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NEWS photo Tom Burlay
SUSAN FINLAYSON starts Labrador pup, Anna, on the long road to
guide dog training. The puppies are being trained locally to help guide the
visually impaired.

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KOHLER 987-7300

ANNA, a black three-
month-old Labrador, has
celebrity status at the
Ambleside Dog Walk Park.

By KIM PEMBERTON

News Reporter

Dog trainer Denise Wheater says
Anna attracts a lot of attention at
the park because of the special
white jacket she wears.

The jacket signifies to the public
that Anna is with the Canadian
Guide Dogs for the Blind program.

Anna is one of four pups with
British Columbia foster families,
to learn socialization skills from
volunteer foster families.

“She’s such a little character,’’
said Wheater.

“Quite a few people at
Ambleside have got to know her
by name, and she just loves that.
She’s becoming a little celebrity.”’

After one year with Wheater’s
family, Anna will be returned to
the program’s Ottawa-based
school to receive a final six to eight
months training in the guide dog
program.

Approximately 70 per cent of
the guide dog puppies in training
graduate.

If all goes well, Anna will have a
new owner — one who is blind and
in need of her assistance.

Susan Finlayson, education
coordinator of the Vancouver
fund-raising chapter for Canadian
Guide Dogs for the Blind, said the
school has 34 puppies in foster
families across Canada — the ma-
jority in Ontario.

But, she said, this is the first
time pups have been sent to the

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39 - Sunday, November 16, 1986 - North Shore News

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PAGE 40

West Coast for their initial training,
in a program called Puppy Walk.

A Golden Retriever called Ernie
is with North Vancouver resident
Laurie Simington. The other two
puppies are with a Vancouver and
Abbotsford family.

“Ics really exciting. Thirty per
cent of applicants (for guide dogs)
are British Columbians, and this is
why they’re starting to develop out
here,’* said Finlayson.

Canadian Guide Dogs for the
Blind is one of three national
schools endorsed by the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind.
The schools provide training to
dogs and to blind persons inten-
ding to use guide dogs.

The school’s Vancouver chapter
was set up in June, with the goal
of implementing a Puppy Walk
Program; educating the public on
guide dogs; fund raising, and ex-
amining the feasibility of opening
a branch school in B.C.

Finlayson said volunteers hope
to raise the total cost needed of
training a guide dog, estimated to
be $5,000, for each of the fuur
pups in B.C. now.

She said this cost includes the

airfare and accom:nodation a blind
person would have in order to visit
Ottawa and take part in the final
training session with the dog.

She said the cost for someone
who is blind to buy a guide dog is
$1 — a charge levied in order to
make it a legal transaction.

The dogs that are usually ac-
cepted for the program = are
Labrador or Golden Retrievers,
German Shepherds or Collies, said
Finlayson, because of their size,
even temperament and willingness
to work.

Simington said she can already
tell that three-month-old Ernie will
make a good guide dog, because of
his eagerness to learn and please.

Both Simington and Wheater
said they decided to volunteer for
the program because they like
puppies and saw that it was help-
ing a good cause.

The idea that at the end of the
year the dogs will be removed from
their homes does not worry either
of the women.

“It’s going to be a sad day for
us, but you do know right from
the start that someone is going to
get a guide dog,’’ said Wheater.

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