Oops. A Blind Person Might Have To Wait A Bit Longer For Their Guide Dog.

This past week I've been to see my Mothers. For the first time since the US was bombing Iran to end Iran's nuclear program. If you're having trouble narrowing that down now, it was June 2025.

In no small part due to Thames Water's relentless messing about I wasn't able to visit them over Christmas. Meaning that I was the only one of their pet Dog's most important people who wasn't able to attend. She died shortly afterwards, on New Year's Day.

Now my Mothers could have responded to this by getting used having a quieter house and just one fewer animal to look after. They could also have responded by getting a new pet Dog. However both of those options seemed far too simple for my Mothers. So instead they decided to volunteer to train a service Dog Puppy.

Having delayed my visit for a couple of weeks I finally got to meet this new Puppy. I have to say that it is a very different experience from simply getting a new pet. 

Almost every aspect of it makes clear that this is not my Mothers' Dog. Although we don't use terminology like that she is very much the property of the charity my Mothers are working with. For example my Mothers have to take her to the vet. However the vet will not consult with them about treatment decisions. Instead the vet will consult with the charity, who pay for the treatment. Likewise my Mothers don't get to choose what and when to feed this Puppy. Instead they simply serve the meals the charity has decided on at times the charity has decided on with food the charity provides. My Mothers certainly don't get to name her.

The charity also provides a training schedule for my Mothers to carry out. This pretty standard Puppy training; toilet training, walking on a lead, sitting and laying down on command etc. Except the commands my Mothers have to use are standardised. I think that most Dog owners end up developing their own little language with their Dog. However here my Mothers have to use the charity's language. The language that is used with all of their Puppies, the language which will be used when they move onto their specialised training.

That of course is the big difference with getting a new pet. When you get a new Puppy you expect to immediately become their entire world until they die of natural causes, after a long and happy life. With this Puppy my Mothers know that in 12-13 months they'll be giving her away to someone else who will carry out their specialised training, "Big School" as it's known.

If she becomes part of the only 50% who successfully graduate big school she will be placed with a Visually Impaired person who will become her entire world. However she might end up being placed with several people before the finding the one which is the right fit. If she fails big school she might be transferred to another person to train her to be a scent Dog. If she passes that school she'll be placed with an, typically a law enforcement, agency where she may have several handlers over her career. If she doesn't go to scent Dog training or fails that training then she will go into the merry-go-round of Dog adoptions.

With a lot of animals if you encounter them in the first few weeks of their lives they will imprint on you. It's probably going to far too say they'll confuse you with their Mother. However they will remember you and probably love you for their entire lives. The TV show "Modern Family" did a running joke about this when the Phil Dunphy finds some Duck eggs and tries to see if he can't get them to hatch. He becomes obsessed with being there the moment the eggs hatch, so the Ducklings will imprint on him.

This is actually something I've noticed with the Foxes. Up until the generation born in 2018 they would take their first steps out into the world, hours after their eyes had opened for the first time, in an area I would regularly frequent. Not knowing what they were, let alone what I was they had absolutely no problem tumbling over my feet as they were rocks or just some other inanimate part of the environment. Subsequent generations have taken their first steps into the world in an area that's more private, where they won't encounter me. The Fox Kits I've been able to capture on my Trail-Cam this year are about 8 times the size of Fox Kits when they first emerge into the world.

The Fox Kits who went tumbling over my feet imprinted on my and would remember me throughout their entire lives. The Foxes I met much later wouldn't imprint on me so would completely forget who I was during the dark, cold Winter where we didn't encounter each other so often. With my Mothers' Dog being intended as a pet I made the effort to meet her when she was young enough to imprint on me. No matter how long it was between my visits not only would she instantly recognise me she would automatically go straight back into silly Puppy mode, for a few moments until she remembered she was older than that now.

So I actually tried to delay my first meeting with this Puppy to avoid having her imprint on me. I didn't see a need for me to become one of her most important people, who'll she'll miss as she meets lots more of important people. Being a strange man who occasionally invades her territory seems a much more useful role for me to play in her training.

Another reason why I slightly delayed my visit is that almost all of my experience of Dog training relates to rescue Dogs. These are the litters that no-one wanted. So the moment they're born they're torn from their Mother, tied up in a rubbish bag and chucked into a river or onto a freeway in the hope they die. The ones who do survive were utterly terrified before they got the chance to develop a personality. Or they're the Dogs who had their personality beaten out of them by the cruel owners they were seized from.

So a lot of that training actually centres around encouraging the Dog's personality. In order to bring it out so you know what you're working with in more traditional training. In short I specialise in training Dogs to be a bit naughty.

I doubt that is a particularly useful quality in a service Dog. So I thought it was better to let the charity's training program take hold before getting involved. True to form within four hours of me meeting this Puppy she barked and growled for the first time. At least they're there now we can learn how to control them.

There are also two Cats and a Horse I should update you on. However this is starting to feel far too much like work for a Sunday evening.