Guide dogs know what to do because they have what is called selective disobedience

World has a huge and ever growing population of physically disabled people and not enough facilities to help them. Our mission is to developing, providing and facilitating programs and services that support and enhance the physical, emotional and intellectual functioning of people who are visually impaired and blind. Guide dogs, a type of assistance dog are trained to help people in life with disabilities. Guide dogs assist blind and visually impaired people by avoiding obstacles, stopping at curbs and steps and negotiating traffic. The harness and U-shaped handle fosters communication between the dog and blind partner. In this partnership the human's role is to provide directional commands, while the dog’s role is to insure the team's safety even if this requires disobeying an unsafe command. Have you ever wonder how guide dogs know when to cross the road or how they know where to go? You might think it’s the dog that makes the decision when getting around but it is the handler who decides when to walk. Guide dogs go through extensive training before they are given a handler.

Guide dogs must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger. They know how to follow the orders and rely on their own judgement of the situation. One of the most important rules for guide dogs is not being distracted by anything. While a harness is on a guide dog knows it's at work. They shouldn't be patted or given treats unless the handler says it's ok. This helps them concentrate on the most important thing getting their handler around. Dogs just don’t become Guide Dogs Services overnight, plenty of time is spent socializing and training in various environments until a dog can be matched with a visually impaired companion. Golden and Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and other larger breeds are normally used as guide dogs because of their size they are able to lead their handlers or prevent them from walking into dangerous situations. Our philosophy is that every individual is entitled to a life of dignity, independence and choice. Our mission is to provide this life for any adult who is physically disabled or vision impaired. We encourage our tenants to lead lives that are as independent as their disabilities permit. We believe jewish people should have access to specialist services that are designed to meet their needs. Jewish people's emotional needs are just as important as their physical requirements and providing for their day to day needs is just the beginning. A service dog must be a well mannered gentle and most importantly reliable animal. Your dog will have to learn to sit and stay when told to do so. Your dog must be told to be around other dogs, cats and people without barking or chasing them. Eventually your service dog will have to learn things like how to sit in a restaurant without begging for food or how to be in a crowded mall without freaking out. Training dogs for such services is a long drawn out expensive and exhaustive effort. Only a few dogs out of many taken up initially will prove to be suitable enough to be trained for such speciality work.

Contact US...

Michael J. Leventhal, Executive Director

Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind

968 Easton Rd. - Suite H

Warrington, PA 18976

Tel: 215-343-9100

Email: info@israelguidedog.org

Visit site...http://www.israelguidedog.org