January 29th is Seeing Eye Dog Day! Can we all take a moment recognize how amazing these pooches are? We wanted to highlight 5 fun facts that you might not know about Seeing Eye Dogs in honour of these incredible pups.
Critical thinkers.
Seeing Eye Dogs are trained to become critical thinkers and disobey a command by their handler in a situation that could be harmful. A situation such as this could be a dog refusing to move at a crosswalk due to a car running a red light. The term used in these types of situations is “intelligently disobedience”.
These pups retire too!
Retirement is a much-deserved reward at the end of a fulfilling career. They usually let their fur down and retire around the age of 10.
There are popular breeds that are used.
4 breeds are commonly used as Seeing Eye Dogs: German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and Poodles. The breeds’ personality and demeanor are taken into consideration when pairing these dogs with their people. More active individuals are partnered with more active dogs. Other factors like hobbies, lifestyle, living arrangements and other pets in a home are taken into consideration when pairing as well.
They should not be pet while working.
I know, it’s hard to resist petting dogs sometimes, especially ones that seem so sweet. However, these dogs are working while in their handler’s care. They are “on the job” and need to remain focused without distractions.
They create independence.
Seeing Eye Dogs help their partners feel confident, secure, and independent. Having support at their side can help an individual be more comfortable in their surroundings and able to handle situations with their furry companion around.