I had another of my CERT classes this evening. This time, though, I had the pleasure of sharing my class with a charming blind woman named Leah and her seeing-eye dog, Ralphie.
At the end of the session, I chatted with Leah about Ralphie, a yellow Lab. Leah expressed some mock frustration when I commanded Ralphie to sit and he instantly did it.
“My boyfriend got Ralphie to sit the very first time he met him, “she said. “It took me over two weeks to get Ralphie to sit on command!”
Leah attributed that to Ralphie being raised initially by a man but on my way home I wondered if there was more to it than that. I remembered that whenever I approached the table during class tonight, Ralphie was staring me right in the eyes the whole way. My dog constantly locks eyes with me, too, always trying to read my intentions. All dogs do this naturally and I kind of take it for granted. I know that when I want to get my dog’s attention, If I’m not looking him in the eye when I give a command then I’m usually wasting my time.
But what if a dog’s owner can’t look their dog in the eyes because the owner is blind? How does this change the dog’s relationship with its owner? Has anyone looked at ways that this behavior, bred into dogs through the many thousands of years spent living with man, could be better put to use with the blind? I’d be curious to know.