It is a complicated process before a puppy becomes a guide dog. Labrador puppies live with our puppy raisers until they are one year old. Letting the puppy go can be a difficult process for our puppy raisers, so we offer help as follows.
The most frequently asked question by those interested in raising a puppy is how they will be able to let the dog go at the end of the training. This question is answered by Ádám Balogh, the psychologist at the Baráthegyi Guide Dog School and a participant in the training that helps release.
They bond for bonding
During the training of a guide dog, there are countless important moments, each of which is a single step to becoming a helpful companion. It is not possible to single out one step or create a priority among them, but it is a period, and its development possibilities, difficulties, and beauties are rarely explained at length.
Before the start of their training, the puppies of the foundation are sent to volunteer puppy raisers, so they receive the necessary care and education. Puppies in these raising families receive the basics, learn the skills to be able to move around properly, be disciplined in certain situations, and get to know the world around them at the side of their temporary owner. During socialization, they get used to the exciting people and tools in their environment. Essentially, they learn when what behavior is needed.
There is another important moment in this period. The puppies are attached to the puppy raisers, so their owner plays a big role in the formation of the bond. This bond will be the basis for being able to establish a relationship with their trainer, or even with their visually impaired owner.
What do they develop together?
In this process, the puppy raiser is also built and developed. Not only does he/she enter a professional training period, in which the professionals of the Baráthegyi Guide Dog School help with the educational work and accompany the pair throughout their cooperation, but he/she also learns countless new things about himself/herself during the sessions together with the puppy. As a kind of mirror, the dog will always show our feelings and reactions, so our self-knowledge, managing our emotions, and developing our communication will be part of the time we spend together.
Hand it over, but how?
With the end of puppy raising, the one-year-old dogs are transferred to the foundation’s training colleagues, and on the part of the raisers, this event has the most uncertainty and questions that arise. The bond that develops becomes significant, and breaking it involves a difficult emotional decision. However, the puppy raiser is not alone in this, here are some examples:
- During the entire raising and training, everyone strives for the dogs to learn that this is a big family where there are no emotional changes, only environmental changes. Thus, transferring to another person will mean many happy moments and a lot of excitement. Such is the case when puppies move from raising to the training phase.
- The relationship is not permanently severed, as it is not a loss, but a transfer. Dogs can stay in touch with anyone they have met in their lifetime. We do not close them off from the world they know.
- Letting go is part of our lives, as it can also mean positive changes. What we have developed, and what we have learned, remains with us, and puppy raisers can continue to develop even in the company of a new puppy.
- Bonding – which can be difficult for the raiser in case of separation – is the biggest advantage, because the dog learned to bond with the help of its raiser, so the process is unimaginable without it.
Puppy handover training
The handovers are always preceded by a joint preparation, where we review with a trainer, psychologist, and other specialists what feelings and thoughts have developed during the year and which ones make it difficult or perhaps easier to conclude the education. During the several suitable closed group discussions, the focus is not on the dogs, but on the puppy raisers. These must be real personal conversations, not online-based.
Participants of the puppy handover trainings:
- puppy raisers and their dogs
- a puppy-raising coordinator who provides professional support throughout the puppy-raising process
- the professional manager, a regular trainer, and a psychologist of our foundation
The training itself lasts for one day, excluding the public. We resolve practical, emotional, and spiritual issues related to the handover, as well as possible obstacles.
Such a close bond can develop in a year that it is difficult to give up, especially if the person concerned does not want to immediately raise another puppy or does not continue raising a puppy. A personal problem, a change of job or residence can make it difficult to say goodbye. Furthermore, the fact that raisers know what they have undertaken, but it is difficult to imagine what will happen, causes uncertainties to arise again, e.g. which owner will the dog go to, will he/she know about the dog afterward, can they meet, etc. (The answer is “yes” to all questions.)
Together, our team helps ensure that there is no internal conflict in the puppy raiser. For those who find it difficult to open up in groups, we provide the opportunity to consult with our specialists face to face, of which there are many examples. It happens that we initiate the continuation, other times it is the raiser. By this time, the relationship of trust has long been established and makes all this possible.
Just as appropriate preparation is important during education, it is also essential for handing over, because this is the only way to complete this period rich in shared experiences. This is how it becomes a real mission, with challenges, and beautiful and happy moments.
We are looking for puppy raisers from all over the country!
Those interested will take part in a training that will take place on July 6 in Budapest.
The active puppies spend a year with our volunteer puppy raisers, after which they are trained as guides, but the relationship is not broken.
Please make your final decision after reading the article about raising puppies: https://barathegyisegitokutya.hu/kolyokneveles
Then fill out the application form, which can also be found at the link above.
Thank you!
In the opening picture, our puppy raisers are practicing with our trainer.
