Another guide dog dropout makes good

The cost of training a guide dog is generally between $17,000 and $25,000. By the end of their training, the dogs are valued at $40,000 to $50,000. Only the top puppies are accepted for training and many cannot pass the test to become certified.

What happens to the ones who drop out?

Oops, my bad. These dogs should be referred to as career change dogs rather than dropouts. Most of these dogs go on to successful careers in a different field.

One of these was Porsche, a black Labrador. Porsche’s problem was that she couldn’t stop sniffing. But what is a fault in one line of work makes her valuable in another.

So Porsche went to work as an arson dog with Philadelphia firefighters about five years ago after being trained to detect accelerants, substances used to intentionally set fires. According to her handler Lt. Art Czajkowski, this “deficiency” as a guide dog have made her invaluable as a sniffer dog.

Porsche is credited with helping to find the causes in more that 300 fires, including 100 arsons that caused $24 million in damages. She also helped investigators solve two arson for profit cases that caused more than $3 million in damage to commercial properties.

When she detects an accelerant, she sits at the spot and looks dolefully at Czajkowski. He rewards her with dog food.

"We get scenes where it's been burning; our guys put thousands of gallons of water on it - there are layers and layers of debris. But [if there's an accelerant there], she'll find it," Czajkowski said. Source

What happens to retired guide dogs?

Animal rights groups would have you believe that retired guide dogs and those that don’t achieve certification are tossed out like yesterday’s trash.

However the truth is that these dogs are offered for adoption by application and currently there is a 4-6 year waiting list, according to the Guide Dogs of America website. They are currently not even taking applications because their waiting list is so long.

Anyone who knows anything about dogs knows that well trained, socialized dogs quickly adapt to new humans and new situations as long as love and noms are involved.

Comments

[cube]

A good dog can find its niche. All it takes is a little help from good people who care enough to make it happen.

[jackie]

i wonder if they could teach a cat to do that?..

hahahahaahahhahahahaahhaah

[Sandie]

I'm glad that the retired dogs arent just given up in random shelter or anything like that. They do and are worth so much!

[Khyra]

I like this Jakhkie PURRRRRson!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

[Tony]

A Nice Black Porsche

[Jimmy]

That's good to know about the retired guide dogs, and great that working dogs can make good career changes.

[Clive]

We know a lot about Guide Dogs that don't make it - just look at me!! Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind had an approximate 60% success rate with their Guide Dogs and now with the Assistance Programme for children with autism - nearly 90% of the dogs trained in the centre will work as Guide or Assistance Dogs. The remaining 10% will go on to work as companion dogs with children with other special needs like Downs and a few of dogs will work as fundraising dogs. After all the time and money that is invested in the training of the dogs - it is wonderful to see that nearly every dog trained will work in some capacity or other. One of our dogs in the Training Centre - who sniffed too much to work as a Guide or Assistance Dog is now working in the UK as a cancer detection dog.

[rosemary]

YAYYYY for all of the drop out doggies in the world......career change dogs for sure!!! Charlie could smell deer/bear/moose poop under 7 feet of snow. He usually had a pink spot on his nose all winter long from deep snow sniffing.

[Lindsay]

Are there any job openings out there for a dog with a tennis ball obsession?

[Jan]

Probably not. Tennis players get fussy about having dog spit on their tennis
balls.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:46 AM, wrote:

[Phillycop]

Photo of Porsche winning an award
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philly_police/4224064500/

[Jan]

Great picture. Congratulations to Porsche and those who work with him.

Jan