Training Leader Dogs, Clients is Time-Intensive Process

This article was reported and written by John McKay.

When shoppers or diners stroll along the sidewalks in downtown Rochester, it's not uncommon to encounter a Leader Dog at work, a testament to the rigorous training cycle the dogs undergo before they are paired with a visually impaired client.

Debbie Komondy, a guide dog mobility instructor at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills who has trained more than 300 dogs over 25 years with the organization, said preparing dogs and clients can be a time-intensive process.

"I enjoy working with the dogs," Komondy said. "Sometimes it cab be a little frustrating, but for the most part it's a lot of fun. It's not as easy as it looks."

The training process is split between working with 6-8 dogs for 16 weeks, than working with clients for another 26 days.

Leader Dogs for the Blind primarily uses Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds, which are bred in-house.

"We find that's much more successful than using dogs from shelters," she said. She said the organization has explored using rescue dogs in the past, but with a low rate of success. 

Soundness and focus are keys to a dog's success in the Leader Dog program, Komondy said. Puppies are taught at an early age to stand on a "wobble board," which makes noise and causes uneven footing, so the dogs get accustomed to sudden environmental changes. 

"It's important that they have soundness, that they're not afraid of anything," she said. "We don't want to instill fear into them. Dogs that are fearful will refuse to do things quite often." 

Training the dogs, she says, requires plenty of positive reinforcement and the occasional food reward.

Keeping a dog focused from other environmental distractions, such as other dogs or those wanting to pet the Leader Dog, is crucial for the client's safety, she said. 

Finding a match with client, dog is critical

When dogs are paired with the clients, Komondy said, it is important to find a good match for each client.

"Every person is an individual, and the dogs are the same," she said. "It's a matter of matching the person and the dog with their pace and lifestyle, more or less. Some dogs would rather lay around and walk to the store, some would be happy walking back and forth to work, so we match the dog and person so that they are both on the same page when they are working together."

Before clients use a dog, however, they participate in mobility and orientation training, which teaches clients to move about in the world, listen for traffic, learn to cross the street, walk in a straight line and be aware of traffic signals and stop signs. 

Once the clients begin working with the guide dog instructors, they participate in "Juno training," where instructors pull a Leader Dog harness, much as a dog would, and teach clients the commands they will later use with the dog.

"That gives me an idea of how they learn and what I need to teach them," Komondy said. 

Clients taught to care for dogs

When clients are paired with dogs and trained, Komondy said she teaches clients how to care for dogs at home.

"A lot of people have other dogs or cats and we teach them to introduce each other and to not get too rough when they play together," she said. "One of the major things we make our clients aware of is the perfect weight of the dog, not by the number on the scale, but by feeling the dog and the way the harness fits."

Clients also are taught to seek their own veterinarians (clients living near the Rochester Hills campus can receive free veterinary care on-site) and when to schedule vet visits. 

For dogs who don't make it through the program, whether because of medical or training issues, Komondy said they undergo what the organization calls a "career change." They are offered back to the puppy-raiser, or to fill other service needs—such as arson dogs or police dogs—or are put up for adoption with strict adoption guidelines.