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BY SHARON PORTA
Times Correspondent | Tuesday, January 27, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
GRIFFITH -- To teach her class more about disabled individuals, Dawn Largus, a third-grade teacher at Wadsworth Elementary School has the children read a book and watch a movie about people with visual impairments.
To make the lesson more real, Largus invited Ruth Van Noort of Cedar Lake, to talk about her work as a puppy trainer with Leader Dogs for the Blind.
As part of her demonstration, Van Noort brought in Reggie, a black Labrador, and told the almost 50 third-graders at the school about the year of obedience training she gives dogs before they start their guide training.
"He goes with me when I get a haircut and out to eat," Van Noort said. "A group of us have taken the dogs to the airport, got on the plane with them and even went to the bathroom. We want to expose them to everything."
Van Noort started working with the dogs six years ago and each stays with her for a year. Reggie is the fifth dog she has trained.
"I say that by the time the puppy is nice and doing what you want him to do, he's gone," she said. "I love puppies and it's very hard to say goodbye, especially for a dog like this that goes everywhere with me."
Van Noort raises Burnese Mountain dogs, and thought she wanted to get involved in the program until her husband told her he didn't think she could handle the dogs leaving. When she was getting upset about the training of one of her show dogs, she started thinking again about becoming involved with leader dogs.
"I came home that night and turned on the TV and there was a show about the leader dogs," Van Noort said. "The dog they featured was named Ruth, and I took that as a sign."
Van Noort told the class that there is an 18-month wait list to become a puppy trainer, and she pays all expenses, such as food and shots. When the dogs leave her, they go on to more specific training for the impaired individual. By the time their training is complete, the dog is valued at $20,000. The dogs are placed in homes free of charge.
"If they decide during the training that he would not make a good leader dog, they try a career change, like for customs or the drug or bomb sniffing dogs," she said. "If that doesn't work, they will offer the dog to the puppy trainer."
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