Rejects.... Failures..... Career Changes....

Not every puppy that is born and raised as a Guide Dog Puppy becomes a Guide Dog. As a matter of fact, only about 37% of Guide Dog Puppies become a Guide Dog.

I have heard people refer to the dogs that do not become Guide Dogs as "rejects" or "failures".  To be quite honest, I find those terms "offensive". But I guess the people that use them are just "misguided" (pun intended) and uninformed to the intricacies, nuances and demands involved with training and working as a Guide Dog.

There are many reasons that a Guide Dog Puppy can have a "Career Change". (NOTE: the correct term is a "Career Change"! NOT "reject" and NOT "failure"!)

At 14 to 16 months old the puppies leave their Puppy Raising families and go IFT (in for training). They spend their first month at College in the Assessment Kennels with about 30 other Freshman puppies.

A Guide Dog is highly skilled and trained, at a cost of approximately $60,000 each, so the Guide Dogs need to have as long a career as possible. In Assessment they undergo rigorous medical tests and observations. The puppies have CAT scans, MRI's, and health checks that most dogs, and people, are never subjected to. They are looking for any health issues, including minute issues. These issues can be things that will have no effect on another Service Dog's career or a regular dog that is a pet, but that MAY have the possibility, in the future, of derailing a Guide Dog's rigorous and demanding career.

The kennel staff and trainers are also observing to see many other things. They look to see how the dogs adjust to life in a kennel, with 30 other dogs that have all left their loving Puppy Raising home, family and friends. They are watching to see what the dog's natural skills are, how do they react to meeting new people, situations, stress, abrupt and loud noises, are they keen to learn.... etc. etc.

There are numerous reasons a dog can be Career Changed after the first month at College in the Assessment Kennels. Reasons that are not important in the life of another service dog career or a regular family pet, but reasons that are not conducive to an elite career as a Guide Dog. And they may be reasons that make the dog a perfect Candidate for ANOTHER service dog career.  Or that make them the perfect family pet. All of those careers are valuable, they just may not be Guide Dog careers.

If the Guide Dog Candidate can make it through the first month of rigorous tests and observations they can proceed to the Training Kennels for another 4 to 6 months. Here is where the elite training begins, and the demands and expectations rise to extremely high levels.

The Guide Dog Candidate will learn the super tough stuff and be able to guide a Vision Impaired person to safely use escalators, enter revolving doors, move around obstacles, look UP for obstacles (i.e. tree branches) and countless other skills to aid a vision impaired person's ability to be mobile.

The Vision Impaired person and the Guide Dog have a strong partnership. A vision impaired person's responsibility is to know and give the commands to the Guide Dog, and the Guide Dog's responsibility is to follow the commands and keep the vision impaired person safe in the process.  Because lives are literally entrusted to  the Guide Dog there is zero room for mistakes - which makes them the elite of Service Dogs.

The final test for a Guide Dog Candidate is "Intelligent Disobedience". That is when a Guide Dog will consciously DISOBEY a command because the command will put the vision impaired partner into a harmful situation. This is an incredible feat considering the dogs are taught to OBEY commands! They need the intelligence and confidence to recognize and reject an unsafe command and then chose an alternative and safe action.

Passing all these demanding criteria, the Guide Dog Candidate then has to wait to be matched with a vision impaired partner to make a perfect and compatible partnership. Compatible in size, gait, pull, lifestyle, energy level, personalities, etc.

Sometimes a Guide Dog Candidate has perfectly passed the rigorous tests and would make a fantastic Guide Dog, BUT, will have a Career Change ONLY because there is not an available vision impaired person to make a perfect match with, at that time. (The College residence can only accommodate and graduate a maximum of 9 people per month. Generally 30 dogs return to College for IFT per month. You don't have to be Einstein to do the math.)

So please, do not refer to a Guide Dog Puppy or a Guide Dog Candidate that has had a Career Change as a "reject" or "failure" without understanding what all is involved to become an elite Guide Dog.

FEELING: a bit sensitive about calling a Guide Dog Puppy or Candidate that has a Career Change a "reject" or "failure".

And missing little Bucky.