Jayna in harness guiding Lisa West.
Today we celebrated Jayna’s graduation from Guide Dogs for the Blind training and her successful pairing with Lisa West of Vancouver, Canada. Jayna’s raiser handed over her leash during a graduation ceremony at Guide Dogs for the Blind headquarters in San Rafael while City Sights members cheered.
A Guide Dogs for the Blind trainer will fly to Lisa’s home in Vancouver to acclimate the new team to their daily environment as Jayna guides Lisa for years to come.
The City Sights Guide Dog for the Blind puppy raising group currently has three puppies over 16 weeks of age, three puppies under 16 weeks, and three potential puppy raisers almost ready to receive their first puppy. This month we paired potential puppy raisers with our older puppies to practice handling skills. Potential raisers handled puppies in the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch including walking down stairs.
Potential puppy raisers practice walking down stairs with the group's older puppies.
After handling exercises our current raisers with puppies over 16 weeks of age posed for a photo in front of San Francisco’s City Hall.
City Sights Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy raisers with puppies over 16 weeks old pose in front of San Francisco City Hall during our August 2011 outing.
Our puppy raising group’s Guide Dogs for the Blind community field representative attended our June 2011 outing at Justin Herman Plaza. She evaluated each puppy’s progress with a special focus on our older puppies just weeks away from recall. We demonstrated climbing grated stairs under a waterfall, navigating a hotel, responding to commands, and the puppy’s demeanor expressed through excitability and his or her ability to return to a calm working state.
Golden Gate Park is the largest park in San Francisco and the third most visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York and Lincoln Park in Chicago. Our puppies walked past the eclectic shops of Haight Street before performing training exercises in Golden Gate Park.
Practicing sit-stays in Golden Gate Park. Puppies front to back: Jayna, Reann, Quartz, Susanna, Marika.
April marks the start of baseball season for our 2010 World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants. City Sights puppy raisers visited the home of the Giants, AT&T Park, while the team was on the road.
City Sights puppy raisers and leaders in the outfield of AT&T Park. Dogs left to right: Mars, Susanna, Markia, Reann, and Jayna.
