An Overview of Guide Dog Training in Greece

Ioanna-Maria Gertsou, EGDF Board Member, chaired this panel. Ioanna told the conference the history of Lara Guide Dog School, explaining that in 2005 she was a visually impaired researcher living on the island of Crete and became the first guide dog user in Greece when she graduated with her guide dog Lara from a school in Italy. At that time there were no guide dog services in Greece and no legislation or public awareness. She met the guide dog instructor Lia Stoll and they proposed to her friend Christos Georgiopoulos to establish a guide dog school in 2008 – the first private organisation for the visually impaired in Greece.

She said that the previous day’s visit by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs to the EGDF conference had been one of the most significant events for visually impaired people in Greece since the founding of the guide dog school.

Ioanna had many challenges: issues registering her charity for tax purposes as it didn’t fall into an established category, difficulty accessing politicians in the early days, training companies and people to understand what a guide dog was, and working with the media to educate people to not use offensive language when discussing disabled persons. She suggested that Greece had not been a disabledfriendly country.

There had been much progress during the past 14 years and now they had a team of eight professionals, 15 puppy raisers, more than 50 volunteers, 25 dogs and some private sponsors. Greece now had legislation to permit guide dog access everywhere and she was able to take her guide dog to work with her at the hospital.

Ioanna said she was grateful that EGDF had believed in her and Lara Guide Dog School and was honoured to serve on its board.

Angeliki Veryokaki, O & M instructor, Panhellenic Association of the Blind, spoke about Orientation and mobility training in Greece. She said she obtained a degree in social work and then was sent to Denmark for training, which wasn’t available in Greece at that time. The environment was too different from Greece to be of much help.

The application process for a guide dog started with a mobility assessment and then the suitability to work with a guide dog. The criteria were vision, O&M skills, health and fitness, and workload. They expected the handler to work the dog at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week and they assessed personal development and dog welfare potential. While pavement navigation would be preferable, it was not always possible in Greece, so partnerships were trained to walk in the street.

She had seen many improvements over the years, but changes had come slowly.

Hara Bourgani, Communications and fundraising manager, Lara Guide Dog
School, spoke about O&M training with a white cane. She said that the Lara school was concerned that there was a lack of information and training for blind people in remote places, so they took on the project of training people to walk with a white cane, a prerequisite to having a guide dog. They produced a business plan and asked private companies to fund the project. She gave some examples:

Case study 1. A four-year-old boy was given white cane training and was able to walk on his own without holding his father’s hand. The trainer also collaborated with the child’s kindergarten teacher.

Case study 2. A 14-year-old boy learned how to walk without being guided by a sighted person, to tie his shoes and skills in the kitchen. Lack of regular trainers outside the big cities is a problem for him.

Case study 3. A 50-year-old woman who lost her sight 10 years ago was grateful that the training came to her remote area because Athens was four hours away and travelling there was too expensive.

Hara said that 16,000 blind people in Greece have only eight trainers and life skills experts to help them cope with everyday life and offer psychological support. She hoped the state social welfare services would improve the situation of blind people in rural areas.

Lara school wanted blind people to have access to free training wherever they lived. Specialists should be able to travel to them, not the other way round. Training programmes should be made available in more remote areas. There should be trained mentors, physios, teachers and psychologists who were specialists and could train others in guiding techniques and basic orientation and mobility skills. Lara school also wanted powerful collaboration between NGOs and organisations of the blind.

Hara asked members of the audience how they managed training in remote places.

Sabine Hacker replied that in Berlin where she lived mobility was very good and easy, although it was more difficult in the small village where she had lived previously. She said that O&M instructors were retiring, and younger people did not want to replace them. Scooters were a problem for O&M in Germany. She said that health insurance paid for O&M training and for the guide dog

Ben Francis reiterated what he had said the previous day about the challenge in Canada with small populations spread over remote rural areas; most instructors were in the large cities.

Annika Östling said that in Sweden they had the same problem that when O&M instructors retire there was no one to replace them. Also, young people did not want to walk with a white stick.

Maria Matha, GDMI, Greek Guide Dogs Centre spoke about guide dog training in Greece. She said that the Greek Guide Dogs Centre was established in 2008, they had their first puppy in 2011 and had trained 28 dogs -- 15 of which were still working, 2 were retired, 11 did not finish training, retired early or died.

Their first puppy, called Angel, did not qualify as a guide dog but they learned from the experience, which helped them place their second dog Melita, who worked until she was 10. GDMI Peter Lasaroms from the Netherlands had trained the staff in the Netherlands and in Greece during the first five years.

Their puppies stayed with volunteer puppy walkers until they were about 14 months old, and they were socialised, trained in basic obedience and included in all aspects of family life. They were then assessed for concentration, intelligence, selfcontrol and willingness to learn. If successful they were trained in a trainer’s home for eight months before being matched with a client and trained as a team. Dogs were retired between the ages of 7 to 10 years old.

There were several special challenges in Greece. There was no breeding programme, and the school did not have priority in choosing dogs. Some breeders did not offer a replacement or refund if the dog developed a genetic medical condition. Volunteers did not always take their work seriously and could suddenly quit. There were huge taboos about disability embedded in Greek society and a lack of understanding about how to treat guide dog teams. She showed photos of street clutter and obstacles that made getting about difficult for blind people.

Marie concluded by saying that guide dog training was not easy, especially if you didn’t have the right dogs or a friendly environment, but the job was so rewarding, and the challenges were worth the time and effort.

Christel Sogenbits asked if the pavements in Greece were too hot in summer for the dogs’ paws. Maria replied that dogs were used to heat, but most clients did not walk their dogs when it was too hot for the handler.

Sabine Hacker said that most school in Germany were trying to place dogs with clients at 18 months and she thought that was too early. What did they think in Greece? Maria replied that in Greece they thought 18 months was too young and the dog would have information overload at that age.

Karine Garnier said that in in France she had received her guide dogs at 16 months, 18 months and two of them at 24 months.

Stephen Anderson suggested holding your hand on the ground for 10 seconds and if it was not too hot for the hand, it would be OK for the dog.

Marsha Dimopoulou, head of Special Secretariat for the Protection of Companion Animals in the Ministry of the Interior told the conference that she could not refuse the opportunity attend. Her department carried out the protection of cats and dogs according to European Union regulations and legislation. She thanked the delegates for all they were doing to improve the life of visually impaired people with guide dogs and said the Greek government was doing all it could to help. She said taxi and bus drivers sometimes still refused to carry guide dogs even though it was against the law to do so. She wanted all Greek citizens to understand that guide dogs and their handlers should be respected. She had a dream that guide dogs could be trained from stray animals, and she would like to volunteer to foster a guide dog puppy.