((PKG)) RAISING IKE, THE SERVICE COMPANION
((TRT: 14:40))
((Topic Banner: Raising Ike, The Service Companion))
((Producer: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera/Editor: Lisa Vohra))
((Map: Oakton, Virginia))
((Main characters: 1 female; 0 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female, 1 male))
((Blurb:
We spend some time with Deborah Wydra, who has been raising service dogs since she was in high school. Find out what it entails to get their current puppy, Ike, ready to enter phase 1 of his formal training, and the bond that she and her husband have cultivated with Ike.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Hello there, sir. How are you?
I'm Deb Wydra, and I teach English at Chantilly High School, and I'm also a puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
Our job as raisers is to start with them in about three months old, somewhere in that area, and gradually increase the time and duration that we expose that puppy to really intense experiences in society. So, that's why coming into a school, which is what I do with my puppies, can be really intense. That's a lot of dynamic. It's a lot of people in a small space. It's a lot of noise. It's fire drills. It's just all of the things that create a great list of experiences for a guide dog that will need to go out someday and not be rattled by an emergency vehicle going by or someone touching them or someone stepping on them. So, they learn all of that as they go through that year of training.
((NATS))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
He will be chewing loudly because he’s a little nervous. There’s a lot of people in here. He knows you’re here and he’s just saying, “Okay, well I’m just going to try to work out my stress by chewing aggressively on a yak cheese thing.”
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
The students really love when I bring Ike in. Ike does bring an element of calm to the room, sometimes a little bit of fun. Many times, I will say, they don't even know he's there. He's next to me. He's very quiet. All the dogs I raise, they’re usually very quiet. They can lie down for the whole school day, which is what they'll probably do with a guide dog user someday. They'll just go to work and they'll be under a desk and it'll be very quiet for most of the day.
((NATS))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
I’m answering these questions.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Sometimes, for students, it’s a struggle having a dog in the classroom. So I have to remind them, he’s basically a service dog and you can’t touch him, just as you wouldn’t touch a real guide dog out working, because it breaks their concentration and it can cause some trouble for them. So what we want to do is honor their space and remember that they are a service dog and they’re working and your job is to just let them be.
((NATS))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
As we travel through our day, I will take Ike out when I have my lunch break, and that’ll be pretty good for him. He has to get used to being in a place for about six to seven hours before he takes a break, just as he’ll do when he is working with an actual person who needs a guide dog.
I always hope that my students see that message that, you know, service is a way of life for you.
((NATS))
((Student))
I think it’s really cool how Ms. Wydra trains service dogs. She’s giving back to the community in a really nice way and I think that’s really admirable of her.
((NATS))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
You’re such a movie star.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
I grew up around dogs and spent a lot of time with dogs and we would take them backpacking. They came everywhere with us. And when I was in school in California, one of my classmate’s mother was blind. And that got me interested in the world of service dogs and the service dog I introduced to her. And she didn't realize that service dogs are free. And right after that, she got her first guide dog. And I realized what an amazing feat of independence having one of these dogs is.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Ike, get busy.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
These are examples of some of the dogs that we’ve raised and, of course, Farrow, who’s up here, she decided that being a guide dog was not as, really not her thing, and she prefers instead to live here with us. Sometimes dogs will have medical concerns and it would just be too costly for someone who is blind or visually impaired to take care of that dog. There’s no way you can possibly keep making VET [veterinarian] visits and doing things that are time intensive.
((NATS)
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
You are trying to steal treats. That’s not lady like.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
I found out about Guiding Eyes for the Blind when I was working with Guide Dogs for the Blind, and I remember the folks at Guide Dogs for the Blind saying, “If you ever go to the East Coast, you have to check out Guiding Eyes for the Blind, that they're another really reputable service dog agency and nonprofit. So we moved here and years later, when I was considering this as a great hobby for my children, I said, “Oh, I've heard of this wonderful organization, Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Let's go ahead and look for their website and we’ll look up and see what we need to do to raise a puppy.” And sure enough, found their
((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Website, and applied, and went through all of the training, and got our first puppy.
((MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
While Guiding Eyes puppies are going through their training, we do train them how to be polite in kennels. Ike actually has never barked in the kennel. He's very quiet, and the expectation is while he's here in the kennel, that he's lying down. We do not open the door until he is lying down and behaving and quiet, and then we will open the door and let him out.
((NATS)
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))
Free.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
So, I’m going to start cooking and unfortunately, Ike will come over and get very interested in what I’m doing. And there is a lot of hot stuff over here. So, I'm going to have to go place.
“Ike, go place.”
And this is a skill he’ll need to learn and improve on as he gets off of the step here.
And this is a skill that a guide dog user will use pretty frequently. Now, he is not great at it here in the kitchen. He will nail it every time at class. So, everybody thinks Ike is the best at this and actually he's not. So, we're really, really working with him. So, one of the techniques that Guiding Eyes found works really well is to intermittently give him treats while he's behaving here. And every once in a while, I'll come over to him, and say, “Yes.” And he knows, “Oh, I think he’s doing something good here by staying in place.”
My husband has always been like 100 percent behind this.
((NATS))
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))
Up.
I got into raising guide dogs because of my wonderful wife. Never occurred to me to do it. And then she's like, “Hey, I did it when I was a kid.” And I was like, “Hey, it sounds like fun. Let's give it a try.” And seven dogs later, here I am.
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))
One of the things I love about him is, he's very cuddly. He's also one of the best behaved dogs that we've ever had. So, just as an example, “Ike, heel.” That's literally perfect. Like that's the definition of how he's supposed to do that command. When there are people around, he sometimes gets excited and it's a little bit more of a struggle, but…uh, uh, uh, come on, Ike. This way, good boy. Sit…nice.
How long the dog can guide sometimes depends on how stressful it is. So a dog, maybe in New York City, can’t guide as long as a dog that’s living in Vermont.
((NATS))
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))
Free.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Guiding Eyes has found that the dogs best suited are Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds. So, those are the two breeds that they work with primarily.
They seem to have that ability
((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
to people please, to love, to have the stamina to go out and work, and they love to work. That's really what they live for.
So, they seem to make the best guides. They're good size. They're easy to care for in the home.
((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
It helps people stay social. And they also do provide a lot of protection that's needed. People who use guide dogs tell wonderful stories about, “Yeah, I was getting ready to go into the elevator and my dog wouldn't lead me into the elevator and, you know, I was puzzled.
And then I heard someone behind me say, “Please stop. There's no elevator there. It's an open shaft. Don't go forward.” So, you know, that's just one example of how
((Courtesy: Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
guide dogs will protect their user. They will body block in traffic. They will just do these amazing things to make sure that they keep their person safe.
((NATS/MUSIC))
So, she is fully up to date on everything.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
So today, we are here getting Ike’s last vaccine. When we do our VET [veterinarian] visits, we actually have a whole list of things that we have to go through from the time we get the puppy, sometimes at about three months. Ike joined us when he was almost a year.
((VET Doctor))
As far as I can see, things look okay.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
We’re hoping Ike makes it.
((VET Doctor))
Yeah.
((Deborah Wydra
Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Right Ike? A lot just riding on you right now.
((VET Doctor))
All of our hopes and dreams, Ike.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Our puppy, Ike, is doing his ‘Walk and Talk’, which is basically an evaluation to see where he is in the program at this point, and if there's anything that we need to continue to help him with. He's getting very close to going back to Guiding Eyes for his formal harness training. So, this is just checking out where he is at this point in our program.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

