Milan Dvořák from Adamov, the founder of a guide dog training school in Brno, says:
We train about 15 to 20 dogs a year.

Dagmar Kulaviaková
Adamov / I have tried this a few times, just as many of you have. I blindfolded myself with scarf and tried to walk a bit. With increasing metres I grew less and less confident, and even though I had made sure there were no obstacles in my way, after a few meter I was absolutely sure I would hit a lamppost. Milan Dvorak experienced the same feelings of uncertainty and axiety at the beginning of his work with blind people, too. "I was dizzy, very uncertain. I didn’t know what to expect and where from," he remembers. After this agreeable man got acquainted with the world of blind people, he started training for the the best friend of a man – a guide dog. This guy, modest but very capable man of 35, seems to be surrounded by these four-legged companions all the time. When I arrived to his Guide dog training school in Brno, Cejl I was welcome by a number of leaflets and three beautiful retrievers. Milan Dvorak himself was a part of this atmosphere wering a grey-green sweatshirt with an inwrought logo of a heart with a dog in its centre.

What was that actually made you interested in guide dogs?

I've always wanted to work with dogs. When I served in the army I had a chance to train some dogs and later on, when I was leaving, I got a present – german sheperd puppy called Bea. I really enjoyd working with dogs but during the communist regime the only available work with dogs was by the police and I didn't want to do that. I would really hate the idea of, for example, taking a dog to a demostration of environmental activists. When, after the 1989 revolution, guide dog training begun to fourish I became relly interested in that. I passed quite a few courses and then worked as a trainer in a guide dog training center in Prague for some years. At that time my son was about to be born and because our flat in Prague was really tiny we moved back to live with my parents in Adamov. When people in Moravia learned about my comeback they pushed me to start a training center there so that they wouldn't have to go to Prague. So, eventually in the year 2000 I started training guide dogs in Brno.

Does it take a long time before one becomes a guide dog trainer?

Your whole life forms essential practice. Most importantly, one needs to have a feeling for the job, it is impossible to learn it. Every dog is different so you aswell need to approach them differently. For example with this one (he is pointing at one of the dogs in his office) you have to be really gentle and sensitive. I would, for example, say (his voice turns soft and quiet): "Now let's go left, Amálka". On the other hand with another dog, that is now resting in the day-room, I have to be strict and show him who is wearing the pants here. That one I would tell (his voice turns loud and strict): "To the left, Barny!" It is really the matter of trainers capability to tell a dog's nature and train them along with that. As a trainer you don't only focus on the dogs, you also have to learn to work with blind people. It includes walking a few kilometres without using your eyes, just the white stick, in order to recognise the sense of movements and orientation of blind people. (Here he mentions there are more techniques of working with the white stick and more kinds of white sticks, too. There's a different stick for the inside and the outside, different one for walking with a guide dog.)

Do you still remember your first guide dog?

Pretty well. It was a black labrador, quite confident,but he cooperated well. Then I trained a german sheperd. He hadn't been worked on before so he wasn't even able to sit. In the end though, he had one of the best final exams. Quite the opposite was the following dog, who was quite shy.nobody wanted to train him so they eventually passed him onto me. (laughing)

What does a blind person have to do to obtain a guide dog?

The first condition is they have to be able to move around with the white stick. They cannot expect to say "Bobik, let's go to the supermarket" and Bobik would comfortably find the way when he has never been there. The blind person has to know the way themselves and tell the dog which way to go. Then, when they have walked the way a couple times, the dog remembers and leads the way. When a blind person has to go to places they've never been to they need another person, a guide, to show them the way. To obtain a guide dog you also have to be able to take care of him. If a blind person meets these requirements we have to find out about their routes and neighbourhood, their walking speed and then along with that we try to choose the most suitable dog for them.

Can every dog become a guide dog?

I guess not, for example I would never try to train a rottweiler. The retriever family is very suitable. Our school mainly trains labrador and golden retrievers, german sheperds, flat coated retrievers and, for a few years, also king poodles. King poodles' big advantage is that they do not lose hair and so is suitable even for people suffering allergies. Disadvantage then is they have to go to dogs' hairdresser once in three months, but some people don't relly mind that. Recently it is quite trendy to crossbreed king poodles and labrador or golden retrievers. (He's pointing at one of thedogs that is a crossbreed recently being trained for a client in Netherlands.)

Can you tell if a puppy is suitable for the training, are there any requirements?

