also are being
fostered by members of the Puppy Tails club. Members describe them
as the triplets of the group: Odette, Orna and Oprah.
Oprah is being reared by puppy raiser
Christian of Hopatcong.
"It's kind of rewarding to know that
you're helping someone," he said.
When asked what has been the most
difficult skill to teach Oprah, Christian said: "Probably just to be
potty trained."
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