<\/p>\n
I got my foster puppy, Gordy, in August 2018.<\/p>\n
Ofer David:<\/p>\n
Half a year before fostering, I visited one of the labs in the Technion and saw someone with a Labrador puppy wearing a blue vest with the inscription “Seeing Eyes for the Blind”. Naturally, I was intrigued, and approached her to hear details about the organization and the puppy training process. I was happy to find out that the organization was looking for students and people with an active lifestyle, and that the fact that I have never had a dog before (although I always wanted one) is not a problem at all, since the entire process is accompanied by the organization’s team.<\/p>\n
At the end of the meeting, I immediately contacted the organization and entered the waiting list for guide puppies.<\/p>\n
When the puppies were born, the trainer came to my apartment for an orientation conversation that included a full explanation of the process, instructions for the first weeks (what to expect from a puppy’s behavior, and how to react to different situations), and identifying potential risks for the puppy in the apartment.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, the trainer returned with a puppy that looked like a cloud of yellow fur and equipment to start the journey – food, bowls, a leash, a comb, a cage, toys and anti-flea treatment.<\/p>\n
All puppies’ names from the same litter start with a certain letter, and as a fosterer I was honored to choose an appropriate name, which will accompany the puppy for its entire life as a guide dog.<\/p>\n
This time the letter was G, and the puppy I got was the chubbiest in the lot, so I named him “Gordy”.<\/p>\n
This is how the foster care period began – an exciting and joyful period, sometimes challenging as well, which undoubtedly changed my life.<\/p>\n
At the beginning, the puppy is taught to do his or her business outside, to walk correctly with a leash and to behave a certain way at home. Next come the more complex commands – sit, stay put, walk forward on the left side (as he or she will do when they are on duty), and stop before crossing the road.<\/p>\n
The training instructions, as well as all the basic equipment and related costs, are regularly provided by the organization. The other foster families within the organization are always happy to help with any question or problem.<\/p>\n
One of the most important things in the process is to expose the puppy to as many stimuli and daily events as possible, and therefore Gordy accompanied me, by car and public transportation, almost everywhere – to work and classes, exams, shopping, fun days at the pool, walks in the snow and streams, to the movies (not an easy challenge when there’s a lot of popcorn scattered all over the floor \ud83d\ude09) to pubs, hotels… and basically, anywhere.<\/p>\n
From a legal point of view, the foster puppy can be brought anywhere, as a guide dog, if he or she wears the vest and as long as the foster certificate issued by the organization is at hand.<\/p>\n
After about a year and a half, it was time to say goodbye. Gordy moved to the organization’s facility to go through the advanced training process, where the dogs learn to deal with obstacles and daily challenges for guide dogs, such as height obstacles, going down the road, walking correctly with a harness, etc.<\/p>\n
Naturally, saying goodbye wasn’t easy, because Gordy was close to me for a long time and became an inseparable part of me, but it is a tremendous satisfaction to know that he is going to completely change the life of a visually impaired person and allow him or her a whole world of opportunities.<\/p>\n
I was happy to receive updates from the training process and to hear that Gordy successfully passed all the tests.<\/p>\n
When he completed training and was about to officially become a guide dog, I visited Gordy and he led me on a harness through an obstacle course while I was blindfolded.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t imagine a more exciting state of coming full circle, where the puppy you’ve raised and trained now leads you and knows he’s practically your eyes.<\/p>\n
Today Gordy serves as an active guide dog and lives with his new family in the center of Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1534,"template":"","class_list":["post-1538","storie","type-storie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story-type-foster-family-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/storie\/1538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/storie"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/storie"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seeingeyes.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}