Guide Dog Training in Canada
Ben Francis, manager of guide dog training at Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada had been a guide dog mobility instructor for 17 years. CNIB had existed since 1918 as a charity, funded by donations and sponsorship, but guide dog schools only started in Canada in the mid-80s and the CNIB guide dog school only five years ago. There were five guide dog schools in Canada, each training about 30 dogs per year. He reported that over 50% of guide dogs working in Canada had been trained in the US, where schools were much larger.
CNIB had acquired their first dogs early in 2018, had qualified six teams in the first year and were currently training 20-25 per year. They provided orientation and mobility services, technology and spreading awareness across the 10 provinces, each with their own access laws. He explained that Canada was the world’s second largest country, 7 hours by plane from coast to coast with a population of just 40 million.
Partnerships that had trained in the USA and retired during Covid were unable to travel there for replacement dogs. As a result, applications to the CNIB had increased by 375% but it was also difficult and expensive for CNIB staff to travel around Canada, due to the large distances involved. The training period was three to four weeks, followed by one week in the home. He mentioned that many employers offered time off with pay for guide dog training.
He said that their waiting list for guide dogs was about 2 to 3 years with 80-100 people on this list, although some had dropped off to seek a US dog. They didn’t mind if clients were on multiple waiting lists and all US and Canadian schools had similar training methods. None of the dogs they had trained had yet retired but when the situation arose, they hoped to prioritise replacement dogs.
CNIB was pleased to have received a CAN $2.4 million government grant to hire apprentice trainers for three years. They had two GDMI apprentices who had almost completed their qualifications.
Ben said that they had sourced most of their dogs from Career Dogs in Australia and had so far received 65 eight-week pups. They had also bought puppies from Seeing Eye Dogs of Australia and had a relationship with Vision Australia to support pups and train their volunteers. They had collaborated with Leader Dogs of Michigan who had donated to CNIB 11 dogs ready to go into formal training. In turn, CNIB had looked after Leader Dogs’ clients in Canada when the border was closed. The Guide Dog Foundation in New York had donated two high-quality dogs to CNIB. All their dogs had been Labradors, Retrievers or a cross between the two.
CNIB had qualified 59 guide dogs since late 2018, with a success rate of 54%. Twenty-one of the failures had become buddy dogs for children under 16, where they had not provided a service but had built confidence in the children in preparation for a guide dog. Seven dogs had become ambassador dogs, partnered with staff or volunteers to attend community events. Factoring in these two categories had raised their success rate to 84%. The remaining 16% had been offered to their puppy raisers or others on a list.
Ben reported that CNIB were building an indoor weatherproof training arena simulating streets and an airplane cabin. It should be completed in 2024 and could reduce training times affected by bad weather.
He reported that the lifetime cost of a guide dog was CAN $50,000 for training, travel, food and vet bills. They were proud to cover food and vet bills as part of the complete service. CNIB owned the dog for the first year of partnership, after which time they considered transfer of ownership but continued to provide all the support.
In the future, they had plans to grow exponentially, to start their own breeding programme, to join IGDF, to open more locations in Canada so they could be closer to clients’ homes. Ben concluded by saying that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to speak at the conference and CNIB wanted to support other schools and were keen to be connected.