Community Corner

Leader Dogs Help Guide Visually Impaired Clients

John Snodgrass of Rochester Hills gets by with the help of his Leader Dog, Festus.

This is the third entry in a five-part series profiling the different faces involved with Leader Dogs for the Blind. 

Dogs are well-known for being great companion animals, but for John Snodgrass of Rochester Hills, his dog is his lifeline. 

Snodgrass, who became legally blind after his degenerative eye disease worsened as a young adult, relies on his Leader Dog, an eight-year-old Golden Labrador named Festus, to safely find his way around town. 

Festus is the second guide dog for Snodgrass, who came to the Leader Dogs for the Blind program in Rochester Hills in 1998, where he obtained his first dog, a black lab named Louie. He has had Festus since 2008.

Snodgrass says it can take about two years to get fully comfortable with trusting a dog's eyes and intuition.

"The most important part of the program is to get totally bonded with the dog," Snodgrass said. "And you develop that trust. It takes a while to get adjusted, it's not something that happens right away."

Before clients like Snodgrass are paired with a dog, they go through rigorous orientation and mobility training and learn to walk and navigate with a cane to help listen for traffic and detect curbs and other obstacles. 

When clients get paired with dogs, the extensive training—and the dog—are provided free of charge by the organization after clients complete a physical and are accepted into the program. Because Snodgrass lives near the Rochester Hills Leader Dogs campus, his dog also receives free veterinary care from the campus' on-site vets.

Having the training and dog has allowed Snodgrass to live independently. He has worked as a massage therapist for A Healthy Need for more than 10 years and gets a ride to and from work with help from Rochester's Older Persons Commission.

"Overall it's a great program," he said. "Anyone who is thinking about a guide dog and has limited vision or eyesight or is legally blind should get a dog, but they have to consider all the options, the variables of owning a dog, but it's a great thing to have. I'm thankful for (Leader Dogs)." 

Having a dog in public presents its own challenges, though, when others want to try to pet the dog, which he says can distract the dog from his work.

"That is a challenge," he admitted. "Sometimes people, if they know about the Leader Dogs, they'll see the dog and respect not to pet him. I also have a sign on the harness that says, 'Do not pet me, I'm working.'"

At home with the dog, Snodgrass maintains a routine to keep the dog active and in good health.

"We try to get out each day to exercise and I walk around where I live," he said. "He's on a regimented food plan daily so he only gets a certain amount of food every day to stay healthy. He gets groomed every day by me, I brush him, and he has a bathroom schedule every day."

Still, even a working dog deserves some downtime and Snodgrass says Festus is family when he and the dog are at home.

"He likes to play," he said. "He gets his downtime." 

Check back tomorrow to meet another face involved with Leader Dogs for the Blind.


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