Guidelines
- Student eyes up guide dogs
- Matching dogs at a distance
- Perfect matching
- Puppies get airborne
- Crooky's a star!
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Welcome to this latest issue of Guidelines.
I'd like to thank the 3000 volunteers who collected for us during our annual Guide Dog Appeal. Thanks to your time and effort, the appeal was a huge success, with more than $750,000 donated.
This breaks down to:
Street collection - $333,646
Retail collection - $63,133
Direct mail - $203,628
Household drops - $157,310
We are pleased with the District Court decision regarding the case of Gillian Walker and guide dog Fletcher, where it was ruled that the pair was not at fault in a pedestrian crossing accident.
This case was widely publicised and the decision affirms that guide dogs are professionally bred and trained to provide a reliable service and that their expertise can be trusted.
I trust you enjoy reading this edition and thank you once again for all your support.
Student eyes up guide dogs
Optometry student Rini Corbett has found that short sightedness runs in some dogs' genes. As a result, Rini has developed a model for predicting the likelihood of the eye condition myopia in canine families.
This means Guide Dog Services (GDS) may soon be able to predict dogs that have the potential to pass on short-sightedness and therefore remove them from the breeding programme.
Nearly 20 per cent of guide dogs in training have been found to have some form of short-sightedness, although less than half of these dogs had significant short-sightedness.
Each year about 25% - 30% of dogs in training are withdrawn from training due to health and temperament issues.
"Potential screening for significantly short-sighted dogs prior to commencing training will help reduce the withdrawal rate," says Rini.
During eye testing, dogs sit for tests with a retinoscopy instrument, then have the canine equivalent of reading an eye chart - preferential looking - which tests dogs for their reaction to pictures of familiar objects such as bones and fire hydrants.
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Matching dogs at a distance
Forty dogs have recently been matched as guide dogs or graduated as breeding stock dogs, thanks to cooperation between international guide dog schools.
The dogs have been puppy walked and assessed, trained and matched by staff from guide dog schools in Hawaii, Taiwan, South Australia, Tasmania, Seeing Eye Dogs Australia and RNZFB GDS.
Staff from these schools have just spent two weeks carefully pairing 38 dogs with blind applicants. Some of the dogs flew back to New Zealand for matching, while others were viewed by digital video, as were all applicants.
Each guide dog and applicant was matched on factors such as personality characteristics, lifestyle, home and work environment, motivation, height/ body weight ratio and the pace of the dog.
Guide Dog Services general manager, Ian Cox, says working in with overseas schools has many advantages for blind applicants living in New Zealand and in other countries.
"As we do not receive any government funding, we do not have the staff available to be able to train the extra dogs required to meet the growth in waiting lists here in New Zealand. This new system means more dogs are available to be matched against each applicant. And, for smaller organisations like the Royal Guide Dogs Association of Tasmania that may have just four to six applicants a year, contributing to this process means they plug into a huge pool of dogs for their applicants."
In addition, two dogs were also selected to graduate as breeding stock for the NZ based Douglas Pharmaceuticals guide dog breeding improvement programme. Just 3 per cent of dogs make it as breeding stock due to the stringent health and temperament tests they must pass, while around 70 per cent of all puppies bred and purchased go on to qualify as guide dogs.
The next matching meeting will be held from 7-18 October.
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Perfect matching
Blind owners and their guide dogs have been the focus of a study by Massey University student Janice Lloyd.
The results of the study, to be published next year, will be used to continue to improve GDS's matching success.
Janice is grateful to those who took part in the survey, and others who offered to participate but were not interviewed due to the constraints of the Ph.D. process.
"I only wish I could have spoken to everyone. I hope to continue guide dog research and would be keen to speak then with those who missed this study," Janice says.
Her preliminary findings are that:
- Most people's expectations about their guide dog use were met or exceeded.
- Participants had more positive perceptions of their travel skills when using guide dogs, and the dogs enhanced the users' overall quality of life.
- Dogs deemed "unsuccessful" were returned by their users primarily for being unsuitable "mobility aids", followed by inappropriate social behaviour. However, most partnerships were successful and ceased due to dogs retiring of old age.
Funding for the study came from Douglas Pharmaceuticals, the Palmerston North Medical Research Foundation and Massey University.
Puppies get airborne
In a training first, 30 lively guide dog puppies took to the skies above Auckland recently.
After an energetic free run at Guide Dog Services the dogs, ranging from 6 to 15 months of age, caught a bus to Auckland Airport. They checked in and boarded a Saab 33 seater aircraft that had been especially chartered for the event.
The pups were accompanied by their puppy walkers, two cabin crew members and three GDS staff.
Sitting at the feet of their handlers, the puppies spent half an hour in the air over Auckland.
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The idea for the unusual training exercise came from Puppy Development Manager Paula Gemmell.
"A lot of Auckland-based pups never get to go on a plane. This flight has given us a chance to identify the puppies that are good flyers, for future matches," she says.
Puppy walker Ali Glover, an Air New Zealand logistics controller, approached the airline with the novel idea and received a good response.
Ali knows the benefits of frequent flying for the puppies as her husband Robert frequently takes their guide dog puppies on business flights.
"Our dogs are really settled on flights as they're so used to it," she says.
The Air New Zealand subsidised scenic flight was also a chance to thank puppy walkers for their voluntary efforts in caring for and socialising the puppies.
Crooky's a star!
Liz McKenzie is still getting used to walking a celebrity puppy.
Ever since 12-week old Crooky appeared on television's Shortland Street during June and July, life hasn't been the same for the Auckland family.
Walking the cute golden retriever, Liz is stopped in the street by admirers who make comments like, "Oh, she looks just like the puppy off Shortland Street!"
Crooky, who played Guide Dog puppy Dottie in the script, was adopted by Waverley (Claire Chitham) and Adam (Leighton Cardno). Liz says Crooky responded well during shooting.
"We used all sorts of things to entice her to do what she was supposed to do. There was lots of hiding behind sofas and treats for her - it was fun."
Shortland Street's publicity manager Rachel Lorimer says the show likes to support worthwhile charities, and felt that having a puppy would make a good storyline while promoting puppy walking for Guide Dog Services.