There will be exposure to people in a retail store.
((NATS))

Very strange dog.
Ike, let’s go.
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
The ‘Walk and Talk’ covers my interaction with the dog.
((NATS))
((Jennifer Bartolotta

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
I would work on seeing if you can get him to be a little more fluid rather than making that hesitation and stopping.
Guiding Eyes graduates about 150 guide dogs teams every year. And we have about 450 puppies on puppy program, working toward becoming guide dog.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
We’re all here for you, sweetie.
((Jennifer Bartolotta
Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
With body handling, the guide dogs are always going to be touched a lot. As, you know, the graduates are working with them, and wanting to get a hold of them, and get their harness on and things like that. So, we want the dogs to be very comfortable with VET exams and any kind of body handling.
((NATS))
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))

Nice job!

((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))

We practice it probably, for me, at least not maybe daily but definitely weekly, that sort of procedure. But then daily, we’re definitely snuggling with him and doing other things.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

You’re so nice and gentle with him.

What’s so good about this is, of course, Paul and I don’t have younger children at home. So, Ike is able to have exposure to smaller humans. And the point of having him greet smaller children is, so that he can learn to behave and become accustomed to humans of all ages and sizes.

((NATS))
((Jennifer Bartolotta
Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
I think Ike is ready to go and continue on his journey to become a guide dog. And he will go back to New York now and he will have his ‘In for Training’ Test [further testing of temperament and ability].
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Is it raining out there? Did you check up in the room and make sure we had everything?
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))

I think we have everything.
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

Okay.
Going to college is what I refer to that time when he's going to leave me a puppy raiser, not a professional trainer at all.
So today, we are driving a van up to Guiding Eyes. My husband is cleared to drive the van, so we’re driving a big van up I-95 [Interstate 95] that says Guiding Eyes for the Blind on the side. What we’ll be doing is dropping Ike and another puppy off at the training center.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

You ready to get busy one more time?
Today’s his last day, so we’ll be saying goodbye to him when we drop him off at Guiding Eyes.
That’s a good boy.
It is a very, very emotional experience, and you know that this animal you've spent so much time with is going to do something really great for another person. So yeah, sorry about that. Get emotional.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

This is always an exciting day when we load up the van and watch the dogs go up. Of course we’re happy that we get to go up with Ike, and be with him on his journey, and then turn him over when we get to Guiding Eyes.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Paul Wydra
Deborah’s Husband & Dog Raiser))
It’s kind of a game of tetris, putting all of our stuff in and making sure the puppies are situated. All the activity keeps us from thinking about the fact that we’re, this is our last day with Ike. ((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra

Teacher & Dog Raiser, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))

This is Ike’s little montage.
Oh, my gosh! That looks so cute. That’s beautiful. What do you think Katie? Is he going to do it?
((Katie

Regional Instructor, Guiding Eyes for the Blind))
Yeah, I think so. I think he is.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Deborah Wydra and Paul Wydra))

Ready? I’m ready. Let’s go. It’s an adventure.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Text on screen))
Ike passed phase 1 (of 3) of his ‘In for Training' Test to become a Guide Dog.
He is now in phase 2: Harness Training.
((NATS/MUSIC))