Most of our puppies come from our stallion dogs so we already have some guarantees these dogs will be suitable. However, we still do a kind of test when puppies are about 8 weeks old to determine their nature and behaviour. Above all, a puppy must be healthy, not too lively or too stolid, friendly with suppressed hunting insticts. When the puppies are one year old all the medical examinations need to be done to prove the dogs are absolutely healthy and thus ready to start with their training.

How successful are you with your choices?

About 70 percent of the selected puppies really become guide dogs. Most of those that not accepted fail the veterinary testing. Discarded dogs don't do not end up in a dogs' asylum, there are people waiting for them, who will take them home imediately.

What does the training look like?

After a puppy has been selected it is cared for by its caretakers till one year of age. Our caretakers are volunteers who look after the dog and teach it basic orders,not to beg for food, ruin shoes or sleep in bed or, in short, how to be a well behaved dog. The dogs need to avoid any behaviour that might cause problems to a blind person in the future. The puppies must stay in a house or flat, not in a garden or a cage. They got to be at home so that they start building their relationship with people from the very beginning. The puppy food and veterinary check-ups are payed for, apart from that the caretakers also get some extra money because all puppies tend to damage things. Every two weeks there is a caretaker meeting where we give advice on how to bring the puppies up. When a dog is one year old it needs to undergo a thorough medical examination and if everything is ok a six-month training begins. During the training dogs still live with their caretakers. We really work like any other school. The caretakers bring their dogs in the morning, then we train them all through the day and in the evening the caretakers pick them up and take them home. During the day, we take the dogs for an hour or two into the city – wen ride on trams, walk and teach them various orders. I, for example, am supposed to take them into pubs (laughing). My task is to teach them not to bother other guests or beg for food. Usually dogs get spoiled by their surrounding, though. It's happened to me a few times on a tram that the other passengers started feeding my „poor“ dog a piece of sausage. Unfortunately, many people still think that guide dog training is real harsh, that we would even beat them. I would like to point out that we would never ever hurt a dog. If we did, people would certainly find out and report that. Moreover, if a dog was stressed solving tricky situations, people might get hurt. Dogs have to be really relaxed and easygoing.

Do you think then that the dog is happy?

Some people say: "Poor guide dog". This dog is warm, regularly fed and has 24-hour care of his master. Any other person leaves their dog in the morning and returns in the evening. I think that 95 percent of guide dogs are really happy.

In the final phase of the training you are blindfolded. How do other people treat you?

It happens quite often, while I'm waiting on the zebra, that a person grabs my arm and tries to drag me away which is really horrible. It's always polite to ask first if your help is appreciated.

What is the most difficult part of the training?

The most difficult exercise might be a high obstacle that a dog would easily overcome but a person might get hurt. These include scaffolding or tree branches that reach out onto the pavement. It is really quite difficult to teach a dog to notice even the height of its blind master.

When do the future owners meet their dogs?

Even throughout the training future masters can visit. After passing the final exam there is a 3-week „passing period“. During that period I accompany the blind person and their dog and show him how to give orders and generally work with their dog. The point is that dogs have to learn to follow orders of a new person and be able to adapt to their walking style and speed. In short, the two have to get to know each other.

How is the guide dog training funded?

Until we hand in a dog to their new owner, all the expences are at my own risk. For example, if a dog is one year old and has a health problem, we have already invested about 40 thousand but will never get the money back. We only get money after handing in the dog. We get payed by a social department that takes care of the blind. However, it is not as easy. The law states that a dog might be refunded up to a 100 percent of its value, which consequently means that I don't have to get payed for the whole training.Sometimes the blind have to contribute some money, 5 thousand for example. I think that's fair, they do at least value their dogs more then. However, once we had a case, where a client had to contribute 35 thousand crowns and there was no way he could ever afford it.

Your training school is the only one in Moravia. Is that enough, how many such schools are there actually in the Czech Republic?

Including us there are five, 3 in Prague and one near Plzen. Demand matches supply.

How many dogs on average do you train a year?

It depends, right now we have about 14 dogs in training and 18 puppies in prep.

How difficult is the handing in for you?

I've been doing this job for ages so I somehow got used to it. Some dogs stay in your heart, some just walk through it. But no mistake – I was crying after handing in the first few dogs. But we don't usually say our goodbyes forever, I do quite often meet them anyway. Every two weeks there are special meetings, where we organise interesting lectures and train our dogs so that they don't forget the most eesential excercises. We aswell organise competitions (for example in Brno or Blansko), summer camps and other events. During one of those events in Letovice the blind prepared a special task for me: I was blindfolded and was supposed to tell apart 15 dogs I had trained.

And?

I think I was wrong about two of them (smiling)

The interview has been published with a kind consent of Ms Dagmar Kulaviaková.

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