After ten months with Éric Obstetar, Taïka, the dog in training to become a guide dog, is about to start school!
Since May 2022, we have had the pleasure of welcoming Taïka to our headquarters in Ivry-sur-Seine (94). a little dog in training to become a guide dog.
Taïka with her foster family:
For a year, Éric Obstetar accompanied the dog on a daily basis, with the help of her educator, Manon. Hand in hand, they worked together to improve Taïka's understanding and assimilation of the rules she needed to start school. This work is carried out 50% by the foster family and 50% by the educator.
Throughout her career, Manon has followed the dog's progress, successes and failures, while advising and teaching the foster family how to behave and improve any bottlenecks, thanks to regular reports and meetings with the foster family. In this way, over time, the dog has been able to settle down and develop her attention and understanding of commands. Her family can be particularly proud of her achievements:
- Recall is almost instantaneous
- She is more subdued and calm when there are other dogs or strangers in the street.
-The dog doesn't (almost) chase bikes, runners...
"Learning takes place by repeating the same gestures, words and rituals so that the dog can understand and memorize the different routes. This will help the animal's future beneficiary. The most important thing is to show and explain to the dog its mistakes, so that it can understand and assimilate orders and rules more easily (for example, stop when there's an obstacle or crosswalk)." Éric Obstetar
The future of Taïka: what happens next?
At the end of January 2023, Taïka will leave Éric's family to enter a year-long training program at the Ile de France guide dog school! There, she will learn around fifty commands that will be used by the visually impaired person with whom she will be working. At the end of the week, she will go to a weekend family to relax, and even meet Eric from time to time!
If the dog is reclassified, i.e. is not able to guide a visually impaired person, it can become a pet for autistic children, a customs dog, an avalanche dog, etc... As a last resort, dogs that are not fit to work are handed over to private individuals (often relatives of families who have taken in the dog).
Eric, what do you take away from this experience?
"After almost a year with the bitch, I've learned a lot about dogs, their behaviors, their ways of communicating or testing imposed limits. On reflection, I'll be taking in puppies again, but this time as a weekend foster!", Eric Obstetar.
Eric confided in us that the dog brought life and joy to his life, and above all enabled him to create a social bond with the people they met together. A positive feedback and a great adventure for Taïka, which ends at our premises.
The association and its school :
The Association des Chien Guides d'aveugle d'Ile de Francebased in Coubert (77), is a school that has been training dogs for almost 45 years, with the aim of making life easier for visually impaired people.
Work at the guide dog school is carried out in real-life conditions, and for around a year the dogs learn the rules of the road in depth, so as not to endanger the visually impaired person. At the end of their training, they take an exam to validate their skills. They are then handed over to visually impaired people. They are supervised by the dog trainer and remain the property of the school.
Source : Association des chiens guides d'aveugles d'Île-de-France
The association's victories in 2022:
- 420 hours of locomotion follow-up by the instructor
- 14 dogs given to visually impaired people
- 44 host families on a daily basis and 79 families for stays & weekends
- 18 départements covered
- Nearly 1,550 solidarity items sold (plush toys, comics, key-rings, shopping bags....)
- Numerous articles and contributions to news reports
- A community of almost 11500 members on social networks
- More than 50 days of events, including 10 markets and Christmas markets, 10 school events, 20 corporate events and 10 service clubs, and more than 150 schoolchildren involved.
Raising public awareness is an important part of the association's work, as it does not have access to state aid and is financed by sponsors, as well as by various events held throughout the year with companies, schools, etc.
