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Show Members teach them basic skills 4-H club raises dogs for the blind . l -r' U Bv JACK KORISKA . SltifT WrUcr BOUNTIFUL Shoppers at Mac's craft and hobby store might have thought they had mistakenly walked into a pet store on June 3, as the store was graciously assisting a local service club. Store aisles were filled with 4-H club members and some well behaved canines. "Born to Lead" is the name of the South Davis chapter of 4-H. However, they are not referring to their own leadership abilities but to those of their dogs. You see, club members raise guide dog puppies destined to assist the blind. This, they find out, is a bittersweet endeavor. Youths who participate in South Davis 4-H have chosen to take ; puppies into their homes as their 4-H service project. They then raise - them for a year, teach them basic ! obedience skills and start them on a special training regimen that prepares the dogs to be the "eyes " ; for those who have lost their sight. For several reasons this in not an easy undertaking, the toughest being, be-ing, they have to give the dogs up at the end of the year. For a teen-ager, '. this can be a heart breaking experi-; experi-; ence. However, because the cause is so noble, the kids get a valuable lesson on life and learn the true '. meaning of giving. Marilynn Koroulis, the group's leader since 1984, said they got involved in-volved after she saw a 4-H guidedog poster in the Layton Hills Mall and thought, "What a wonderful wonder-ful thing to do." "I don't know if you have any kids," she said, "but it's always give me, give me, give me. I thought this would be a good chance for them to give something for a change." With three dogs the group made a beginning. Adding a few dogs every year, Bom to Lead now has 14 families participating in the program, pro-gram, and Koroulis says she expects to add a couple more in September. Koroulis emphasizes that South Davis 4-Hers must have family support in order to be involved. Guide dogs must be raised in the house which can create numerous problems. Before a prospective candidate is accepted to the program, Koroulis and a couple of the club members will take some of the dogs (not necessarily the best behaved) over to see how they interact with the family. At that time she says she will tell the family about all the potential rewards, but she also points out the pitfalls, such as urine stains on the carpet, holes in the back yard and the possibility of a pair of $90 Reboks being chewed to bits, to name just a few. "We lose a lot of prospective dog raisers at this point," she said. In addition, the project requires a yearlong commitment and participants par-ticipants are required to sign a binding bin-ding contract. "You have to be committed," Koroulis said. "A couple of months of scooping poop from the back yard can really burn a kid out." She also says kids need to be able to leave the dogs to participate par-ticipate in other activities to be well rounded, and they will need help. "This is a family project," she says. The group works in conjunction with Guide Dogs for the Blind Inc., which is located in San Rafael, Calif. GDBI has its own stock, says Koroulis, and they are bred for their dispositions. Ninety percent are lab-rador lab-rador retrievers although German shepherds are used also. ' Before the animals are given to a 4-H family to raise, they are tested for intelligence and stability. Guns are fired over their heads, they walk up and down stairs and their interaction interac-tion in a group is monitored. Clearheadedness Clear-headedness in the face of adversity Losing Jina, is hard but 12-year-old Amy Koroulis has a new golden retriever to train. It is hard for 4-H Club members to invest so much time and love in training these dogs, only to give them up in a year's time. But club members know there time and effort goes for a noble cause. is a must for a guide dog. These traits are discernible even in a nine-week-old puppy. After the puppy is placed, obedience obe-dience training begins. The dog's trainers teach basic commands such as sit, lay, come and stay and the puppy is taught proper behavior in the house. The dogs the Clipper saw at Mac's were all amazingly well behaved. Disciplinary actions were at a minimum. When this is accomplished, the dogs are then taken into public places so they will feel at home in a crowd. Th is is where publ ic understanding is important, says Koroulis. It has taken the club a lot of leg work to find merchants who are open to the project. "But, it's not usually very hard to get store owners to let us in," she said. She estimates 95 percent of the people they approach are positive about it. State legislation passed a year and a half ago gave guide dogs the same access rights as humans. However, there has been some controversy over cab access to dog guided blind people in Salt Lake City recently. Not everyone is willing to be cooperative. Mac's, along with several other merchants in the Bountiful area, has consented to allow the club to bring their dogs into a social setting so the dogs will be familiar with public places when they are eventually placed with their permanent owners. After a year, the hard part comes. Giving the dog up. This day usually arrives in June or September. Some handle this better than others. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Green of Bountiful said, with tears in her eyes, "I didn't even think about it." Denise and Erin Coker of Sunset are working on the family's third dog. Thirteen-year-old Erin says giving them up gets easier because you get used to it. Her older sister, however, doesn't quite agree, Tm not good at giving things up. That's why I only did it once." Denise got the family involved- Now Erin raises the dogs and she gives support- Just how important is this work? Bradley Badger, who has been blind from birth and has had a dog for the last three years, thinks it is very important. He says that taring tar-ing for a dog can be trying for a blind person, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, especially espe-cially if a person is going to school. Badger graduated from Salt Lake Community College last Friday, lhe first two quarters he used a cane. Since then he has been guided by his dog Tommy. "A cane is an object finder," he said, "From here to there you find every object that is in your way. A dog just goes around Ihem." Nonetheless, a dog is like having a child. It is a responsibility you can't ignore when you get home, "A cane you can just throw in the corner," Badger said. Although some Bom to Lead members shed some tears a week ago Friday, many now have brand new puppies in place that are going to need lots of love and affection for the next year. And the rewards must make it all worthwhile. As Denise Coker put it, 4 'It just feels good knowing you can help people." Anybody interested in joining Bom to Lead can call Marilynn at 544-0330 or the Davis County Ex tension Office at 451-3409. Dog raisers must be at least nine years of age, but the program is open to all ages. I..:. If . . , "X ' Amy Koroulis poses with Jina, a golden retriever she has raised and trained to be a guide dog for the blind. Koroulis, who is a member of the South Davis chapter of 4-H club, raised and trained Jina for a year, before sending her to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Inc., a shool located in San Rafael, Calif. |