CUTE! Puppy Guide Dog Training | Earth Unplugged
I’m so happy hi I’m Maddie
and today we’re at the national guide
dog Center for the blind to see what it
takes for a puppy to become a working
guide dog and I’m not gonna lie I’m
pretty excited because we’re starting at
puppy reception this might be one of the
best days filming I’ve ever had
guide dogs for the blind train over 600
dogs a year to help blind and partially
sighted people all over the UK but what
does it take to get a puppy from their
first day of training to the last I’m
going to find out first stop the puppies
this is Matthew and he’s head of the
breeding program here at guide dogs and
I’ve also got Kelly with us in the room
as well and we’re about to do something
called pee-pee hey Matthew what is PPA
PPA is stands for puppy profiling
assessment and this involves carrying
out a series of about eight tests so
each of these tests in the PPA there’s a
scoring system and that’s scored from
one to seven what does this mean so if
you think of one as being the more
sensitive type of pup and 7b than the
other extreme where they’re very very
outgoing robust four is an ideal for
guide dog works so what’s the first one
the first one is what we call a follow
so would you like me to them go ahead
yeah
I’ve said a there you can help me
perhaps the idea is to walk ahead and
call the puppy
so what’s the purpose of this retreat
test we’re looking at how interested how
distracted if you like the puppeteers by
the toy but more importantly how
responsive the puppy is then when we
call the puppy back so we’re looking for
the returners wagging at the response
the return yeah okay so yeah pretty good
huh we want puppies that will
is he here that always I need to be
aware of their environment but quickly
and accept it as part of the environment
I think the next test might be one of my
favorites because it’s the stroking deck
is this and that’s fine because that
will happen sometimes where they get and
heartbreak it’s not quite as fondly as
you thought yeah
very good
so puppy though definitely saw the
squirrel but wasn’t aggressive character
that we looking for really two more
tests for you and never done a blind or
partially sighted person with their dog
will want to go through Subway’s it
takes a lot of confidence to enter a
tunnel little jump of yet so we rattled
through these PPA tests but what would
you score our puppy today I think she
did really really well yeah overall
dungeon magic should be coming out as a
nice fall so a low extrovert well we’ve
met one of the puppies on her first day
of training but now we’re going to go
meet a dog who is in the final stages
and see what the difference is puppies
that do well will begin their guide dog
training to see how far the puppy we met
that morning will eventually come I went
to meet Tony and Brogan who wanted to
take me through a very special obstacle
course is this obstacle course typical
of a sort of thing one of the dogs will
go through when they’re training it is
indeed yeah yeah all the dogs will go
through an obstacle course like this to
teach them about and what they need to
do for diving purposes so can we have a
go we certainly can I think you need one
of these they thank you
ultimate experience okay so Tony what am
I supposed to do
okay so you’re going to reach down with
your left hand starting off we need to
move your right foot back very slightly
and then you’re going to swing your
right arm and say forward and then let
him take
okay forward this teaches the dog to
give adequate clips for the handler that
is walking on their right hand side and
so they need to give two or three feet
of clearance which the dogs don’t
naturally do so I can feel on those
turns there and the left toes that we
have to speed up a little bit that’s
right and then as it comes to the right
you slow down it’s funny I’ve only had
the blindfold on for like a matter of
seconds but I already feel like my other
senses are heightened slightly but I
feel very clumsy in my own feet
I feel like Brogan knows exactly what
he’s doing but I feel like it’s me that
needs to practice what you’re feeling is
quite normal right and that’s what we’ve
got to build up the confidence of the
person to trust the dog to do the work
right having completed just over two
years of training Brogan is now ready to
become a working guide dog and will soon
be paired with his owner so who do you
think would make a good pairing for
Brogan what sort of set up person um I
think it’s going to be somebody who’s
probably reasonably big and able to go
to reasonable speed he’s quite a big dog
in again yeah quite quick Thank You
toady and obviously thank you to Brogan
and to everyone at Guide Dogs for the
Blind I hope you’ve enjoyed that as much
as I did if you do want to see any more
videos about dogs then check out what
the guys got up to with bloodhounds at
the lair Conservancy in Kenya when they
were working with an anti poaching unit
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