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Show --4J ' ;r b Tamera Hewitt, of Farmington, is shown rwfjllT? DOG w't'1 er new 8u'de dog, "Tabetha," during training at a school for teaching the blind in California. FARMINGTON - Tamera Hewitt, is hard at work learn-ing learn-ing to use Guide Dog, "Tabetha," a Yellow Labrador Labra-dor Retriever, during a 28-day resident course at the renowned re-nowned Guide Dogs for the Blind school in San Rafael, Calif. The pair is part of a class of 24 students and Guide Dogs who graduated last Saturday. EIGHT OF those students have returned to the school to train with dogs who will replace re-place retired or deceased guides. Students and dogs have a busy six-day a week schedule that includes workouts in various va-rious parts of the San Francis co Bay area. Workout sites range from suburban downtown down-town San Rafael to busy business busi-ness sections of San Francisco. Francis-co. By graduation day each student-dog pair will have learned to navigate safely as a single unit. TAMERA'S Guide Dog was raised by 4-H member Elizabeth Eli-zabeth Gwin of Orangevale, Calif. The raising of Guide Dogs puppies is an accredited 4-H project. The pup is born at the Guide Dog school. At three months of age it is placed with a 4-H family where it stays until it is about 18 months old. At that time it is returned to the school to begin formal training in guide work. AFTER approximately five to six months of specialized training with a California state-licensed state-licensed instructor the dog is deemed ready to be matched with a blind person enrolled at the school. Together student and dog train in all aspects of their future life together. Although it costs Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc., more than $ 10,000 to produce a single sing-le person-dog unit, there is no charge to the blind person for either the valuable animal or the in-residence training. The school receives no government govern-ment funding and is supported entirely by private contributions. |
