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Guide Dogs-in-Training Lead the Pack at NMSU's 'Fido Lab'

Michael Hernandez

http://youtu.be/-hUpHdHsKOM

New Mexico State University has gone to the dogs.

Fortunately, that’s positive news for students in the school’s Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, or ACES College.

In the Facility for Investigating Dog/Owner Learning and Behavior, or Fido Lab, students can teach puppies up to 15 months old basic obedience and socialization skills. 

Once trained, the canines head to Guide Dogs for the Blind, a nonprofit guide dog school in California for formal training.

It’s Aliza Voit’s first time training dogs professionally. The animal science senior is raising Shuttle, a one-year-old black Labrador Retriever. Voit teaches Shuttle basic obedience skills and commands like sit, stand and heel–calls a blind person would use daily.

“But our most important role as a puppy raiser is to socialize the puppies and take them to basically every situation that a blind person could probably come in contact with," Voit said. "So, I take Shuttle with me everywhere. He goes with me to church, he goes with me to the mall, often. Goes with me to all my classes and he goes with me to the restroom. He goes with me everywhere. He’s basically my little partner-in-crime.”

There’s a handful of little partners in the Fido Lab. Shuttle, along with his four-legged friends Cici and Rhapsody, learn more than to come or lay down.

They’re taught proper positioning, impulse control and to only eat food fed to them­–never off the ground.

Dr. Gaylene Fasenko runs the Companion Animal program. While any dog can be a companion animal, Fasenko said Guide Dogs for the Blind breeds Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers or a mix of both.

But the larger the dog, Fasenko said, the bigger the responsibility.

“It’s like having a baby or a toddler as the dog grows. It is a huge commitment. It is not just about getting a puppy and loving on it and taking it home and playing with it," Fasenko said. "We follow training protocols from Guide Dogs for the Blind. They use positive reinforcement. We don’t use any positive punishment-style training and the reason is that we want these dogs to form a good bond with us."

Those bonds are formed early, like the one between Junior Shinaye Smith and Kondo, a 15-week-old yellow Lab. A first-time trainer herself, Smith said she’s learning how big of a responsibility it is raising a puppy.

“She’s not old enough to have paws on the ground yet so we have to carry her to every single place we go to until she has all of her shots and she’s old enough which is 16 weeks," Smith said. "Then she can start putting on a vest and going out in public with us and she can start the more intense training of like being out with other people and in different environments."

Because a blind person will be exposed to a variety of situations, Voit said guide dogs need to be ready for anything. To adjust to outside stimuli, the pooches take walks around campus, go into restaurants and even mingle with the sheep next door.

“The dog has to be accustomed to the different sounds of traffic, the different sights and smells, the people. And we don’t know if they’re going to go to a big city or to an urban area where there’s going to be farms and stuff like that," Voit said. "So, it’s definitely something that we have to try to expose them to as much as possible as we can now in a positive way so that way when they’re with their blind handler, they’re not scared, they’re not fearful, they’re confident and most importantly they’re focused on their job.”

Fasenko said part of that job includes the ability to make their own choices. As Smith explained, that’s because they’ll be applying what’s called intelligent disobedience.

“You have to teach them everything from learning to disobey an owner when they want them to do a task for them that’s not going to be safe for the handler. So, they have to learn intelligent disobedience. So, if you want to cross the street but there’s a car coming, the dog has to know that it’s not safe to make the owner go across the street," Smith said.

Both Voit and Smith say one of the most challenging parts of being a trainer is to not become too attached to their dogs.

But they know it’s for a worthy cause–one that benefits not only the person who receives the dog, Fasenko said, but also who raises it.

“Guide Dogs for the Blind has the motto ‘Raise a puppy. Change a life.’ And when we first got into this, we thought that that really meant if you raise the puppy you’re going to change a disabled blind person’s life," Fasenko said. "We didn’t realize it was going to change our lives.”

Find out more about the FIDO Lab and many other programs offered by NMSU’s ACES College at its open house. That’s taking place Saturday, April6 from 10 to 2.

Michael Hernandez was a multimedia reporter for KRWG Public Media from late 2017 through early 2020. He continues to appear on KRWG-TV from time to time on our popular "EnviroMinute" segments, which feature conservation and citizen science issues in the region.