Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Southeastern Guide Dogs is in Sarasota too!

Typically this column talks about the goings on at Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Palmetto Campus. But this week, we wanted to turn the focus south to our Sarasota location.

September 2010 saw the expansion of Southeastern Guide Dogs into a new area: Sarasota.  Southeastern took over the building formerly inhabited by Scoop Management, where, unfortunately a number of locals were the victims of Art Nadal’s nefarious business practices.  And really, what better way to change the karma in a building than making it the home base of a non-profit? Southeastern Guide Dogs Sarasota Training Center and Dog Boutique now serves as a place where the general public can come and learn about guide dogs and the amazing work they do.  A new program is launching April 10th that will allow participants to “Shadow a Guide Dog Trainer.”  This fun, informative weekly workshop will explain the methods used to train guide dogs and …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Breed All About It

With Westminster Kennel Club crowning a new king, we thought it time to tackle a question we are often asked: "Why don’t you get dogs from shelters to use as guide dogs?"

This week saw a cute little Affenpinscher named Banana Joe take the title as top dog at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.  It also saw Natalie Morales of NBC’s Today Show air a new PSA encouraging people to adopt a dog.  There are people who are passionate about breeding dogs and others who are even more passionate about rescuing dogs from shelters.  A question we are asked quite often is why do we breed dogs instead of getting them from shelters, so here’s why. We have been breeding dogs for the past 30 years and have developed a method to get the traits that make for successful guide dogs. These traits include excellent health, trainability, hardiness, and intelligence. That’s not to say you couldn’t find dogs with those traits in a …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Make A Difference This Valentine’s Day

Looking for a unique gift for Valentine’s Day? How about independence and freedom?

It is estimated that Americans will spend approximately $18 billion, that’s BILLION, with a B, on Valentine’s Day this year.  While I admit, it is really nice to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates, and enjoy a nice night out, I'd like to see just what could be done if that $18 billion were used a different way.  With $18 billion, Southeastern Guide Dogs could breed, raise, train, place and provide follow-up care for 300,000 guide dog teams.  Or we could feed almost 50,000,000 dogs-in-training for a year. Or 5,100,000+ people could have puppies-in-training named after them.  Or we could purchase more than 60,000,000 guide dog harnesses and leashes.  Wow! To bring those numbers down to more feasible terms, the average …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Graduate Profile: Jerry Wixson and Guide Dog Harley

This week another group of students graduated with their guide dogs. Here is just one of their stories.

Bradenton resident Jerry Wixson has done much in his life.  A veteran, who was part of the critical skills program, he also helped to build the interstate system in the U.s.. He is a husband of 55 years to his high school sweetheart, and a father of three daughters. Jerry has always had a positive outlook. When facing vision loss in 2000 due to retinitis pigmentosa, he quickly went through the stages of denial, anger, and acceptance to get right to doing something about it.  After completing orientation and mobility training at the Lighthouse, he next had his sights set on getting a guide dog. Now, all these years later, Jerry came back to Southeastern Guide Dogs for his second guide and was paired with a loveable black goldador (or as …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Gearing up for a Trifecta of Walkathons

Southeastern Guide Dogs’ biggest fundraiser of the year is now bigger than ever!

Every year Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon draws supporters from all over the country.  Some are volunteers, some graduates, some sponsors and others just want to get out and walk with their best friend.  With its growing popularity this year’s Walkathon is actually happening over three weekends! February 23 sees the kick-off of the trifecta of Walkathons in Bradenton at the newly renovated Rossi Park.  Walkathon is going back to its roots and kicking off with the Bradenton contingent along the Manatee Riverfront. Next, Walkathon moves to Sarasota for its first walk at Payne Park on March 2.  Our friends from the south can enjoy all Walkathon has to offer while not having to venture too far from home. Finally, the Walkathon season …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Massage, It’s Not Just for Humans Anymore

Most everyone enjoys a massage, and now your four-legged friend can too!

Imagine entering a dimly-lit room, welcomed by relaxing music, and a faint aromatic breeze.  Before you is a padded table and a friendly massage therapist, but she’s not there for you, it’s time for your dog’s massage! Now, before you think “a massage for a dog? You must be nuts!” think about this.  Canine massage has many of the same benefits as human massage; reduced stress; better circulation; stimulation of healing; detection of injuries; and improved range of motion, just to name a few. During canine massage, the therapist will first begin with slow, gliding strokes that will encourage relaxation. This also allows the therapist to evaluate the dog and determine if there are any problem areas that need attention. From there they will …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

Just exactly how do the trainers match up the students with their guide dogs? Here’s a glimpse at the process.

If you followed along on our series of articles about the training our students go through when they come on campus to get their guide dogs, then you know a bit about the process of matching up someone with their perfect guide. Well, it is actually quite a bit more involved than we were able to cover there, so we wanted to delve a bit deeper into the science and art of the perfect match. The match process starts long before the students arrive on campus. As the trainers take their dogs through the training process, they are keeping track of all the dog’s idiosyncrasies, each little thing to which they react, how fast they tend to walk, the ease or difficulty of correcting them and myriad other little nuances that will aid in finding the …

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Graduate Profile: John Esak & Dixie

Just before Christmas, we saw our 215th class of students graduate with their new guide dogs. Here is just one of their stories, as told by Leslie Rowe.

John Esak’s early vision struggles never stopped him from leading a renaissance life. A former long-haired hippie who once cashed in Coke cans to buy his ticket to Woodstock, he earned a master’s degree in music composition and enjoyed an inventive career as a recording engineer and recording equipment designer. John lost his left eye at age 10. So when a glaucoma operation failed on his good eye about ten years ago, the resulting vision loss was devastating. But John pressed on, teaching himself to use a cane and inventing his own methods of navigation. For years he hesitated about getting a guide dog, fearing that the dog would be more of an impediment than a help. But after just a few weeks with an unbelievably smart black Lab named …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Come To Our Holiday Open House

Kick off December by bringing the family to hang out with guide dogs this weekend!

Southeastern Guide Dogs opens its campus five days a week for puppy huggers and dog walkers, but Saturday is a great opportunity to learn all about Southeastern and our superb dogs because it is Open House! You may be asking how is Open House different from any other time you can come to the Palmetto campus. Well, there are a number of activities going on Dec. 8 that don’t normally occur.  Volunteers will be leading guided tours, filling guests in on the history and inner workings of Southeastern.  While readers of this column have gotten an inside look at what Southeastern does, the tour will give you a chance to put it all together and see the training grounds and kennels for yourself. You’ll also get the chance to interact with the …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Running Blind, Again

For the third year in a row, Southeastern Guide Dogs is fielding a team to run in the Women’s Half Marathon in St. Petersburg.

After months of preparation, our Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Ladies team is ready for the Women’s Half Marathon in St. Petersburg on Sunday. For the third year staff members, volunteer puppy raisers and supporters will be led by one of our graduates for the 13.1 mile race. Back in 2010, Lt. Col. (Ret) Kathy Champion came up with the idea of running in the race to raise awareness of our programs. She’s very persuasive and we fielded nearly 20 people in that first race. This year we have 11 ladies signed up to run with us. Champion — who is blind — will be running the race tethered to another runner who will give her direction and keep her safe, much like her guide dog, Angel, does on a daily basis.  While serving in Iraq Champion, a decorated …

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