Future Leader Dogs get their start in this area
Linda Ogburn of Washington sits in Chicco Baccello, a cafe on South Main Street in Washington, with Skipper, a 5-month-old golden retreiver in training to be a Leader Dog for the Blind.
Brendan Warner leaves school a few minutes early with Riley, a future Leader Dog.
Brendan Warner leaves school a few minutes early with Riley, a future Leader Dog.
Riley, a future Leader Dog, sits at the door waiting for classes to change at Fort Cherry High School.
Candice Durga, an eighth-grade student at Fort Cherry High School, offers Riley, a Leader Dog in training, a treat before class.
Riley, a future Leader Dog, gets plenty of attention in Patricia Briggs’ class from students at Fort Cherry High School. From left are Alex Rumbaugh, Nicholas Ruperto, Cheyanne Schaub, Candice Druga and Thomas Hamilton.
Patricia Briggs, a teacher at Fort Cherry High School, gets lots of licks from Riley, a future Leader Dog, during a break in classes at the school.
Linda Ogburn was born the same year that Leader Dogs for the Blind was founded in 1939. So perhaps it’s serendipitous that she later discovered the program through the Hickory Lions Club and signed up to train a dog – followed by 17 more over the years.
Ogburn, of Washington, is just one volunteer in Washington County who provides a “foster” home to puppies until they are old enough to attend a formal school in Rochester, Mich. There, the dogs receive training that is personalized for each client, and some receive special training for clients who are both blind and deaf.
Ogburn has cared for 16 German shepherds and one Labrador retriever, and she now has a 5-month-old golden retriever named Skipper who is surprisingly mellow for a puppy.
“He’s very laid back,” Ogburn said. “His enthusiasm in the early morning is a turn-off to our cat, but later in the day they are nose to nose. He bathes the cat.”
Those who volunteer are tasked with teaching basic obedience and socializing the dog to prepare it for various situations. Ogburn has taken her dogs to crowded sporting events, high school band performances, grocery stores and restaurants. Showing the dog how to navigate traffic and public transportation is important, too.
Good behavior is rewarded with praise and treats through positive reinforcement. Ogburn said she has never had a disobedient dog, and she has loved them all equally, which makes it hard to give them up after a year so they can continue training.
Fort Cherry School District has participated in puppy raising for several years. Patricia Briggs, a seventh-grade science teacher, helped bring the program to the school after learning about its success at Washington Park Elementary School.
The Leader Dogs program has provided guide dogs to more than 14,500 clients in 39 countries since its inception. Once the dogs “retire” from service when they are older, they can again be adopted as pets, which Briggs has done with two of the dogs she raised as puppies.
Briggs’ current puppy, a lab and golden retriever mix, stays in her classroom during the day. After school, it heads home with student Brendan Warner.
Warner, a sophomore, is getting a jump on his senior project by caring for the puppy that he named Riley. He wanted to take on the project because he loves dogs and already has two Labs at home. More than anything else, he has learned about responsibility.
“I have to wake up earlier than I usually would to take her to the bathroom and feed her and make sure she’s ready to go to school,” Warner said. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”
Briggs said a senior project requires 30 hours of work, plus a paper and presentation, so caring for a puppy for one year is an ambitious project.
She said Riley “loves every moment” of being around students all day, and it will be difficult for her to say goodbye to her furry friend.
“It’s extremely hard, but the good thing about it is if you get the opportunity to see them working with their blind person, or just any dog guiding a blind person, it makes it worth it,” Briggs said. “Then you know you’ve helped somebody else.”